Pro-Palestine protests have spread to college campuses across the country. Our social media feeds are flooded with images of chanting students and clashes with police. Meanwhile, Congress has passed a bill to deliver more aid to Israel, and there’s signs that the IDF is about to move on Rafah. In this episode, Shadi explores what it means to stand in solidarity with the protests, while Damir teases out their effect on brass tacks politics The two discuss what the right approach should be toward the anti-Semitic elements in the protests, whether anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism are the same thing, what the Democrats might be thinking, and how Shadi wishes the United States would leverage its relationship with Israel.

In a spicy Part 2 for paid subscribers only, our hosts get into tricky territory while discussing Shadi’s pro-woke turn and the philosophical question of group affinity. In times of crisis, do human beings stand on principle? Or do they rally to their own ethnic or religious side? As Shadi observes: “Wokeness is able to grasp something important about the world that maybe I unfairly dismissed.”

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Required Reading:

* “Anti-Zionism is Deadlier Than Antisemitism,” by Joshua Muravchik (WSJ).

* “Why it matters that some Democrats voted against aid for Israel,” by Shadi Hamid (Washington Post).

* The Arc of the Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People by Walter Russell Mead.

* Matthew Yglesias on X: “It’s interesting that a bunch of people who I read who four years ago were in agreement about the perils of identity politics now sharply disagree about Israel/Palestine and the disagreements exactly track Jewish vs Arab or Muslim backgrounds.”

This week’s episode is a special collaboration with The Disagreement, a new platform that aims to “celebrate and normalize healthy disagreement.” (Check them out!) Wisdom of Crowds is 100% behind that mission statement, and so it was natural for us to agree to record an episode together. Fans of Wisdom of Crowds will know that Shadi has recently completed a book about American power, tentatively titled, “On Power.” Fans will also know that he debated the socialist writer Dan Bessner of the podcast last summer, in our episode titled “Is a Better World Possible Without American Power?” A lot has happened since that episode air, especially in the Middle East. So it’s a good time for Shadi and Dan to consider that question again. Enjoy Hamid v. Bessner, Round 2.

Required Reading and Listening:

Hamid v. Bessner, Round 1: “Is a Better World Possible without American Power?” (Wisdom of Crowds)

Shadi’s recent post about completing his manuscript: “The Art of Losing Well” (Wisdom of Crowds).

The Disagreement homepage.

Christine and Damir kick things off by discussing a memoir about the fall of Communism in Albania. Damir reflects on his own post-Communist background, and ponders why Communist nostalgia affects only some countries, while others are not looking back. He wonders whether Christine is becoming a Communist herself after reading her essay about “Limitarianism,” a school of political thought that favors a cap on extreme wealth. Christine unpacks her own ideas about economic justice and democracy, and considers whether the Communist past in Europe should influence American political ideas for the future.

For paid subscribers, the bonus part of the episode focuses on whether the United States or Europe has the better economic system, and whether European dreams of a “green” economy can survive competition with China.

Required Reading:

* Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi.

* The full story behind Joyce Carol Oates’ infamous tweet.

* Damir’s Monday Note about Lea Ypi’s book.

* Limitarianism by Ingrid Robeyns

* “What Would Society Look Like if Extreme Wealth Were Impossible?” by Christine Emba (The Atlantic)

* “The Price of Peace is Stagnation” by Janan Ganesh (The Financial Times)