Probing the Trump-Putin Bromance Mystery

 Published on Portside (https://portside.org/)

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Probing the Trump-Putin Bromance Mystery

https://portside.org/2026-09-25/probing-trump-putin-bromance-mystery

 

Michael Isikoff

 

September 15, 2026

SpyTalk

 

The scene at a U.S. military base in Anchorage, Alaska last year is barely remembered today, but it remains illustrative of one of the confounding mysteries of Donald Trump’s presidency: How to explain his coziness with Vladimir Putin?

 

Trump had invited Putin to Alaska last summer after briefly threatening to impose punitive new sanctions on Russia— including a 100 percent tariff on countries that buy Russian oil-—if he didn’t agree to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine within “ten or twelve days.”

 

But as journalist David Corn* reconstructs their encounter in his new book, How Russia Won: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Fight For America, Trump’s tough-guy bluster melted the moment Putin got off the plane.

 

After Putin strolled down the red carpet that had been laid for him by American soldiers, “the American president extended his hand first. A grinning Putin grasped it. The men shook hands, and Trump patted Putin’s upper arm,” Corn writes. The two authoritarian-minded pals, chatty and smiling, then strolled off together toward a stage bearing a large sign: “Alaska 2025.” Video of the warm encounter went viral.

 

To state the obvious, the “Alaska 2025” summit was hardly a turning point in the savage war in Ukraine caused by Putin’s unprovoked 2022 invasion. After nearly three hours of talks that day at the Alaska air base, Putin emerged to tell the world the meeting had been “constructive.” Trump, for his part, claimed “great progress.”

 

“I’ve always had a great relationship with President Putin, with Vladimir,” Trump told reporters.

 

In fact, the “constructive” Alaska summit was a bust, quickly vanishing down a memory hole filled with failed attempts to stop a war that, barely a year later, only seems to be escalating—and getting more deadly—by the day. One more of these fruitless fool’s errands came just this month when Trump dispatched his two personal negotiators, Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner, to Moscow to revive peace talks in what turned into a mini-replay of Alaska. Putin warmly greeted the pair, asking them “to convey my best wishes and words of gratitude to the president of the United States.” Witkoff gushed to Putin about the “incredible stories and incredible memories” that they will all someday share together, “and yours will be right at the top of it all.” Then, after a stop-over in Kiev to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky (where progress was once again proclaimed) Witkoff and Kushner left the region evidently empty-handed, after which Putin gave his grisly response to the whole charade: a nighttime bombardment of drones and missiles on the Ukrainian capital in what the country’s foreign minister called a “massive and horrific attack.”

 

“His ballistic missiles speak louder than his words on diplomacy,” the minister posted on X.

 

These Groundhog Day performances of getting played by Putin again and again only deepen the riddle of the Trump-Putin bromance, a maddening mystery that poses an endless challenge for diplomats, journalists and historians trying to understand why an American president would be forever accommodating to the brutal dictator of a hostile foreign power.

 

“I’ve always had a great relationship with President Putin, with Vladimir,” Trump said.

It should be stated from the outset that, eight years after questions along these lines first arose during the 2016 presidential election—when Putin’s agents stole Democratic Party emails and then dumped them via Wikileaks to embarrass Hillary Clinton and boost Trump—no credible evidence has emerged that Trump, as some in the counterintelligence and media worlds initially suspected, was some sort of Manchurian candidate who must have been blackmailed or compromised by FSB kompromat. Nor has an allegation that Trump was a recruited KGB asset passed the smell test. Yet suspicions persist about financial entanglements between Russians and Trump and his family – questions that are only likely to intensify in light of the stunning revelation by Propublica this week that an oligarch close to Putin (and who accompanied the Russian president on his recent trip to China) spent hundreds of thousands of dollars bankrolling Donald Trump Jr.’s wedding party in the Bahamas last May.

 

While nothing involving the dark arts of espionage can ever be completely ruled out, there are just as plausible, if less conspiratorial explanations.

