VP for Arts&Culture @MiddleEastInst. Believer in the power of art, storytelling & smart policy

Washington, D.C.
Joined April 2009
KateSeelye retweeted
Gadi Eisenkot is the father of the so-called Dahyeh Doctrine used against southern suburbs of Beirut in '06: disproportionate retaliation and destruction of civilian infrastructure to establish deterrence. Then used in Gaza.
I suspect folks may think it’s worse. Because Eisenkot represents a hammer in a satin glove.
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KateSeelye retweeted
This is a must read by Joelle Abi Rashed in @nybooks about Lebanese Jews taken hostage during Lebanon's civil war 1975-1990 and killed in captivity. Israel never negotiated for them at the time but is demanding their bodies now. ‘Natives of the Country’ nybooks.com/online/2026/10/2…
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This is not Gaza. This is Hebron today. The Israeli occupation has begun destroying Palestine’s economic capital, a city that accounts for 75% of the country’s production in the stone and marble, leather and footwear, plastics, glass, oils, dairy, and gold industries. Ethnic cleansing is being inflicted on the Palestinian people everywhere across the land of Palestine.
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KateSeelye retweeted
What more could an author ask for from a reviewer than admitting they were hooked! James Barr in @spectator "It is rare that I keep on reading a book I am reviewing in bed. The Best Kind of American is twisty, dark and gripping, an all-too-real whodunnit." spectator.com/article/theres…
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"Tied up and tortured: Israel using US-made electroshock weapons on Palestinian detainees Investigation suggests American company Axon still supplies Israel with Taser weapons despite evidence they have been used to torture prisoners" theguardian.com/global-devel…
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KateSeelye retweeted
The Israeli military detained ~80 US, Israeli & British volunteers trying to protect Palestinians from Israeli settler violence as they harvest olives near Bethlehem, including a NY congressional nominee, several rabbis and Israel’s former deputy AG. trib.al/n2PMPyV
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US Iran war planners are ‘Convinced’ based on what exactly? Because a third time’s a charm?
"Some US planners are convinced that an intensive three-day campaign could cause enough economic damage to change the Iranian position." You would think they'd have stopped making these kinds of predictions eight months into what was supposed to be a four-or-five-week war nytimes.com/2026/10/21/us/po…
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Tied up and tortured: Israel using US-made electroshock weapons on Palestinian detainees. Axon still supplies Israel with Taser weapons despite evidence they have been used to torture prisoners. 92 Palestinians are reported to have died while in detention theguardian.com/global-devel…
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#Israel's military activities in SW #Syria continue at their highest rate on record -- just days before #Israel's elections. ~300 olive trees were just bulldozed in Sayda al-Hanout, #Quneitra -- killing off generational incomes.
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If you're in the DC area tomorrow please join us at @MiddleEastInst for what will be an insightful discussion!
Join us tomorrow at 10 a.m. at the Middle East Institute for an in-person event launching our new report, The Middle East Beyond the Iran War. @georgetownprof @JasonHCampbell @HelloLauraKelly How has the war reshaped regional power dynamics, altered strategic calculations, and created new risks and opportunities? What are the longer-term implications for the Middle East and beyond? Our report goes beyond the headlines and familiar narratives to explore the war’s less-examined consequences, emerging challenges, and what they mean for the region’s future.mei.edu/events/mei-report-la…
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West Bank today: I watched settlers attack Palestinian farmers: kill livestock… then drove to Taybeh to attacks on French, Belgian and Polish diplomats. The Israeli settlers are heavily armed, coordinated, protected by the @IDF. Totally out of control. apnews.com/article/west-bank…
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Another case of the Israeli Army claiming they fired at a Palestinian running at them "posting a threat" who turns out was running away from them & unarmed. Unfortunately for the IDF, the NYT was on the scene to document the truth. nytimes.com/2026/10/16/world…
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KateSeelye retweeted
Fantastic to see my book on this list of favorites by @nytimes books critics and editors: Get your copies of The Best Kind of American, wherever you buy your books. nytimes.com/2026/10/15/books…
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KateSeelye retweeted
Thrilled to be in @ftweekend with a four-page spread, adapted essay from my new book The Best Kind of American. My research and interviews help reveal the fate of the four Iranians who went missing in Lebanon in July 1982. ft.com/content/838428eb-9618…
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Outrageous attack by settlers on Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine. While at The Post, I copy edited probably hundreds of stories she photographed from Israel, the West Bank and Ukraine, and she is nothing but professional
Masked Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villagers on Friday, setting olive groves on fire and slinging rocks. Caught in the attack was Post photographer Heidi Levine. “They just kept kicking me and kicking me, like probably 50 times,” Levine said. wapo.st/4yt6dHY
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I’ve just returned from another trip to #Syria. There’s a lot of takeaways, but one thing was palpable: The #Iran war has created *profound* regional & economic ripples that have directly challenged #Syria's capacity to meaningfully recover -- for the foreseeable future. 🧵
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KateSeelye retweeted
“Let me die,” American photojournalist Heidi Levine repeats to journalists Jasper Nathaniel as they try to outrun masked Israeli settlers who attacked her on Friday while she covered the olive harvest in the West Bank village of Abu Falah, near Ramallah. Around 80 settlers attacked Palestinian olive harvesters in the village, AP reported. The Palestinian Red Crescent said it treated six people injured in two attacks in Abu Falah. Levine, a freelancer for the Washington Post, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that the settlers knocked her down and kicked her for at least 10 minutes, even after she identified herself as an American journalist. They stole her camera, phone and bag. She was eventually taken to a hospital in Ramallah. "The IDF provided cover, with tear gas and machine guns, while the settlers beat" Levine "nearly to death," Nathaniel wrote, adding that soldiers then shot a Palestinian bystander and aimed their guns at and shoved paramedics trying to treat him. AP photos and circulating videos show Israeli soldiers standing over a wounded Palestinian man after they shot him. Andrey X, an activist also at the scene, said a Palestinian man "saved our lives from the settler-terrorists who attacked the olive harvesters and journalists” armed only with a slingshot.
To be clear, the only reason I was able to reach Heidi was because young Palestinians provided cover with rocks against machine-gun- and tear-gas-wielding settlers and soldiers. It’s those kids, not the settler terrorists, who the IDF was hunting after the attack.
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MEI hosted a panel yesterday on the future of the US AI “stack” in the Middle East. The discussion covered what the American stack includes beyond chips, how the export program is working, the UAE’s A:5 designation, the impact of the Iran war on the region, and how the US can compete with China’s offer. MEI is grateful to moderator @Iyengarish of @ForeignPolicy, Nazak Nikakhtar of @WileyRein, and Ruth Berry of @nvidia for a candid, insightful conversation alongside MEI Senior Fellow @ThisIsSoliman.
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