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Zuri Linetsky

@zurilinetsky.bsky.social
489 followers 279 following 1.4K posts

Was a social scientist. Worked in humanitarian assistance & international development in war zones. Now doing something new. Occasionally writing stuff about foreign & military affairs.

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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Today Middle East hawks& unflinching support for Israel are a minority in the Democratic Party. Democrats should start acting like it, now—and represent the interests of their constituents by @mattduss.bsky.social for @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/worl...
thenation.com
The Reality Today Is That Foreign Policy Hawks Are a Minority in the Democratic Party
It is damn time we all started acting like it.
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
This is an awesome story of corruption, incompetence, and nepotism. And turns out MBS and Kushner have a lot in common. This is the story of what some might call, #Trump’s #America. Dollar Diplomacy www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
newyorker.com
Jared Kushner’s Dollar Diplomacy
Jared Kushner represents the kind of Washington figure for whom public office serves as a means to extraordinary wealth.
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The New Arab @thenewarab.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Western media's coverage of Israel's invasion of Lebanon echoed many of the same patterns seen in Gaza: omissions, misleading language, and narratives that obscured responsibility. In this opinion video, Asaal Rad explores how those framing choices shaped reporting on Lebanon.
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
People on GLP—1’s trying to lose a few pounds have a unique ability to ruin a trip and a meal.
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Patrick Chovanec @prchovanec.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Ok, this is a very big deal and revises my previous statement that the Japan-based Washington is still guarding the Pacific. Hopefully it is only temporary until the Navy can get its shit together and send out another of the four carriers currently in port (and not deep in their maintenance cycle).
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Diana B. Greenwald @dbgreenwald.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
I appreciate @muhammadshehada.bsky.social’s analysis here. Netanyahu is basically guaranteeing that no Hamas weapons will be turned over.
nytimes.com
Opinion | Hamas Has No More Cards to Play
The signs point to Hamas being serious about disarming. The recent Board of Peace plan for it to surrender its weapons should be carried out.
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
After finally reading this @newyorker.com piece it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that every member of the Biden administration foreign policy team & people across DoD and DoS are war criminals that should be tried for violationing the laws of war & basic human morality. archive.ph/VUzug
archive.ph
Welcome to nginx
If you see this page, the nginx web server is successfully installed and working. Further configuration is required.
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play by post @playbypost.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Again, I don't know how any country gets trash talked like this and doesn't just stop writing checks and start seizing assets of said country lol
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
If one was intent on taking apart the US Navy this is a good place to start. Seems odd the current US president is doing it though.
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Pete Hesgeth’s Deparyment of War, where lethality is the only goal, has sailors trying to literally jump ship to escape record-setting deployments. I wonder how this will impact Navy readiness and retention rates over the long term? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
theguardian.com
USS Abraham Lincoln sailors tried to jump overboard amid extended deployment – reports
Aircraft carrier’s crew in ninth month at sea and has spent record 250 days consecutively without making land
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M.Woldemariam @mikewoldemariam.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
ICYMI: Article by @zurilinetsky.bsky.social and I from earlier this summer in International Politics on US approaches to the expanding power and influence of its Middle Eastern partners in Africa link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
Managing the global ambitions of allies: US approaches to Gulf and Turkish power in Africa - International Politics
How do US policymakers respond to the growing influence of US partners outside of their immediate neighborhood and into third regions? In an era of global politics characterized by increasingly indepe...
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
An excellent after action review of the US war on Iran. And what an utter failure all the key US players knew it would be. Good thing Trump doesn’t read and cannot stay awake to care about any of this. And now we have a military devoid of fire power. www.amerikanets.com/p/they-saw-i...
amerikanets.com
They Saw it Coming
How American military planners anticipated failure in Iran
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Trump wasted military lives, billions of dollars in munitions & equipment, squandered US standing with (nefarious) partners in the Middle East, leading to new regional security cooperation efforts. Now US & Israel will be banned from the Strait of Hormuz. Wow. The US golden age is wicked awesome.
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Dalia Dassa Kaye @dassakaye.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Big development responding to Iran war but builds on regional trends long in the works: --growing assertiveness of MENA middle powers --diversification of political, economic, and security alignments --concerns about both Iranian and Israeli regional posture --declining confidence in the US
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Philip Gourevitch @pgourevitch.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
sure seems like AIPAC may have helped rather than hurt El-Sayed and if so let’s hope they bet it all on the GOP in the midterms
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Our civil-military relations are upside down. Nothing highlights this better than US-Pacific Command. The commander testified: US deterrence by denial makes effective diplomacy possible. But Diplomacy must precede any military posture. www.armed-services.senate.gov/imo/media/do...
armed-services.senate.gov
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Good thread. This isn’t the first time the US has, measured success vis # of sorties & bombs dropped & target hit. We did it, and lost in Vietnam. But this is unsurprising from this DoD. If lethality is the objective, then this is how you measure. Strategic outcomes are unrelated/unimportant.
