Genocidal Pastries and the Boundaries of Liberal Dissent

Democratic corruption, poisoned eclairs, and the death knell of the Palestinian state

Hi all,

This newsletter passed 10K followers last month—thank you to everyone reading and sharing it. Getting it out each week has been exhausting, but I’ll keep going as long as people keep showing up. If you appreciate my work, maybe take a moment to share it with someone who might need to see it…

And if you’d like to support it further, you’re always welcome to pledge a small amount toward a future subscription.

---

I’ve been thinking lately about how savvy Trump was to deploy a crackdown on pro-Palestine activists as the vanguard of his assault on the Constitution. America’s unwavering support for Israel—the “beacon of democracy in the Middle East,” where millions can’t vote or claim basic rights—has long been one of its central contradictions. It was only a matter of time before an authoritarian cashed in.

Last fall, when a group of outspoken pro-Israel University of Michigan regents grew frustrated that local prosecutors wouldn’t charge student protesters, they turned to a close ally: Michigan’s Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel. In September, Nessel attended an event for Michigan Jewish Democrats hosted by a close friend, a state rep who had called the student protesters “sick cowards.” There, a U of M regent and Nessel campaign donor whose home had been vandalized posted a photo with her and another vocal critic of the campus protests, captioned: “grateful for these two.” Days later, Nessel bypassed local prosecutors and filed felony charges against twelve students in what legal experts called an unprecedented move for a state AG. The Guardian’s full report on the chain of events is damning.

Months later, Nessel—a self-styled “Resistance” hero who’d condemned Trump for using state power as a “cudgel against those whose views he disagrees with”—called in the FBI to smash through the students’ doors and raid their homes.

So when Nessel abruptly dropped the charges last week, just as a judge appeared ready to launch an evidentiary hearing into potential bias, there might have been a moment of reckoning. A moment for apology to Rep. Rashida Tlaib, whom Nessel and many others smeared as an antisemite for questioning the selective prosecutions. A moment to confront how Democrats—through criminalizing Palestine solidarity, hiding behind Jewish victimhood, muting their response to Trump’s deportation regime, and papering over Israel’s shredding of the rules-based order—had surrendered the moral high ground and helped assemble the toolkit for dismantling democracy at home.

But alas, there was none. So Trump’s rampage will roll on, liberal dissenters will mind the boundaries, Israel will grow more emboldened, and I’ll keep writing this cursed newsletter.

Gaza

Who Could Have Possibly Seen This Coming?

Israel’s security cabinet unanimously approved Netanyahu’s plan to “conquer Gaza and hold the territories”: mobilizing tens of thousands of reservists, pushing civilians south, and advancing a U.S.-backed plan for the “voluntary” emigration of Palestinians. A leaked IDF planning document ranks returning the hostages as the lowest priority. (NYT, Times of Israel, Haaretz, Times of Israel)

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called this the “humanitarian” solution, describing “voluntary emigration” as a plan to trap Gazans in a narrow zone until they’re “totally despairing, understanding that there is no hope and nothing to look for in Gaza.” (Times of Israel)

Listening, Learning, Growing

U.S. and Israeli officials are discussing an American-led postwar administration in Gaza modeled on the Iraq occupation—the Coalition Provisional Authority—with American technocrats running the strip until Gaza is “demilitarized and stabilized.” (Haaretz, ME Monitor)

It’s a Boy!

Gaza’s government media office said on Thursday that Israel has dropped 200 million pounds of explosives on Gaza since October 7, killing or leaving buried over 62,000 Palestinians, and erasing 2,200 families. (ME Monitor)

On Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike killed a child known for singing about life under siege. (Al Jazeera)

Wednesday was one of the war’s bloodiest days, with Israeli airstrikes killing at least 107 and injuring hundreds more. Israeli forces told residents to evacuate a mosque, then struck a nearby school where they’d taken shelter, killing 32, including at least nine children. Hours later, Israeli bombs flattened Gaza City’s last open restaurant and a busy market, killing 33. (Haaretz, Drop Site)

Journalist Yahya Sobeih posted this photo hours before an Israeli strike killed him.

