Episode Details

Every week I link to the GoFundMe page for Hossam and Mariam Alzweidi, who live in Gaza with their four children and have been injured by Israeli bombs and displaced ten times since October 7, and are trying to leave. I know putting up a Go Fund Me for one family is totally inadequate given the scale of the horror in Gaza, and the millions of people there who need our help— and most of all, need an end to this monstrous slaughter. Still, it’s something.

Please considering helping.

Friday Zoom Call: Special Time

This Friday’s Zoom call, for paid subscribers, will be at a special time: 11 AM Eastern. Our guest will be former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. He has recently called Israel’s assault on Gaza a “war of devastation: indiscriminate, limitless, cruel” but denies that Israel is committing genocide and believes its actions were legitimate until the spring of 2024. He’s also argued that Israel’s current operation is fundamentally different from prior ones. I’ll ask what he would have done differently after October 7 and how he understands the fundamental nature of Zionism and the Israeli state.

Ask Me Anything

Our next Ask Me Anything session, for premium subscribers, will be this Wednesday, July 16, from 11-Noon Eastern time.

Cited in Today’s Video

The New York Times on Zohran Mamdani’s application to Columbia University.

Despite being expelled, Zohran Mamdani’s grandparents never stopped longing for Uganda.

Mahmoud Mamdani’s fight for a multi-racial Uganda.

Thabo Mbeki’s speech “I am an African.”

A letter by my father, Julian Beinart z’’ll, in the 1967 issue of Transition.

Things to Read

(Maybe this should be obvious, but I link to articles and videos I find provocative and significant, not necessarily ones I entirely agree with.)

In Jewish Currents (subscribe!), Emily Wilder reports on the group giving antisemitism trainings at Harvard.

I spoke to Democracy Now about Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington.

I talked on Bill Kalmenson’s podcast about a Jewish reckoning on Gaza.

The Trump administration used Canary Mission to find students to detain.

See you on Friday at 11 AM Eastern,

Peter

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

So, I want to say something about this story that appeared in the New York Times based on hacked emails from Columbia University, that when Zoran Mamdani, who’s now the Democratic nominee for mayor of New