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Mario Rustan

@mariorustan.bsky.social
159 followers 65 following 4.2K posts

Patron saint of chaos and Asian mountain sage. Probably the only heterodox liberal in Asia. "Interesting edge case".

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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 4h
The summary
X topic summary: "Non-Jews from around the world publicly declare themselves non-Zionists"
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 4h
The home prompts this theme song in my head youtu.be/BSLL9XDVXLE?...
youtu.be
Neighbours 1990 Opening Titles Version 1
YouTube video by PerfectBlendMedia
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David Fleischer @fleischmarket.bsky.social · 14h
And since I brought it up, can't hurt to post a gift link to the Globe article again; one of a series of things that convinced me to renew my subscription there. The link should he active for another day or two... www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/3b0575d...
theglobeandmail.com
Jew-hatred has never stopped evolving. Antizionism is its latest iteration
When the world gets particularly frightening or difficult to explain, Jews have a strange habit of turning up as the explanation
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 14h
Thank you for the link. Yes, all that needs to be said is there.
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David Fleischer @fleischmarket.bsky.social · 15h
It's certainly nice to see pushback from someone in Ireland and to the UK Greens thing. I posted on X about Archie Matlow's great Globe article and their interview here also speaks strongly to that pressure. I guess I hope some people here would acknowledge it. thecjn.ca/the-jewish-a...
thecjn.ca
The Jewish Angle - The Canadian Jewish News
Stuck in the middle with Jews The Jewish Angle Phoebe Maltz Bovy, culture critic and opinion editor at The CJN, explores how Jews are increasingly stuck between dangerous political and […]
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 15h
Transport news www.jpost.com/israel-news/...
jpost.com
Ethiopian Airlines flight to Israel turned around due to Indonesian pilot | The Jerusalem Post
The Islamic country of Indonesia currently has no diplomatic ties with Israel, making its nationals ineligible for flying to Israel due to the security risk.
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 15h
I think plenty of people in the West feel pressured to conform to antizionism in social and professional settings, and even online. So this is venting. It was started by an Irishwoman in reaction to the UK Greens' declaration and the 7 Oct remembrance. That might set X apart from Bsky & Threads.
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 15h
It's heartening. I was thinking of contributing but I don't want to be a main character on Indonesian Threads.
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StepfordTO @stepfordto.bsky.social · 16h
It seems that the other place has turned Zionist, this place not so much.
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
Last weekend I learned that Unilever boycott is still a thing. Somehow many Muslims think it's Zionist-run or something. Now the ulama council demands the cancelation of Andrea Bocelli concerts. In the past such call (like for Lady Gaga) was ok Boomer coded. Now the liberals might get behind.
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
I asked AI about the prevalence of hijab models on Instagram's Indonesian ads and found an astonishing stat: 62% of IDan Muslim women wear hijab now compared to 36% in 2010. Not just conservatism but also class signifier (confident middle class), liberalism, also protection among the poor.
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The Canadian Jewish News @thecjn.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Jewish Currents says the numbers challenge claims of antisemitism in publishing. But do book deals tell the whole story? A closer look at the evidence and the unanswered questions surrounding discrimination against Jewish writers. Read more: thecjn.ca/arts-culture...
thecjn.ca
Just asking questions: Jewish Currents attempts to debunk the PEN literary antisemitism story
Artists interpret their professional disappointments in terms of systemic injustices. It’s ego-preserving. And it’s not necessarily wrong!
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Have a good Thanksgiving, David.
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
We live in a world where a nerdy Chinese (-looking) man, whose type was a victim of hate crime before 2024, is now a fugitive of the Toronto Police Service for sucker punch during a demonstration.
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
Published this almost 3 years ago, when global reactions to 7 October, including from Chinese people around the world, surprised me. Three years later, it remains true: The world hates Jews more while being fine with the Chinese for various reasons. provmandarin.substack.com/p/the-jews-a...
provmandarin.substack.com
The Jews and the Chinese
On their diverging path and fortune
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Moebius Stripper @moebiusstripper.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
In light of world events, I'm going to take a break from LOLing about BC politics here for second and say this in earnest: it is a genuine privilege to live in a place where a political leader shows contempt for the population by calling an election two years early, as opposed to never
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
First time opening my old publication because I remember there was an article attacking the cool girl c2016 (the illustration shows the woman wearing soccer jersey). Couldn't find it, browsing current topics. Nothing on the Middle East in featured posts, obviously two on Cornell.
