Will Alden

This is a MUST-READ. @williamalden spent extensive time with Monarchists to better understand their perspective and their philosophy. Ironically, in that effort, he ended up being threatened by them and accused of being an agent of the Islamic Republic. nybooks.com/online/2026/04…

Iran‘s former crown prince, Reza Pahlavi, and his supporters have “supplied ‘an Iranian face’ for the US–Israeli war effort,” Trita Parsi tells Will Alden (@williamalden). go.nybooks.com/4d90ApZ

Very good piece on the LA monarchist movement and their embrace of war on their homeland. What's never been really clear is what the Iranian monarchists in the diaspora expect to find in Iran if their project is successful and Pahlavi regains the Peacock Throne. Most diehard monarchists have jobs, businesses, professions, and family and second and third generation American children and grandchildren. Will they leave all that and return to an Iran they haven't seen in decades? And do what? Retrieve property that was confiscated by the state forty-seven years ago? Seems unlikely that would be a priority for any new regime that replaces the current Islamic Republic.

👇Quoted in this @nybooks piece on Iranian opposition politics in exile. I explain that monarchists were irrelevant to the 2022-23 Women, Life, Freedom protest movement inside Iran, but moved aggressively to dominate & reshape the diaspora movement around them.

@williamalden knocked this very tough assignment out of the park. Maybe one of the most sustained Anglophone engagements with the diaspora monarchist movement, for @nybooks online:

Reporting this was a trip, very challenging, occasionally hilarious, occasionally delicious, and I only feared for my safety once (read to the end)! Very grateful to editors @krutkovich @NCaplanBricker

For @nybooks I hung out with the leaders of an Iranian opposition party in exile that has organized the community here around support for Trump, support for the war, and support for the son of the last shah. My dispatch from LA nybooks.com/online/2026/04…

We're about to ship our Spring issue, featuring new writing from @tanvim, @williamalden, Zaina Alsous, Jon Danforth-Appell, Tareq Baconi, and many more voices (cover by Alfredo Jaar). Get it in your mailbox (and save 50%) with code JCSPRING50: jewishcurrents.org/subscribe

I had a lot of fun chatting & sparring with Curt who is a great sport and was very generous with his time!

I profiled @CurtMills for @JewishCurrents & chewed over the intellectual roots of anti-Israel MAGA jewishcurrents.org/the-many-equiv…

it's highkey starting to seem like maybe the best lack all conviction and the worst are full of passionate intensity nymag.com/intelligencer/…

The billionaire family poised to rewire U.S. media in Israel’s favor Having acquired Paramount and CBS and eyeing TikTok and CNN, the Ellisons are constructing a pro-Israel information empire with unprecedented reach. @williamalden reports. 972mag.com/ellisons-param…

NEW from me in @972mag Why did Paramount+ acquire a work of Israeli propaganda and what does it mean for the near-future of US media? 972mag.com/ellisons-param…

I cant believe they needed to write this. “The practice of mishandling bodies by bulldozing them into unmarked graves can violate international law, according to legal experts.” #Genocide #AccountabilityNow

Read @williamalden’s portrait of UCLA’s capitulation to pro-Israel activists and Trump, and the ongoing harm this has caused pro-Palestinian students, for @JewishCurrents: jewishcurrents.org/portrait-of-a-…

In an in-depth “Portrait of a Campus in Crisis” based on more than 40 interviews, @JewishCurrents shows how UCLA’s capitulation to pro-Israel students and groups — and resulting violent repression of pro-Palestinian activists — paved the way for Trump’s attacks on the university.

“If you placate the bully, the bully comes back,” said Palestine Legal board member Katherine Franke.

Excellent deep-dive into the violence perpetrated by fascist Zionist thugs at UCLA. Democrats, Republicans, the ADL +the media have spent over a year lying that the violence was an antisemitic attack on Jews, and have used it and other lies to eviscerate American higher education

The first really serious piece of journalism on UCLA in the last 2.5 years.

@ArielleLAngel @maricohen95 @krutkovich @DovWaxman A view of the lectern at UCLA Chancellor Frenk’s inauguration

@ArielleLAngel @maricohen95 @krutkovich @DovWaxman UCLA’s response to the defining anti-war movement of this generation has been to ignore, distort, punish, and arrest… this is my attempt to understand why

For @JewishCurrents I went long on pro-Israel activism at UCLA jewishcurrents.org/portrait-of-a-… (unpaywalled)