This is a moment in the timeline when many people are throwing around fairly lazy comparisons with various other historical moments, particularly 1930s Germany. Each person you ask will assign the chief villain roles - namely Hitler, the Nazis generally, and the enabling bystanders who looked away - to members of factions opposite to the speaker's deeply-held ideology. But to truly cultivate nuance, a different approach is called for.

The above I Ching hexagram is called Po - Splitting Apart. It is a visual representation of oppressors violently seizing power by overthrowing the final top line. When you receive this hexagram, you're about to be blindsided. I'm giving it to you to heed. It's the final day of Elul; in the evening it will be Rosh HaShanah 5786. The immediate impetus for this post is the recognition of Palestine, without condition, of several European countries, including the one I live in whose prime minister I voted for.

That's it, that's the post. But I'll elaborate. I'm reading a feminist scholar for some of my research. I'm not especially far in, but given my research interests, I really can't get away with not reading this book. However, as I read the acknowledgements in the frontmatter, I became increasingly irked. Writing workshops in exotic locales? Leisurely evenings cosying up with intellectuals over wine?

Although I personally identify as a zionist Jew, because I believe that Israel has the right to exist as a state, I try to keep broad community with other Jews with different opinions to mine. One friend, who has worked hard over the past year to build up our small local community of Jews who support Israel's right to defend itself, responded forcefully to my assertion that war is inherently immoral and there are no 'good guys' in the current conflict in Gaza: 'Of course there are, Israel is the good guy!' My friend may be more zionist than me, but she also has friends and family in Israel and hasn't come to her opinion in ignorance.

Like many galaxy-brained people whose parents over-inflated their perception of their own intelligence, I have regrettably ended up with a day job in academia. It makes sense that academics are enthused about AI - both the Academy and AI systems are in the business of knowledge production. We chase the grants that rich people issue for research that backs up their worldview; hence why I'm so cynical when I'm told to Trust The Science(TM).

This weekend there's another protest at the defence firm with an office in my town, as Israel is one of their clients. There have been multiple protests there since 7 October, and yet nothing prior wh...

In a sweeping two-year investigation, The Associated Press found goods linked to prisoners wind up in the supply chains of everything from Frosted Flakes cereal and Ball Park hot dogs to Gold Medal fl...

Hive, a novel by Sonya Blanck, in print and e-book format on 20 April. Play in your browser

I didn't leave the Left - the Left left me.

My father, Elie Wiesel, was a passionate Zionist who believed Israel was the only guarantee our people had against a second Holocaust.