Month Three of Israel’s Blockade

The U.S. is pushing a plan to funnel aid through militarized compounds, bypassing the UN and humanitarian groups, which have unanimously rejected it as a scheme that would endanger civilians, drive mass displacement, and use aid as “bait.” (Al Jazeera)

Fourteen elderly Palestinians reportedly died of starvation this past week. (Quds News Network)

+972 reports on twelve-year-old Rahaf Ayad, who is so malnourished she can barely speak. Her hair is falling out (“I wish my hair would come back”), her bones protrude, and she cries when touched. “She’s dying in front of my eyes, and we can’t do anything,” her mother said.

A starving boy fell into a pot of hot food that a charity kitchen was cooking and died from severe burns. A woman in Gaza described trying to explain the famine to little children. “We struggle to convince them that we are not punishing them by hiding food.” (Al Jazeera)

A mother described her asthmatic toddler foaming at the mouth and slipping into unconsciousness without her medicine. (ME Eye)

A wounded 23-year-old continues her studies by dictating assignments to her mother from a tent through blackouts and airstrikes. (Al Jazeera).

New reporting reveals the IDF is arming gangs of looters and coordinating raids to sow chaos. On Saturday, they bombed the tent of an anti-looting leader, killing him and his family. (Mondoweiss, Quds News Network)

Hamas claims to have executed several looters whom they accused of collaborating with Israel. (New Arab)

The Dregs

In response to my story last week about Ali Faraj—the boy launched onto a roof when Israel bombed his home and killed 15 of his relatives because his father, released in the February prisoner swap, worked for the Finance Ministry—Jacob Silverman reminded me of an Israeli AI tool, “Where’s Daddy?” which alerts the army when a target enters their family home where it’s “much easier to bomb” them. (+972)

A few other select responses:

World Peace.

Gideon Levy wrote this week, “Annihilating Hamas is tantamount to destroying the entire Gaza Strip.” After 19 years of rule, “every male hospital nurse, every municipal accountant, school bus driver, traffic cop, open-air market warden and even a child in kindergarten, is associated with Hamas.

He chose not to release himself from the burden of existence. What choice did Israel have?

A calm, well-reasoned response from “that Jew lawyer” to news of a massacre in Gaza.

Part of the problem, in my estimation, is that these people are so racist that they genuinely can’t imagine Palestinians having ordinary jobs, so they assume every man in Gaza must be a fighter.

What Hamas Is Saying

A Hamas official told Drop Site: they’ll reject any ceasefire that doesn’t include a full Israeli withdrawal and permanent ceasefire; they’ll step down from governing and support a two-state solution based on 1967 borders if Palestinians vote for it; “We’re not fighting Jews—we’re fighting an occupier. If a Muslim occupied my land, I would fight him too.”

The Gaza We Leave Behind

Palestinian poet and author Mosab Abu Toha won the Pulitzer Prize for his writing about Gaza.

The West Bank

“Kill the Palestinian State”

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that Israel would “kill the Palestinian state de facto” by building in E1, a strategic strip of land that splits the West Bank in two. “This is how you bring in a million residents.” (Haaretz)

Israel’s Diaspora Ministry launched a 3 million shekel PR blitz to normalize the occupation, flying in influencers to promote “Judea and Samaria” as “the historic heart of our homeland” and frame attacks on the settler movement as attacks on Israel itself. (Haaretz)

Demolition State

Israel demolished 152 Palestinian structures in April, including 96 homes. (ME Monitor).

In its largest Masafer Yatta demolition yet, Israeli forces razed 25 structures, six residential caves, ten water tanks, seven wells, and the village’s only solar panels and internet infrastructure, leaving most of Khilet al-Dabe’ in ruins and families sleeping in the rubble. (+972)

“Where do you expect us to go?” an 80-year-old woman asked. A soldier replied, “Go to the mountain. Move!” (+972)

A village official in Masafer Yatta says an Israeli court ordered a resident to pay 4,000 shekels to cover the cost of demolishing his home. (Watan)

Holy Landlords

Days after wildfires swept across the region, settlers torched agricultural land in Sebastia, al-Mughayyir, and Abu Falah. (ME Eye)

Israeli forces blocked 100+ teachers and 150 students from schools in the Jordan Valley and stormed three schools in East Jerusalem, expelling 550 students mid-lesson. (ME Eye)

Near Nablus, settlers kidnapped two siblings, aged ten and three, dragged them 200 meters, and tied them to a tree. (Defense for Children Palestine)

A Palestinian family was detained and forced to pay 2,000 shekels after they reported being assaulted by settlers. (Haaretz)

Settler Logic

Brandy Jensen contemplates a scene from The Settlers, where 79-year-old settler leader Daniella Weiss shoves Louis Theroux, who responds by asking her why she did it.