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Jacqueline @cuddlefishj.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
Does your house of worship look like this? #adassisrael
A firebombed synagogue in Ripponlea
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Topic
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University of Toronto Press @uoftpress.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Join author and historian Flora Cassen in conversation with writer Phoebe Maltz Bovy about her book, Stained Glass: A Reflective History of Antisemitism. Learn more: bit.ly/4zkiBef 📅 October 29, 7 – 8:30 pm EDT 📍 Miles Nadal JCC Brandeis University The Canadian Jewish News
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David Fleischer @fleischmarket.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Tis the time of the year for #Oktoberfest and what better excuse, in latest Reel Toronto revival, to look back on the classic comedy of STRANGE BREW and all the fun places it visited back in 1980s Toronto. davidfleischer.substack.com/p/where-stra...
davidfleischer.substack.com
Where Strange Brew (1983) Was Shot in Toronto
A little bit of Hamlet, a whole lot of stubbies and plenty of Bob & Doug
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The Free Press @thefp.com · 09/10/2026
Today in TGIF: Kids riot from Paris to Ithaca, Mamdani’s first October 7 anniversary as mayor, golden statues, Satanic prayers, and more!
bit.ly
TGIF: Nudity Is Optimal
Today in TGIF: Kids riot from Paris to Ithaca, Mamdani’s first October 7 anniversary as mayor, golden statues, Satanic prayers, and more!
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Yesterday was the birthday of Jewish American actress Kira Kosarin. I saw her Instagram and it's all "it's my bday" joy in contrast to my X and Substack. And I know as a pro, active celebrity she had to make the day her birthday and nothing else. It was a surreal sight for me, maybe not just me.
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StepfordTO @stepfordto.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
I'm an October 8th Jew and it's October 8th, so... here's my piece in Judith Magazine about how I got here. judithmagazine.substack.com/p/how-i-beca...
judithmagazine.substack.com
How I Became a Jew
Katie Lynes was born Jewish but spent decades keeping it at arm's length. Then came October 7.
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The Canadian Jewish News @thecjn.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Oct. 7 changed the lives of Jews around the world. For The CJN’s Editorial Director, the shift was felt the very next day, as rallies celebrating the attacks and denials of what happened gave way to a new reality for Jews in Canada. Read more: thecjn.ca/opinion/lett...
thecjn.ca
Letter from the editor: The world changed on Oct. 7. I felt it on Oct. 8
I know what I can do: tell the stories that need to be told, ask the questions that need to be asked and make sure Jewish voices are not drowned out by noise.
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
"On October 7, I celebrate the futility of Jewish erasure." A Jewish Australian was in Barcelona yesterday and took pictures, including a Roman writing of 18. fornormalpeople.substack.com/p/october-7-...
fornormalpeople.substack.com
October 7 2026, Barcelona
From erasure to a future unwritten
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Congratulations and good luck!
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Elisabeth Braw @elisabethbraw.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Today is the day! The Undersea War goes on sale in the UK (and online). Available at @waterstones.bsky.social, @foylesforbooks.bsky.social, Daunt, Hatchard, The Guardian Bookshop, Bookshop.org, etc etc. The US edition follows on the 13th.
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Ironically the only person in Australia who held me responsible for my government, with the "Tell your president..." line, was a Hong Kong man who wore a Chinese dress to the lecture. I don't remember what was going on.
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
The professor is arrested and charged. www.phillyvoice.com/haverford-co...
phillyvoice.com
Haverford College professor charged for allegedly making antisemitic threats online
Guangtian Ha, an assistant professor of religion, was placed on administrative leave and barred from campus while court proceedings play out.
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
So there's a Vietnamese Al Qaeda convict and there's a suspended antisemitic Chinese professor in Pennsylvania who pretended to be Maga to terror a colleague. Now we have a Minnesotan kid arrested for planning to kill Chinese Vietnamese at Mall of America, which he believes is Jewish-owned.
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Usually Kara Jesella appears on my X timeline to say "It's been like that for decades. What were confined to journals and conferences are now on social media and spoken by celebrities."
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
In 2016 it was quite philosemitic the travel column was called the Ahasureus Files with caricature (I know). Disappeared in 2019 when my column was also canceled over low readership. I considered writing an e-mail to complain, or to offer a counterargument. Then I realized it's a global phenomenon.
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
3 years ago my former publication wrote "The Jewish holiday of Sukkot turned from a feast into a disaster," then proceeded to praise Hamas for the resistance. Same author later said only white feminist cried over Oct 7. Nevermind the author, I was in disbelief that my ex-editor published it.
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Phoebe Maltz Bovy @phoebebovy.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
phoebemaltzbovy.substack.com/p/here-goes
The discourse then became this thing of pro-Israel versus anti-Israel, Zionist anti-Zionist antizionist do we capitalize this or hyphenate that and on and on and frankly I think what a lot of Jews experienced but didn’t articulate was a profound disappointment in what Israel was meant to mean in terms of Jews’ place in the world, then demonstrably was not. Whether your specific politics and interpretation of events pointed you towards anger at Netanyahu and other Israeli leadership for not averting the Hamas attacks or at the severity of the retribution or whether you wish Israel had been more aggressive still, I think this sudden stark awareness that Zionism had failed to do what it was meant to do underlies so much here.
