Tag Archives: History

Localize the Intifada

Posted on by under activism, migrant defense

The Use of Lethal Force in Self-Defense Against Federal Law Enforcement

I’m gratified to see that there’s been some explicit discussion in the last few weeks of a neglected topic that I mentioned in my post on Renee Good: do residents of the United States (citizens or otherwise) have a moral or legal right (however narrow, contextual, or limited) to use lethal force against federal law enforcement officers when those officers initiate force that endangers the life or limb of an innocent party? The answer is yes on both counts.  Just to be explicit: residents unquestionably have a right to kill federal law enforcement officers under certain conditions. The relevant question is not whether there is such a right, but the exact conditions under which it can legitimately be exercised.

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The West Orange Anti-Semitism Task Force: A Response

Posted on by under activism, Palestine

This is a statement given to West Orange Township Council, January 20, 2026. It’s the first of several I intend to give there on this topic. The comment of Sheila Lefkowitz from the November 12 meeting (mentioned below) appears at 1:33:33 of this video. My statement below appears around minute 49 of this video. I’ll discuss the responses to my statement in a later post. This article gives a good overview of the current state of discourse on this topic in New Jersey.

On November 12 last year, I spoke here on the matter of the Immigrant Trust Act. While I was here, a resident, Sheila Lefkowitz, rose to speak about the need for an anti-Semitism task force. I took strong exception to Ms Lefkowitz’s claims at the time, but haven’t had a chance to respond until now. Admittedly, three months have passed since then, but I think a response is in order, however belated.

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The Immigrant Trust Tour: The Finale

Posted on by under activism, migrant defense

Since I last wrote on the subject, New Jersey’s Immigrant Trust Act (ITA) has been divided into three separate bills, has gotten through a series of committee hearings, and is up for vote in the state legislature on Monday. It’s been sixteen solid months of efforts by a cohort of smart, tough, and dedicated activists. Win or lose, I’m proud to have played a bit part in this effort, and at this point can only urge New Jersey residents to call or text their legislators for the final push (see contact information below). Continue reading →

If You Want Blood

Posted on by under Fatwas, Memorials and Obituaries, migrant defense, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine

Do yourself a favor. Go back and re-read the Declaration of Independence, but do it this way: skip the beginning and the end, and read the bill of particulars in the middle. It’s too long to quote here. You really just have to read it for yourself. Once you do, you’ll see that details aside, we’re living in the very world that the Declaration describes, excoriates, and uses as the basis of its declaration of war. Virtually everything in it is something that our present government is doing to us. Like the people of British North America ca. 1776, we are a people under military occupation. Continue reading →

“When the World Breaks”

Posted on by under Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement

Veterans Day at Peddie

Peddie is a well-known elite prep school in New Jersey, located in Hightstown, a small town just east of Princeton. According to Niche, it’s ranked #2 out of 126 in a listing of the Best Private High Schools in New Jersey, and #2 of 112 of the Best College Prep Private Schools in New Jersey. It also ranks first out of 139 of the Most Diverse Private High Schools in New Jersey. I’m at least vaguely familiar with the place, having been there a few times, having interviewed Peddie students applying for admissions to Princeton, and having grown up myself (for better or worse) in the elite Jersey prep school milieu. In short, within its rarefied circles, Peddie is a trend-setter. Continue reading →

The Immigrant Trust Tour: October Update

Posted on by under activism, migrant defense, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine

To the best of my knowledge, the municipal-level campaign to persuade the New Jersey state legislature to pass the Immigrant Trust Act started last December in Madison, New Jersey, an affluent college town in a relatively conservative part of the state. By March, about a dozen municipalities had followed suit. 

Things quieted down in the months after that, but with the impetus of a constant drumbeat of ICE raids, things started up again in June with the campaign for a resolution in Princeton, which eventually passed in August. Whether it’s correlation or causality or both, the movement has heated up since then and gone statewide. About twenty municipalities and two counties have at this point passed pro-ITA resolutions, and plenty of county commissions and town councils across the state are facing demands to pass more. Continue reading →

The Fascist Regime

Posted on by under Uncategorized

Back in March, I wrote a post here called “I Think They Call This Fascism,” meant to be a preliminary inquiry into how to define “fascism” and apply it to present circumstances. I laid out seven methodological issues that arise in defining “fascism,” the second of which was how the concept of “fascism” applies to totalitarianism and authoritarianism. At the time, I was conceptualizing totalitarianism as revolutionary and all-encompassing, and conceptualizing authoritarianism as traditional and more limited in scope. Though I still think that totalitarianism vs authoritarianism is an essential issue, it now occurs to me that the preceding conceptualization, somewhat uncritically adopted from Jeane Kirkpatrick’s account, is misleading or wrong.

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Morituri Te Salutant

Posted on by under cancel culture, Memorials and Obituaries, Neutrality and Complicity, Notes on the Anti-War Movement, Palestine

I woke up this morning to find an email from one of my best friends in Palestine, someone who lives in a small village in the South Hebron Hills. I’ve excerpted it below, deleting personal names, and omitting place names and other particulars, and corrected the grammar of one sentence for clarity. It’s in English, but I’ve provided a tl; dr translation just after the block quote. The word “football” refers throughout to soccer. Continue reading →

Resistance and Retaliation

Posted on by under activism, anarchism, migrant defense

Notes on Migrant Justice

In two posts here, I’ve taken issue with the idea that Princeton’s recent passage of (or even mere discussion of) the ITA Resolution has induced ICE to raid the town and detain people. The basic premise behind this claim is that ICE operations target municipalities that express opposition to ICE. The further implication is that if you want to avoid ICE operations where you live, you have to tone down your public opposition to ICE, and adopt a “quiet” form of dissent. It can’t be stressed enough how dangerously out of touch with reality this claim is. If put into practice, it would mean the end of public opposition to ICE at a time when public opposition is clearly working, and is all we have. Continue reading →

Resistance in Action (5)

Posted on by under activism, anarchism, migrant defense

A Response to John Heilner

Toward the end of the August 11 Princeton Council meeting at which Princeton’s ITA Resolution was adopted, John Heilner, a Princeton resident, offered a comment that has now been transcribed in the August 13 issue of TapInto Princeton and in the August 13 issue of Town Topics (updated on August 18). Though Mr Heilner’s comment has not to my knowledge elicited very much public comment, I think it demands comment. To put the matter bluntly, I regard his comment as both incoherent and irresponsible, and am amazed that a Council that has spent the better part of the last six months lecturing us about matters of facticity and tone has received it with such apparent equanimity. Continue reading →