The collusion of the U.S. intellectual establishment on the Palestine issue is hardly a new phenomenon, with roots stretching back decades. This is a story I stumbled upon from 1984 and it had me shaking my head in disgust all through. It was a huge scandal in its time for a while, but I am pretty certain that the passage of time has dulled its edges and rendered it almost invisible. After doing my preliminary digging and going through whatever available sources I could find on the internet, I decided to write it up in my own words for the benefit of the present day audiences. The only two people who come out shining from this grotesque episode are @normfinkelstein and 𝐍𝐨𝐚𝐦 𝐂𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐬𝐤𝐲. 𝐏𝐒: After having written the piece, I sent it off to Professor Finkelstein to vet it, and correct errors if any. He wrote back amending the fourteenth paragraph giving out more details of what transpired. Read for yourself. --- 𝐀 𝐓𝐑𝐔𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝟏𝟗𝟖𝟒, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐍𝐎 𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐎𝐑𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐍. It was April 1, 1984. A fitting day for a rotten joke that was about to be unleashed upon the world. On this day 𝐻𝑎𝑟𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑅𝑜𝑤 released 𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑻𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝑰𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒍, a rather exciting, revelatory and ‘groundbreaking’ book with a fortress of footnotes by Chicago-born American journalist 𝐉𝐨𝐚𝐧 𝐏𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 which offered scholarly proof that present-day Palestinians were not indigenous to Palestine. The book was founded upon years of research by Ms. Peters who claimed to have trawled through heaps of papers in the Ottoman archives to arrive at that definitive conclusion. Her work asserted that Arab immigrants had steadily made it to Palestine through the late 1800s, lured by job prospects where Jewish settlers had begun to transform the landscape with their sense of enterprise already. So the sentiment that Palestinians lived there ‘𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑖𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑙’ is a myth, she inferred. Having reached this cosy conclusion she implicitly made light of the idea of ‘Nakba’, the strongest argument that Palestinians have possibly had of being made refugees on a land they knew as theirs through generations. Her ‘benevolent’ solution was for world powers to prevail upon neighbouring Arab states to absorb Palestinian refugees, leaving the holy land for those who have always felt a Biblical pull towards it. This narrative deftly tied in with the fanciful theory that early Zionist leaders had long propounded to escape their wafer-thin sense of guilt: 𝐴 𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑎 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑎 𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑑. Essentially, this meant that a canard that was long debunked by a slew of scholars and historians ranging from 𝐍𝐨𝐚𝐦 𝐂𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐬𝐤𝐲 and 𝐘𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐡𝐮𝐚 𝐏𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡 to 𝐑𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐝 𝐊𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐝𝐢 and 𝐀𝐛𝐝𝐮𝐥 𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐟 𝐓𝐢𝐛𝐚𝐰𝐢, rose phoenix-like, to demand the burden of proof from the Palestinians yet again. 𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐚 𝐌𝐞𝐢𝐫, Israel’s fourth Prime Minister from 1969 to 1974 wanted the world to believe that there was “𝑛𝑜 𝑠𝑢𝑐ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑃𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑎𝑛 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒”. As if on cue, a decade later, the ingenious Ms. Peters, neither a professional historian, nor a scholar, or even a proper academic decides to go all out and put her definitive stamp of ‘evidence’ on a specious theory that has readymade takers throughout the American intellectual community. By delegitimising the moral weight that the Nakba provoked, it turned the mass tragedy of Palestinian exodus on its head in one stroke, and in doing so, attempted to purge them of all compassion; the only privilege Palestinians thought they couldn’t be denied. The book became wildly popular days into its release, garnering rave commentary from every respectable publication including @NYTimes and @washingtonpost. A knockout triumph of sorts with every highbrow reviewer falling over each other to endorse its thesis. 