Carine Topal: The Terrible Years
Our son sits on a yellow bench bloodied
in the square, waving to a soldier. It is to you he says goodbye.
Now we must pack our bag of bread, head to toe in soot,
ready to eat anything.
David Lauterstein: Lulav
I am a Jew. I am ashamed of those wanting to kill.
The people of Gaza shake their own bodies
in six directions, with nowhere to go,
their only harvest, soil.
Abby Zimet: Weird Drivel and Loser Shit | This Looks Like Terrible
“A drunk and a rapist walk into a bar…” noted one online sage. Another: “Hegseth: No fatties in the chain of command! Trump: Waddles onto stage.”
Majid Naficy: My Silent Buried Treasures
Speak to me, you roots of plum trees!
The barefoot children of summer
And the wandering lambs of fall
Could not witness.
Rabbi Angela Buchdahl: The Cries of Isaac and Ishmael
We can feel brokenhearted for the suffering of the children of Isaac and of Ishmael. We must.
Jessica Corbett: Spain Joins Italy in Sending Ship to Protect Gaza-Bound Sumud Flotilla
The UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories implored other countries “to mobilize their fleet to grant the flotilla safe sailing to Gaza, and deploy a real humanitarian convoy to break the blockade.”
Baruch November: Victor “Young” Perez
The Jewish flyweight from Tunisia—
who modeled himself after the Battling Siki,
a boxer from Senegal—
should have died early in the ring,
Video: Let There Be Light (John Huston’s 1946 documentary about PTSD)
The film was intended to educate the public about post-traumatic stress disorder and its treatment among returning veterans, but its unscripted presentation of mental disability caused the U.S. government to suppress the film.
Sharon Zhang: After Bombing 6 Countries This Year, Netanyahu Pins Israeli Isolation on Muslims
“We’ll need to develop our weapons industry — we’re going to be Athens and super Sparta combined,” Netanyahu said.
George Yancy: Authoritarian Wave in US Shows Democracy’s Fragility, South African Scholar Says
Trump’s attacks are buttressed by his commitment to an authoritarian playbook that wallows in weaponizing differences against the backdrop of creating historical myths — in this case about the supremacy of whiteness.
Chris Hedges: The Martyrdom of Charlie Kirk
The assassination of Charlie Kirk presages a new, deadly stage in the disintegration of a fractious and highly polarized United States.
John Guzlowski: Hope Is Our Mother
A question I get often about my Polish parents is what kept them going during the war and after the war.
Video: The Arbiter
Two teams of men compete in a game of their own invention. When the game begins to go awry, an arbiter steps in to help them solve their dispute.
Jose Padua: The Summer of Rock and Other Fragile Ecstasies
But it was also another summer of war,
the way just about every summer is a summer of war.