“Obviously, she expected him to shove her back, and this would illustrate how even documented scenes of violence can be taken out of context. Instead, it illustrates something else entirely: that for Weiss and her ilk, there is no question that when someone half your size and eligible for a pension even slightly alarms you, the only possible response is force. Of course, it did not occur to her that Theroux might decline to push around an elderly woman on camera.” (Defector)

Gated Community

Israel erected a 20-foot-high, 5,000-foot fence around the frequently pogromed town of Sinjil, sealing it off except for a single locked gate guarded by one soldier. (ME Monitor)

(Zain JAAFAR / AFP/ Getty Images)

The Gazafication of the West Bank

The IDF is using airstrikes, tanks, and drones across the West Bank, killing over 900 Palestinians since October 7. In Jenin and Tulkarm, they’ve displaced 40,000+ people, leveled entire neighborhoods, and destroyed the cities’ infrastructure. “These may look like houses,” a deputy commander said, “but this is a terrorist camp.” (FT, NYT, Haaretz)

Collective Punishment

The IDF says it killed the commander of the Jenin battalion on Friday. In Nablus, video shows an undercover soldier executing an unarmed man with his hands raised. (JPost)

Two Palestinians injured three soldiers in separate attacks on checkpoints. (Times of Israel)

Soldiers raided one of the slain suspect’s homes and beat the shit out of his family.

Killer Identified

Three years after an Israeli sniper killed Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh—an assassination the Biden administration helped cover up—Zeteo named her killer: Alon Scagio, who was himself killed last year by a roadside bomb just blocks from where he shot her in Jenin. The film also revealed that soldiers use Abu Akleh’s face for target practice. (Zeteo)

Countdown to the Rapture

U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee shut down the embassy’s Office of Palestinian Affairs, cutting its direct line to Washington and consolidating all communication through him. (Reuters)

On Wednesday, he became the first U.S. ambassador to visit a settlement. “You have sacrificed so much to live in these places … To use any other terminology [besides Judea and Samaria] would be a historical injustice and a denial of the Bible.” (Times of Israel)

Israel

Eclairs sold in an Israeli bakery with icing reading: “Let the IDF mow them down!” (Haaretz, Josie Glausiusz)

Checking In on the Knesset

An Israeli doctor opened a Knesset meeting on Gaza’s humanitarian crisis by acknowledging that nobody in the room wanted to see children suffer.

“I’m not sure you’re speaking for us when you say we want to treat every child and every woman,” a member replied.

“The only treatment needed here is for you.” (Nice!)

“You are the sickest doctor I’ve ever seen.”

A hostage family member argued that although “there are almost no innocents in Gaza, any moral person can understand that starving children is not something we can be proud of.”

“It’s terrible … that you’re talking about starvation when our children were butchered so cruelly. I wouldn’t expect you to bring that up.”

“There is no hungry person in Gaza,” someone clarified, “Not even a single child. It’s a shame you are amplifying that lie—no one is lacking anything.” (Haaretz)

“Good morning!”

A popular Israeli television producer shared some thoughts on Twitter: “I can’t understand the people here in the State of Israel who don’t want to fill Gaza with gas showers… or train cars… and finish this story! Let there be a Holocaust in Gaza.” (ME Eye)

Stupid and Retarded

The Netanyahus’ housekeeper accused the First Lady of routinely screaming at her, calling her stupid and retarded, forcing her to constantly change clothes, and hitting her with a clothes hanger. (JPost)

Little America

Netanyahu’s coalition is pushing bills to defund human rights organizations, ban graduates of Palestinian universities from teaching, and shut down campus groups. (Haaretz)

The Center Won’t Hold

Benny Gantz, Netanyahu’s centrist rival, said Israel’s “greatest mistake” was evacuating Gaza in 2005. (JPost)

After the Houthis fired a missile toward Tel Aviv, opposition leader Yair Lapid called for Israel to “paralyze electricity and water in Yemeni cities,” block all sea and air traffic, and “expand the cyber attacks on the country’s vital systems.”

