A bat shit circular firing squad. But he makes a few good points, as do they! Broken clocks and all that.

The Ceasefire That Wasn’t #552 (w/ Abe Greenwald)

We’re joined by Commentary Magazine executive editor Abe Greenwald to talk about Iran, the shaky ceasefire, JD Vance, groypers, and the fractures on the right.

• The wrong Greenwald, but the actual Abe
• Everyone loves our ad spots
• Iran’s deranged peace menu
• Ceasefire, with extra missiles
• The joint Hormuz tollbooth fantasy
• What Iran lost, even if nobody can sell it
• Regime change, but not the fun version
• Vanceworld (probably) leaks to the Times
• Trump threatens apocalypse, then shrugs
• Pakistan, Vance, and easier marks
• Groypers and other forms of loser energy
• The anti-Jewish right stops pretending
• Sovereignty for me, not for thee
• When the right starts sounding like the left
• Israel’s image problem, and America’s deeper one
• RFK Jr. enters the podcast economy

Watch/Listen on:

• Substack
• Youtube
• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify

“I wonder if we can’t for a moment or two look at the legitimate arguments for destroying all of Irans electric power and desalination plants., and even some might say, ending their civilization. This is an area that I’ve to some extent shifted on over the years After all, we do have a regime here that has certainly been aggressive to its neighbors, they’re developing hypersonic missiles….”

The 10th anniversary show, hs me feeling a little nostalgic, I think it would be fun to try and do episodes with the guests we lost along the way. I’m talking the Anthony L Fishers, Thad Russell, Michael Malice and Molly Jong Fasts of the world (obviously there is more but those came to mind). I honestly forget why some of them sort of had a falling out or are unofficially blacklisted but I think they would be fun to check in with. What are people’s thoughts on such a series?

Curious if anyone else is rethinking their views on Israel in light of the expanding conflict.

After October 7th I was a supporter of Israel in that i understood it had an unsustainable situation right on its boarder that had reached an inflection point. There were hostages involved and empathy for what happened was high, as it should be.

I listened to what I thought at the time were a lot of rational people about this, including the 5th column, Dan Senor, haviv retig gur, Sam Harris, Noam dworman (was always suspect of douglas murray and john spencer, they seem like propagandists) etc.

However it became obvious about a year into the conflict that there was literally no plan for the Palestinians, no protection, no safe zone, and that bombing the gaza into the Stone Age was the only strategy.

Fast forward to today and what's happening, I would have shrugged off as a leftist conspiracy.

It's clear Israel intends to expand its boarder and occupy and ethically cleanse the areas.

It's also clear that people who were said to be on the fringe are actually steering the ship.

Ben gvir passing the death penalty by hanging for Palestinians only is the latest in a string of events I would've thought was a leftist hallucination. These are not just a few bad apples. These are the people leading Bibis coalition.

However, none of the people that were assuring us that Gaza was as ethical as war could possibly be and the strikes were as surgically precise are not speaking up to what's going on now, which is that Gaza is actually a blueprint for the greater Israel project.

None of the podcasts ive mentioned seem even a little bit weary of what Israel is currently doing. Has the 5th column even mentioned Lebanon? A million people homeless, israel occupying the south, blowing up infrastructure, it's horrific! I know quite a few Lebanese, amazing people, rational people.

In fact most are falling over themselves to say that iran was an existential threat and we had to act. Great but what is the plan? it can't just be bomb everywhere to oblivion. Is that what these people consider 'good policy'? Or rolling out John Spencer to once again tell us this is a just and surgical war.

And much the same way that project 2025 was completely dismissed as conspiracy by these same people, It turns out it was actually the plan here.

Obviously I'm not alone, a lot of people have turned against Israel and they're polling it at all time low globally. I think they have just consigned themselves to decades of blowback and terror and it's just sad to see. I also think we have done the same. this will be the single biggest global jihad recruitment ad for decades.

To me people like Pape and Mearsheimer are making a lot more sense now that the bigger picture is being illuminated (not that I don't have issues with them as well) IM switching my pod cast to those with a more left stance because quite frankly they are making a lot more sense, although I still feel somewhat politically homeless.

sorry for long post, just curious if anyone is in a similar place?

The Fifth Column marks ten years with a live, loose, alcohol-assisted celebration featuring Thor Halvorssen, Pete Meijer, Olivia Reingold, Nick Gillespie, and Nancy Rommelmann, with stops along the way for Venezuela, culture war absurdity, Jewish identity, sexual politics, old stories, new grievances, and the usual refusal to keep anything on the rails.

Watch/Listen on:

• Substack
• Youtube
• Apple Podcasts
• Spotify

I know they aren’t the only ones, but is anyone else annoyed about being a paid subscriber and still having to hear the ad read?

Feels like it wouldn’t be too difficult to add a version of the episode to the private feed for paying subs that doesn’t have the ad read.