Things are going great in the Middle East…

I find it amusing that when speaking to a Western audiences Imran Khan’s political opponents suggest he’s a radical Islamist verging on the Taliban but in Urdu the narrative is that he’s a crypto-Jewish Zionist working for Israel to destroy Pakistan. Real kitchen sink approach.

Pakistan Army attacks Pakistan Police. You cannot make this up.

Satisfying photos for perfectionists - thread 🧵

1. Crescent Moon bridge by Yier Wang

Happy Eid to all who celebrate

Eid Mubarak 🌙

May stomachs around the world be fed and may ours always remain hungry for justice.

Ameen.

The more time elapses without Iranian response to consulate attack the further their deterrence against future attacks is undermined. The problem is that their best tool for deterrence are ballistic missiles which are a very blunt instrument that could cause unwanted escalation.

The full influence of Bauer is hard to quantify.

No doubt he was immensely influential in his homeland, and people like Brian Froud and Neil Gaiman have acknowledged his work.

But Bauer's impact on everything from animation to video games is likely far greater than we realise.

He was never happy with his own work, always haunted by self-doubt, and felt that he had never achieved his goal of closing the gap between 'real art' and 'illustration'.

But, to others, he *had* shown that the latter could be just as good as the former, in its own way.

In short, John Bauer gave illustration a visual language of its own.

No longer would illustrations be made in reference to the art of the Academies or to the Renaissance.

Bauer wanted to make illustration a distinct form of art, and he succeeded:

Bauer's heavily stylised worlds were, and remain, utterly enchanting.

Somehow he found a way to breathe new life into the fairytale tropes of trolls, fairies, knights, maidens, goblins, and wizards without relying on the familiar forms of other illustrators.

To give you one example in 2002 the Arab League said that invading Iraq would “open the gates of hell,” while Netanyahu said it would have “enormously positive effects.” So maybe being totally enraptured to one regime and one perspective on the world is not wise.

5/ 'According to every monitoring system used by the Israeli security establisment, there really is no famine in Gaza. The bakeries are full and no humanitarian crisis is expected'. Let us consider the word 'really' (in Hebrew, 'be'emet') and its use and meaning. --->

2/ An article on ynet.com, Israel's most popular news site, mentioned the 'expectation that a multinational force from moderate Sunni countries will enter the Gaza strip has not materialized'. Only in a parallel universe could Israel have 'expected' this.

This isn't an interview. It's stenography.

The honest assessment is the U.S. does some good things and some bad things in the world; but the Middle East is one region where its record is cruel and abysmal. Part of this is because it has wedded itself uncritically to one regime alone and disregards what anyone else thinks.

Bethelehm is encircled by settlements and Israeli soldiers and movement in and out of the city is like walking through the Berlin Wall. Man the American right has some dumb commentators. Dave would know this if he ever bothered to read anything besides Israeli propaganda.

This is really bad. As I have said to my Arab, Palestinian, & Muslim friends before, criticizing & opposing Israel is fine. Joining hands with antisemites, white nationalists, & Holocaust deniers isn’t.

Fuentes is no friend of Arabs, Jews, or Muslims. He’s a far-right extremist.

46 children were killed in a school when 'Israeli' Air Force bombed it deliberately on 8th April 1970.