Category: Decompressed

Damascus in Vienna

Posted on by Mani

This is a personal blog written from experience and metaphor, not doctrine or authority. It reflects how the world looks to me right now, not how it should look to others. Reading it is a choice, as is interpretation.
Image by Jakob Linser

I have many names.

Abdo, after my grandfather.
Abu Saleem (ibn Fatima), after my parents.
Muhammad.
Iskandar (Alexander) — the name I sign with.
Roumani (Roman) — my family name.
Rou — a name given to me by Kholoud.
Mani — a name given by Manar.
Manilein — a name given by my mother-in-law.
Hob (love), as Sarah has called me for the past ten years.

But truly, I am Damascus in bits — and I’m writing this Letter to Vienna.

I was born in October 1987.
My legal birthday, on my passport, is January 1, 1988.

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Decompressed: Between Damascus and Vienna

Posted on by Mani

Grainbach — At the time, bipolar was the diagnosis — but it later became clear it didn’t fully explain what was happening.

What happened to me was something else.

In August, from my internal experience, I wasn’t “cycling.” I wasn’t unraveling. I wasn’t losing myself.
I was over-leveraged.

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From Theia to Israel — Collisions that Forge the World

Posted on by Mani

This essay tries to understand, not to excuse. It is not a defense of conquest or cruelty. It is a meditation on how, across millennia, the Middle East has been reshaped by collisions — political, religious, and civilizational — and on what those collisions may yet demand of us. Image by Haley Black

HOF — These days, condemning Israel has become a global ritual. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s politics make it easy. His right-wing populism, his faith in force, and his disregard for international restraint have turned Israel from a fortress into a lightning rod. But the more we fixate on Israel, the more we ignore what its existence exposes in all of us — the ancient machinery of power that keeps the Middle East locked in its endless loop of birth and collapse.

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When the Middle East Leaves Israel No Alternative but Greater Israel

Posted on by Mani

Feature image by cottonbro studio

Note on “Greater Israel”: The term means different things to different people — from Chomsky’s use (Jordan to the Mediterranean), to the conspiracy version common in the region (Nile to Euphrates), which most Israelis reject. Here I use it simply to mean the future borders Israel may seek as Turkey and Iran press closer.

Rehau — Debates about Israel’s war after October 7, 2023, often fall into binaries: is this about fighting terrorism, or about realizing the dream of a “Greater Israel”? Critics use the phrase as an accusation; defenders reject it as slander. Yet across the Middle East, rival powers are also reaching for “greater” versions of themselves. Iran promotes its Shiite crescent. Turkey nurtures neo-Ottoman ambitions. In the twentieth century, Syria, Egypt, and Iraq pursued Arab nationalism across the region. Why should Israel alone be denied the question: what would a Greater Israel look like—and could it succeed?

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A Flag Without a People, for a People Without a Flag

Posted on by Mani

Feature image by TOMO

Rehau – The Palestinian flag is everywhere.

Painted on faces. Draped across shoulders. Waving above crowds in London, Paris, New York, Sydney.

But here’s the strange truth: for most Palestinians, that flag has rarely carried the power people project onto it.

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