𝐏𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐩 𝐌. 𝐇𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐫, a well-regarded Professor of Demography and Pioneer in Urban studies at the University of Chicago, recognised its undisputed merit. Amongst many other heavy hitters who spoke in favour of this classic, there was 𝐒𝐚𝐮𝐥 𝐁𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 who had enthusiastically blurbed the book cover, historian and author 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐚 𝐓𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐦𝐚𝐧 who called the book ‘𝑎 ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑖𝑡𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑓’, and historian 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐨𝐝𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞 who expounded that ‘𝑖𝑡 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑝𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙 ℎ𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑀𝑖𝑑𝑑𝑙𝑒 𝐸𝑎𝑠𝑡’. There was only one problem though. The book was the biggest hoax on either side of the Atlantic; a Zionist sleight of hand, eagerly embraced by those who wanted to be deceived. A lie that everyone badly wanted to believe. In the constant barrage of favourable endorsements, not one scholar of note deemed it a fit case for investigation. No one, save a graduate student at Princeton, who hadn’t yet made a name for himself and would later be known for the meticulousness that was to become his steadfast signature in the years to come. His name was 𝐍𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐢𝐧. When Norman began reading the book, he quickly sensed that something was off. This made him go back and check out all the references and he realised that the data didn’t fit the conclusions. He wrote a brief paper based on his preliminary work, just 20 to 25 pages, to apprise people in the field of his conclusions. Of the 30 people he sent this initial paper to, only one responded. The person who wrote back was 𝐍𝐨𝐚𝐦 𝐂𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐬𝐤𝐲. The good professor thought it was worth pursuing and in the same breath warned Norman that they would come for him, all guns cocked and loaded. They could take away his opportunities, destroy his career, and put his life to ruin. But Mr. Finkelstein (at this juncture, it just feels right to address this giant of a man with the respect he richly deserves) not only persevered, this work became the bedrock of his close friendship with Chomsky. An unflinching Finkelstein started submitting his article for publication to a whole lot of academic journals, but except for a nondescript leftwing journal that came out of Illinois, every other publication delighted in ignoring it summarily. (𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒉 𝒃𝒚 𝑴𝒓. 𝑭𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒆𝒍𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒊𝒏) But worse was to follow. Finkelstein’s professors cold-shouldered him. ONE OF HIS THESIS ADVISORS GAVE HIM AN ULTIMATUM: TO CHOOSE BETWEEN BEING A "MUCKRAKER" VERSUS A "SCHOLAR" (PROFESSOR MANFRED HALPERN). WHEN FINKELSTEIN WOULDN'T BUDGE, HE DROPPED OFF FINKELSTEIN'S THESIS COMMITTEE. Brilliant as he was, HE WAS AWARDED a PhD anyway, but HE COULDN'T EXTRACT a single letter of recommendation FROM HIS THESIS ADVISORS OR FORMER PROFESSORS, which for a student of his calibre should have been customary. WITHOUT SUCH A LETTER, HIS ACADEMIC CAREER WAS STILLBORN. But this is Finkelstein, and Finkelstein doesn’t yield to mortal pressures. No matter how terrible the hostility he must encounter. The following summer the man found himself closeted in the New York Public Library scrupulously and patiently poring over every single reference the book cited and eventually came to the realisation that the book was, and there is no other way to put it, a colossal fraud upon its readers. A calculated deceit that should never have been allowed to exist. Long story short, even after the dirty secret was blown to high heaven and everyone who was someone in New York found out about it, the Omertà still prevailed. The editors of major newspapers refused to publish his letters, even when other approving reviews of the book kept gushing in. The cover was finally blown when Michael Joseph Ltd, a British publisher, decided to bring out the book’s UK edition the following year. When Chomsky got wind of its impending publication, he promptly shared Finkelstein’s exhaustive work with a bunch of prominent scholars and journalists overseas. The spirit of political