 

Trump, the real estate mogul, was always motivated (beyond simply enriching himself) by his insatiable narcissistic desire to build giant monuments to himself. And, as a businessman with a mob boss mentality, he years ago saw forging an alliance with Putin as the most direct route to getting the green light for his decades long dream of erecting a glittering Trump Tower in Moscow.

 

“Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow— if so, will he become my new best friend?” Trump famously tweeted in June, 2013 after announcing he was bringing his beauty pageant to Russia where he was angling to cut a deal with a pro-Putin oligarch to advance his Trump Tower project.

 

After that odd sentiment, we’re in the realm of psychology: Trump, the putative tough guy, is enamored of Putin, the real life tough guy who rules Russia the way he would like to rule America. (The same goes for his seeming affection for Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping.) A CIA behavioral profiler might also point out that Putin— with his take-no-prisoners, always attack, never back down persona—is the modern global master of the dark arts Trump learned from his most influential mentor, Roy Cohn (with whom Putin, in stature and visage, bears a more than passing resemblance). Does Trump, deep down in the recesses of his muddled mind, see Putin as the reincarnated Roy Cohn who, in times of stress, he has always yearned for?

 

But as Corn’s book makes clear, none of this ultimately matters. What does matter is that, time and again, at virtually every key juncture, Trump has coddled and appeased Putin while turning a blind eye to, if not cooperating with, the Russian tsar’s relentless campaign to stir discord in the American body politic and weaken the United States on the global stage.

 

Starting with the 2016 election, Trump brazenly and quite openly sought Russian assistance (“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails [of Hillary Clinton] that are missing,” he said) — while bringing surrogates into his campaign with their own curious connections to Moscow.

 

True enough, special counsel Robert Mueller was unable to find the evidence needed to bring criminal charges of conspiracy between the Russians and Trump or his acolytes. And there was unquestionable overreach by Democrats—playing up, for example, the deeply flawed dossier by ex-British spy Christopher Steele (paid for by the Clinton campaign)— giving Trump all he needed to denounce the whole business as “the Russia hoax.”

 

The Helsinki Moment

 

But political theatrics aside, the most important point is that Trump’s soft spot for the Russian strongman never wavered. Whatever historians ultimately write about Trump’s first term, there will surely be a prominent chapter on the jaw-dropping moment at the 2018 Helsinki conference when, after his pow wow with Putin, Trump told reporters he accepted the Russian dictator’s denial of interfering in the 2016 election over the unanimous conclusion of Kremlin culpability reached by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

 

“He just said it’s not Russia,” the American president said, credulously taking the word of a slippery ex-KGB agent over his own intelligence briefers. “I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be.” As Corn notes, Fiona Hill, the National Security Council’s senior director for European and Russian affairs, was so “gobsmacked” that she “thought about faking a seizure to end this humiliating moment.”

 

What was most significant about that episode however, is that it essentially gave Putin a permission slip to continue his meddling with American democracy. After all the public commotion over Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, there was virtually no Trump administration pushback when Putin’s agents continued their cyber attacks and information warfare campaigns right through the 2020 election and beyond.

 

“President Putin and senior Russian officials are overseeing efforts by proxies” to spread claims about criminal wrongdoing by then Democratic candidate Joe Biden and circulate “narratives about voter fraud resulting from mail-in balloting,” while “conspiring to intensify their efforts” in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, the National Intelligence Council wrote in an Aug. 2020 report entitled “Foreign Threats to 2020 U.S. Federal Elections.” That report, along with a tranche of other documents, was declassified and placed on the White House website just two months ago to back up Trump’s nationally televised speech from the East Room in which he warned about the dangers posed to “election integrity.” He called out the threats from China, Venezuela and voting by non-citizen migrants—and conspicuously said not a word about the far more serious and aggressive efforts by Putin and his minions spelled out in the White House’s own documents.

