Trump Is Back, Gaza Remains on Fire, and Zeteo Will Need Your Support
A request to all of our subscribers from Mehdi, on this most monumental of political weeks.
Dear Subscribers,
Whether the outcome of the US presidential election last week came as a surprise to you or not, it is a result that is weighing heavily on me and the team at Zeteo, for countless reasons.
Many of you may recall Donald Trump’s first term in office: the constant attacks on the free press and minority groups; the rise and rise in hate crimes; the brazen corruption and non-stop chaos. Trump 2.0 is guaranteed to be worse on every level, and bring a new and dystopian assault on our freedoms and liberties. Already, the Columbia Journalism Review this week is warning of how an emboldened and authoritarian Trump administration in 2025 could start limiting access for journalists to the West Wing “or even closing the White House briefing room outright”; turning “the Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission against the media”; and detaining “reporters covering protests and immigration enforcement.”
Already, Benjamin Netanyahu is taking advantage of the shock election result to install a far-right settler who supports annexation of the West Bank as his new ambassador in Washington DC, and Trump could give Bibi the greenlight to launch a genocide in the West Bank as soon as January 21, 2025.
What does that mean for Zeteo? It means we will have a lot more work to do - and we can’t do it without your support!
Not only are we going to find ourselves having to report on an unpredictable (but predictably volatile) US administration, without fear or favor, but we will also continue covering the sins and crimes of US foreign policy in a way that most of the mainstream media refuses to do. It is a big responsibility, and not one that I or any on our small (but mighty!) Zeteo team take lightly.
Our Unique Record
I hope that over the course of the past 8 months, we have shown our value to you as a new media company, whether it is our coverage of the ongoing Biden-backed genocide in Gaza; or the under-reported genocide in Sudan; or the very real threats to democracy from the Trump-led Republican Party.
Remember, you don’t have to agree with everything that Zeteo publishes, you don’t have to agree with my opinions, or any of our contributors – in fact, we welcome debate, disagreement, and robust conversations (the comments section in some of our posts are really lively!) – but I hope you see a value in that editorial diversity:
Big-name contributors from Naomi Klein to John Harwood to Fatima Bhutto to Greta Thunberg to Bassem Youssef have all come to you with very different views of the world.
We’ve commissioned provocative pieces from commentators and freelancers that no other outlets were willing to publish, and produced a documentary on Gaza that mainstream TV networks refused to fund.
We’ve given paid subscribers access to prominent figures, from members of Congress to UN officials, allowing subscribers to directly ask these powerful people their own timely and necessary questions.
We are challenging influential people in a climate where accountability journalism is so incredibly rare - and necessary!
And we’ve hosted live events, allowing subscribers to connect with the Zeteo community in person outside of social media.
And, most importantly, we’ve managed to do all of this without corporate sponsors or advertisements or anyone that would render us beholden to them. We are free to do what we have done because of the tens of thousands of paid subscribers who believe in the need for an independent media endeavor like Zeteo.
Help Us Fight Back
But, as I have said before, a free press isn’t free.
So please help us continue this fight.
If you are a paid subscriber, thank you! Please tell us what you’d like to see more of and please do continue to share Zeteo with your friends and family. And, if you have the financial means, do consider upgrading to a Founding membership to help us expand our resources further.
If you are a free subscriber, what you are you waiting for? Consider supporting us financially and becoming a paid member - ideally, before January 20th 2025. Help us produce more documentaries, commission more pieces, and bring on more contributors. Remember: we are not planning on turning to corporations or advertisers to help us grow, so we can only turn to you if we want to get bigger – and we do!
As I have said before, I have no plans to “bend the knee” to the people in power. Zeteo has no plans to go anywhere. And you, I am sure, have no plans to give up the fight either.
Together, in solidarity!
Mehdi
Medhi, Here is a message I sent to the White House yesterday regarding Bibi's choice for the new ambassador to the United States. Last night I distributed copies at the CAIR-Fl gala in Tampa. Hoping others will contact Biden and others about this: Mr. President, I strongly urge you to refuse Israel's new ambassador to the United States, a Mr. Leiter. Doing so would renew your failed relationship with Arab and Muslim Americans, and especially Palestinian Americans. Mr. Leiter represents the most extreme zionist ideas that run counter to both international and national laws. His association with the assassinated Rabbi Kahane who advocated forcible removal of all non-Jews from a Greater Israel, and then killing those who refuse to leave, his friendship with the man who entered a mosque and committed mass murder of worshippers, and his loud and consistent voice for stealing additional Palestinian land by illegal settler colonists leading to the building of more settlements which the U.S. opposes, make him a pariah to the Jewish and Muslim and Christian ideals of justice, peace, compassion and mercy. Mr. Leiter does not deserve to enter the White House, let alone our country. If you do not use your power under Article II, Sec. 3 of the Constitution, you will give carte blanche to the building of Greater Israel on the rubble, bones and bodies of Palestinians. Today there are more than 45,000 Gazans and West Bankers killed, 70 per cent of them women and children. Prime Minister Netanyahu with Mr. Leiter pushing a "final solution" upon your administration already complicit in crimes against humanity will be a permanent black mark on your otherwise wonderful presidency. Don't allow Mr. Leiter to seek revenge for his son killed in battle by gazanizing the West Bank and forever ending Palestinian hopes.
I do appreciate your work. I also fear for your safety now that 45 is back in power. Thanks and take care of yourself and your team while continuing to try to shed light in this horrible time.