inquiry was far from dead in the land of the Queen and every newspaper and magazine worth its fresh scandals and recycled outrage excoriated the book without exception. This included the 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝐿𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑟𝑦 𝑆𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡, 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝐿𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑜𝑛 𝑅𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤 𝑂𝑓 𝐵𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑠, and 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑂𝑏𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑒𝑟. (@TLS, @LRB, @ObserverUK) The turnaround continued when reviews of the book appeared in Israel. Not only did they uniformly trash the book, they expressed concern on how it would reflect back on Israel if the book found a bigger audience. In the meantime out of sheer embarrassment, 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑁𝑒𝑤 𝑌𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑅𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤 𝑜𝑓 𝐵𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑠 (@nybooks) commissioned a piece by the renowned Israeli historian 𝐘𝐞𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐡𝐮𝐚 𝐏𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐡. After Mr. Porath turned in his review they chickened out of publishing it for close to a year. The piece ultimately did come out and provoked some exchanges a few months down the line with a couple of historians who had praised the book earlier, and that was that. 𝐒𝐨 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐰? The simple answer is I just came across this shocking story in a completely different context and was floored with the level of collusion that’s been happening for decades in what’s supposed to be a free and fair democracy; especially when it comes to Israel and Palestine. 𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑻𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝑰𝒎𝒎𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒂𝒍 has been thoroughly discredited within the wider community of historians and scholars. But that does not make it any less dangerous. With every new generation, fewer people know their history. The percentage of people who stay acquainted with such monstrous frauds within the knowledgeable academic community too keeps dropping perceptibly. If we don’t remind ourselves of such intellectual outrages from time to time, we will have more 𝐽𝑜𝑎𝑛 𝑃𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠’ and 𝐴𝑙𝑎𝑛 𝐷𝑒𝑟𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑡𝑧𝑒𝑠 (@AlanDersh) to contend with—spinning illusions, resorting to subterfuge, and creating false narratives under the guise of scholarship. Thus making a mockery of both history and our collective humanity. 𝐀𝐝𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞: This piece was sparked by my initial reading of Noam Chomsky’s account of this egregious episode, which I stumbled upon fortuitously on his blog. That discovery forced me down a deeper rabbit hole; through Wikipedia, The @newrepublic, The @NewYorker, and many other articles and personalities leaving me in no doubt about what actually happened. @AbbyMartin @yanisvaroufakis @mikopeled @vijnad @FerozeSidhwa @mohammedelkurd @bellahadid @GiGiHadid @rogerwaters @SusanSarandon @DUALIPA @democracynow @intifada @MMFlint @mehdirhasan @LastWeekTonight @jeremycorbyn @zarahsultana @johnmcdonnellMP @BernieSanders @PiersMorgan @JLMelenchon @AOC @MathildePanot @GregorGysi @RashidaTlaib @CoriBush @haaretzcom @Avi_Shlaim @AmiraHassH @pappe54 @DrGaborMate @MaxBlumenthal @aaronjmate @AsaWinstanley @ShashiTharoor @DalrympleWill @saliltripathi @SamDalrymple123

Huge congratulations to @narendramodi on your historic tenure as PM. It is a remarkable reflection of how you have reshaped India into a global powerhouse. Having visited India for 23 years, every trip excited me and shows me just how much the country continues to transform and thrive. 🙏🏻

The BJP retards are sharing Saurav Das's image with Umar Khalid to prove that he is a liberal scum. The INC geniuses are sharing his admiring tweets about Modi when he was all of 17 years of age to prove that he is just another Sanghi scum. The BJP retards are conveniently ignoring his old tweets. The INC geniuses are deliberately choosing to look past the extraordinary work he has done on the legal beat for almost five years now. It's only natural to have low expectations from retards. It's the geniuses who should be our real concern. @MurzbanFShroff @darab_farooqui @ManojManojkapur @RahulGandhi @priyankagandhi @pbhushan1 @atul_kulkarni @_YogendraYadav @TheDeshBhakt @Article19_India @ppbajpai @ravish_journo @Nidhi @abhisar_sharma @MnshaP @ManojManojkapur @sardesairajdeep @saliltripathi @prempanicker @PremSJha2020 @SloganMurugan @Sun_e_strokes @AbhinandanSekhr @chimni_sapna @VijetaDahiya @ArvindKejriwal @Aakar__Patel @thewire_in @scroll_in @newslaundry @nakulssawhney

