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April 28, 2024
Key Takeaways:
- Hamas released a video of Hersh Goldberg-Polin. The Biden administration continues to press for the release of all the hostages, which must remain our top priority even if it is not Netanyahu's top priority.
- The Senate passed the emergency aid package for Israel and Ukraine that President Biden requested six months ago. Nearly all the "no" votes were cast by Republicans. If Democrats controlled the House, Congress would have passed this vital aid in days, not months.
- The most dangerous form of antisemitism is government-sponsored or condoned antisemitism. Donald Trump is the greatest antisemitic threat facing our country. Republican politicians who have engaged in antisemitic rhetoric are capitalizing on campus antisemitism. We should not minimize antisemitism anywhere, but we don't help when we conflate true antisemitism (which does exist on campuses) with harsh anti-Israel rhetoric on campus.
- The Antisemitism Awareness Act, with its emphasis on the IHRA definition of antisemitism, is misguided legislation that will not solve the problem of antisemitism on campus or anywhere else. We should oppose it.
Read to the end for corrections, what you may have missed last week, fun stuff, and upcoming events.
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Hi Steve,
On Wednesday, his 201st day of captivity, Hamas released a video of Hersh Goldberg-Polin. If the video is what it appears to be, he is alive despite losing part of his arm on October 7. Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) said, "We (the United States, Egypt, Qatar, Israel and all people of good will) must do all we can to bring Hersh, and every one of the 132 remaining hostages home now. And we must always remember – Hamas did this."
Haaretz editorialized that "Hersh's video should deafen those who have the power to work for his release but have refused to do so out of various and sundry moral or strategic calculations that sound more ridiculous with each day that passes."
It's now 205 days since October 7, 2013 when, on Simchat Torah, Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel and murdered 1,200 people (including 44 Americans). More Jews were murdered on that day than on any day since the Holocaust. Hamas wounded 3,300 and took 240 hostage during a day of brutal savagery and unspeakable, undeniable sexual violence; 133 hostages, half probably dead, some raped and possibly pregnant, remain captive in Gaza today.
On April 25, the U.S. and 17 other countries issued a joint statement calling "for the immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas in Gaza." Vice President Kamala Harris "underscored our commitment to secure the release of all hostages and bring home the remains of those deceased" in a conversation with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on April 23.
Donald Trump took a break from his trial to play golf.
The Senate passed the emergency aid package for Israel and Ukraine. When President Biden signed the emergency aid package into law, after noting that "it should have been easier, and it should have gotten there sooner," he said, "My commitment to Israel, I want to make clear again, is ironclad. The security of Israel is critical. I will always make sure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself against Iran and terrorists it supports. And with this aid, the United States can help replenish Israel’s air defense and provide other critical defense so Iran can never carry out the destruction it intended with its attack 10 days ago."
The Senate vote was 79-18. Republicans cast 15 of the 18 no votes (83%). Roughly 94% of Senate Democrats supported aid to Israel and Ukraine (48–3); a third of Republicans voted against aid to Israel and Ukraine.
Israel and Ukraine should have had this emergency aid days after President Biden requested it six months ago. House Republicans never called President Biden's aid package for an up or down vote until April 20. If Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) had been Speaker, Biden's package would have passed in October--and Democrats would not have threatened to oust him as Speaker.
Johnson's Speakership hangs by a thread needled by Marjorie Taylor Greene. Jeffries's strong support for Israel and Ukraine is an asset, not a liability, in the Democratic Party. That's the difference between Democrats and Republicans.
A few Democrats with large social media followings get attention from Republicans who want to misrepresent the Democratic mainstream but the Democratic caucus chose Hakeem Jeffries to lead the party; he represents House Democrats.
Jeffries said on April 20 that the special relationship between the United States and Israel is "a relationship that is anchored in shared values and shared interests. Our commitment to Israel’s security is ironclad. Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state and safe haven for the Jewish people, who have faced centuries of persecution throughout the years. The events of October 7 make clear that Hamas must be decisively defeated for the good of Israel, for the good of the Palestinian people, for the good of peace in the Middle East, for the good of the free world. ... We must do everything possible to make sure that we are freeing the hostages so they can safely return to their families and do everything possible to surge humanitarian assistance into Gaza so we can help out Palestinian civilians who are in harm’s way through no fault of their own."
Jeffries added, "we have to find a way to achieve a just and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinian people. And the only way for that to happen is for us to truly commit to a two-state solution when the moment presents itself with a safe and secure Israel living side by side in peace and prosperity with a demilitarized Palestinian state that provides dignity and self-determination for the Palestinian people."
