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Gady Epstein

@gadyepstein.bsky.social
9.6K followers 1.4K following 688 posts

A longform editor at The Economist. Views expressed may be the opposite of my employer’s

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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
On Israel not having charged anyone in the killings of 9 Americans in the West Bank: “Mr. Milstein argued that the embassy should send a letter saying that Israel was properly handling the investigations, two officials briefed on the discussions said.”
Questions About American
Deaths
In February, Nasrallah Abu Siyam, 19, was trying to stop settlers from stealing livestock when one of them shot him dead in his West Bank village.He was the ninth American citizen of Palestinian heritage killed in the West Bank by Israeli settlers or soldiers in four years. Weeks later, seeking an update on the investigations into the killings, 30 members of Congress led by Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding answers from Israel.In response, otticers in the embassy compiled a report that was completed in March detailing the status of each investigation, according to multiple officials briefed on the process.
Its central findings suggested that, in most cases, investigations had made little progress, that some cases had been closed, and that no one had been charged in any of the killings, these officials said.
Instead of forwarding the report, Mr.
Milstein argued that the embassy should send a letter saying that Israel was properly handling the investigations, two officials briefed on the discussions said.
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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Judge Gary Brown, a Trump appointee in New York, rebukes ICE for arresting two people erroneously — including a U.S. citizen — and later claiming "mistaken identity." "ICE agents falsified official records," he says. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
That’s awesome, congrats
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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Rufo pioneered the tactic of calling any discussions of race Critical Race Theory, and used it to get people fired. He pioneered the strategy of labeling teachers as "groomers" if they talked about gender identity donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-qanoni...
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rax ‘levon honkers’ king @raxkingisdead.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
occasionally a student asks how some canonical book can possibly apply to their own life and moving forward i’ll refer them to the moment in Ulysses where bloom wants to leave a restaurant without eating there so he pretends to look around and realize he’s in the wrong place instead of just leaving
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Christopher Mathias @letsgomathias.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
New: Chris Rufo & his co-host devoted a podcast to "The Indian Question," framing Desi people as a problem to be solved. Their "solution?" Mass expulsion. For those allowed to remain: an “assimilation hazing process” w/ instances of “vulgar, defamatory racism" talkingpointsmemo.com/news/chris-r...
talkingpointsmemo.com
Chris Rufo — Known For ‘DEI’ and ‘CRT’ Panics — Tries to Make ‘the Indian Question’ a Thing
To the degree that a “respectable” or “moderate” right exists today in...
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 01/10/2026
This ICE flight has landed in Ghana, a possible third-country removal. Immigrant passengers onboard have been shackled for at least 18 hours.
An FR24 map showing N59JE landing in Accra
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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Yeah I often think of @eosnos.bsky.social’s excellent 2016 piece on what to expect from Trump’s first term. It was hard for many to believe at the time but Trump was always going to do much of what he said he would do
THE
NEW YORKER
When Trump talks about what he will create and what he will eliminate, he doesn't depart from three core principles: in his view, America is doing too much to try to solve the world's problems; trade agreements are damaging the country; and immigrants are detrimental to it. He wanders and hedges and doubles back, but he is governed by a strong instinct for self-preservation, and never strays too far from his essential positions.
Roger Stone, a long-serving Trump adviser, told me it is a mistake to imagine that Trump does not mean to fulfill his most radical ideas. "Maybe, in the end, the courts don't allow him to temporarily ban Muslims," Stone said. "That's fine—he can ban anybody from Egypt, from Syria, from Libya, from Saudi Arabia. He's a Reagan-type pragmatist."
William Antholis, a political scientist who directs the Miller Center, at the University of Virginia, pointed out that President Trump would have, at his disposal, "the world's largest company, staffed with 2.8 million civilians and 1.5 million military employees. "Trump would have the opportunity to alter the Supreme Court, with one vacancy to fill immediately and others likely to follow. Three sitting Justices are in their late seventies or early eighties.
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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
This is really good from M Gessen
nytimes.com
Opinion | There Is a Word So Powerful It Need Be Spoken Only Once (Gift Article)
The film that makes a powerful statement without ever raising its voice.
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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
“You might ask how, in this political climate, I was reelected after vetoing the anti-trans bill. Because people respect authentic faith. The day I vetoed it, I explained my why. I said I believe all children are children of God and that I don't want people picking on these kids.”
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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Here’s Chris Rufo and his podcast co-host addressing “the Indian question,” a reference to “the Jewish question.” That question was whether Jews could be incorporated into European society, and the Nazis were the ones who claimed to have developed the “final solution” to that “problem.”
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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
V good thread on how social media made the “network man,” an interesting way to make sense of the modern hellscape
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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Agree with this. I also think the same consultants would attribute a loss to not talking *enough* shit about trans people in sports. Will fit any result to their priors
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Susan Rinkunas @susanrinkunas.com · 27/09/2026
NEW: A Texas woman died after being denied an abortion and her family sued the state and her doctors for violating her right to life. They say the ban should be struck down. It's one of several cases challenging abortion laws under state constitutional rights to life and liberty @autonomynews.co
autonomynews.co
New Lawsuits Argue That Pregnant People Also Have a Right to Life
Lawyers are fighting abortion bans in state court by establishing that pregnant people have a right to life and liberty—or at least self-defense.
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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This is so good
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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
A logical conclusion to draw here is that this is pretextual in that they want a narrative of kicking people off the rolls for fraud
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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Omissions of non-US shows that struck me: Utopia, State of Play, Dark, Babylon Berlin, Sherlock. And among US shows: Fargo S2 and S3, The Expanse, Hannibal, Mr Robot
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Jonathan Howard @joho.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
“At least six babies in Pennsylvania have been born infected with measles, with two so sick they had to be admitted to intensive care.” H/t @ameshaa.bsky.social
nbcnews.com
America had wiped out measles. Now babies are infected at birth.
Congenital measles has rarely been seen in the U.S. That’s changing as vaccination declines and more pregnant women become infected.
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Seems like it should be part of the "are phones ruining the kids" debate that every marker of teen mental health has improved since 2021 www.cdc.gov/yrbs/youth-h...
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Jonathan Howard @joho.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
sciencebasedmedicine.org
Dr. Jay Bhattacharya on Measles: “I Think I’ve Done My Best.”
As football coach Bill Parcells famously said, “you are what your record says you are”.
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Musicology Duck @musicologyduck.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
this story has some incredible tidbits. They hoped to sell 100 VIP tickets to cover expenses and sold six lol
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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is very South Slope, to be specific
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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
What if: a legendary poaster, but with epistemic humility?
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Eileen Clancy 🧿 @clancyny.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Here's what happened. It matches dozens of ICE's other car-smashing apprehensions, others of which ended with a shooting. “an unmarked black truck sideswiped him.” “He didn’t know it was ICE, and he did a U-turn under the highway. The truck chased him and sideswiped him again." Then ICE shot him.
Lincoln-Goldfinch shared Garcés Pérez’s account of the shooting, saying he was making a delivery when “an unmarked black truck sideswiped him.”