We have no option but to give up on some of these soulless worthies on X who I had assumed were empathetic and rational voices. I have realised belatedly that the hardcore INC supporter is actually just a mirror image of the bhakt. Hum toh dubenge, sanam tumhe leke dubenge. This level of intellectual hypocrisy is not just stunning, but outright venal. To pull out @SauravDassss 's tweets from when he was 17 and ignoring all the good he has done over the past few years including standing up for Umar, Sharjeel, BK activists, taking on CJIs and Ex CJIs suggests a special sort of evil and must alert us to how AAP too has been demonised by the exact same set of people for 12 long years. This is offensive at a level that I find utterly impossible to fathom. Keep going, psychos! There can be no better way to undermine your own credibility. @MurzbanFShroff @darab_farooqui @ManojManojkapur @RahulGandhi @priyankagandhi @pbhushan1 @atul_kulkarni @a

𝐇𝐎𝐖 𝐃𝐎𝐄𝐒 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐀𝐋 𝐈𝐍𝐂 𝐒𝐔𝐏𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐆𝐄𝐓 𝐈𝐓 𝐒𝐎 𝐑𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄? Lots of my friends have already written numerous posts about the Cockroach Janta Party (@Cockroachisback). Even before the first shot has been fired, camps have been chosen. There’s the @AamAadmiParty supporter who because of the past affiliation of some of the CJP members with the party are secretly thrilled about the entire development. There are uncommitted neutrals who are watching this from the sidelines with a mix of enthusiasm, hope, and justified trepidation. There is also the @INCIndia supporter who is watching this with clear-eyed idealism and wondering why his or her party is holding back from supporting this movement whole-heartedly. And then there are vast swathes of other INC supporters who have no doubt in their mind that this is a Sanghi creation, only because some of these members seem to have had associations with the AAP party in the past. Christ, how can they be seen anywhere near it! Their logic runs thus (though they are wise enough never to say parts about it aloud): The absolutely perfect, non-corrupt and utterly pristine Manmohan Singh government which couldn't be faulted on any count, and should have had a perpetual license to rule, was toppled because young men and women came out on the streets with the mistaken belief that things ought to change. Their reasoning probably was: How can the country cope with so much happiness? Oh yes, horribly motivated people did conjure up wild stories about corruption in multifarious scandals such as the CWG. There were terribly unfair whispers about the corporate-state nexus too. And let’s not forget, individuals such as Binayak Sen and Irom Sharmila were clearly out to defame the government’s fair name. Worse still, there were these malicious rumours being spread about a movement called Salwa Judum and Operation Green Hunt, all designed to sabotage the magnificent work that the then government was doing. But by and large, the country was a land of milk and honey merely looking for some good old democratic muscle-flexing. And since that blissful paradise that this country was pre-2014, felt so intolerably triggering, lifelong activists such as @ArvindKejriwal, Aruna Roy, @pbhushan1 and @_YogendraYadav decided that things simply had to change. Unnecessarily so, of course. Therefore they went out of their way to align with business tycoons, dodgy Sanghi godmen like Baba Ramdev, and of course, Anna Hazare, the man who everybody at the time thought was a reborn Gandhi, all to ensure that the country enter a long and glorious era of communal strife, economic doom and gloom, and perfect crony capitalism. Surely, there was no better way for the soft young men and women of India to build character than taking part in a movement which can prepare them for what could potentially be a tough life ahead? Did the revolution succeed or what? Oh well, beyond everybody's wildest dreams. If there ever was a nationwide transformation effected meticulously to merely let citizens understand just how terrific and amazing the previous INC governments were, this was truly it. I completely get it therefore. It stands to reason why this particular INC supporter hates anything resembling the cry of frustrated young men and women who want even more change. What? Again