 

Go Betweens

 

Corn offers up a rogues gallery of the Kremlin cut-outs who have been doing Putin’s bidding inside the United States, groups like “Storm-15016,” an army of cyber warriors affiliated with the Russian Presidential Administration which planted phony stories and videos on YouTube about nefarious Ukrainian plots, and the clandestine operations of two employees of the state-funded RT (formerly Russia Today) who funneled nearly $10 million to a Tennessee-based media company that paid MAGA influencers to post content in sync with what the Biden administration’s Justice Department called “the publicly stated goals of the Government of Russia and RT.”

 

Yet in his second term, Trump has pretended that none of this actually happened—thus taking the whole question of Kremlin disinformation off the table. Then, last year, more than a dozen officials of a Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency office which tracked foreign influence operations that threatened U.S. elections, were fired. Likewise, the State Department office set up to counter “foreign information manipulation” was shut down. The Foreign Malign Influence Center in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence was also targeted for extinction.

 

“If Trump were purposely doing Russia’s bidding, it is hard to see what he would be doing differently,” Corn quotes Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) as saying at the end of his book.

 

It’s a good question, one of many imponderables that will be stumping scholars for decades to come.

 

* I was the co-author with David Corn of the 2018 book, Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump.

 

Michael Isikoff is an award-winning investigative journalist and best-selling author who has reported for The Washington Post, Newsweek, NBC News and Yahoo News. He is now a contributing editor to SpyTalk.

Michael Isikoff is an award-winning investigative journalist and best-selling author who has reported for The Washington Post, Newsweek, NBC News and Yahoo News.

 

SpyTalk is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. You can take out a free trial here.

 

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Source URL: https://portside.org/2026-09-25/probing-trump-putin-bromance-mystery 

To be continued

 

Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212.  Ph.: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/.

 

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs

Can the cinema save the world?

 Can the cinema save the world?

MAXIMILIAN obuszewski<mobuszewski2001@comcast.net>

On September 4, Janice and I watched Irene's Vow on Netflix. It tells a version of the life of Irene Gut, a Polish nurse. Just before Hitler and Stalin decided to carve up Poland, she enrolled in nursing school. While she was hiding during the invasion, Russian soldiers discovered her and she was beaten and raped. Later she was forced to work in a munitions factory during the German occupation.  During the occupation, the law was that if a Pole helped a Jew, s/he would be executed.  Nevertheless, Gut helped Jews by secretly taking food to the ghetto and even hiding them.  This is a well-acted film where everyone had to make a choice.  Do you resist the occupiers? Do you ignore cries of help? Do you ignore the occupier's rules? Do you keep your head down and hope you survive the war? It was directed by Louise Archambault and stars Sophie Nélisse as Irena Gut.  Gut has to repeatedly think on her feet and make the least-worst decision.  Janice was 16 when her mother named Irena died.  

 

 On September 6 at 4 PM we joined some 100 filmgoers at the SNF Parkway Theatre, 5 W. North Avenue, Baltimore to see AMERICAN DOCTOR — a compelling film about three American doctors — Palestinian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian — who enter Gaza to save lives and find themselves confronting the complicated intersection of medicine, politics, and truth. The screening was followed by a Q&A with director Poh Si Teng, a U.S. citizen from Malaysia. 

 

 A former Al Jazeera journalist who had trouble getting funding for a documentary about the genocide in Gaza. She used up her life savings, $150,000, but more was needed to complete the documentary. She was able to raise an additional $200,000 in donations during trips to Malaysia. 

 

 A crucial decision was made early in the filming to show the carnage, including the killings of babies and many other children.  I survived surgery on August 13 and had excellent care.  If you were injured in Gaza, the hospitals which were deliberately being targeted, lacked basic medical supplies.  An amputation might take place without sedation. The film focuses on three doctors who tried to bring in supplies despite the IDF's aim to withhold medical supplies and other necessities.  

 

 This film marks her directorial debut. She utilized two Gaza-based cinematographers, Ibrahim Al Otla and Christopher Renteria. They were embedded with the doctors while they faced food shortages and the threat of bombardment. They uploaded footage daily via a balcony at Nasser Hospital that was later destroyed in an Israeli strike that killed 22 people including journalists and medical workers.

