Bob Schwartz

For those who haven’t heard about NAZA, this Gaza documentary has already been seen by more than 1.5 million people, and will be released in full on the Guardian’s website for free in early December.

Following is the Explainer from the Guardian, which produced the film.

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NAZA: how and where to watch the Guardian’s acclaimed Gaza documentary

Film features testimony from 24 Israeli officials involved in surveillance and remote killing of Palestinian civilians

Where can I watch the film?

NAZA will be released in full on the Guardian’s website for free in early December. Sign up here to be notified of the exact streaming date and to be sent a link to the film when it is live.

NAZA is currently screening in cinemas all over the world. It has been shown by cinemas in 47 countries and seen by more than 1.5 million people since its release last month, making it one of the most-watched documentary films with a theatrical release in 2026. The film has been offered to a number of distributors and cinemas in Israel but has not been screened there yet.

You can watch a trailer here.

What is NAZA about?

NAZA is a documentary featuring testimony from 24 Israeli military intelligence officers and soldiers involved in the surveillance and remote killing of Palestinian civilians during the war in Gaza. The film’s title comes from an Israeli military acronym used euphemistically to refer to civilians expected to be killed in a military attack.

The interviewees detail the methods used by the Israeli military in Gaza, including AI-based systems built to identify large numbers of potential Hamas operatives, who were then bombed in their homes at night, in the knowledge that the attacks would also kill their families.

Interviews were filmed at night on rooftops in Tel Aviv, on the condition of anonymity, because of the risks involved in speaking publicly. The appearance and voices of participants in the film have been digitally altered to disguise their identities.

Who is behind the film?

The film was directed by the Oscar-winning Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor and produced by the Guardian. It builds on revelations first published by the Israeli-Palestinian magazine +972, the Hebrew-language news outlet Local Call and the Guardian newspaper between 2023 and 2025.

Abraham and Szor were two of the four co-directors – with the Palestinians Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal – of No Other Land, which documents the destruction of Masafer Yatta, a village in the occupied West Bank targeted by Israeli forces. It won the Oscar for best documentary in 2025.

How has it been received?

NAZA has received widespread critical acclaim and is selling out in cinemas across the world. The New York Times says it is “tough to watch and impossible to ignore”, while New York Magazine describes it as “one of the most important films of our time”. In a five-star review, the Financial Times says that “journalism and film-making brilliantly entwine”. British Vogue calls NAZA a “brilliant and harrowing film”.

The film won the special jury prize at the Venice film festival in September, where its premiere had a 25-minute ovation – a festival record. In November, it won the best political documentary from the Critics Choice Association.

Why has there been an Israeli backlash?

The film, its directors and their confidential sources have faced fierce attacks from the Israeli government and military. The prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has ordered the attorney general and the head of the Shin Bet security service to reveal the identities of sources interviewed and prosecute them for causing “harm to Israel’s diplomatic and security interests”.

Netanyahu also threatened to strip Abraham and Szor of their citizenship, accusing them of treason. The Israeli military’s chief of staff, Eyal Zamir, said the military would “not allow soldiers to be made targets through lies and blood libels” and would use “every tool at our disposal” against the film.

Far-right groups have vowed to hound the film-makers on their return to Israel and picketed Szor’s family home. Some of the messages included explicit calls for violence, with one protester demanding the “death penalty for traitors”.

The Israeli military claimed there were “substantial errors” in the film and that it had relied on sources who had only a partial picture of the target approval process. It said that while AI was used to help identify targets in Gaza, final decisions on strikes, and the risk of civilian casualties, were signed off by officers.

In response, the team behind the film have revealed they spoke to more than 100 sources with knowledge of the military systems used in the war.

What is NAZA: The Real Story?

The Israeli government is promoting an online film project, called NAZA: The Real Story, which mimics the style of the genuine NAZA film and is hosted on a website called nazadocumentary.com. It is not the real NAZA documentary and has been misleading some viewers.

Initially, the rival film’s website falsely presented itself as a promotional page for NAZA itself, naming Abraham and Szor as the directors, and listing film festivals where the documentary was to be screened. The site now appears as a platform for the rival film, which has been promoted by Israeli embassies.

Ariel Averbuch, an Israeli attorney and army reservist who co-created NAZA: The Real Story, describes it as an “offensive move” to shift the world’s focus from allegations about the Israeli military’s killing of civilians.

Szor and Abraham have addressed the backlash to their documentary. “Our country is doing so much to hide these systems,” Szor said.

NAZA is in cinemas worldwide and will screen for free on the Guardian’s website from early December.

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Everything old is new again?

Not everything. Mostly we don’t keep horses and carriages in our garages. Though many are still using car(riage) engines, a technology more than a century old.

As someone who grew up on vinyl records but has long embraced the evolution of digital audio, it was interesting to watch vinyl become a popular format again, along with the record players for it. Now I hear that audio CDs are also regaining popularity.

Above is an ad from 1977 for the Columbia House record club. Record club subscriptions from major companies like Columbia and RCA were popular, especially with young people. The inducement was an initial bunch of records for a ridiculously low price—maybe 99 cents—followed by regular monthly shipments that would keep coming at higher prices, whether you wanted them or not.