“He didn’t know it was ICE, and he did a U-turn under the highway. The truck chased him and sideswiped him again, and the agents came out and shot him in the back of the neck and pulled him out of the car,” she said.
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chirping bird @chrpngbrd.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
this is incredibly fascinating and the implications this has for treating neurological diseases like ALS is enormous. two minute read. amazing stuff. med.stanford.edu/news/all-new...
med.stanford.edu
Human brain is two separate organs, Stanford Medicine-led research finds
Stanford Health Care delivers the highest levels of care and compassion. SHC treats cancer, heart disease, brain disorders, primary care issues, and many more.
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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Remember the iron law of unfalsifiable punditry: if X Dem candidate wins it’s because they moved to the right, if that same candidate loses it’s because they didn’t move right enough, and so on
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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Would you rather fight 100 Stancil-sized philosophers or 100 philosopher-sized Stancils?
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Gillian Brockell @gillianbrockell.com · 21/09/2026
This will make it nearly impossible to file habeas petitions, because attorneys won’t even know what federal district their client has been moved to to stage for their removal. Something like a third of all people in ICE custody. apnews.com/article/ice-...
apnews.com
AP Exclusive: ICE hides locations of thousands of detainees with final removal orders
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has stopped publicly revealing where it is holding most detainees who are subject to final deportation orders, in a move that has made it harder for lawyers an...
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Marisa Kabas @marisakabas.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
While ICE agents were shooting Wilber Rafael Garces Perez in Austin on Sunday, their colleagues were violently detaining a US citizen in Evanston, IL who "resembled" a person they were seeking. The victim reported "injuries to his head, neck and teeth":
evanstonnow.com
Federal agents detained U.S. citizen Sunday morning - Evanston Now
Police chief says officers responded to a man with injuries to head, neck and teeth on Howard and made contact with agents involved.
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Philip Bump @pbump.com · 21/09/2026
ICE shot a DoorDash delivery guy.
statesman.com
Attorney: Austin man shot by ICE agent was making DoorDash delivery
A Venezuelan man shot by an ICE agent in Austin was making a DoorDash delivery, his attorney said. Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, was later released from the hospital into ICE custody.
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Seth Cotlar @sethcotlar.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
The MAGA outrage du jour that started on Twitter and has now been picked up by the OR GOP is that someone noticed that Tilamook cheese (made in Oregon) has a halal label. They’ve had it for years and they switched to non-animal rennet for economic reasons. But the hate machine must be fed.
OREGON
Oregon GOP • @Oregon_GOP • 10h
X
Oh, @TillamookDairy, isn't it enough to say that EVERYONE loves your cheeses and ice cream and more? Did you have to join with the destroyers who divide us by race, religion, and ethnicity?
#GoWokeGoBroke
Sailor Girl • @alice_kinzer • 12h
TILLAMOOK DAIRY IS UNDER ATTACK FOR ADVERTISING THEIR CHEESE CAN BE
EATEN BY MUSLIMS.
They have made the decision of adding HA...
• 14 2726 • 106
企OREGON
PARION EAT
Oregon GOP & @Oregon_GOP •7h
For those who care, Tillamook's Maker's Reserve 10-year Extra Sharp Cheddar is NOT halal or "permissible." We think it might be the best one they make.
#freedom #GoWokeGoBroke
BE2ヒめ!
X
This Tillamook cheese is NOT "permissible" (halal).
1909
SNKERS RESERDA
Tillamook
EXTRA/
2014
SHARP
WHITE
CHEDDAR CHEESE
OWNED
FARMER
EST
1909
と
MAKER'S RESERVE
Tillamook
EXTRA
2014
SHARP
WHITE
CHEDDAR CHEESE
FARMER
OWNED
(It's arguably the best of their cheeses!)
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{7 13
73
Ill 1.9KLars Larson
• @LarsLarsonShow • 37m
Wow. As a proud Cheesemaker (class of '77)
I'm floored by this
Wall Street Apes • @WallStreet... • 3h
One of America's most popular brand of
cheese is now catering to Muslims
Right on the package of Tillamook cheese is now a "Certified Halal" label...
١١٥٠
贝
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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
lol
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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
This is right, but would remove the modifier “compelling.” There is no actual evidence supporting the lab leak theory. It’s only theories all the way down
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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
His particular beliefs in this regard happen to predate Twitter but yes
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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Still find it funny that he “subscribes” to exactly one account on X and it’s Richard Hanania
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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Exposing an opponent’s perceived strength as a vulnerability is good, actually