 

 AMERICA DOCTOR has footage of the doctors and others going on lobbying visits in D.C. Having been to Chuck Schumer's office, I knew the delegation would be met with disdain.  Many legislators have Israeli flags outside their officers, as well as photographs of Israelis killed by Hamas.  They did not see any photographs of martyred Palestinian women or children.  The documentary also makes the point that the hospitals and medical personnel were intentionally targeted. There was some push back by the media hosts who accepted the Israeli propaganda that terrorists were at the hospitals.  The doctors strongly denied the allegations. 

 

 One of scenes in the documentary which was most disturbing was when President Trump placed his arm around Prime Minister Benjamin Netayahu after his address to Congress.  Trump trumpeted that "we" have been sending many bombs to Israel.  And these bombs have been effective.  The camera cuts into a bomb blowing up a residential area in Gaza.   

 

 By happenstance, I was the first to address the director. Thank you for this wonderful documentary.  Thank you for bringing tears to my eyes.  And thank you for including Dr. Terry Fitzgerald, a member of Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility, who lives in Baltimore.  To the audience, I indicated that Terry addressed the doctors from the film at a Jewish Voice for Peace convention. I pointed out that from 1977 to 1981, I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana, which borders South Africa.  I became quite aware of apartheid in South Africa.  While I was in Africa, Israel aided the white-minority government in South Africa to obtain the apartheid bomb.

 

 In 1989, I was part of a human rights delegation to Israel/occupied Palestine organized by the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.  It became clear that I witnessed Israeli apartheid.  At that time, I was able to travel to Gaza, where I visited Al-Shifa Hospital which was bombed in the film, Jabalia, Rafah and Khan Yunis.  I was taken into custody by Shin Bet and interrogated in my boxer shorts.

 

 On April 9, 2024, Janice and I were arrested with 62 others shouting Free, Free Palestine in the Dirksen Senate Office Building Cafeteria.  I look forward to your next documentary of the IDF attacks on Palestinian media.  Thank you for this opportunity to speak.

 

 Another audience member asked a question about the comparison between Gaza and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  The director indicated she is unable to quantify such an answer.

 

 Finally, I am including another unpublished letter-to-the-editor of The Baltimore Sun about Mark Ruffalo.  He is one of my favorite actors--Dark Waters, Spotlight, The Kids Are All Right, All the Light We Cannot See and Foxcatcher.

 

Letters to the Editor

 

THE SUN

 

Talkback@baltimoresun.com

 

To the editor:

 

I have enjoyed very much Mark Ruffalo’s work as an actor and have been impressed by his social consciousness. So of course I have been following the allegations that he is antisemitic: “Jewish artists defend Mark Ruffalo amid Paramount’s allegations of antisemitism” [September 3, 2026, The Baltimore Sun].     

 

Of course, antisemitism exists and must be condemned.  However, when Larry Ellison, a financial supporter of President Donald Trump, makes such an allegation, I am very suspicious. Ellison is engaging in a right-wing takeover of media outlets. This controversy revolves around the fact that Ellison’s Oracle is assisting Israel in the killing of noncombatant Palestinians.  Ruffalo made his point that there is an ongoing genocide in Gaza, which is no different than what innumerable human rights groups have said.  The list is long—Amnesty International, the United Nations Commission, B’Tselem, Physicians for Human Rights and others.

 

I was impressed by the list of Jewish artists supporting Ruffalo, including Joel Coen, Tony Kushner, Todd Haynes and Sarah Kuntsler.  The group’s letter made this conclusion: “It is, for us, the very essence of Jewish ethical duty.”

 

Kagiso, Max

 

Baltimore

 

410-323-1607

 

Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212.  Ph.: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/.

 

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs

I just want to wash that cancer right out of my hair

 Friends,

 

I cannot sing, but I am hearing Mitzi Gaynor singing Rodgers and Hammerstein's Wash That Guy Right Out of My Hair. I know the feeling, but it is about cancer, not a guy.

 

Eventually, I plan to update you on my surgery on August 13 and its aftermath.  At this juncture, I’ve lost 18 pounds and continued to be anemic. Nevertheless, I feel healthy. This write-up begins the day I had a port installed.