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Catherine Rampell @crampell.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
amazing. no notes www.reuters.com/world/africa...
reuters.com
US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference
A U.S. government map of Africa mislabeled every country during a State Department presentation at ‌a global conference taking place in Brazil this week, causing a stir among attendees who took screen...
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Alexander Chee @alexanderchee.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
‘Anthropic described the project as “our effort to disruptively scan all the world’s books” in an internal memo, which noted “we do not want it to be known that we are pursuing this project”.’
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
The importance of this @haaretzcom.bsky.social reporting cannot be overstated. There is a mental health crisis in the IDF. A military cannot fight for 3 years straight and commit massive atrocities and not suffer severe consequence. www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...
haaretz.com
Two female Israeli soldiers die by suicide as IDF mental health crisis deepens
Military Police probe deaths of Bardelas combat soldier and intelligence official, as active-duty suicides reach 16 this year amid post-war mental health crisis
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Oliver Willis @owillis.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
“With hundreds of millions of followers on a platform he personally controls, Musk stands as the most prominent purveyor of far-right and ultranationalistic rhetoric in the world.” www.nytimes.com/2026/07/29/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Why Do We Tolerate Elon Musk’s Racist Commentary?
Why does the owner of X get a pass for what he says and does there?
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
DC shutting down Wisconsin Ave by the cathedral for Lindsey Graham’s funeral is obnoxious. He was an awful person, a war criminal who drove to catastrophic US war losses, international embarrassment & opprobrium. Inconveniencing me for this putz, & Netanyahu’s appearance is a sign of US decline.
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
I’m no AI expert. So here is my take. The biggest threat from AI is it making people worse at their jobs, less informed, & less capable as humans. The rest is worst case scenario modeling, based on how any given scenario model is constructed. Thanks for reading my non-AI musing.
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
So I’m tracking, the self-anointed Peace President may be kicking off a nuclear arms race to guarantee the security of a country & regime (Israel & Netanyahu) who are actively engaged in genocide. While simultaneously losing a war with a country (Iran) that has no meaning air or sea power.
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
The Trump administration is literally setting records for tonnage of bombs being dropped from aircraft carriers in one day. In February 2025 alone the US Navy F-18 dropped 62.5 tons of bombs on alleged ISIS positions on the mountains. They killed 14 “terrorists.” theintercept.com/2025/05/23/l...
theintercept.com
U.S. Conducts “Largest Airstrike in the History of the World” (Sort Of)
The U.S. launched 16 jets from the USS Harry S. Truman to drop 125,000 pounds of bombs on a cave complex in Somalia, killing 14.
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
So the Houthis have now shut down the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia, effectively closing the Bab al-Mandab. To the Kingdom. I wonder who else might be affected by this? www.nytimes.com/live/2026/07...
nytimes.com
Iran War Live Updates: U.S. and Iran Trade Attacks, After Killing of U.S. Soldiers
The move against Saudi ships will add new pressure on energy markets. Tehran said it had received new proposals from mediators.
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Can this World Cup game be analyzed as a narrative on colonialism? Inquiring minds want to know.
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
This is a must read. “To truly accept what is happening in Palestine requires acknowledging that the international order is a fiction, and that Western prosperity remains tethered to a brutal, selective inhumanity.” By @hamayel.bsky.social www.equator.org/articles/mor...
equator.org
Gaza and the Problem of Moral Stupidity • EQUATOR
Forty years after Edward Said demanded ‘permission to narrate’, the truth from Palestine has never been more widely known. And yet the annihilation continues.
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Clearly this new round of fighting with Iran, because the US was trying to transit ships through the Strait without Iran, is going well. Always a bad look when the US bombs hospitals and is compared to a military actively committing genocide. www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/...
aljazeera.com
Iran condemns ‘barbaric’ US attack near children’s cancer hospital
Iran accuses US of 'cowardly war crime' as doctor says blast was 'so close' they thought the hospital was struck.
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
Really important piece on the depth and breadth of US-Israeli defense integration proposed in the 2027 NDAA. Should also note: Trump moved Israel into CENTCOM (Biden maintained this), so the IDF is part of US theater level planning now.
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 15/07/2026
I embedded with US military, & wrote about it, this is a gross oversimplification of US logistics especially those in contested areas. As for buying allied ships. The US issued a request for information, which is far from a sale. These procurement cycles can take years/decades.
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
And now the Houthis are threating to shut down the Bab el-Mandeb, which could close the Red Sea. This is some serious winning. www.reuters.com/world/middle...
reuters.com
After Hormuz, Iran turns to Red Sea gateway as new pressure point
Having choked off shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, Iran is now signaling it could play its most dangerous card yet: using Yemen's Houthi allies to shut the Bab el-Mandeb gateway ​to the Red Sea,...