one more AAP? Heaven forbid, NO! HOW can they possibly trust @abhijeet_dipke, who was once associated with the same party's social media team? Or @AshutoshRanka, who once had AAP in his bio? Or #VijetaDahiya who collaborated with that dreaded AAP sympathiser @dhruv_rathee; so what if Rathee has spoken for the entire opposition at various points and mounted one of the fiercest challenges to the NDA during last year’s General Elections! And c'mon, @Wangchuk66, the man who just spent over six months in prison and is probably still a BJP canary? Please! Don't even make me start! But the worst offender of all has to be that maniac @SauravDassss. He seems just the sort of person capable of disrupting the entire system like it happened during the IAC days. That man stands for uncompromising investigative journalism, doesn't spare Justices and Chief Justices whether they are active or retired, makes strategic use of the RTI act to uncover disturbing truths about this system, fearlessly writes informed critiques of our broken democratic institutions, and bloody hell, speaks as though he genuinely means what he says. How can such a man ever be tolerated? No of course, such a man cannot be allowed to exist, just because some stupid system needs to be changed again. In fact, no system should be subjected to this much idealism twice. So yes, my INC friends: your scepticism, your instinctive hate, and your venom, is all entirely well-founded. Cockroaches must indeed be squashed whenever they challenge the system in ways not officially sanctioned by respectable liberals who have put their trust in the GOP. Just like there cannot be such a thing as "Too Much Democracy", there also cannot be such a thing as "Too Much Idealism". Please kill it before it starts to sprout wings. Never mind if all the books you ever read and expounded about on liberalism and democracy have advised you otherwise. 𝐏𝐒: And what an extraordinary fool this Prashant Bhushan seems to be. Has the IAC-AAP experiment taught him absolutely nothing despite his severe antipathy toward Arvind and gang? Tch, Tch! 𝐏𝐏𝐒: I also can't help but marvel at the circular logic of my INC friends. If they don't arrest Dipke straightaway, it means this agitation is state-sponsored. If they arrest and release him in a couple of days, that still means he is funded by the state. Nothing less than incarcerating him for as long our human rights activists will suffice to convince them otherwise. Truth be said, it is such remarkable insight and analytical standards which makes me so hopeful about the future of this country. 𝐏𝐏𝐏𝐒: And while we are discussing suspicious state collaborators, take a wild guess: Outside of all the civil liberty activists from anti-CAA and Bhima Koregaon who have spent a horrid number of days in Tihar and elsewhere, which party's top leaders have collectively spent the most number of years in jail? The Aam Aadmi Party's, you say? Ah, but that merely proves how diabolical and sophisticated Sanghi affiliates really are when they wish to distance themselves from the party outwardly. So yet again, Quod Erat Demonstrandum. @MurzbanFShroff @SloganMurugan @urvish2020 @_amitbehere @atul_kulkarni @Aakar__Patel @thewire_in @scroll_in @newslaundry @tajmahalfoxtrot @Sun_e_strokes @chimni_sapna @Jasmine441 @AbhinandanSekhr @tarakgoradia @latashankar2 @Ram_Guha @RahulGandhi @priyankagandhi @TheQuint @TanushreePande @sardesairajdeep @saliltripathi @prempanicker @PremSJha2020 @_YogendraYadav @MaheshZagade07 @TheDeshBhakt @Article19_India @ppbajpai @ravish_journo @abhisar_sharma @Nidhi @MnshaP @ManojManojkapur

Well-done, @SauravDassss. You are putting your commitment where your words, and your integrity, have always been. It is a singular joy to see you commit so wholeheartedly to the cause of India's resurgence! The fact that you have built your reputation through fearless work, almost every single day, is in itself a most extraordinary achievement given the times we live in. And yes, you will have naysayers coming at you from all sides in the days to come, and they will not be limited to the BJP-Sanghi camp alone. Liberals and their circular firing squads are something of a specialty, and they have claimed far too many deserving crusaders for us to keep count. I wish you all the luck, strength and perseverance you richly deserve for the road ahead. And more importantly, nerves of steel to withstand those onslaughts that will inevitably come your way. @SloganMurugan @Sun_e_strokes @MurzbanFShroff @philpjg @abhijeet_dipke @sabeer @chimni_sapna @Article19_India @sardesairajdeep @PremSJha2020 @navinjournalist @nmannathukkaren @farabruiser @TheQuint @rakhitripathi @abhisar_sharma @ppbajpai @ravish_journo @urvish2020 @MinnieVaid @ajay43 @MaheshZagade07