 

On September 9, Janice and I arrived around 10 AM at the Surgi Center in Owings Mills, Maryland.  Sitting in the waiting room, I received a call from Charlie, a peace activist and a fellow basketball player at BYKOTA Senior Center in Towson.  He called to express his concern about my situation. However, he is recovering from shoulder replacement surgery and symptoms related to glaucoma. I am just suffering a bit of discomfort, as the five incisions in my stomach heal.

 

 I am called. I remove my clothes and put on a surgical gown. While my vitals were being checked, there was a question.  Where was the insertion of a subcutaneous port to be? 

 

I remarked that my oncologist said it should be by the clavicle.  The two nurses laughed and said I have two.  The presumption on my part was to do it on my left side, away from my dominant arm. Once the IV was in place, I walked over to a hospital bed. I was questioned about my medications. I stopped taking Eliquis, a blood thinner. I finished the Tylenol prescribed after the August 13^th surgery and did not take my blood pressure or cholesterol medications that morning. I was fasting from food and water.  Electric blankets were placed on each lower leg to prevent blood clots.

 

 A physician came over to check on me.  I found out she was born in Nigeria but has not visited her family there since 2017.  I mentioned that I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana from 1977 to 1981.  I had a layover in Lagos, Nigeria, and customs officials pulled me aside and took me to a room.  They wanted a bribe, but before departing for Africa, I pledged I would pay no bribes. I asked to see the U.S. ambassador and was eventually allowed to continue my journey.  The doctor indicated she was born in Lagos.

 

This request for a bribe occurred three other times during my African sojourn.  I was on another flight heading north, which landed in Kinshasa, Zaire, a notoriously corrupt country. Fortunately, I was allowed back on the plane despite my unwillingness to pay up. One time, another Peace Corps volunteer and I hitchhiked from Botswana to Lusaka, Zambia. There we boarded the rail line, built by the Chinese, to travel more than a thousand miles to Tanzania to climb Mount Kilimanjaro.  We ignored the pressure tactic from the conductor and did not pay a bribe. Finally, I was in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and a guard requested a “donation.” He had the wrong pigeon. 

 

Just before being taken to surgery, I met different members of the team, including the surgeon, Arthur Affleck.  He is a colorectal surgeon who specializes in installing ports for cancer victims.  I informed Dr. Affleck that I was told he was the best. 

 

He mentioned that his partner, Dr. Joshua Wolf, did my surgery at Sinai Hospital.  I told him I called my colon cancer trump and was thankful that Dr. Wolf removed the malignancy. He laughed, so I told him that just before going into surgery at Northwest Hospital for a scoping of my sigmoid colon, I was asked about my dream.  I said my dream was to walk into the White House to tell Trump it is time to go.

 

During this odyssey, which started in November 2025, very few members of the medical community would discuss politics.  So, it was refreshing to know that Dr. Affleck recognized Trump as a fascist.

 

 He informed Janice and me that during residency in Texas, the good old boys would want the port installed away from their shooting arm.  We informed him that, as peace activists, we had no guns in the house. I suggested installing the port on my left side.

 

 I was then wheeled down the corridor to a room packed with electronic equipment. There, a nurse placed an oxygen mask over my nose and mouth. The surgery team used sedation, not anesthesia, which allowed me to recover much more easily. I remember someone saying Give him 140 something or other. Maybe an hour later, I started to reach some form of consciousness.  Dr. Affleck let me know that he could not insert the port on the left.  So instead, I have a very secure bandage covering the port on my right side. 

 

 Since it took a few hours for the sedation to wear off, Janice was the driver.  We stopped to purchase Tylenol.  During breakfast around 4 PM, I experienced some discomfort just holding up a coffee cup in my right hand. Soon thereafter, I slept for several hours.  Tylenol presumably is helping, as I am only experiencing discomfort.