The ad above educated me about something I didn’t realize. I knew you could choose from vinyl, eight-track or cassettes. But I never knew that as late as 1977, or ever, you could order a reel-to-reel tape of an album. In one way I shouldn’t be surprised, because in the 1960s and even in the 1970s, some audio aficionados considered reel-to-reel the ultimate audio experience. Interestingly, some audio experts continue to consider vinyl truer audio than digital.

This all makes me wonder if any of the other formats will enjoy a renaissance. Will we see eight-track and cassette players popular again, installed in our still gas-guzzling cars? If everything old is new again, just maybe.

© 2026 Bob Schwartz

Of the many victories in the midterm elections, this one is the sweetest. Scott Colom has won the U.S. Senate seat in Mississippi, the first black person in that seat since 1874.

You don’t have to be from Mississippi to appreciate this. Plenty of those who are students of American history, society and geography recognize this is special.

But for those of us who have lived in and love Mississippi, this is astonishing. This may not be a final step on the road to making America even greater, but it is a remarkable milestone.

Happy Mississippi Day, America.

We are in a three-crisis era. First Trump, then Covid, then AI.

Decades ago, we also experienced a three-crisis era. First the Great Depression, then World War II, then the atomic bomb.

These eras, then and now, had and have the potential for transformation, or exploitation, or failure.

The earlier set of crises were met with historic response and intervention. That era covered about twenty years. The Depression was met with changes in economic security that led to the growth of a prosperous middle class. The evillest military power in modern times was met by a costly and victorious show of force. A world-destroying weapon was countered by the first lasting global organization, one that has kept us from world war for eighty years.

We were unprepared in the past, in part because the crises were unprecedented. We met the moment. Maybe not perfectly, but we responded well.

It does not appear we have been well prepared for the three crises now, which so far cover about ten years. Just like then, these crises are unprecedented, a word we seem to use a lot these days.

Are we different than the people and institutions then? When we find a way to respond and intervene as beneficially as they did, will we create another unprecedented era of relative peace and prosperity, not just for some, but for many, if not for all?

We did it before. We can do it again.

© 2026 Bob Schwartz

Under normal circumstances, in normal years, in normal America, it would be natural for a party to be talking about prospective nominees in the next presidential election. Politicians would be continuing their various moves, including supportive appearances and funding of candidates in the recent midterm election.

This is not a normal year and not a normal America.

The Democratic party should look on as prospective nominees do whatever they are doing, appear wherever they are appearing, say whatever they are saying. It is a long road to the 2028 nomination and they are walking/running.

But the Democratic party itself should act as if there is no 2028 presidential election. It has a monumental and challenging job to do right now. To the extent that 2028 affects the choices made and the actions taken now, it can shape and compromise the effectiveness of whatever the Democrats are planning. The Democratic party can’t afford distorted best efforts. America can’t afford it.

During the midterm, Trump ironically asked voters to pretend he was on the ballot. They did. We know the result.

Just so, Democrats should pretend there is no 2028 election and get laser-focused on trying to put America back on the right track now. If it succeeds, 2028 will take care of itself. If it doesn’t succeed, or fails spectacularly, 2028 will be the least of the Democratic problems.

© 2026 Bob Schwartz

They will not force us
They will stop degrading us
They will not control us
We will be victorious
–Muse, Uprising

Don’t wanna be an American idiot
One nation controlled by the media
Information age of hysteria
It’s calling out to idiot America
–Green Day, American Idiot

Resistance is a project, not a moment. Let the midterm election victories be a joyful encouragement, an inspiration, a pointer to possibilities. It is not over.

Resistance has a soundtrack. Two of many examples are Uprising (2009) from Muse and American Idiot (2004) from Green Day. There are plenty of others over decades of pop music, from the gentlest and most lyrical to the loudest in your face and up against the wall. (Speaking of moments, less than a year ago, Green Day was allowed to perform American Idiot at the Super Bowl, possibly the most American event, which hinted at how the next election might be turning out.)

Why is resistance forever? Because oppression is forever. Why is resistance music forever? Because when we are listening, singing and dancing together, we are stronger, more resolute and…happier.

Everywhere people ask: ‘What can I actually do?’ The answer is as simple as it is disconcerting: we can, each of us, work to put our own inner house in order. The guidance we need for this work cannot be found in science or technology, the value of which utterly depends on the ends they serve; but it can still be found in the traditional wisdom of mankind.
–E. F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered

Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered was hugely popular when it was published in 1973. At the time many people thought that by cultivating and applying wisdom and discernment, we might temper our natural inclinations towards bigger, better and more, which would benefit ourselves and humanity. More than fifty years later, the message is more important than ever.

Excerpts from the Epilogue:

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In the excitement over the unfolding of his scientific and technical powers, modern man has built a system of production that ravishes nature and a type of society that mutilates man. If only there were more and more wealth, everything else, it is thought, would fall into place. Money is considered to be all-powerful; if it could not actually buy non-material values, such as justice, harmony, beauty or even health, it could circumvent the need for them or compensate for their loss. The development of production and the acquisition of wealth have thus become the highest goals of the modem world in relation to which all other goals, no matter how much lip-service may still be paid to them, have come to take second place. The highest goals require no justification all secondary goals have finally to justify themselves in terms of the service their attainment renders to the attainment of the highest.

