Protecting the Peace
The Week in Review: September 22, 2025
President Trump made headlines this week for brokering a peace plan between Israel and Hamas. Daniel McCarthy lauded Trump as a “man of peace”: “Without turning his back on Israel, Trump has given the Palestinians, the Arab world, and indeed Europe a chance to bring about the two-state solution they would all prefer to see.” Yet McCarthy insists that the plan “calls for neighbors, the Arab states in particular, to make sure Gaza doesn’t remain a tinderbox.”
With a broader historical scope in mind, Heather Penatzer’s applause for the plan was a bit more cautious: “The Gaza plan revives a form of governance that has often proven fragile in practice. Its success will hinge not on Trump’s ambitions, but on whether the architects of the Board of Peace can learn from past failures to craft a transitional administration that is both legitimate and finite.” Penatzer goes on to warn—alongside McCarthy—that “cooperation with regional actors will be essential to ensure that the transitional administration retains its legitimacy.”
Indeed, we’d be wise to approach any solutions or systems that rely on overly-centralized forms of power operating at a far remove from where it is exercised—however noble—with a healthy degree of skepticism. In their Compact debut, Michelle Braunstein and Dean Merlino argued that the paternalistic policies engendered by #girlboss-style feminism paved the way for the “alpha-male state.”
They echo Penatzer and McCarthy’s intuition that “power, like affection, cannot be automated or commanded,” going on to write that “modern state logic relies on centralized authority, control over knowledge, and a homogenous moral narrative. However, these pillars are now under strain,” citing examples of how “alternative media challenges epistemic control, corporate virtue signaling provokes backlash, and digital subcultures fragment identity.”
I have similarly written about how celebrities who get involved in political skirmishes ought to be regarded with such skepticism and caution: It’s difficult to take a person tied to major corporate powers who claims to #resist the power and stand with “the people” seriously. I specifically focused on Bad Bunny, who has made a name for his commentary on US immigration policy and Puerto Rican politics, and who has made headlines again this week after Trump criticized the Super Bowl for inviting him to perform at halftime. Rather than posting our opinion about the hollow “symbolic activism” of global superstars on social media, our energy would be better spent concerning ourselves with issues more immediate to our actual lives.
Also in Compact this week:
Matthew Schmitz on how Free Palestine replaced Black Lives Matter
George Owers pronounces the death of Sixties-style sexual libertinism
Norman Matloff writes about how H-1B Visas are transforming America
Jacob Bruggeman traces the Obama-Era Roots of DOGE
On the pod, the team discusses October 7th, Trump’s battle with Chicago and Portland over the deployment of National Guard troops, and the controversial philosophy of Nick Land