ARTICLES
“Demolitions.”
Destruction and self-destruction. In the following update, Qadir al–Thaer—whose previous reporting appears here and here—reports on the recent demolition of a large residential building in the Palestinian community of Beit Ummar. The town of 18,000 inhabitants is located eleven kilometers north of the…
Patrick Lawrence: Germany in Crisis Part 4: Wanderers and Seekers
Editor’s note: Earlier versions of this story reported Germany’s shock when Friedrich Merz initially failed to win sufficient Bundestag votes to assume office. After intense negotiations, he won back the six votes needed to declare victory. Berlin, in the meantime,…
Patrick Lawrence: Germany in Crisis Part 3: A Culture of Submission
This is the third of four reports on Germany in crisis. Part 1 of this series is here and Part 2 here. BERLIN— I return briefly to those singular moments when Olaf Scholz stood next to President Joe Biden at a press conference on…
“Liberal delusions.”
20 January 2025. (Screenshot, PBS.) Two images, their truth. In reality, only the fragment carries the mark of authenticity. — Brecht. 22 APRIL—Peter Dimock, the avant-garde novelist (A Short Rhetoric for Leaving the Family, George Anderson, Daybook from Sheep Meadow) and an old…
Patrick Lawrence: Germany in Crisis Part 2: A Short History of Exploding Gas Pipelines
This is the second of four reports on Germany’s various crises, the history that produced them and how Germans, other than the neoliberal elites who now hold power, think about their way forward. Part 1 of this series is here. POTSDAM—A single,…
“Poisoning ‘the Holy Land.’”
I met Adnan al–Abayyat last November in Kisan, his rural village in the Bethlehem Governorate. Kisan is 11 km southeast of the city of Bethlehem—as the indigenous hooded crow flies. It is a rather longer distance—27.5 km—on the dangerous and…
Patrick Lawrence: Germany in Crisis Part 1 —The Lost Man of Europe
This is the first of four reports on the crises that now beset Germany — what they are, the history that produced them, and how Germans think about finding their way forward once again. I thank Eva–Maria Föllmer–Müller and Karl–Jürgen…
“‘Our lives are worth nothing.’”
A letter from Occupied Palestine. In a dream,I saw myself flying a kite.And I was like the kite—free.But when I woke up to fly it,one of us wasn’t free.—Sabeel 3 APRIL—A text arrived from a friend two weeks ago today,…
“From Xizang and Qinghai.”
Guy Mettan’s travels in Tibet. Guy Mettan, the distinguished Swiss journalist, memorably reported for The Floutist, here and here, from the Donbas, formerly the eastern provinces of Ukraine and now incorporated into the Russian Federation. Mettan was and remains one of the few correspondents to…
PATRICK LAWRENCE: Late–Imperial Maladies
The worst part of living this distance from reality — or maybe the best part — is the knowledge, even if it is only subliminal, that we cannot go on like this. I am sick of reading that the Israelis’ genocidal…