Now that DeSantis got his headline and can update his application for a Trump cabinet position can Florida please drop this insanely stupid and incredibly unpopular idea?
Marc Lynch. GW Professor, on leave AY24-25. The one true Abu Aardvark. AMERICA’S MIDDLE EAST (Hurst) on the way! Find me at https://abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io
7,472 followers 1,673 following 2,492 posts
view profile on Bluesky
Now that DeSantis got his headline and can update his application for a Trump cabinet position can Florida please drop this insanely stupid and incredibly unpopular idea?
Yes
It was always collective punishment
“The state department should immediately cease funding GHF and transfer or restore funding to experienced aid organizations given the strong and growing evidence that GHF is failing to accomplish its humanitarian mission." www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...
There’s been a guy selling tourist souvenirs on 17th and G close to the White House as long as I can remember - years and years - and now he’s gone. Any DC folks know why? Did ICE take him? Did Trump just kill tourism so badly he gave up? Is he happily retired on a cruise?
I’ve studied US drone strikes, I wrote a book called “Drones and Terrorism,” and this Caribbean strike is different. Lethal fire at a non-threatening target in a non-hostile environment on purpose when other means, such as capture, were easily doable, and without even attempting a legal rationale.
Highly sanitized version of the love story between Trump and Gulf money www.ft.com/content/9907...
Someone else found that train wreck of an article, I see. Academic reflection of way too common Israei view that “Hamas obviously did a real genocide on October 7 and it’s absurd to even ask if Israel did a genocide in Gaza after”
I miss Taybeh, it’s really good beer.
“Gaza’s famine is man-made. And those who are making it happen are doing their best to conceal their crime. The Israeli government is reading from the same playbook as many architects of calamity from the past 100 years.” - must read, by Alex de Waal 👇 observer.co.uk/news/opinion...
“A review of the administrative record makes it difficult to conclude anything other than that (the government) used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities." apnews.com/article/harv...
Israeli intelligence data: Militants account for only 1 in 4 Gaza detainees Classified Israeli army database indicates vast majority of 6,000 Palestinians arrested in Gaza and detained in appalling conditions are civilians. By Yuval Abraham www.972mag.com/israeli-inte...
Only one in four detainees from Gaza are identified as fighters by Israel’s military intelligence, classified data indicates, with civilians making up the vast majority of Palestinians held without charge or trial in abusive prisons. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/s...
I’m supposed to live in Gainesville, where I own a home, next year. I’m not sure I can risk bringing my child to a Florida that doesn’t require vaccinations for school. These lunatics need to be stopped before they kill more of us.
NEW: 16 months ago, a young Palestinian locksmith went to help unlock a car. He's been in detention ever since. The FBI interrogated him. After refusing to become an informant, he was put in high-security as "retribution." He's not convicted of a crime—but ICE will neither free nor deport him.
Harvard University scored a legal victory Wednesday in its battle with Trump after a federal judge ruled that the U.S. illegally froze more than $2 billion in research funding: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
AAUP-HARVARD, AAUP, & UAW WON THE HARVARD CASE!!!! storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Four fighter jets just flew low over Farragut Square. They were loud and nobody’s f*cking impressed.
“Finkelman concluded from (touring the Gaza tunnels) that only fanatics obsessed by hate could dig such a complex underground network” - an entire article about a certain school of analysis could be written unpacking this line, presented uncritically in a new book on Israel’s war in Gaza.
Wrote about Tom Barrack's proposal for an 'economic zone' in southern Lebanon and why it's a silly idea www.aljazeera.com/features/202...
HRW and Amnesty: Iranian authorities are waging a terrifying crackdown under the guise of national security in the aftermath of the June 2025 hostilities with Israel www.hrw.org/news/2025/09...
“Annexation would be a red line for my government, and that means there can be no lasting peace. It would foreclose the idea of regional integration and be the death knell of the two-state solution,” Emirati special envoy Lana Nusseibah told The Times of Israel.
