Secret Academic
2.5K posts
It’s Eurovision again 🫶🏽 Israel has long been part of crafting European culture. From “Hallelujah” to Dana International, to Netta and beyond. Icons adopted and embraced. Here’s a quick look at our past successes, as we get ready for our next contribution to European music 🥂
I share @megankstack's exasperation, but to those who say that canine rape is impossible, despite the many Palestinians who have described it, I'd note that at least three different medical journal articles discuss rectal injuries in humans from anal penetration by dogs. Sigh.
Pub apologises after accepting ‘Golders Greed’ quiz team name days after terror stabbings jewishnews.co.uk/pub-apologises…
This is a hard article to read, but I hope you'll do so. I've spent some time reporting on widespread rape and other sexual violence of Palestinian male and female prisoners by Israeli authorities, and the article is now published. The assault victims were warned not to give speak of what they endured -- they were sometimes told they would be killed or raped if they gave interviews -- but they found the courage to do so. One man described being raped three times in a single day in Israeli prison, the third time after he tried to protest. A young woman said the guards would come in at the beginning of each shift and strip her naked and abuse her. Another reported that she was shown photos of herself being raped and warned they would be released unless she cooperated with Israeli intelligence. Even three children who had been detained told me they had been sexually abused. Look, whatever our position on the Middle East, we should be able to agree on being anti-rape. Sexual assaults were horrific when Israeli women were targeted on Oct. 7, and they're equally horrific when Israeli authorities use them against Palestinians day after day after day. We should be able to find common ground in opposing rape. Here's a gift link to the article: nytimes.com/2026/05/11/opi…
The challenge for political broadcasting is enormous, and rather satisfying to watch. After years of personality-driven and chaotic, shallow politics coverage across much of the media, which was largely about instability, gossip and leadership crises we now have a govt with massive majority, widespread internal agreement and no likelihood of massive instability anytime soon. A great environment for a programme like #c4news full of policy nerds and people who prefer to argue about what ideas work than who should be the front person.
I must say I did not expect the Left to embrace Marjorie Taylor Greene, an antisemitic conspiracy theorist who publicly claimed that Jews (‘they’) control the weather. But honestly nothing shocks me anymore. Horseshoe theory is in full swing and we should expect the antisemitic Left to align with more far-right antisemitic figures going forward. All it takes is for them to redirect their antisemitism towards Israel (as the Jew among nations) and the Left will welcome them with open arms.
