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Does the book My Promised Land show you the horrors of what Israelis do to the Palestinians? Yes. Does it say what a scourge the occupation is? Yes. And then the book goes off the rails. In passage after passage… Read more: My evil, but so sexy land. Can you love a monster? Yes, says Ari Shavit, if it’s hip, chic, sultry & … lecherous.

The book starts out promising enough. For the ones who love screaming ‘October 7th’. In 1956 (!!!) an Israeli politician said this at the funeral of an Israeli security guard killed by Palestinians. ‘For eight years now, they have sat… Read more: My Sexy Evil Land would have been a better title. Israeli books are at their most dangerous when they are self-critical and then celebrate how ‘sexy’ Israel is. Some notes while reading My Promised Land by Ari Shavit

What bends in youth does not straighten in old age. Israel was born out of savagery, there will be no redemption. ‘Attacking bought Israel time’. When talking is hopeless. I have just read an essay and the warped logic with… Read more: ما انحنى في الصغر لا يستقيم في الكبر What bends in youth does not straighten in old age. Israel was born out of savagery, there will be no redemption.

The siege of Masada has been turned into something like the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae or Di Alamo. A story of heroic self-sacrifice. Hundreds of Jewish defenders bottled up at a mountain fortress, Masada, commit mass suicide, rather than being… Read more: The Israeli army worships an ancient doomsday sect, the Sicarii. Sounds bad? It is. The Myth of  Masada. Understanding the Israeli drive for (self)destruction.

Here is what I wrote on the 7th of March, almost exactly a month ago: ‘Iran cannot defeat Israel and America. It doesn’t have to do that to score some win, but even a minor strategic victory requires being able… Read more: As I predicted a month ago US/Israel and Iran reach a ceasefire. But being right gets drowned in a sea of much more dopamine filled, bombastic predictions like ‘It’s over for Israel’ or ‘The US economy will collapse’ or ‘Tel Aviv will be flattened’. Preaching to a tribe is profitable, being sober is invisible. What I said versus what went viral, showing you we live in an attention economy