ICE will have access to one of the world’s most sophisticated hacking tools after a decision by the Trump admin. to move ahead with a contract with Paragon Solutions, a company founded in Israel which makes spyware that can be used to hack into any mobile phone – including encrypted applications.
Pro tip: when you try to get this book, as you should, search for his whole name because searching “Mamdani” gets page after page of cool merch for his son. Searching “Schumer” or “Jeffries” is fine though. Nobody wants their shit.
Enjoying the dirty looks certain people shooting each other when the gate agent announced boarding for “Washington-Reagan.” We recognize no such airport, it’s called National.
In Yemen as in Gaza, bombs and starvation are stealing the lives of our children | Elham Al-Oqabi
Wait Hezbollah isn’t disarmed yet? I was assured that oh well this time for sure
@crisisgroup.org on Israel’s designs for Gaza, backed by Trump: “this next phase of fighting could usher in the end of collective Palestinian life in the strip… Gaza could soon be physically erased, its surviving people herded into camps or expelled entirely.” www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-...
Jerry Nadler ends his remarkable career, conceding that his brand of politics on the Middle East is over. “I don’t know what to say at this point,” he said. “I can’t defend what Israel is doing.” www.nytimes.com/2025/09/01/n...
"Israel’s policies and actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of genocide in Article II of the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948)". Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, genocide scholars' association says - www.reuters.com/world/middle...
Useful frame for understanding Trumpism from @aselrod.bsky.social: "It’s not merely rule by the worst but an active assault on virtue wherever it exists. Trump/MAGA have turned the country over to the cruelest, most rapacious, and least honorable among us." www.liberalcurrents.com/let-it-burn-...
It’s all so stupid and evil, developed by the worst people for the worst reasons.
“Called the Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust, or GREAT Trust, the proposal was developed by some of the same Israelis who created and set in motion the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).” Insane. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...
"The 38-page prospectus seen by The Washington Post envisions at least a temporary relocation of all of Gaza’s more than 2 million population, either through what it calls “voluntary” departures ... or into restricted, secured zones inside the enclave during reconstruction." Illegal. Insane.
The Trump plan for Gaza includes the relocation of the entire population - 2 million people - a US “trusteeship” and the creation of a tourism and tech hub. Landowners get digital tokens worth $5,000 and rent subsidies. Investors are promised 4x return on $100 billion.
Sami Atallah, Mona Fawaz, Nizar Saghieh and Sami Zoughaib on "sovereign reconstruction": a Lebanese-owned process of postwar recovery that would bolster the Lebanese state's legitimacy: www.thepolicyinitiative.org/article/deta...
In @nytopinion.nytimes.com “There is bipartisan agreement in the United States that Sudan is suffering both genocide and famine — and also, apparently, a bipartisan consensus to do little about it,” our columnist @nickkristof.bsky.social writes.
Even though demand was just as high as ever, half as many new international graduate students showed up for fall classes compared to last year. The decline represents a hit to the bottom line for Central Missouri, a small public university that operates close to its margins
Since the last time I went running new albums have dropped from @missmargoprice.bsky.social and Hayley Williams and Sabrina Carpenter and Ghostface Killah to what do we owe this bounty and when do I have time to listen to it all! www.margoprice.net
Yemen's Houthis say the prime minister and a number of ministers were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Thursday, Houthi-run media report
The IPC's report last week declaring a famine in Gaza City will be a source of shame for all those who will inevitably claim that they didn’t realize the extent of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza — my latest @theguardian.com | www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
Are you telling me Hezbollah hasn’t disarmed itself yet? No way! I was assured Hezbollah had no choice but to disarm itself.
These people just can not accept that Taylor hates them and everything they stand for
❝ The Arab states will not come to Gaza’s aid. None of them has launched any significant diplomatic initiative to prevent the reoccupation of the enclave or to end the Israeli bombardment it has endured for nearly two years. ❞
In our latest Long Read, journalists Habib Battah (@habibbattah.bsky.social) and Christina Cavalcanti unpack the ethics of military embeds. ⬇️ thepublicsource.org/media-ethics...