Mentally Unfit

Two Israeli soldiers were killed and six were wounded in southern Gaza on Thursday (Times of Israel).

A Tel Aviv University study found that one in eight Israeli soldiers who fought in Gaza is now mentally unfit to return to duty. (Haaretz)

Peace and Love

Orly Noy reported on the Israeli Left’s “People’s Peace Summit”: full of “constructive” dialogue and feel-good slogans, but with barely a whisper about the mass killing in Gaza. (+972)

Europe

Legal Rot

The head of UK Lawyers for Israel claimed the war might increase life expectancy in Gaza by lowering obesity and curbing access to “confectionery and cigarettes.” (Guardian)

Drop Site reports that ICC prosecutor Karim Khan may have rushed out charges against Israel’s leader to deflect from sexual abuse allegations.

U.S.

Trump Bored

Trump’s interest in (claiming credit for) a Gaza peace plan has reportedly fizzled. “My sense is he’s not that involved,” an official said. “He kind of got bored.” (NYT)

Trump Aroused

But the Houthis’ ability to absorb thousands of U.S. bombs roused the sleepy commander-in-chief. “They took tremendous punishment … You can say there’s a lot of bravery there. It was amazing what they took.”

So impressed, he struck a ceasefire deal with them, halting strikes in exchange for a pledge not to hit American ships, which they’d only targeted after the U.S. intervened. The Houthis said attacks on Israel would continue until the Gaza siege ends, leaving everything exactly as it was before, minus hundreds of dead Yemenis and $1+ billion of destroyed U.S. weaponry. (Intercept)

Israel Sad

“We were completely shocked,” an Israeli official said. “Israel was not informed before Trump made the statement.” (Atlantic, JPost)

Trump also sidelined Netanyahu from Saudi and Iran nuclear talks, dropped the demand that Hamas disarm, and will skip Israel on his upcoming Middle East trip while making time for PA President Mahmoud Abbas. (Times of Israel)

The pouty world leaders are reportedly not speaking. (New Arab)

University Wars

NYU Law retracted its demand that 31 pro-Palestine students renounce their protest rights in order to take their finals. (Intercept)

Barnard threatened to block a student journalist from graduating over radio coverage of a protest she didn’t attend, backing down hours before her scheduled interrogation after being accused of using conduct hearings to extract intel on her classmates. (Columbia Journalism Review)

Columbia called in the NYPD on student protesters who took over a library to demand divestment—70+ were arrested and 65 suspended pending investigation, including four student journalists covering the protest for the campus paper. (Columbia Spectator)

After a peaceful pro-Palestine rally at Brooklyn College, NYPD officers stormed the dispersing crowd, beating, tackling, Tasing, and arresting students. (NYT)

Rümeysa Öztürk, the Tufts student snatched by ICE for penning an op-ed in the student paper, was freed by a federal judge. (NY Times)

Broken Clock

A bipartisan bill criminalizing boycotts of Israel was pulled after far-right wingers, including Marjorie Taylor Greene and Steve Bannon, pointed out it was not putting America first. (ME Eye).

Exceptionalism

Biden’s $260+ million floating aid pier in Gaza, meant to bypass Israel’s land blockade—also funded by the U.S.—injured 62 U.S. troops, killed one, and failed to deliver a single day’s worth of food. (Washington Post)

The USS Truman lost a $60M fighter jet to the Red Sea for the second time in just over a week. (CNN)

A Whisper of Dissent

Dozens of former Jewish leaders took out a full-page New York Times ad blasting the Jewish establishment for staying silent as Trump weaponizes antisemitism, but failed to mention Gaza. (Forward)

Bravo Presents: The Holocaust

On behalf of the Infinite Jaz team, congratulations to Siggy Flicker—Real Housewife of New Jersey, star of Why Am I Still Single?!, and proud stepmother of a Jan 6er—on being appointed by Trump to the Holocaust Museum Board! (Washington Post)

Though I’m not familiar with Siggy’s work, I have no doubt she’ll advance the museum’s mission to “confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity.”

Everything?

---

As always, thoughts, questions, critiques, etc., are welcome in the comments. See you all next week.

Jasper