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March 31, 2024
Key Takeaways:
- Pro-Israel and pro-Netanyahu are not the same. Criticizing Israel's current government is not abandoning Israel: Often it is the opposite. If we react to criticism of Netanyahu as if it is criticism of Israel, we will find it impossible to make a credible case for Israel.
- The Biden administration continues to stand with Israel despite its disagreements with Netanyahu. We have never had a better friend in the White House.
- Republicans continue to block the unprecedented $14.3 billion emergency aid package for Israel that President Biden requested on October 20. Biden continues to approve arms sales to Israel and transferred billions of dollars worth of bombs and fighter jets to Israel in recent days.
- Republicans are ignoring Biden's support for Israel at the UN and attacking his abstention last week based on misreading or not reading the resolution at issue.
- On October 7, Hamas murdered 1,200, wounded 3,300, and took 240 hostage during a day of brutal savagery and unspeakable, undeniable sexual violence; 134 hostages, half probably dead, some possibly pregnant, remain in Gaza 177 days later.
Read to the end for corrections, what you may have missed last week, fun stuff, and upcoming events.
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Hi Steve,
You will be a more effective advocate for Israel if you remember that pro-Israel and pro-Netanyahu are not the same and that criticizing Israel's current government is not abandoning Israel: Often it is the opposite.
If the American electorate conflates the people of Israel or the State of Israel with Benjamin Netanyahu, support for Israel will drop precipitously. For younger Americans, Netanyahu has been the only leader of Israel they have known. We contribute to the confusion when we react to criticism of Netanyahu, the bigots in his coalition, and their policies as if that criticism were criticism of Israel itself or its people. We lose credibility when, by defending Netanyahu and his policies, we defend the indefensible. The case for Israel is strong; the case for Netanyahu, not so much.
We cannot convince anyone who denies or condones the atrocities Hamas committed on October 7, when Hamas murdered 1,200, wounded 3,300, and took 240 hostage during a day of brutal savagery and unspeakable, undeniable sexual violence; 134 hostages, half probably dead, some possibly pregnant, remain in Gaza 177 days later.
But we can convince those who are calling for cutting or conditioning aid to Israel by helping them understand that what we--and they--object to is not Israel's legitimate need to defend itself from terrorism but the policies of one particular leader and one particular government, not a rogue or fundamentally illegitimate state.
That's why Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's speech, which I hope you have watched or read, was important and why he needed to deliver it now, before Netanyahu further erodes support for Israel.
His call for elections "once the war starts to wind down" and "after the threat of Hamas is radically reduced" reflects the sentiment of 71% of Israelis who want early elections. His disdain for Netanyahu is shared by the 61% of Jewish Americans who view Netanyahu unfavorably and the nearly 60% of Israelis who view his performance as poor or very poor. Schumer's speech was anti-Netanyahu but it was pro-Israel, both the state and its people. Anyone who thinks otherwise is confusing Netanyahu with Israel.
Louis XIV might have gotten away with saying l'etat, c'est moi, but we should not let Netanyahu get away with it, not if we care about Israel. Support for Israel will continue to wane if Israel's government does not present a clear vision of what happens after the war in Gaza. Will the defeat of Hamas lead to a two-state solution? Will Israel maintain a long-term occupaton of Gaza? We know that Netanyahu opposes a two-state solution but we don't know his end game, if he has one, other than his desire to remain in power and out of jail.
Under Israel's system, the people cannot call for elections, and if Netanyahu's coalition remains intact, Netanyahu will be in power until 2026--a great result for Netanyahu and a terrible result for Israel and those of us who care about Israel. Supporting early elections in Israel is pro-Israel precisely because it is anti-Netanyahu.
The Biden administration continues to stand with Israel despite its disagreements with Netanyahu. We have never had a better friend in the White House. At a time when Zionism itself is under attack, President Biden has repeatedly declared that he is a Zionist. Last month, Biden said, "You need not be a Jew to be a Zionist. I'm a Zionist. Where there's no Israel, there's not a Jew in the world to be safe."
On March 27, National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said, “This is deeply personal for President Biden. He has said many times you don’t have to be Jewish to be a Zionist. He strongly believes in the State of Israel and the need to protect and defend themselves."
Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren called President Biden's October 10 speech "the most passionately pro-Israel in history."
Later in October, President Biden became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Israel during a war and delivered a speech in Israel that cannot be summarized--you have to read it. His condemnation of Hamas and his support for Israel was unequivocal. A few days later, speaking from the Oval Office, Biden said to America what he said to Israel.
Biden asked Congress for an unprecedented $14.3 billion in emergency aid for Israel on October 20. It would have passed in days if House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) were Speaker of the House, but more than five months later, House Republicans continue to block it. Republicans say "how high?" when Trump says "jump," but Trump, who is not shy about speaking his mind publicly, never asked Republicans to get the emergency aid through.
However, since October 7, Biden has approved more than 100 separate military sales to Israel. In recent days, Biden authorized the transfer of billions of dollars worth of bombs and fighter jets to Israel. According to the Washington Post, "the Biden administration views weapons transfers as off-limits when considering how to influence the actions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu."
Biden vetoed three UN Security Council resolutions biased against Israel and blocked a UN Security Council statement biased against Israel concerning the Israel-Hamas war.
If there was ever a time for bipartisan support of a president committed to Israel's security, this is it. Instead, the GOP nominee for president, Donald Trump, is turning Biden's frustration with Netanyahu--not with Israel or its people--into a partisan issue and Republicans are lining up behind Netanyahu, who is loving it. Trump made no mention of the hostages in a recent ten-minute interview on the Israel-Hamas war laden with antisemitic rhetoric from Trump.
Republicans are ignoring Biden's support for Israel at the UN and attacking his abstention last week by ignoring the plain meaning of the resolution. Not sure who to believe? First, read UN Security Council Resolution 2728 (it's not long). Isn't unconditional release of all the hostages and a ceasefire not longer than one month (Ramadan) a good deal?
Then read UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield's explanation for the U.S. abstention.
Then read all of Michael Koplow's essential analysis, especially this part:
"If your reaction to Monday’s events is outrage at the administration over its abstention because the resolution did not condition a temporary ceasefire on the prior release of the hostages, I’d gently suggest that you read the actual text; when a single numbered paragraph demands both a ceasefire and the unconditional release of all hostages, it takes a tendentious reading to argue that these things have been treated as wholly separate issues. And if your reaction is outrage at the administration over its abstention because the resolution did not condemn Hamas by name, I genuinely share your disappointment but would point out that the result was China, Russia, and Algeria endorsing the release of all hostages without any corresponding release of Palestinian prisoners, without a permanent end to Israel’s military operation, and without a call for an IDF withdrawal from Gaza."
Still too complicated? Try this from National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby: "We abstained because we couldn’t support the text, because the text didn’t condemn Hamas. But we didn’t veto it because, in broad terms, it did reflect what has been our policy, which is linking a hostage deal to a ceasefire. I don’t know how much more simple I can make it."
I could be wrong. Maybe Biden and Schumer compiled a decades-long record of rock-solid support for Israel and doubled down on that support after October 7 to lull us into complacency so that we'd be caught off guard when Schumer criticized Netanyahu (in a pro-Israel speech) and when Biden did not veto a nonbinding UN Security Council resolution (that demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages). Maybe they were playing the very, very, very long game. It's possible. Stranger things have happened.
But isn't it more likely that their recent actions are consistent with their from-the-heart, in-the-kishkes, support for Israel? Doesn't it make sense to consider that maybe, just maybe, given their long records of support for Israel, we should pause before jumping to conclusions and being so quick to assume the worst? Like I said, I could be wrong. But I doubt it.
Corrections. I'm entitled to my own opinions but not to my own facts, so I appreciate it when readers bring errors to my attention. No one brought any mistakes to my attention last week, so it looks like last week's newsletter was perfect.
In Case You Missed It:
- On March 25, the State Department said, "We have not found [Israel] to be in violation of international humanitarian law, either when it comes to the conduct of the war or when it comes to the provision of humanitarian assistance."
- Former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt Daniel Kurtzer writes that Netanyahu's severe response to the U.S. abstaining from the UN Security Council vote for a Gaza ceasefire is yet another baffling move, intensifying its confounding behavior at a critical moment of the war to a White House that has demonstrated unprecedented support in its most dire time of need.
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Menachem Rosenfelt writes that "rather than formally adopting the IHRA definition, a university or college can and probably should follow the lead of the Biden administration's National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism and acknowledge it as the 'most prominent' among a number of definitions 'which serve as valuable tools to raise awareness and increase understanding of antisemitism."'
Tweets of the Week. Josh Kurp and every controversial Supreme Court case since 2020 has some variation of these opinions.
Twitter Threads of the Week. Norm Ornstein and National Security Action.
Video Clips of the Week. When Senator Joe Lieberman announced he was running as VP the Daily Show did a segment about what his Shabbat observance could mean for the White House. And David Letterman's Top 10 ways Joe Lieberman would make a great president.
For those new to this newsletter. This is the newsletter even Republicans have to read and the original home of the viral and beloved 2022 and 2023 Top Ten Signs You're At a Republican Seder. If someone forwarded this to you, why not subscribe and get it in your inbox every Sunday? Just click here--it's free.
I periodically update my posts on why Democrats are better than Republicans on Israel and antisemitism and on the IHRA definition of antisemitism. My definition of "pro-Israel" is here (it's a work in progress, as am I).
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