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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 14/07/2026
bring back shame
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
I wonder, also, if Biden mimicking first Trump term policies vis-a-vis China has anything to do with how Asia reacts to the US?  But, discussing this, in an honest manner, would require US political & foreign policy “leaders” to self-reflect. And that’s not going to happen. Ever.
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
I love this.
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
When US-backed settler colonialism comes home to roost. Maybe @rokhanna.bsky.social we should end military & economic support for Israel? Maybe we should not have legislation protecting Israel under US law? Maybe the new NDAA should not wed our military production? www.cnn.com/2026/07/11/m...
cnn.com
Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna detained by Israeli settlers during West Bank visit | CNN
Democratic lawmaker Ro Khanna said he was detained by Israeli settlers armed with US-made rifles during a West Bank visit this week that he cast as an unfiltered look at the human toll of Israeli occu...
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
“history suggests that the U.S. has used military force to great effect, just not the effects it hoped to have. Meanwhile, the U.S. military budget gets larger and larger, but the effects it produces continue to be paltry.” @jwmeiser.bsky.social nails it. smallwarsjournal.com/2026/05/25/c...
smallwarsjournal.com
Coming to Terms With Our Strategic Inadequacies
U.S. military power repeatedly fails politically because American strategy ignores causation, negotiation, and realism.
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
This is an amazing and devastating piece of writing all at once. Save the US and Europe recognizing Palestinians as people with rights to self rule and self determination, nothing will change. www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
lrb.co.uk
Muhammad Shehada · ‘I would never release him’: Marwan Barghouti and Palestine’s future
Marwan Barghouti enjoys unparallelled popularity and is often described as Palestine’s Nelson Mandela. Like Mandela,...
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Flying F-16 over DC low enough to make out tail insignia is the highest for of waste and stupidity. Not to mention being totally obnoxious. A Gen Z guy just complained about being woken up at 10 am. A thought for the youth!
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
Keeping up the trend of highlighting recent essays for @foreignpolicy.com, I’m re-upping my piece with @mikewoldemariam.bsky.social on how & why the US accommodates & even encourages Gulf military adventurism in East & North Africa. foreignpolicy.com/2026/06/03/a...
foreignpolicy.com
America Enabled the Gulf’s African Adventurism
Why Washington let its Middle Eastern partners wreak havoc in Africa.
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
Since @foreignpolicy.com has all of its content up for free this week, I’m re-upping my essay with @mattduss.bsky.social about how the Abraham Accords enabled the US-Israeli war on Iran. foreignpolicy.com/2026/05/07/t...
foreignpolicy.com
How the Abraham Accords Fueled a New Era of Conflict
Despite promising peace, Israeli-Gulf cooperation paved the path to war with Iran.
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
@nicholasdanfort.bsky.social told me all @foreignpolicy.com content is free this week. So I’m sharing my work. “America Prepares for a Pacific War With China It Doesn’t Want” For this I embedded with Marine F-35 unit looking at the tyranny of distance in Asia. foreignpolicy.com/2023/09/16/u...
foreignpolicy.com
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Reading about the potential of US patronage for Israel is surreal. For the first time in my life, even Israelis are publicly reckoning with the domestic and regional consequences of their actions in a post-total US backed world. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/24/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | U.S. Support Is Israel’s True Weakness
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
I'm happy to share the article @mikewoldemariam.bsky.social and I have been working on for International Politics. The paper traces how the US responded to the influence of Middle East Middle Powers in Africa. Link to the article: rdcu.be/fpEWO
rdcu.be
Managing the global ambitions of allies: US approaches to Gulf and Turkish power in Africa
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Sam Heller | سام هيلر @abujamajem.com · 21/06/2026
Worth circling back, now that @amwajmedia.bsky.social reporting was borne out: Given that final MoU includes three Lebanon references in first para – two more than reported draft, presumably added at Iran's insistence – think we can assume Iran's commitment to Lebanon is serious.
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
Forget deterrence, which is a psychological states that none of the US, Iran, Hezbollah, or Israel have achieved. If Iran pushes Trump to get Israel out of Lebanon, including its zone of occupation, the “think pieces” on the new meaning of the axis of resistance are going to be all time.
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
This was such an amazing interview. I’m biased because I like to think I “write” and I’m the child of Soviet Jews. And Super Sad True Love Story convinced my wife I was worth her time. Looking forward to reading The Sensualist.
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Zuri Linetsky @zurilinetsky.bsky.social · 15/06/2026
The issue is Israel has no objective outside of dominance, which has no end state, other than, to quote Conan the Barbarian "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of the women." The core question is: what happened to strategic thinking in Israel & the US?
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Matt Duss @mattduss.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
We need a new US foreign policy that promotes peace and solidarity Mu conversation with @ezraklein.bsky.social @nytopinion.nytimes.com www.nytimes.com/2026/06/09/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | What’s the Left’s Vision for Foreign Policy After Trump?
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