 

 My chemotherapy will begin on September 23 at the Maryland Oncology Hematology in Eldersburg with an injection of XELOX [oxaliplatin] through the port into a vein.  The next day, I will begin a fourteen-day regimen of first taking three capsules of CAPOX [capecitabine] 30 minutes after a meal, and later two capsules 30 minutes after a meal. This treatment is being pursued to prevent cancer cells from dividing and growing and can cause the cancer cells to shrink and die. Then I have a week off to recover before the next XELOX injection. 

 

I will get anti-nausea medication from my pharmacy, but the heavy-duty drugs will be mailed to me. I do not know how long the procedure will continue. Presumably, after every three weeks, a blood test will be ordered to determine the efficacy of the process.

 

  One supporter just told me that his brother’s wife is going to get chemotherapy and radiation before the surgery takes place.  It seems her malignancy has broken through her colon.  When I hear or read about others going through such traumatic situations, I realize how fortunate I am.  Through all the procedures and the surgeries, I have had little pain. My support community is from Erie, PA, down to Key West, and from the East to California, and places in between.  What comes next is another adventure.  How will I handle chemotherapy?  Stay tuned for another report. Kagiso, Max    

 

Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212.  Ph.: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/.

 

 "The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs

 

This is why Janice and I will see the documentary Three Doctors because of "Zulm"

 

The SNF Parkway Theatre, 5 W. North Avenue, Baltimore on Sun., Sept. 6 at 4 PM will screen AMERICAN DOCTOR — a compelling film about three American doctors — Palestinian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian — who enter Gaza to save lives and find themselves confronting the complicated intersection of medicine, politics, and truth. The screening is followed by a Q&A with director Poh Si Teng. Get your tickets at snfparkway.org!

 

By Jonathan Kuttab

 

The Arabic word “zulm” is usually translated as “injustice” and comes from the same root as “zalam” (darkness), which describes a situation of such overwhelming oppression that it cries out to the highest heaven. It is a situation of outraged frustration bursting with bitter anger at the impunity of those in power and their sneering delight for the suffering they cause, of their arrogant dismissal of the rights of the oppressed, and the lack of recourse or accountability for the victims who can only appeal to the Ruler of the Universe against the zulm. Ultimately, zulm is a much more powerful and evocative term than our usual protests about “human rights violations.”

 

Examples of zulm, both large and small, abound in Palestine today:

 

It is zulm that Palestinians cannot access their lands, as they are invaded and ravaged by marauding “grazing outposts” of settlers who drive their sheep and cattle right up to the doors of Palestinian homes. These settlers brazenly steal Palestinians’ sheep, destroy their crops and deny Palestinians access to their fields, all under the watchful eyes of Israeli soldiers.

 

It is zulm when those who dare to insist on filing complaints with the Israeli Police (located inside settlements) are themselves arrested and harassed.

 

It is zulm when thousands of Palestinians are imprisoned without charge or trial in Israeli torture centers, where their very humanity is denied and where they are routinely beaten, humiliated, denied adequate food, hot water, exercise, basic sanitary conditions and where over 80 prisoners have died in prison since the war on Gaza started.

 

It is zulm that I hear from my friend who was recently released from prison about having lost about 1/3 of his body weight and having to endure an operation on his leg without anesthesia to save it from amputation, after scabies had ravaged his foot. This same foot was severely beaten by the guards when he dared to complain about it.

 

It is zulm when more and more iron gates are erected at all entrances and side roads to Palestinian towns and villages. These gates are closed arbitrarily, from time to time forcing lengthy delays, detours and expensive transportation costs for no apparent reason.

 

It is zulm when Gaza, even after three years of genocide, continues to suffer a devastating siege as its people are squeezed into smaller and smaller areas. The people have no means of living a normal life, having to struggle daily for food, fresh water, shelter, medicine, and a place to go to the bathroom, much less privacy, education and anything resembling normal life. 

 

It is a zulm when over a thousand Gazans have been killed after a “ceasefire” was declared, where they cannot even fly kites and balloons but Israel freely rains bombs and missiles on their helpless tent encampments.

 

It is zulm when an area with the highest number of child amputees in the world is denied crutches, prosthetics, wheelchairs, and anesthesia for their struggling medical facilities.