The United States has no independent foreign policy worth speaking of. It begins and ends with what the AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) wants. Don't get taken in by Trump's frustrated outbursts. Or get too excited with what he says keeping Bibi out of prison. All that indicates is that Trump is a better man than Biden when it comes to expressing his exasperation. The important thing to consider is how the exchange ended. With cold precision, the genocidal maniac laid out his expectations and that was that. 𝑶𝑲, 𝑶𝑲, 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒏 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇'. Trump is merely a puppet who has delusions of having his own agency from time to time, unlike Joe Biden who was a loyal slave at all times. The tail isn't just wagging the dog. It's even controlling its bark, its bite, and the direction the dog thinks it's running. @AbbyMartin @gideonle @pappe54 @normfinkelstein @YoBenCohen @BernieSanders @TuckerCarlson @FranceskAlbs @CornelWest @amanpour @ChrisLynnHedges @Byoussef @owenjonesjourno @yanisvaroufakis @DrMadsGilbert @FerozeSidhwa @DalrympleWill @MaxBlumenthal @vijayprashad @mikopeled @georgegalloway @jvplive @Haaretz @susanabulhawa @mehdirhasan @piersmorgan @guardian @nytimes @wapo @sanchezcastejon @EmmanuelMacron @Keir_Starmer @StateDept @SloganMurugan @vibione @Sun_e_strokes @nauzerbTOI @ajay43 @jawharsircar @rajuparulekar @mukulkesavan @SauravDassss @arieb_azhar @ShaykhSulaiman @MurzbanFShroff #FREEPALESTINEFROMZIONISM #FreePalestine #GazaGenocide #GazaHolocaust #GazaStarving

All morning, the slaves of the regime under official orders have been at it; tweeting viciously whilst sharing @ArvindKejriwal's video that had one poser: "𝑫𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒍𝒔𝒐 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝑰𝒏𝒅𝒊𝒂 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 𝒏𝒆𝒆𝒅𝒔 𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝑷𝒓𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝑴𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓?" The unravelling has been such fun to watch! Oh, you jokers! You can froth at the mouth and vomit on this medium all you want but that ain't going to change the fact that education will never be your strong suit. Not just with the guy who commands you all, but almost everybody throughout the ecosystem. So rant, much as you can, but facts cannot be changed by what's "trending" momentarily on social media. @Sun_e_strokes @_amitbehere @MurzbanFShroff @SloganMurugan @farabruiser @vibione @philpjg @ManojManojkapur @tarakgoradia @ajay43 @harman1611 @chimni_sapna @latashankar2 @manish1958 @msisodia @Jasmine441 @ravish_journo @abhisar_sharma @ppbajpai @Nidhi @sardesairajdeep @pbhushan1 @AbhinandanSekhr @KapilSibal

"𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒂 𝒉𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒇𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒚 - 𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒍𝒚𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒔𝒕, 𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒆𝒓, 𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 - 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚, 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄." "𝑯𝒆𝒓𝒆, 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝑮𝒖𝒍𝒛𝒂𝒓, 𝑹𝑫 𝑩𝒖𝒓𝒎𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑲𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑲𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒓, 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒐𝒈𝒆𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒏 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏." "𝑳𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒏 𝑭𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒓, 𝑹𝒂𝒃𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒉 𝑻𝒂𝒈𝒐𝒓𝒆, 𝑲𝒂𝒃𝒊𝒓 𝑺𝒖𝒎𝒂𝒏 - 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒅𝒂𝒍 𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝑩𝒆𝒏𝒈𝒂𝒍𝒊 𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆." Three people have said the above about Kabir Suman, the Bengali song-creator whom no one seems to know outside Bengal. As a non-Bengali, I knew nothing of Kabir Suman until very recently. Never heard of him, or encountered the musical force he has always been, until I came upon this film by Jaideep Varma. Suman's extremely rich musical repertoire, his uncompromising worldview, and his tremendous spirit, make this documentary a truly moving experience. This is an intimate, probing portrait of the uniquely gifted artist and human being that Kabir Suman is. And like all projects Jaideep puts his mind and soul