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Alexandra Wilson @amwilson.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
I review the National Gallery blockbuster "Renoir and Love" and ask, is it really about love? Plenty to enjoy though...
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Erika Dreifus @erikadreifus.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
An #October7th flash essay/mini-memoir from my archive.
Breaking News

It begins with my phone, which it shouldn’t, because it begins on Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath), and I shouldn’t be checking my phone (I shouldn’t even be awake now, after midnight). I most definitely shouldn’t be surrendering to my social-media addiction, checking the platform formerly known as Twitter even as I can, somehow, summon enough resistance to refrain from actually clicking and typing and posting. Which do I see first? In my memory, it’s a video clip (or is it a photograph?) of a white van (or is it a pick-up truck?), and I see men with guns (or are they rifles?), and the text that accompanies the image is no longer altogether complete, but I see “Sderot” (which I know to be a city near the Gaza border), and I see “terrorists,” and in that instant as I focus on my phone in New York I know (don’t ask me how) that this is no ordinary moment, and that utter devastation lies ahead.
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The Canadian Jewish News @thecjn.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
After Oct. 7, queer, trans Jew Archie Matlow began recognizing antisemitism on the progressive left they hadn’t known how to name. On The Jewish Angle, they explain how anti-Zionism can disguise antisemitism—and what happened when they spoke out. For more: thecjn.ca/opinion/a-qu...
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Jacqueline @cuddlefishj.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Evil. Pure evil.
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The Canadian Jewish News @thecjn.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
OPINION: Legal technicalities shouldn’t obscure the bigger picture. Neil Herland deserves admiration for speaking out after encountering pro-Palestine protesters outside Yom Kippur services, regardless of whether bubble laws technically applied. Read more: thecjn.ca/opinion/neil...
thecjn.ca
Neil Herland deserves our admiration, regardless of whether bubble laws apply to arts centres
Some things are legal but not acceptable.
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Moebius Stripper @moebiusstripper.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
To which I and other opponents of death-to-Jews sermons would say, but we don't wanna. We don't want more protests outside objectionable religious services, we want fewer. And this is a conflict between protester types and non-protester types, not pro-Palestine types and pro-Israel types.
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Phoebe Maltz Bovy @phoebebovy.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
I wrote about Canadian Jewish news, for @thecjn.bsky.social thecjn.ca/opinion/neil...
thecjn.ca
Neil Herland deserves our admiration, regardless of whether bubble laws apply to arts centres
Some things are legal but not acceptable.
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
The weirder thing on SE Asia is after a generation of mocking Islamists for their antisemitism, now SE Asian progressives with flags and emojis agree with the same lines because they are communicated by Western celebrities and social media memes. All the 2016 memories, gone just like that.
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
On Substack there's a post about how lame left-wing antisemitism is. What Westerners won't discuss is how it's influenced by Arab & Muslim antisemitism, many have been formed for centuries just like European antisemitism was. It's beyond Tumblr oppressor/oppressed on left, more than Nazism on right
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
1 thing about definition of Zionism. I told my sister that left-wing Australians called PM Albanese as Zio Albo. My Muslim liberal sister said "But he's not a Zionist!", and I didn't want to ask how did she define it. Muslims might see it akin to Islamism, liberals see it as ultranationalism.
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Greece is a trending keyword in Indonesian X and it's a mixup of 0-0 upset with Germany in soccer, some things about history with Turkey, some saying that Christianity is Greek paganism (maybe an emerging Turkish line), and bits about it's being fellow victims or an accomplice of Israel.
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Phoebe Maltz Bovy @phoebebovy.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Forget "banned books week" what about criminally underappreciated books week?
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Not sure if Mom ever tells aunt "Oh, Mario chats with Americans now. He said they even visited Austin."
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Moebius Stripper @moebiusstripper.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Apparently October is Canadian Library Month. There's never been a better time to borrow my award-winning Canadian novel, THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, from your local Canadian library! And if your library doesn't carry it, there's never been a better time to request it. www.overdrive.com/media/128041...
overdrive.com
eBook - The Middle of Nowhere
Everyone in Rupert, Ontario knows Bob Gillis as the quiet middle-aged man who runs the town's grocery store – and that's all. The first twenty years of Bob's life are a mystery even to his wife and ch...
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Mario Rustan @mariorustan.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Indonesian students in Australia and the UK in the 2000s joked about the different meanings of "Greens" in Indonesian politics and local politics. Now it has the same meaning.
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