Biden’s Middle East Burden

David Remnick reports from Israel. Plus: Martin Scorsese on leaving the studio system; Jane McAlevey’s labor triumphs; and the towering poetry of Louise Glück. View in browser | Update your preferences Tuesday, October 17, 2023 In today’s newsletter, an unrelenting sense of alarm, and then: • Richard Brody interviews Martin Scorsese • Jane McAlevey’s labor triumphs • The towering poetry of Louise Glück Biden’s Middle East Burden Visiting Israel, the President will express support for a traumatized nation, but he must also try to steer it from the blindness of rage. Photograph by Amir Levy / Getty Reporting from Israel, David Remnick shares the scenes of grief and shock that he witnessed during the funeral he attended for a family of five—a mother and father, and their three teen-age children—who were among the fourteen hundred Israelis killed by Hamas fighters on October 7th. “All over the country, in recent days, it has been like this, funeral after funeral, with more to come,” he writes. The ceremony took place just a half hour’s drive from the Gaza Strip, where Israeli air strikes have been under way for days. “Estimates of the number of Palestinians killed since the massacre have climbed above three thousand,” Remnick notes. “It is hardly an exercise in rhetorical ‘equivalence’ to observe that in Gaza, too, there are constant funerals, shattered families, civilians living in dread.” Remnick has heard expressions of intense anguish and anger from Israelis and Palestinians during the past few days. “Amid such suffering,” he writes, “it seems almost obscene to turn to politics, especially in an era when politics are so often an arena of debasement. But politics, or, better, statecraft is precisely what is needed now to avoid even greater catastrophe—and even greater catastrophe is sure to follow heedless decisions born of rage.” Read the story Support The New Yorker’s award-winning journalism. Subscribe today » From the News Desk Persons of Interest How Jane McAlevey Transformed the Labor Movement The renowned organizer and theorist has a terminal-cancer diagnosis. But she has long been fighting the clock. By Eleni Schirmer Persons of Interest A Russian Journalist’s Pained Love for Her Country In a new book, Elena Kostyuchenko attempts to work through how she missed—or, rather, failed to adequately react to—Russia’s descent into fascism. By Joshua Yaffa The Front Row Martin Scorsese on Making “Killers of the Flower Moon” Photograph by Philip Montgomery The director speaks with the critic Richard Brody about making movies outside the studio system, finding the right way to tell a story about a murder on Osage tribal land, and his years of collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio. “Now, Leo likes—I told him many times, I said, Your face is a cinema face,” Scorsese explains. “I said, You can do silent films. You don’t need to say that or this, just your eyes do it, move, whatever you do, he just has it—but I do know he likes to speak in films.” Read more » Culture Dept. Page-Turner Louise Glück, Remembered by Writers Henri Cole, Elisa Gonzalez, Jiayang Fan, Katy Waldman, Kevin Young, and Hilton Als commemorate the Nobel-winning poet. By The New Yorker The Front Row “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” Is Intimate, Colossal, and Slightly Disappointing Swift is a melodramatist in the best sense, distilling what’s extraordinary in ordinary life, but the movie falls short of her fascinating aesthetic. By Richard Brody Listening Booth Nanci Griffith’s Lone Star State of Mind The late singer-songwriter rarely felt at home either in her native Texas or in the music industry, but her nostalgic ditties of girlhood captured a potent sense of place. By Rachel Syme Fun & Games Dept. Daily Shouts Monthly Baby-Milestone Pics That Aren’t Total B.S. Such a huge miracle in such a small person! By Emily Flake and Julie Kling Crossword A Moderately Challenging Puzzle “The Dancing Couple” painter Jan: five letters. By Aimee Lucido Daily Cartoon Tuesday, October 17th By Ellis Rosen Name Drop: Which entrepreneur nicknamed his eldest two children Dot and Dash, after the Morse code signals? Play our moguls and money-makers quiz pack. P.S. During their conversation, Martin Scorsese and Richard Brody discuss the making of the director’s frightening thriller “Shutter Island,” which was divisive upon its release, in 2010. Brody has long championed the film—“Scorsese lets his crazies out with a torrential, terrifying ferocity,” he wrote at the time—and it makes for a perfect spooky-season watch or rewatch. Today’s newsletter was written by Ian Crouch. Thanks for reading. Let us know your thoughts about today’s edition. Plus, browse more newsletters and invite a friend to sign up. You’re receiving this e-mail because you signed up for the daily newsletter from The New Yorker. Manage your preferences | View our Privacy Policy | Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2023. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.