behind, it is a piece of work that will stay with you for a long, long time. I would like to leave this by saying this is an experience that marvellously transcends cultural barriers, so whatever be your reason to not watch it, please do not let your not being born a Bengali come in the way from enriching yourself. If it interests you to see it, please fill the Google Form below (mentioning name, city and email/phone no). This film is for Indians everywhere, not just Bengalis, and anyone who can relate to this music outside India too. If you know people who can help with screenings around India, please write to barevoicefilm@gmail.com Trailer: youtube.com/watchv=DGvyEc2hA… Our gatekeepers are not going to enable you to see this film. So, Google Form - forms.gle/cxWLHuaDDGYxKHva9 @SloganMurugan @farabruiser @vibione @TheRaviB @ravish_journo @sabeer @urvish2020 @mukulkesavan @MaheshZagade07 @Sun_e_strokes @JaiminRajani @MiraPagliNair @anniezaidi @RahulBose1 @ppbajpai @India_Resists @abhisar_sharma @TheQuint @scroll_in @KumarSeshadri @TanushreePande @MinnieVaid

Let me say this at the outset. I have nothing but utter contempt for @nytimes and all the so-called respectable publications of the West. They have so much to answer for that we shouldn't even be holding our breath for their contrition anymore. And yet, even at the risk of the devil quoting the scriptures, I would like to share this piece by @NickKristof, only to underline that even a publication as blatantly biased as this finds it difficult to erase the utterly horrific atrocities that the Zionists specialise in, upon the hapless Palestinians. Frankly, nothing should surprise us about the Israeli capacity for unbridled evil! It is one more in the long, unbroken series of crimes since 1948 and even two decades before that. As a part of my continuing education on this topic, I have just been reading Ilan Pappe's (@pappe54) classic, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, and the descriptions of their early atrocities makes my blood run cold. To think that they perpetrated so much evil even when their own race was coming out of its own horrific persecution makes my heart numb with grief. If they hadn't finished on the winning side, the world would have recognised them (and rightly so), as just another equally dark version of the Nazis. The perfect role reversal that no historian could have dared to conjure up. It's difficult to say one decent word about the Zionists these days, knowing what we now know. The only question is when will their support run out; exposing them thus to the harsh realities of global institutional censure. The other side question being, will we ever see that happen in our lifetimes? @pappe54 @normfinkelstein @einat_temkin @TomZandman @tomfriedman @gideonle @MaxBlumenthal @AbbyMartin @mikopeled @BernieSanders @ZohranKMamdani @Haaretz @amanpour @susanabulhawa @ChrisLynnHedges @Byoussef @CornelWest @jeremycorbyn @FerozeSidhwa @NicoleJenes1 @SloganMurugan @farabruiser @mukulkesavan @vibione @MurzbanFShroff @arieb_azhar @yanisvaroufakis @Sun_e_strokes @sanchezcastejon @StateDept @Keir_Starmer @EmmanuelMacron nytimes.com/2026/05/11/opini…

So many of us keep saying this like a broken record, but across political parties aligned against the BJP, nobody seems to grasp the urgency of where we are headed. I despair hearing the same tired lament election after election after election. The time has come to hit the streets, to call time on a fraudulent process, and to make it known loud and clear that India's democracy is broken beyond repair. That this process has been hollowed out and cannot be ‘fixed’ by clinging on to almost-farcical hope followed by post-poll handwringing and retrospective justifications. By participating in this compromised process over and over, and by celebrating minor gains here and there, or by tasting “calibrated” success in one state or two, these parties are equally responsible in legitimising and normalising an electoral framework which has made a shocking mockery of every single aspect of what must constitute free and fair polling. This isn’t just about the EVMs, it isn’t just about electoral rolls, and not just about S.I.R., which has been conveniently weaponised to disenfranchise scores of genuine voters. This is about the upheaval of an entire democratic structure reshaped to bestow power upon one and one party alone. We cannot win this without leaving the comfort of our living rooms. It calls for collective defiance. This is where the collective might of the opposition needs to be seen visibly. They alone can lead this from the front and give a voice to the outpouring that everyone of us can feel deep within our bones. They need to come together on one platform, whichever