@mbalter — investigations and commentary

What we talk about when we talk about antisemitism. And good luck to "The Voice of Hind Rajab" this evening. open.substack.com/pub/michaelbal…

Trump is objectively bad at running the government, but he’s objectively good at running a Klan rally, and his supporters value the latter so much that they forgive the former. My weekly newsletter is up in @thenation thenation.com/article/politi…

The Saudi crown prince joins Netanyahu in pushing Trump to sustain a protracted war against Iran. They all talk about transformation without any defensible plan to get there. trib.al/gfYWrNx

It's interesting, I wrote this piece for the Globe, it has 327 comments, I'd say about 80% of them are positive. Today the Globe's entire Letter to the Editor section was dedicated to reactions to it, with three LTEs attacking it and one in support. I'm not complaining -- I'm grateful the Globe ran this piece, and it's a totally fair editorial choice to give more space to the negative reactions, since they just gave all this space to me. I just think it's worth pointing out that the argument I laid out has a lot of support, including within the Jewish community.

Gaza. It is always about Gaza. Gaza is where Israel's parallel universe crashed into the actual world. Gaza is where the rotten seeds of supremacy, nourished by the debauched entitlement of "western values" sought to choke humanity as it slept, dreaming of "peace". No peace.

JDL 613 Brotherhood is run by Yisrael Yaacob Ben Avraham. Anyone that's seen crazed Zionist counter-protesters in NYC has seen him and his shithead friends show up threatening people. He posts online pretty often there's no way police don't know about him. youtube.com/watch?v=Wos-wU…

“I refused to let the genocide steal my dreams.” Meet the medical students who defied Israel's bombs to complete their studies and become doctors. bit.ly/3PyUZkw

Civil rights leaders and defense attorneys say they believe Holland lacks regards for the rights of Black defendants. “He’s demonstrated that he is untrustworthy, unreserved in his aggression and without any judicial temperament,” one attorney said. propublica.org/article/hugo-h…

“How did our crossing—the gate we hoped might one day widen into a portal to the world—get so cramped and narrow?”—Doha Kahlout on Rafah go.nybooks.com/4rO4zgX

So, um, is Iran winning?

No, DHS won’t be tweeting about this

In the New York Times' coverage of this story, genocidal Zionist extremists are given the first and final word on baseless antisemitism smears against Nerdeen and her organization. To cite these immediately following reporting of an assassination attempt against her is a tacit justification of such violence. Despicable.

Roughly 300 athletes took part in Gaza's first official running event in more than two years since the war began. The group ran four kilometers through the streets of Gaza, cheered on by spectators.

An 18-year-old said he was left to live on his own after his family, including his 10-year-old sister who requires specialized medical care, was deported to Mexico. “You can say all you want about how these awful immigration policies don’t affect U.S. citizens, but that’s a lie,” he said. notus.org/immigration/tr…

BREAKING: Today, a federal court ruled in favor of justice. ICE is now required to provide detained individuals at the Florida facility, cruelly nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” with access to legal counsel.

When a U.S. Army veteran was arrested on conspiracy charges for his role in an anti-ICE protest in Spokane, Washington, last summer, it was the first time an American had been charged with conspiracy in connection with the ongoing ICE protests. Some legal experts saw it as an escalation of the administration's efforts to suppress, and even criminalize, First Amendment rights. Special correspondent @Aaron_Glantz produced this story with the support of the @pulitzercenter.

'A critical mass of U.S. Jews is now disgusted with Israel' haaretz.com/jewish/2026-03…

All immigrants, both legal and illegal, are less likely to be incarcerated than native-born Americans, the 2010-2024 data show. Check out the new study by @AlexNowrasteh and Michelangelo Landgrove, “Illegal Immigrant Incarceration Rates, 2010–2024: The Demographics of American Imprisonment.” ow.ly/YN1Z50YyQLs

Denying promotions of individual officers based on their race or gender would betray every principle of merit-based service that military officers uphold. It would also violate federal law. I am demanding answers from SecDef Hegseth & the Pentagon. nytimes.com/2026/03/27/us/…

This will happen to millions of families as these operations continue. There are over 4 million households in the U.S. with at least one undocumented family member and at least one U.S. citizen family member.

A Palestinian-American is targeted in an assassination plot and the NYT gives the people trying to kill her the last word.