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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Which is strategically sharper: X politician is terrible on some things but he’s sorta right or not all wrong on (or we just won’t bring up) this one issue he polls decently on. OR He’s terrible on some things and also btw he’s terrible on this other thing too
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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Trump went from net-positive to -15 (or worse) on immigration after people did the opposite of the advice given in the quoted tweet. His other negatives also got worse because raising salience is not zero-sum
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Evan Urquhart @evanurquhart.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
This point, from my recent interview with @perrybaconjr.bsky.social for TNR, is so crucial. Trans people are desperate for relief from the relentless Republican attacks impacting all of us. When Democrats move right, they signal relief may not be coming, and that engenders a lot of despair.
And so for Democrats to say, They have a point on some of this, it is engendering a lot of hopelessness and a lot of fear in the trans community, because we have been just trying to hold on, hoping that this time would end and we would be able to get back to where we were five years, six years ago. And what Democrats are signaling is, like, No, we’re going to keep things as they are, and maybe even make them worse.
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Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Holy moly this looks good. Setting my alarm for 12:01 am on September 27
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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I wiled away some hours in the 1980s on a (slightly) less complex game, “NATO: The next war in Europe.” It featured “tactical” nuclear battles which struck even 12-year-old me as insane
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Gady Epstein @gadyepstein.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
“Since a pet knocking over the game 10 years in would be catastrophic, they have affixed magnets to the five game boards and the more than 1,600 pieces to keep everything in place.”
nytimes.com
Can Two Friends Complete a Game No One Has Ever Finished?
The Campaign for North Africa, a staggeringly complicated World War II board game, has stymied players for decades. Now two guys in England are giving it a serious go.
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Sam “The Great Pumpkin” Thielman @samthielman.com · 18/09/2026
realize I'm a little bit of a quirky guy but being punched in the face repeatedly by masked men with guns actually is something I find frightening
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Michelle Goldberg @michellegoldberg.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/18/o...
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Tom Scocca @tomscocca.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
People who call the polio vaccine a "fraud" are not "skeptics" toward vaccines, they are people with fixed views toward vaccines! (The name for that fixed view is "denial.")
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Michael Hobbes @michaelhobbes.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Read only the first and last sentence of this paragraph
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amanda moore 🐢 @noturtlesoup17.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
“The worst place ever I’ve been in my life," Sakariye Abdi Mohamed, a Somali asylum seeker, told me over the phone from Guantanamo Bay last week. Sakariye is one of 7 or 8 Somalis who are being held at Gitmo. They say guards tell them the order to keep Somalis at the facility comes from DC.
motherjones.com
The Trump administration is imprisoning Somali immigrants in Gitmo
“Nobody tell us that we’re going to Guantanamo Bay.”
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Bill Grueskin @bgrueskin.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
A shaky anonymous source; a jab about a “hillbilly ambulance chaser” lawyer; a flub that allowed a skeptical editor’s email to become public; an internal text exchange raising doubts about the story: I looked into how the NYT lost its first US libel case in >50 years. www.cjr.org/news/how-the...
cjr.org
How the New York Times lost a defamation trial.
An anonymous source, a “hillbilly ambulance chaser” text message, and the newsroom’s first defamation defeat in this country in more than fifty years.
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Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
“ICE agents were caught on video pulling one teen from the car and punching him repeatedly in the face while he lay on the ground. The other teen, Luis Ochoa, said he informed the ICE agents he was a citizen but was told, ‘I don’t give a damn.… Your parents can’t help you now.’”
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Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
New: Macklemore says Robert Kraft — who owns Gillette Stadium, where Macklemore & Ed Sheeran were to perform later this month — called Sheeran. Kraft rallied other owners together behind an ultimatum for Sheeran: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you won't be allowed in our venues.

I'm not sure how to start this. So I'm going to speak from the heart and share the truth. Ed Sheeran and his team have made the decision to remove me from The Loop tour.
But before I get into it, I want to say something that should be obvious. In this moment I think it matters. I am not a victim. Ed Sheeran is not a victim. Pink is not a victim. We have careers, money, opportunities, safety and audiences around the world. Whatever consequences any of us face for what we say, we get to go home to our families.

The victims are the Palestinian people. The men, women and children who have been killed, starved, displaced and forced to live through unimaginable violence. More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza alone. People are being killed today, and people will be killed tomorrow. I want to make sure that as I tell this story, we don't lose sight of that.

Ed is my friend. I've known him for 13 years. We've shared late nights, studio sessions and stages. He has this infectious magic about him that I've grown to love. I consider him a brother. And because of that, we've had some difficult conversations this past week. The type of talks rooted in love and respect for one another that still end in a place of fundamental disagreement. Nothing I'm writing here is out of spite or because I want to tear down his character. But as I told Ed multiple times on the phone, our friendship can't change my responsibility to tell the truth about what happened.

Last Monday, in the middle of all the media attention surrounding Pink and what I said at MetLife, Ed told me that Robert Kraft called him. We were scheduled to play Gillette Stadium later this month, which is owned by the Kraft Group. Ed told me that Kraft said I would not be allowed to perform in his stadium. Ed also told me that Kraft had rallied some of the other
stadium owners and collectively they gave him an ultimatum: if Macklemore stays on the tour, you will not be allowed to play in our venues.

Ed was in …What I said at MetLife I have been saying on stages around the world for almost three years. So why is it an issue now? Because now I'm sharing a stage with one of the biggest artists in the world, in some of the biggest stadiums in America. At a certain level of exposure, "Free Palestine" becomes too much of a risk. If I kept doing the shows, saying Free Palestine, with Ed implicitly supporting it, the crowd getting loud and showing undeniable support for Palestinian liberation, what artist might speak out next? The stage becomes resistance. Maybe that's why this time it became so important to silence me.

And one of the most effective ways to enforce that silence has been to weaponize the accusation of antisemitism. Antisemitism is real. And that is exactly why the word matters too much to be used as a shield against criticism of the Israeli state. When criticizing Israel, opposing Zionism or saying "Free Palestine" gets conflated with hatred of Jewish people, it doesn't protect Jewish people. It protects Israel from accountability.

I hope this isn't the end of my relationship with Ed.
Thirteen years of friendship doesn't disappear because of one painful disagreement. I hope we both continue listening, studying what is happening in Palestine and wrestling with what neutrality means in a moment like this. My door will always be open to continuing that conversation.

When my brother Omar was doing the subtitles for the video I posted from MetLife, I thanked him. He told me there's a phrase in Arabic:
لا شكر على واجب
"La shukra ala wajeb." There is no thanks for a duty.
That stayed with me. Because that's what this has become for me and millions of others around the world. A duty. Not something deserving of praise or gratitude. Not brave. Human.

Who is winning the internet, who is getting canceled, who gets to play the stadium and who doesn't, all of it becomes so small when held against what we are actually witnessing in Gaza and the West Bank. An entire people be…
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