Pretty amazing that the university president who on more than 3 occasions in the past 18 months called police onto campus to arrest faculty and students, started the new school year by telling students “Question those with the urge to silence or cancel others,” nyunews.com/news/2025/08...
A Moroccan court has denied the release of feminist activist Ibtissame Lachgar, keeping her behind bars despite serious health concerns, as her trial for "offending Islam" sparks national and international outrage 👇
Well, here we go This is the op-ed in which I denounce the Riesman Center for Harvard Hillel Pray 4 Josie harvardindependent.com/avoid-the-bu...
This is absolutely catastrophic for U.S. higher education, and for U.S. global leadership. Just the latest in a series of senseless acts of self-sabotage by a malevolent administration bent on making the United States weak and poor.
At least these goobers bringing order and security to the notoriously dangerous, um, Dupont Circle 🙄🙄had the grace to look extremely bored and unsure why they were there.
Did he really though?
I wonder how much GWU paid for the app to make it virtually impossible for faculty to use the printer?
Israel just attacks anywhere in the Middle East now without cause or accountability. It is not stabilizing or good for anyone in the region.
"At least 15 Israeli airstrikes took place Wednesday in different parts of the countryside of Damascus [in Syria] .. In Tuesday’s attack .. Syrian soldiers found surveillance equipment and were trying to dismantle it when they were hit by Israeli drones" www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
No. No you did not.
“The Biden administration was totally feckless when it came to holding the Netanyahu government to the standard of American law and the standards that we claim to apply to every other country in the world when it comes to the duty to provide humanitarian assistance.” Senator Chris Van Hollen.
#UPDATE Israeli forces have conducted an airborne raid on a site near the Syrian capital after bombing it several times, Syrian state media reported. u.afp.com/SAej
This is an essential seven-point guide from an authority on how to counter disinformation claiming there isn’t really a famine in Gaza. www.telegraph.co.uk/global-healt...
This is quite a piece on the director of the federal taskforce tasked to take on anti-Semitism concerns on college campuses. www.chronicle.com/article/the-...
New Quinnipiac Poll — 50% of voters say Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Includes *77%* of Democrats, 51% of Independents, and 20% of Republicans. 60% of voters oppose sending more military aid to Israel. Includes 75% of Democrats, 66% of Independents, and 37% of Republicans.
Section members - Reminder about our elections! Only a few days left to get your vote in. You should have received an email (hint: search for 'Survey Research' in your inbox), or you can find the ballot on @apsa.bsky.social Connect. Get your votes in for your new elected representatives! #menasky
“This remarkable, aching book holds up an appalling mirror to all among us who had a hand in, or passively watched, US policy.” - Rob Malley
Egypt has reportedly begun training hundreds of Palestinians to be part of a force of up to 10,000 to provide security for the Gaza Strip, as Arab countries rally around a vision of postwar Gaza without Hamas, Arab officials told the WSJ www.wsj.com/world/middle...
Warmly recommended: Leila Seurat in @foreignaffairs.com on the new Hamas insurgency: reader.foreignaffairs.com/2025/08/26/t...
The incredible story of how EU naval op Irini, supposedly tasked with enforcing the UN arms embargo on Libya, intercepted a shipment of APCs & ammo destined for the RSF via Libya - and then allowed the shipment to continue to Libya, where eastern and western forces split the cargo between themselves
Am reading a review copy and it is 🔥
The multipolar world is here, I argue, not because of a decline in US power, but because of its disinterest in the order it created, and India is totally unprepared. h/t to @abuaardvark.bsky.social for his recent review of two books on China in West Asia. thewire.in/world/forget...
Israel justified its strike on the Nasser Hospital, which killed six journalists and more than a dozen others, by claiming a "Hamas" camera was set up there. The location they attacked is where Reuters and the AP livestream. From me and others (see byline/contribs) www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/w...
