glcarlstrom.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

"There is a sense of vengeance in the air, at an intensity not seen since the October 7 massacre. This is the sentiment that reaches the TV studios, and includes calls for resuming the war, for a second Nakba, and for the total destruction of Gaza." www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

submitted 1 hour ago • 0 comments

My piece this week on the dilemma facing countries like Egypt and Jordan. For decades, America saw them as linchpins of regional stability. But now the region's status quo has been upended, and being a force for inertia is no longer seen as a merit. www.economist.com/middle-east-...

submitted 23 hours ago • 2 comments

The issue isn't so much the firing as the replacement: pulling a three-star from retirement who needs a waiver to even take the job is a pretty clear sign that ideological loyalty is the only qualification that matters in Trump's Pentagon www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

submitted 1 day ago • 11 comments

Trump's plan for Gaza is delusional but the various Arab proposals circulating right now are hardly realistic. If you think Egyptian firms (or anyone) can rebuild the territory in three years, I have a bridge over the Nile to sell you nytimes.com/2025/02/21/w...

submitted 2 days ago • 2 comments

The definitions in this proposed Israeli law are so broad that "any journalist publishing an investigation that suggests a crime committed by IDF forces would also be at risk of imprisonment if the bill is passed." www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

This by @ilangoldenberg.bsky.social is worth a read: some self-reflection from a member of Biden's Middle East team. First, he rebuts Biden's false narrative (repeated by McGurk's oped last week) that Hamas was the sole obstacle to a ceasefire last summer. ilangoldenberg.substack.com/p/what-we-co...

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Darkly funny by @javierblas.bsky.social on Trump's demand for $500bn in rare-earth minerals from Ukraine, which don't actually exist in Ukraine—or anywhere else. "At best, the value of the world's rare-earth production rounds to $15bn a year—emphasis on 'a year.'" www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Homs, the cradle of the revolution, now exemplifies the biggest challenges in post-Assad Syria: crime is rampant; dozens of people have been targeted in sectarian revenge attacks; and the economic situation is increasingly desperate. www.economist.com/middle-east-...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

The "cryptocurrency scam" is cryptocurrency itself. At least Wall Street's dodgier financial innovations had some real-world utility. Crypto has been around for more than a decade and it still hasn't found a serious use case apart from crime www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/m...

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

A good summary of the "new" Arab plan for Gaza, which is really just old wine in a new bottle. How does a committee of technocrats run Gaza? Who will secure the enclave? Who will pay for reconstruction? All a bit vague. www.nytimes.com/2025/02/19/w...

submitted 3 days ago • 1 comment

Cover for a president who was incapable of doing his job, run an awful presidential campaign, lose, and then cash in on some lucrative speaking and publishing gigs. And the Democrats wonder why so many Americans are cynical about politics! variety.com/2025/biz/new...

submitted 3 days ago • 15 comments

"The IRS holds the holy grail of federal government data. Even the commissioner does not have access. Yet the DOGE man now seeking it, Mr Kliger, is a computer-science graduate with no government experience, who cites a far-right writer as inspiration." www.economist.com/united-state...

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

"The move suggests both Hamas and Israel are concerned the ceasefire agreement will collapse before day 42 of the agreement at the end of next week and want to be sure they get what they consider the most important parts of the agreement." www.axios.com/2025/02/18/i...

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

The expression on Rubio's face here is the living embodiment of the record scratch freeze frame meme

submitted 4 days ago • 2 comments

"Hamas maintains itself through its security services, its administration, but also its volunteers, such as those nicknamed its 'drones'—teenagers who spy for the movement in every district of Gaza. They never disappeared, even during the war." www.lemonde.fr/en/internati...

submitted 4 days ago • 1 comment

Who could have predicted? "It's increasingly clear that Marco Rubio is secretary of State in name only... Democrats who backed Rubio hoping he would be a moderating force say they worry Rubio does not have the president's ear and almost no sway over Musk." www.politico.com/news/magazin...

submitted 4 days ago • 5 comments

The charitable view of Trump's Gaza Riviera talk is that it was a rhetorical hand grenade meant to galvanize Arab states into crafting their own plan. The problem with that view is that it hand-waves the substantive barriers to implementing such a plan. 🧵 www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

submitted 5 days ago • 3 comments

"A weekslong Israeli military operation across several West Bank cities has displaced roughly 40,000 Palestinians from their homes, in what historians and researchers say is the biggest displacement of civilians in the territory since 1967." www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/w...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

When Hamas says it does not need to be "part of the political and administrative arrangements in the next phase for Gaza", that doesn't mean it actually wants to cede power, only that it wants a façade to attract donor money for reconstruction www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

submitted 5 days ago • 2 comments

Knowing his track record, a month from now Graham will announce that he just signed a $1m contract for the first off-plan sale at Mar-a-Rafah english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-...

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

"By whitewashing Netanyahu's role in serially disrupting and harming the negotiations for a hostage deal, McGurk gives Israel's prime minister critical political ammunition—at a time when he is trying to blow up the hostage deal and renew the war in Gaza." www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

A lot of government travel warnings are bureaucratic nonsense, but "do not visit a country that treats hostage-taking as official policy" is very sound advice www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

Netanyahu is hoping to extend phase one of the ceasefire (and thus put off phase two indefinitely). Which brings us back to the key question that will shape Trump's Middle East policy: will he listen more to Netanyahu, or to MbS? www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

"Can Trump keep his promise to reduce America's unauthorised population, which is estimated to be as high as 13m? Storming markets to arrest three people at a time (two of whom, in this case, were released on bond) is not a promising path." www.economist.com/united-state...

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

A far cry from the Hezbollah of decades past, which could occupy parts of Beirut to impose its will. Thuggery on the airport road is a sign of weakness, not of strength (and it will further erode what remains of the group's support) www.ft.com/content/73ce...

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

Some polling data on how Gazans view the war: "Hamas retains the support of only a fifth of Gaza's population. Yet support for other factions, including the PLO, was even lower... [the] most frequent response was that none of them represented the people." www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/what-...

submitted 6 days ago • 1 comment

"One reason European imaginations are running wild is that Trump clearly has no oven-ready peace plan. 'The Americans are completely chaotic,' says one insider. Ukraine policy is a cacophony... no one knows who speaks for Trump." www.economist.com/internationa...

submitted 6 days ago • 5 comments

With hindsight we did not appreciate that the face-eating leopards party was actually full of face-eating leopards www.ft.com/content/a7c9...

submitted 7 days ago • 2 comments

Balancing act for the Saudis. Rebuffed Trump on Gaza, not eager to normalize with Israel right now. But they're finding ways to soften the blow of saying "no" and make themselves useful to Trump (investment in America, a possible Russia summit). www.politico.eu/article/trum...

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

Musk might succeed at gutting America's state capacity, but he is failing to cut federal spending: "Outflows from the Treasury have actually risen since January 28th, when Musk first claimed DOGE was saving the federal government $1bn a day." www.economist.com/finance-and-...

submitted 7 days ago • 3 comments

This by Amir Tibon gets at an underpriced scenario regarding Trump's bombast around Gaza and the ceasefire: that his threats fail to transform the region (for better or for worse) but merely serve to squander a brief moment of maximal American leverage www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

"One of the administration’s Republican critics described a low-grade 'panic' in pro-Israel circles at the composition of the Defense Department: 'It's Pete and then 30 blogging, podcasting, isolationist ideologues.'" www.semafor.com/article/02/1...

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

Good reporting on Hezbollah's struggle to pay for reconstruction: "In the Bekaa Valley, southern Lebanon and Beirut, both supporters and non-supporters described what they saw as stingy or slow practices in appraising damage and compensating them." www.ft.com/content/6f67...

submitted 11 days ago • 1 comment