The FPA’s Must Reads (May 17 – May 23)

The Worst Day of My Life Is Now New York’s Hottest Tourist Attraction
BuzzFeed
By Steve Kandell

Steve Kandell attends the grand opening of the 9/11 Memorial Museum and attempts to reconcile the enormity of his personal tragedy, the loss of his sister, with the brazen publicity of a national shrine, which even contains a gift shop.

Rogue Element
The New Yorker
By Nadya Labi

Nadya Labi reports on how one young, disturbed military veteran created a formidable anti-government militia in the heart of one of the U.S.’s largest military bases.

As NASA seeks next mission, Russia holds the trump card
Houston Chronicle
By Eric Berger

Despite paying for most of the International Space Station, controlling most of its operations, and having many deeply experienced flight controllers and astronauts, the U.S. space program is unmistakably in a position of weakness. Since retiring the space shuttle in 2011, the U.S. is now entirely dependent on Russia for access to the space station and with growing political tensions that access is becoming increasingly expensive.

In 2000, a Newspaper Headline Opened a Wound in Israeli Society. It Still Hasn’t Healed
Tablet Magazine
By Batya Ungar-Sargon

In 1998, Teddy Katz published an acclaimed thesis for a master’s degree  that purported to uncover a shocking massacre of Palestinians in 1948. He was then sued by Israeli veterans, who uncovered several errors in his research, and eventually forced to settle. The issue itself, however, was from settled and continues to divide the Israeli left and right.

Jane Kleeb vs. the Keystone Pipeline
The New York Times
By Saul Elbein

Saul Elbein follows Jane Kleeb, the unlikely champion of the hundreds of farmers imperiled by the Keystone Pipeline, as she coordinates her remarkably cohesive opposition.

Blogs: 

Inter-factional Rivalry and Iran’s Strategic Interests by Reza Akhlaghi
Donbass Dilemmas by Scott Monje
From capitalism to oligarchy: What Piketty tells us about Ukraine by Mark Varga
Turkish Dissident Journalist: “Erdogan Behaves Like a Sultan” by Rachel Avraham
What Now? American Israeli Relations until 2016 by Justin Scott Finkelstein