I read something in Haaretz. Israeli soldiers. Real names hidden. Yuval. Maya. Juda. Ran. They talked about what they did in Gaza. One man fired like a madman at figures a drone had spotted. He killed an old man, unarmed, and three teenage boys. Bullets tore through them. Their organs spilled out. A commander spat on the bodies. He screamed: This is what happens to anybody who messes with Israel. A woman called Maya described torture. She urinated on prisoners. Other soldiers laughed. A man called Juda shot a Palestinian at a checkpoint. The man had his hands up. He was surrendering. Juda fired anyway. His superior gave the order. The army record said a terrorist had been killed. Yuval, the man who killed the old man and the boys, told Haaretz something else. My friends called me a hero but I felt like a monster. Two days after speaking to the newspaper he was admitted to a psychiatric ward. I put the article down. Then I remembered the Palestine Papers from 2011. Leaked documents. The...
The Emperor’s New Clothes: A Fable Reawakened We all know the timeless tale: The Emperor’s New Clothes, penned by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen in 1837. A vain ruler, obsessed with appearances, is duped by swindlers who promise him garments visible only to the wise. He parades naked through town, cloaked in illusion until a child dares to speak the obvious: the emperor wears nothing at all. This fable endures because it exposes the anatomy of collective delusion. It warns of vanity, cowardice, and the fear of truth. It reminds us that honesty, especially from the least expected voice, can rupture the spectacle. Andersen’s tale finds chilling resonance in Donald Trump’s presidency. The parallels are not poetic coincidence - they are forensic. Trump as the Emperor Obsessed with image, allergic to truth. Trump’s branding eclipses substance. Like the emperor, he demands loyalty over logic, spectacle over scrutiny. The Weavers: Advisors and Media Allies They spin “alternative facts,...