Middle East
Ceasefire Dreams
As the ceasefire was announced, everyone in Gaza was caught between joy and disbelief — smiling, crying, uncertain whether to hope. It felt like the first deep breath after years of suffocation, a long pause from an even longer fear.
Spin Cycle
Critics blasted comics for performing in Riyadh and fretted about Saudi money in video games. But the “whitewashing” critique flattens Arab societies, ignores local audiences and indulges a Western moral superiority that is no longer tenable.
For Israelis, the Ceasefire Is Only About the Hostages
Israelis are euphoric over the ceasefire in Gaza because it means the hostages will come home. The liberals see this as proof that their mass protests worked and that they still have influence. They have already forgotten the war, and there is no reckoning with its cost to Palestinians.
I Believed I Had Seen the Worst Humanity Could Inflict — Until Gaza
A doctor who has led four medical missions to Gaza describes the war’s devastating impact on the territory’s besieged inhabitants and hospitals, and the desperation of his fellow medical professionals. He also recounts a revealing — and ultimately dispiriting — conversation with President Joe Biden.
The Settlers Bursting Tel Aviv’s Bubble
For years, Tel Aviv was considered an island of liberal secularism in a sea of militant messianism. But a centrally organized program to settle religious-nationalist ideologues in the city is causing increasing unease.
The Burden of Metaphor in Gaza
The ecosystem of imagery and protest, in which an alienated Gaza petitions a world powerless to help it, is a familiar one for Palestinians. But even if it is well-intentioned, what worth does this solidarity have if it only gains purchase for itself?
‘War Has Taken Too Much From Us’
From nights spent beneath buzzing drones to days searching for medicine and giving Eid gifts to children in displacement camps, a young Palestinian recounts how the war on Gaza has reshaped every aspect of life.