24 Comments
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Steve S's avatar

The Scroll is an excellent source of analysis and top notch reporting on the Middle East and what is going on with Trump and his administration. Too bad one can't subscribe to it separately from the overpriced Tablet subscription, to which I willingly donated as I could afford. Much of this analysis will now go unread. Sad.

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Jesse Heath's avatar

Why do they ignore such a reasonable request?

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Steve S's avatar

Truly baffling.

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Alan's avatar

Turns out Trump is a weenie. He can't bring peace to Ukraine and Russia because Putin knows he's all talk. Iran and Hamas are going to string him along till Witkoff gives them all they want because he wants the same thing. Rather than look like the fool he is for hiring Witkoff, Trump will go along with the loss and claim victory even while Israel is on the verge of actual victory in Gaza. I thought Trump knew you have to stand up to bullies but he's proving me wrong. I guess it's not the worst case. We have no idea how to win anyway. We'd end up giving them 'democracy' and they'd immediately adopt Shariah law and become failed states like Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Philip Carl Salzman's avatar

This is not over. You are jumping to conclusions.

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Duane Oyen's avatar

Look at the new NSC staff and who runs things. The conclusions don't look too promising.

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Elias Sion *'s avatar

I too would give whenever I could, and encouraged everyone I know to read Tablet. I'm heartbroken. Fair enough it takes money to produce something this good, but $25 si 2-5X higher than other subscriptions,and I don't really need a print issue (definitely feeling pressured to pay for something I can't afford). What's worse and truly baffling (alarming) to me is why Tablet would want to so drastically cut its reach instead of broadening it. Their articles can't even be shared. Another win for The New York Times. Huge loss for me. I love Tablet and the Scroll.

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Capitan Kitty's avatar

Goodbye … I don’t expect the Scroll to last much more than a couple years at this point …

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Duane Oyen's avatar

This is generally good stuff, but, please, every single on-line publication, plus every freelance Substack writer has suddenly decided that reading about 10 articles a year is worth $10 a month to subscribe. Maybe if about 10 of them banded together and one subscription covered them all. But sorry, all these individual subscriptions are not worth the cost. You have two choices: get your message out to be broadly heard and influencing popular opinion, or collect a fee from a tiny group. Goodbye starting next week.

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Tom Sime's avatar

I have Jewish friends who crossed over to vote for Trump for the sake of Israel. They got played by the Grifter. It's really his only skill.

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Clever Pseudonym's avatar

too soon to tell—and highly doubtful Trump would be worse in re Jews and Israel than Kamala, who "studied the maps" lol and knew the IDF shouldn't go into Rafah, where shortly thereafter they killed Sinwar. Commander-in-Chief Harris would have been less competent than Captain Crunch.

The writing is on the wall, Trump or not, liberal Dems are either Hamasniks or their sympathizers and if anyone is going to lift a finger to help Israel or to protect American Jews, it will have to be a Republican. Dems had their chance and fumbled it.

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ExCAhillbilly's avatar

Kamala would be easier to manipulate than a half dead guy with Dementia, but the Dems would have tried to make her a Saint. Every loss would be spun as a win.

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Deep Turning's avatar

They're learning how shallow Trump is and how he's become the captive of his own movement and gaggle of charlatan "influencers."

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Elias Sion *'s avatar

As devastating as this Admin. has become re Israel/Qatar, I have no regrets: Kamala/Dems were so obviously, and still are, without question. the wrong choice, especially terrible for Jews, especially for those who think Jews and everyone else should have equal protections under the law, who believe DEI has been disastrous for the country and that the Hamasniks and AOC et al are the wrong course for our democracy. Jews were fools to vote for them - that was stunningly clear to me.

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Deep Turning's avatar

I saw the Qatar angle last summer, as I could see Trump 2 emerging as less populist and more oligarch/autocrat, fully confirmed since November. The Witkoff aspect was also emerging. The Dems already are in the clutches of billionaire donors and the far left causes they fund, some in alliance with Qatari front groups--the same Qatar that Trump is now courting. What's a small-d democrat to do?

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Clever Pseudonym's avatar

never trust any politician under any circumstances

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Donald Gluck's avatar

President Trump has been going on about how Putin has changed. He was no longer the good guy he knew. General Jack Keane took that apart this morning (May 27) on Mornings with Maria (without naming Trump). He described all the civilian deaths in Grozny as Putin destroyed a city of half a million. Then he went on with the Russian carpet bombing of Aleppo, Syria.

Trump, apparently, knew nothing of either. Can we say that he has no historical background, and just wants to make DEALS?

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Duane Oyen's avatar

It is quite common for a president to look in the mirror and believe that he, uniquely, has charm and razzmatazz that will persuade foreign leaders to ignore their own interests and submit. Wilson was really the first, followed by FDR (who was completely fooled by Uncle Joe), Carter, Clinton, Obama, to an extent Biden, and now Trump. Reagan and the Bushes did not share that hubris. I fear how bad things will be now with Donald Jr, JDV, and Tucker Carlson running our foreign policy.

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Chris Robinson's avatar

I will miss the Scroll, I still think leaving Substack is a mistake, I modest subscription to it would be very nice, the high cost of Tablet, well, not for me thanks. Best of luck to you.

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Lisa Simmons's avatar

The Scroll isn’t exactly transparent about its readership size. I wonder why they decided to go this route. I wonder whether whoever is funding them demanded they make this change. $250 seems insane to me. The New Yorker charges about $70, I think, and they have in-depth, original reporting.

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Shawn Spilman's avatar

Ukraine needs to do to Russia what Russia has been doing to Ukraine. Moscow is less than 500 miles from Kiev. When Ukrainian munitions start falling on Moscow, the war in Ukraine will stop. If it doesn't, and Russia instead retaliates with nuclear weapons, so be it, and let Ukraine nuke them into history where they belong.

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Philip Carl Salzman's avatar

Ukraine had many nuclear arms, but at the demand of the USA, it gave them up and received a "security guarantee" that its sovereignty would be respected, signed by the US and Russia. The moral: words and signatures on a paper do not provide security. Result: Ukraine has no nuclear weapons.

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Marc Svetov's avatar

You believe Ukraine has nuclear weapons? When did that happen? Russia does … that’s crazy talk …

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Deep Turning's avatar

Ukraine had, not has. There were four nuclear successor states to the Soviet Union in the 1990s, Ukraine, Russia, Byelorussia, and Khazakstan. Ukraine gave theirs up for the security guarantee. The worry at the time was proliferation.

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