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Aug 10, 2026, 3:37 PM

Independent Observers? Define ‘Independent’

Calling someone independent doesn’t make them independent; the relevant question is independent from whom? Image © Ivan Bassov, 2026. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

International Is Not a Synonym for Independent Why doesn’t Israel allow independent observers into Gaza? Why does Israel block an independent investigation into October 7? If Israel has nothing to hide, why does it prevent independent scrutiny? I hear variations of this question...

Andrzej Pawluszek

Aug 4, 2026, 5:50 PM

Rwanda’s Gorillas and a Lesson for the UN

In Rwanda, a UN-backed tourism program helps women and young people earn a living, supports conservation and teaches schoolchildren to protect biodiversity. In Gaza, UNRWA faces evidence that members of its workforce were affiliated with Hamas and, in some...

Jul 27, 2026, 8:50 AM

You Cannot Terror-List Half a State

Countries and international bodies that have designated the IRGC as a terrorist organization or entity are shown in red; Iran is highlighted in green. Image © The Account 2, 2026. Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

If the IRGC Is Iran, Then Say Iran. If It Isn't, Where Does Iran End and the IRGC Begin? The United Kingdom recently designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a threat to national security under the National Security...

Jul 7, 2026, 10:21 AM

The Overton Window and the Battle for Palestine

“The greatest victories are won not when armies conquer territory, but when words conquer memory.” — Ivan Bassov (א״ב), Writing from the Alef-Bet (א״ב) of Meaning. Image © Ivan Bassov, 2026. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

“The greatest victories are won not when armies conquer territory, but when words conquer memory.” — Ivan Bassov (א״ב), Writing from the Alef-Bet (א״ב) of Meaning How Language and Narrative Turned the Meaning of "Palestine" and "Palestinian" Upside Down Most people think...

Jun 28, 2026, 9:03 AM

The Battle Before the Battle

David vs. Goliath: The Battle Begins. Long before the first blow is struck, the battle is fought in the realm of narrative. Image © Ivan Bassov, 2026. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Before People Debate Borders, They Decide Whose Story They Believe The phrase The Battle Before the Battle is often associated with the biblical account of David and Goliath in I Samuel 17. Whatever one takes from that story, it reminds...

Yaakov Chaliotis

Jun 26, 2026, 12:57 AM

The UN Doesn’t Need to Be Pro-Israel — It Needs to Be Universal

The modern human-rights order was built in the shadow of the Holocaust. The United Nations itself acknowledges that the murder of six million Jews left a profound mark on the foundational legal documents adopted in 1948. And yet the...

May 6, 2026, 10:19 PM

The Hidden Curriculum of Antizionism: What the Slogans Hide

Amit Soussana at the International Women of Courage Award. April 1, 2025. Wikimedia Commons.

The scandal is not what antizionist syllabi teach. It's what they have to hide. In graduate school, the conclusions often arrived before the evidence. The texts were already chosen, the interpretations already implied, and the rooms had a temperature you...

Mar 30, 2026, 5:16 PM

One Word. Total Distortion.

When the label is wrong, everything built on it is wrong. Image © Ivan Bassov, 2026. Licensed under CC0 (public domain dedication).

Stop Discrediting the Name “Palestine” There is a peculiar kind of discomfort that comes from hearing something that is technically wrong—but repeated so often that it begins to sound normal. People with absolute pitch know the feeling when a note is...

Mar 9, 2026, 7:07 AM

The Many Faces of Chud

Depending on the story, the Chud may appear as mysterious inhabitants, underground tunnel dwellers, armed raiders, or hostile outsiders. Image © Ivan Bassov, 2026. Licensed under CC0 (public domain dedication).

From Northern Folklore to the Mediterranean In my earlier article Mediterranean Chud — From Russians to Arabs, From Chud to “Palestinians”, I used the old word Chud as a metaphor. The term has long appeared in Russian and Scandinavian sources,...

Mar 7, 2026, 1:11 AM

Names and Narratives

The Rhodesia–Zimbabwe analogy shows how a geographic name can become a political identity and a national project. Image © Ivan Bassov, 2026. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.

How Semantics Fueled Decades of Confusion Much of the global discussion about the Israel–Palestine conflict begins with a quiet assumption: that two distinct places exist — Israel and Palestine — and that the problem is how to divide the land...

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