 

It is zulm when Doctors, nurses, and health workers, like Dr. Aby Safiya, continue to languish in Israeli jails with no trial or accusation other than that they continued to serve their patients after being ordered to abandon them.

 

It is zulm when Israel literally razes tens of Lebanese villages to the ground and brags about it with little or no response from the world community, as it continues to flout international law.

 

It is zulm to place an entire population under the control of a strict permit/license regime, whereby each aspect of their lives, including movement, education, residence, economy and culture, is subject to the arbitrary control of their enemies. It is doubly a zulm if, after begging, waiting, and hoping for a coveted permit to meet an essential need, that permit is denied without any reason being given. 

 

Sabeel founder Rev. Naim Ateek wrote Justice and Only Justice: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation, the seminal book whose teachings comprise the guiding principles upon which the work of FOSNA is based according to its Statement of Purpose. Another way of putting it is that our mission is to do our best to ameliorate or remove the zulm which has become such a basic feature of Palestinian life.

 

The author is with Friends of Sabeel North America.

 

Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212.  Ph.: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/.

 

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs

Staying active

 Friends,

 

Despite my precarious health situation. I am trying to stay involved.  Today, for example, Janice and I attended the Tuesday vigil across from Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus at 33rd and N. Charles Sts. in Baltimore.  The current theme is to condemn Trump World for its cruel positions, including the treatment of immigrants, the wars against Canada and Iran, and the outrageous military and nuclear arsenal budgets. The temperature during the vigil was 96 degrees.  We stayed in the shade.

 

Also, I continue to submit letters to the Baltimore Sun.  Occasionally I manage to get one published.  The one below is too hot to handle and was not published. Kagiso, Max

 

Letters to the Editor

 

THE SUN

 

Talkback@baltimoresun.com

 

To the editor:

 

It was the title of an article which I have seen way too much: “Israeli strikes kill 5 in Gaza, 3 in West Bank” [August 29, 2026, The Baltimore Sun]. It is cruel to call this phase in the onslaught against the Palestinians a “ceasefire.” According to the article, “at least 1,303 Palestinians” have been killed in “repeated airstrikes.”    

 

This ongoing tragedy is also taking place in the West Bank.  It was chilling to read this: “at least 87 Palestinians have been killed in attacks by settlers and soldiers this year.” This was followed by an astonishing statistic: “Three Israelis have been killed in 2026.”

 

This raises a question: When will the Israeli government recognize that this ongoing onslaught is tarnishing its image?  For the sake of both sides, I hope it is tomorrow.

 

Kagiso, Max

 

Baltimore

410-323-1607

Baltimore Activist Alert -- August 5 - 9, 2026

 27] Women leading nonviolent actions -- August 5

28] Hiroshima/Nagasaki remembrances – August 5 & 8

29] Hear from Indivisible founders – August 6

30] Corporate involvement in genocide – August 6

31] Get on the overpass – August 6

32] Hiroshima/Nagasaki remembered – August 6

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27] – The Women of AFCFP office@afcfp.org are hosting a forum on Wed., Aug. 5 at 1 PM ET with women leading nonviolent action in Palestine, Israel, and beyond. Hear directly from the women protecting communities and building a more just future. Women on the Frontlines of Change: Building Just Peace Through Co-Resistance.  Register at https://secure.everyaction.com/izyCnJcwKUmZs8MGfmPpyw2?contactdata=S%2fg+7pv+rLXnR265775rKoAZl7+ijhVpsc+d8HTmKvfpDjcbn98Jp3ipgm0QrRS8KYV+mWAMmGDUxQOrWBH%2fbaqesVu2OYINpF%2fdT8MuldPeSUVeCgkjt6i+rtjbyAjln7K%2fdkxi5WFr3LdAmFzBb1bpiL6y3AHTMrN9%2fm+bFtP53HtVe0eWGHsp0EKtNhTOflTduM8KJQnSoKctjQuV0Ow6aQmvR+PpAwVEzSCzAAUfQi2+RYlwS14Tfw%2fIfopCQfQhxLLhCIFYcoNt6q313A%3d%3d&emci=87f8d87a-0990-f111-b337-000d3a1558ce&emdi=d1ba891f-0f90-f111-b337-000d3a1558ce&ceid=8142762