In which Biden’s ambassador to Israel, Jack Lew, *again* stresses that many of the children killed in Gaza were the children of Hamas fighters and oh well… www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...
In its alleged fight against antisemitism, the Trump administration has relied on two groups with murky funders—one of which is in Israel. Here's my deep dive @thebaffler.com into Canary Mission and Betar, two extreme Zionist groups at the heart of Trump's crackdown. thebaffler.com/latest/for-b...
The episode on Palestine and the American University is out
“As for “existential terror,” there is simply no precedent in American history for the way Trump has turned the full force of the federal government against elite universities.”
ICYMI
“The most destructive example of this is the predatory apparatus forged by the United Arab Emirates when it subcontracted the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia to pursue or protect its interests in Sudan’s minerals and arable land.”
This book is great
This is a through line of my forthcoming book www.hurstpublishers.com/book/america...
Democrats are now overwhelmingly more sympathetic with Palestinians than with Israelis, 49%-6%, including 58%-3% among young Democrats!
What it’s like to be a Middle East Studies Professor in fall 2025 - my new post surveys the field, and my colleagues. Basically it sucks and it’s getting worse. But we haven’t given up. abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io/what-its-lik...
The ghoulish fixation on preexisting conditions and starving children in Gaza is bizarre. In all modern conflicts the death toll is measured in excess deaths. This is something I wrote about Congo's civil war almost 20 years ago:
All the security practices I used to follow when traveling to the Middle East
Tried to explain this to a senior colleague recently, who suggested I was overreacting - thanks to @abuaardvark.bsky.social for saying it more clearly and eloquently
George Mason's president did not mess around in his response to the Department of Education. The federal government is likely to keep trying to turn up the heat. www.chronicle.com/article/gmu-...
Pays better than most assistant professor jobs
Thanks Allison! Good times.
I urge you to give up
Every word of this. (And stay tuned for an episode of it could happen here i just recorded on this topic)
This really hit home
Inspired by posts by my colleagues @dandrezner.bsky.social and @davekarpf.bsky.social
I've had it good: students are mostly just anxious to learn and, at my university, both the administration and, apparently, the alumni network are sympathetic to the idea that different ideas are going to be discussed and debated. But the shit I hear from colleagues is... horrifying
“Intimidation and pressure have not succeeded in silencing [Middle East Studies] faculty or breaking the field. One [colleague] described himself as ‘determined, needed, and doing my job.’ As another put it, ‘our students need us – our expertise and our empathy – now more than ever.’” 🫡🫡🫡
“They want their institutions to fight to protect their "apolitical" work but don't extend that fighting spirit to the defense of the disciplines… directly targeted by a lawless government seeking to impose an official orthodoxy over knowledge production.” abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io/what-its-lik...
What it’s like to be a Middle East Studies Professor in fall 2025 - my new post surveys the field, and my colleagues. Basically it sucks and it’s getting worse. But we haven’t given up. abuaardvarkghost.ghost.io/what-its-lik...
Useful guidance for travel to occupied DC
Cambridge University Press just asked me to sign a document either agreeing or refusing to allow my recent Element to be used for AI training, with promise of some unspecified future revenues if I agree. Hell no.
“For many older Palestinians, today’s displacement feels like a repeat of 1948, when they were forced to leave their villages after the creation of the State of Israel and never returned.” Hasan Jaber reports on the impossible decisions facing residents of Gaza City as Israeli forces move in.
Trump’s America is a rogue state in conflict with all the norms of liberal international order
Looking forward to heading back to DC this week to teach so I can navigate masked and armed red state troops illegally occupying the district. I’ll be ready to show my papers so I don’t get arrested or beat up, of course, but do I also have to purge my social media and sign a loyalty pledge? #freedc
George Mason Must Not Comply With the Government’s Demands www.insidehighered.com/opinion/view...
Your occasional reminder -- as arrivals on student visas decrease 28% -- that tuition from foreign students counts as an export, which means that every rejected student visa is going to contribute to the US trade deficit. www.bloomberg.com/news/article...