I was once a student at the American University of Beirut (@AUB_Lebanon), and I was fascinated by pro-Palestine activists who had been in my shoes decades earlier. I read every word in the university archives, learnt the history, and was determined on mimicking it. I helped revive the student publication after a 22-year hiatus (forced to shut down by #Lebanon civil war), and I became its editor-in-chief for four years. I ran for election and served on student government twice, was one of the most active student organizers on campus. I had a feeling that Palestine was the victim, totally in the right, and everybody else -- #Israel, US, the establishment, my parents -- were in the wrong.

My obsession saw me chase the activists that I idolized, and I managed to sit with many of them (they were my parents age by then, the age of the grandparents of today's college students). To my dismay, most of them had changed and moved on, or, as one of them put it to me, "we matured." I too matured, eventually, but only after realizing -- through personal experience -- that Palestine does not exist, not because of Israelis, but because of Palestinians.

Below is a quick story about the tumultuous AUB events in the 1970s: In 1971, the AUB student Council held a sit in that was coupled with a coup-like student takeover of university buildings. Headed by Economics MA student Maher Masri, the council even appointed a student as a Dean of Arts and Sciences. The students demanded that AUB walk back a tuition increase, but also to have a say in all university affairs, including budget and received US aid. Some students proposed to change the name of the university to take out the word American, given America's support of Israel and all the other abominations that evil America had presumably committed.
AUB canceled the school year in 1971. Below, you see a picture of the campus's main gate, with a sit in, and "unfinished year." Students could not graduate or finish their degrees that year. The other picture captures student "siege" of faculty and administration, and the female students preparing food for the male students holding the siege.

I hesitated before stepping into this minefield.
THREAD
1/ Reaction focused on 2 points: Extremism associated with Ben Gvir and possible change in status quo (can cause war). Additionally, many Arabs were angry over Jewish access to what they believe is Muslim religious compound. 2/ Extremism or not of Ben Gvir is not the issue. Arabs get angry at all Jews — deemed extremist or moderate — who walk through this compound, call these walks “storming” of compound, describe Jews as “settlers.”

A friend in Beirut, #Lebanon, posted the lines which I copy below. The effect of the #Iran regime is horrible, across the Middle East.
THREAD - 1/You wake up in sweat, in total darkness, no electricity to boil water for your coffee, boiling water using scarce gas is a waste. 2/ You start your day by checking US dollar rate. You queue up for hours at gas station, scared that a frustrated customer would get angry and pull out a gun, or that a fight might erupt, only to be told station ran out of gas when there's only two more cars in front of you

THREAD: 1- One problem in conduct of many Muslims in Western countries is that they use Islam as an identity marker, to stand out, to carve a communal space and avoid assimilation, thus being part of a global cult that behaves like a cross-national, borderless nation 2- These Muslims who insist on having their religious identity trump their national (Western) identity insist that governments should allow them to practice their faith. But their faith -- if practiced to the letter -- undermines the very republic they are citizens of.

THREAD: #Iran intelligence tricked Zam into believing that Grand Shia Ayatollah in #Iraq Ali Sistani had invited him to Najaf. When Zam showed up, Iran kidnapped him from Iraq, will hang him soon on charges of "spreading corruption on earth."
reut.rs/3gEIwpM Don't expect America's woke voices, from @washingtonpost to @nytimes and from @BernieSanders and @AOC (both who Tweeted against capital punishment) to wage a campaign against such flagrant Iranian barbarity.

THREAD - Anyone who's read Hanna Arendt will see Trump as a clear case of a tyrant-in-the-making. The rise of rogue rulers is incumbent on suspension of reason, which Trump has skillfully done by painting anything that disagrees with him as fake /1 Trump then replaced reality with his own fake alternative narrative. He then imagines himself as the victim of a conspiracy. A victim usually absolves him/herself from the rules, because others have presumably unfairly violated these rules. Whataboutism becomes a rule. /2

Thread-Friends in Maryland, I just wrote to our senator @ChrisVanHollen to voice my frustration over his bias toward #Iran. Today, he participated in a bash #Saudi Arabia panel. While I support human rights, I think that either America does it everywhere, or not do it anywhere. When human rights is not part of our calculus, then Saudi Arabia is our ally, and Iran is our enemy. Otherwise, the senator is being unfair, and probably beholden to invisible special interests. Feel free to copy my letter to him and use the attached page to send it.

How do these academics get their licenses? How can one write history with modern day slogans. "The British and American empires mutually reinforced the notion that black and indigenous lives did not matter." washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/0… When did the lives of any peasants, of any race, in any human civilization, matter, before the 20th century? Indigenous tribes fought one another ferociously, on top of their wars with the colonials, who were not united either (Spanish v British v French).

In May 2018, Biden Foreign Policy's Jake Sullivan wrote about #Iran:
Sanctions are more effective when world is actively cooperating with US to pressure Iran, less effective when world is actively cooperating with Iran to frustrate US by looking for workarounds, dragging feet. In May 2020, Jake Sullivan reversed himself, said:
Unilateral US withdrawal from the international accord and the reimposition of sanctions on Tehran proved the power of the US dollar and the US financial system.

THREAD - Independent thinking is a prerequisite for a healthy democracy. When sensationalism, tribalism and emotions replace accuracy, liberty and interests, democracy will be jeopardized. Over the past few days: - Liberty-loving Republicans, who associate strong government with tyranny, have been calling for the deployment of combat troops to police Americans

Thread - #Khamenei's hate speech aside, his series of Tweets and this poster are illustrative of the extreme superficiality and shallow intellectual capabilities of the Iranian leadership. 1- A referendum over what to make of the land of Palestine is to happen after it is already called Palestine and its flags raised over everything.
2- Free and fair referendums are best held with armed militias deployed everywhere.

Thread - Questions to follow #Democrats on their support of Iran nuclear deal with #Iran regime:
1- How do you square the “Green New Deal” with insistence on lifting sanctions on Iran’s oil and gas exports if nuclear deal is reinstated? 2- How do you square “Love is Love” with Iran’s unabashed instigation and execution of Iranian #LGBTQIA community?

I'm usually as hawkish as @AmbJohnBolton on foreign affairs, but on US signing a deal with Taliban in Afghanistan, I disagree with him, and completely agree with Prez Trump and US Rep Zal Khalilzad @US4AfghanPeace. Below I explain why: America went to war in Afghanistan when Taliban was hosting Al-Qaeda and Al-Qaeda launched 9/11 terror attacks against the US. US mission in Afghanistan should have been completed after Al-Qaeda was decimated, at most after the killing of its leader Bin Laden in 2011.

Thread - What we know from #Iraq vs What US media has been reporting.

What we know:
1- In its session to vote on non-binding resolution to eject US troops from Iraq, Iraqi Parliament did not even have a quorum (barely got to 130 of 328) @BilalWahab 2- Despite Kataib Hezbollah’s (this is the militia of Mohandes who was killed with Soleimani) death threats to lawmakers, they still abstained from attending to vote against the US @BilalWahab

For non-Arabic speakers, reporting in the main news outlets NYT and Wash Post is so misinformed (either on purpose or because of incompetence) that you might think that the Iraqi State has officially voted for ejecting US forces from Iraq (because of Trump's miscalculated move to kill Soleimani). What happened is different.
1- Iraqi PM Abdul-Mahdi sent a letter to Parliament in which he argued US troops exist in Iraq, not based on a treaty ratified by Parliament, but on 2 letters from past cabinets to the UN. Hence, Parliament has no role in ejection.