28] – John Steinbach johnsteinbach1@verizon.net is inviting you to the commemorations of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, The Hiroshima Nagasaki Peace Committee will commemorate the exact moments of the destruction of Hiroshima & Nagasaki. On Wed., Aug. 5 at 7 PM, there will be a Zoom discussion with the theme “Lessons Learned from the Nuclear Disarmament Struggle.” Several activists involved in organizing the mass movement in 1982 culminating in the Central Park Rally which led to ratification of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Force Treaty in 1987.

On Sat., Aug. 8 at 9:45 PM, gather on the sidewalk in front of St. John’s Church, 1625 H St. NW, WDC, across from Lafayette Park for a Nagasaki candlelight vigil. For the August 5^th Zoom see below: Join our Cloud HD Video Meeting:  The Meeting ID is 837 0779 3444  See the one tap mobile at +16468769923,,83707793444# US 

29] – Each Thursday from 3 to 4 PM ET, Indivisible co-founders Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin host a virtual event to talk about important news of the week and how we can make real change in our own communities. The chaos out of the White House is meant to overwhelm us. This is people-powered politics in real time. Questions can be submitted via the Q&A function during the live event.  This event will continue through Dec. 17. RSVP at https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/874938/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=_20260518

30] – The Israel-U.S. genocide in Gaza is not just the work of governments. It is also fueled by corporations that profit from death and destruction. For years, calls to officials have been met with silence, deflection, or outright lies, all while corporations that fund and supply the war machine continue to operate in silence. On Thurs., Aug. 6 from 3:30 to 4 PM ET, engage in collective action to demand accountability from the companies involved. These companies rely heavily on public perception and a smooth workday to maximize their profits. Begin with a brief orientation to the purpose of the calls, a review of the call script, and clear instructions on whom to contact and how to do so. Email makayla@codepinkalert.org. RSVP at https://www.codepink.org/cp86?utm_campaign=august_member_newsletter_2026&utm_medium=email&utm_source=codepink

31] – On Thurs., Aug. 6 at 4 PM, join a banner drop at W. Gude Drive at the 270 Overpass, Rockville 20850. RSVP at https://www.mobilize.us/indivisible/event/939739/?followup_modal_context=organization_newsletter_custom_recommendations

Every Thursday from 4 to 5 PM, the Banner Brigade hangs a central message over 270 to the honks and waves of commuters. This event will continue through Oct. 29. Feel free to bring your own sign to display or use one that’s available, or just wave and enjoy the music and our common goal to end this madness!

32] – For the 42nd year, Baltimore’s peace community is commemorating the atomic destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9.  The theme is to look back to see if we can learn from the past and prevent the use of nuclear weapons. On Aug. 6 gather from 5 to 5:30 PM at 33rd & N. Charles St. across from John Hopkins University, the #1 school of mass destruction.  Urge JHU to renounce weapons research. At Homewood Friends meeting house, 3107 N. Charles St., gather for a vegetarian potluck dinner.  The program will begin at 6:30 PM.  A booklet has been produced, and will be available, detailing a sampling of Baltimore’s historic peace with justice activities.  Hear from speakers who have been involved in the struggle.    

The commemoration on August 9 will also take place at Homewood Friends meetinghouse starting at 5:30 PM. Watch a documentary with Daniel Ellsberg, source of The Pentagon Papers and author of The Doomsday Machine—An Ordinary Insanity. A JHU grad student will do a presentation about the research she has done regarding the university’s involvement in mass murder weapons at the JHU Applied Physics Laboratory.  Following the Q&A, light refreshments will be available. Organizations involved in the commemorations are Preventnuclearwar-Maryland, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, Homewood Friends Meeting, Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility & Maryland Peace Action. For more information, text 410-499-8899.

To be continued

Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212.  Ph.: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/.

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs