Gaza: The Dream and the Nightmare
Trump’s Gazan dream is to overlay the complex human history with his own narcissistic real-estate fantasy. But for Maia Carter Hallward, co-author of a new contemporary history of Gaza, this once vibrant Mediterranean entrepôt linking Africa, Asia and Europe is now defined more by nightmare than dreams. “In peace studies, we talk about positive peace, which has rights, liberties, the ability to reach human potential - and we talk about negative peace, which is the absence of war,” Carter Hallward says. “I would say we have none of those in Gaza right now.” No negative peace, no absence of war. For Carter Hallward, that - alongside the more than 70,000 dead Palestinians - captures today’s Gazan tragedy.
Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Dan Hampton: Why the World Owes America a Great Debt For Its Participation in the Second World War
Azeem Azhar: Why, In an Age of Exponential Technological Change, Does So Little Seem to Change in Politics?
Lisa Lewis: Why the Crisis of Teenage Anxiety Might Begin and End With Sleep Deprivation
Mark Lee Gardner: Rather Than Jefferson or Washington, Should Americans Be Celebrating Indigenous Leaders Like Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull As Their Greatest Historical Figures?
Chris Stokel-Walker on a Digital Brave New World: Are We Entertaining Ourselves to Death on TikTok?
Gian Volpicelli on the Crypto-Crash and Why the Party Might Finally Be Over
Stephen Wertheim: Why Joe Biden Should Be Supporting Sovereignty and Not Democracy in Ukraine
Bob Keefe: Can American Capitalism Really Be an Ally in the War Against Climate Change?
Introducing Intelligence Squared US
Britt Halvorson: How to Reimagine White Supremacy in the Heartland of the American Midwest
Garrett Graff: How Are Watergate and the January 6th Insurrection Similar? Nixon and Trump's Shared Paranoia and Isolation From the Outside World
Emma Jacobs: How Do We Define Adulthood in a Time When We've Created a Cult of Childhood?
Ewen Spencer on What Writers and Photographers Have in Common