platform that may be, and say: ELECTIONS, NO MORE, until transparency, fairness, and confidence has been restored. It makes me sick to the pit of my stomach to see the fragmentation of centrist parties, their myopic supporters, and the supposedly centrist media facilitating this game of tearing into each other, and alternately pinning their hopes on their favourites, as a way out of a mess that is quite simply beyond their control. It’s been over a year since some of us have been saying this, yet the casualness with which so many liberals continue to defend participation in this so-called process is astounding, if not outright embarrassing. A win for @MamataOfficial, or any single leader, does not mean everything is alright with our system. At best, it points to a deeper malaise, one where the voter has been tricked once again into believing that all is well, when it clearly isn’t! This temporary reassurance is an attempt to paper over a much more serious structural problem. How do we keep missing something so obvious? What sort of morons must we be to not see through this? And what does it say about the leadership that’s supposed to lead us to a brighter dawn that they continue to treat these isolated victories as beacons of hope rather than symptoms of a hopelessly shattered system. @RahulGandhi @ArvindKejriwal @yadavakhilesh @mkstalin @uddhavthackeray @yadavtejashwi @arivalayam @INCIndia @AamAadmiParty @INCspeaks @ShivSenaUBT_ @ShivsenaUBTComm @cpimspeak @samajwadiparty @CPIofficial @RJDforIndia @JMMJharkhand @JKNC_ @MehboobaMufti @thirumaofficial @kharge @SanjayAzadSln @Saurabh_MLAgk @AtishiAAP @Pawankhera @SupriyaShrinate @priyankac19 @OfficeOfUT @HemantSorenJMM @priyankagandhi @MahuaMoitra @kcvenugopalmp @AUThackeray @KanimozhiDMK @supriyasule @KalpanaSorenJMM @SloganMurugan @MurzbanFShroff @Sun_e_strokes @urvish2020 @chimni_sapna

The one message BJP has ensured everybody gets is "𝑫𝒐𝒏'𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒔𝒄𝒐𝒕-𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒕 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒏𝒄𝒐𝒓𝒓𝒖𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒃𝒍𝒆". They will raise a fog of suspicion so dense that your image as an individual, innocent of any wrongdoing, will be in tatters anyway. When faced with the prospect of your entire life being turned upside down, especially when your family itself may not be ready for these sacrifices (because let's be honest, not everybody in the immediate family can sign up for this extreme destruction of your life's work and sanity), the best of us can have second thoughts about our decisions. Remember that three of the defectors are also businessmen and we have no idea about the price they were made to pay for their allegiances to a nascent party like AAP. Much as I am upset about @raghav_chadha's volte face, I would refrain from judging him very harshly. One only hopes that he doesn't display the same rabid tendencies that people exhibit once they crossover to the BJP. @KapilMishra_IND being the case in point. We may as well ask, why did Raghav not quit politics altogether, rather than join a party that represents every evil that the AAP has stood against? It's a fair question, but it presupposes the possibility that he would actually have been presented with that option in the first place! For the BJP, Raghav's opting out of politics would be way more lethal, 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒔𝒆 𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒃𝒆 𝒂 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒏𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒄𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒆 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒕 𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒋𝒐𝒊𝒏 𝑩𝑱𝑷. That narrative would strengthen the AAP even more, and it would be unacceptable to a party which forecloses every option that can work against its interests. The blackmail to Raghav and others MUST HAVE to take into account the snatching away of that option. BECAUSE ONLY THEN, could AAP actually be discredited. I am not absolving or excusing Raghav Chadha, but it is important to analyse the possibility of why he may not even have been in any position to quit active politics. I could be completely wrong though. And he could just be another ambitious political climber with no spine or integrity worth speaking of. Perhaps! And perhaps not. But it does make us appreciate even more, the steel that the likes of @ArvindKejriwal, @SatyendarJain, @msisodia, @SanjayAzadSln, @Saurabh_MLAgk @AtishiAAP, @Jasmine441 and so many others within the upper echelons of the party's leadership, possess. @AamAadmiParty @ParineetiChopra @SloganMurugan