This is the philosophy of materialism, and it is this philosophy – or metaphysic – which is now being challenged by events. There has never been a time, in any society in any part of the world, without its sages and teachers to challenge materialism and plead for a different order of priorities. The languages have differed, the symbols have varied, yet the message has always been the same: “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and these things (the material things which you also need) shall be added unto you.’ They shall be added, we are told, here on earth where we need them, not simply in an after-life beyond our imagination. Today, however, this message reaches us not solely from the sages and saints but from the actual course of physical events. It speaks to us in the language of terrorism, genocide, breakdown, pollution, exhaustion. We live, it seems in a unique period of convergence. It is becoming apparent that there is not only a promise but also a threat in those astonishing words about the kingdom of God – the threat that ‘unless you seek first the kingdom, these other things, which you also need, will cease to be available to you’….

We shrink back from the truth if we believe that the destructive forces of the modern world can be ‘brought under control’ simply by mobilizing more resources – of wealth, education, and research – to fight pollution, to preserve wildlife, to discover new sources of energy, and to arrive at more effective agreements on peaceful coexistence. Needless to say, wealth, education, research, and many other things are needed for any civilization, but what is most needed today is a revision of the ends which these means are meant to serve. And this implies, above all else, the development of a life-style which accords to material things their proper, legitimate place, which is secondary and not primary.

The ‘logic of production’ is neither the logic of life nor that of society. It is a small and subservient part of both. The destructive forces unleashed by it cannot be brought under control, unless the ‘logic of production’ itself is brought under control – so that destructive forces cease to be unleashed. It is of little use trying to suppress terrorism if the production of deadly devices continues to be deemed a legitimate employment of man’s creative powers.

Nor can the fight against pollution be successful if the patterns of production and consumption continue to be of a scale, a complexity, and a degree of violence which, as is becoming more and more apparent, do not fit into the laws of the universe, to which man is just as much subject as the rest of creation. Equally, the chance of mitigating the rate of resource depletion or of bringing harmony into the relationships between those in possession of wealth and power and those without is non-existent as long as there is no idea anywhere of enough being good and more than enough being of evil….

It is hardly likely that twentieth-century man is called upon to discover truth that had never been discovered before. In the Christian tradition, as in all genuine traditions of mankind, the truth has been stated in religious terms, a language which has become well-nigh incomprehensible to the majority of modern men…

The type of realism which behaves as if the good, the true, and the beautiful were too vague and subjective to be adopted as the highest aims of social or individual life, or were the automatic spin-off of the successful pursuit of wealth and power, has been aptly called ‘crackpot-realism’. Everywhere people ask: ‘What can I actually do?’ The answer is as simple as it is disconcerting: we can, each of us, work to put our own inner house in order. The guidance we need for this work cannot be found in science or technology, the value of which utterly depends on the ends they serve; but it can still be found in the traditional wisdom of mankind.

–E. F. Schumacher, Small Is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered

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Trump has appointed Stephen Miller his new Chief of Staff. That is all we need to know about Trump’s post-election agenda.

Innocent optimists may have hoped against hope that Trump got a message from the midterm election that would lead to a conciliatory attitude. Most who have observed Trump figured that rather than back down he would double down. That case is now closed.

For me the signal Miller moment comes from the first Trump administration, eight years ago on Rosh Hashanah.

Miller’s former rabbi, the man who presided over his bar mitzvah, excoriated him. The Guardian reported:

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The childhood rabbi to Stephen Miller, special adviser to Donald Trump and a key architect of his “zero-tolerance” immigration policies, criticized his former charge on Monday as a purveyor of “negativity, violence, malice and brutality” who had learned nothing from his Jewish spiritual education.

Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels of Beth Shir Shalom, a progressive reform synagogue in the beachside city of Santa Monica where Miller grew up, devoted his sermon marking the Jewish New Year to a striking denunciation of Miller and the now-abandoned policy he championed of separating immigrant families at the border.

“Honestly, Mr Miller, you’ve set back the Jewish contribution to making the world spiritually whole through your arbitrary division of these desperate people,” the rabbi said. “The actions that you now encourage President Trump to take make it obvious to me that you didn’t get my, or our, Jewish message.

“This is the season of apology, and to get to an apology, shame over past actions is necessary. Some shout at others when they are self-righteous enough: you should be ashamed of yourself! That’s not something I would ever shout or demand.” But Comess-Daniels went on to say it was up to Miller to acknowledge his wrongdoing.

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In the years since, it appears Miller has not gotten the Jewish message, at least not the message that Rabbi Comess-Daniels was teaching and promoting. It appears he has not been ashamed of himself. It appears he has not apologized.

Which makes him the perfect person to execute the Trump post-election agenda as Chief of Staff. Which he now is.

Note: This post is a few days late. Hopefully you didn’t need Uncle Sam to convince you to vote!

“In a dictatorship the government runs the people…But in America the people run the government…With this!”
–Uncle Sam