The greatest threat to the safety and security of Jewish Americans comes from the Republican Party, not college campuses. Some of what certain students on campus perceive as antisemitism is harsh, sometimes ugly and offensive, anti-Israel rhetoric that falls within the bounds of legitimate, albeit uncomfortable, debate--which is no excuse for either side using inflammatory language.
Some words and actions on college campuses are undeniably horrific and antisemitic; that's what we should focus on and where we should draw the line. Some behavior, whether antisemitic or not, is disruptive, inappropriate, and offensive. Some of the worst behavior is occurring off campus, is perpetrated by non-students, or is out of pattern. To the extent universities regulate speech, they must regulate fairly and uniformly--the same standard for everyone. More about campus antisemitism in the In Case You Missed It section below.
The broader antisemitism problem is why organizations speaking out about antisemitism on campus--as they should--are saying next to nothing about the greater threat of Donald Trump returning to power.
Jay Michaelson writes, "There is no doubt that incidents of antisemitism have increased since Oct. 7. But prominent voices in the American Jewish community are making it harder to fight. They have mistaken political protest — however misguided — for bigotry, conflated anti-Zionism and antisemitism, and exaggerated the crisis on the far left while ignoring the far greater one on the far right."
If you don't understand these truths, read Michaelson's article. You'll see that he's right when he writes that "the real crisis is not leftists on campus but white nationalists, insurrectionists, election deniers, science deniers and conspiracy theorists seizing two if not three branches of the federal government." What happens on campus is emotional because it is happening to our kids. What is happening to our country and what will happen if Trump is elected president deserves at least as much attention as encampments in the quad, even if we are so used to Trump's antisemitic rhetoric that we don't react with the emotion and outrage that his antisemitism demands.
GOP leaders almost never condemn Trump for antisemitism. Most never do. They hold hearings to investigate university presidents and support a known antisemite for president of the United States. They are playing us.
Nothing should concern us more than government-sponsored or government-condoned antisemitism. You think those demonstrations on campuses are scary? Have you forgotten Charlottesville and Donald Trump's assertion that there were "very fine people" on both sides? Trump said last week that Charlottesville "was a little peanut, it was nothing." Really? What do you think? What do you think the family of Heather Heyer thinks?
Are you worried about the views of certain university presidents? Then you should be sleepless about a certain former and potential president with a long history of antisemitic rhetoric. Are you worried about university administrators? You should worry more about a political party whose entire House leadership team has antisemitic histories.
The presidents of Columbia and Harvard will not be on your ballot in November. But Donald Trump and the Republicans who never condemned his antisemitism will be on your ballot. University administrators will not be on your ballot. But control of the House will be on your ballot--your vote will help determine whether the next Speaker of the House is Hakeem Jeffries, who has no history of antisemitic rhetoric, or Mike Johnson, who flies a Christian Nationalist flag outside his office.
None of this is to minimize problems on campus. President Biden's National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism contains actionable steps to fight antisemitism on campus. President Biden said in his Passover statement that "antisemitism has absolutely no place on college campuses, or anywhere in our country." The White House condemned a Columbia student protest leader who called for Zionists to die (Biden is a Zionist). Rep. Steny Hoyer's (D-MD) statement is common sense.
Regardless of whether it is antisemitism, no one should be bullied, harassed, or physically intimidated--we should all be able to agree on that.
Step one in the fight against antisemitism must be ensuring that we don't elect an antisemite, Donald Trump, to the most powerful post in the world. We should all be able to agree on that too. If you or your organization is fighting antisemitism on campus but not lifting a finger to stop Donald Trump, you're doing it wrong.
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. In last week's newsletter, I misspelled "getting" as "gettin."
In Case You Missed It:
- The Antisemitism Awareness Act, with its emphasis on the IHRA definition of antisemitism, is misguided legislation that will not solve the problem on campus or anywhere else. The Nexus Leadership Project opposes the Antisemitism Awareness Act: “The Antisemitism Awareness Act of 2024 is the wrong solution to an urgent problem that requires real action, not political maneuvering. The right solution is to enact the bipartisan bicameral Countering Antisemitism Act, introduced by Senators Rosen and Lankford and Representatives Manning and Smith."
- Emily Tamkin writes that the hearing with Columbia's president was political farce, not only because some of the committee members, including Rep. Elise Stefank (R-NY), have used antisemitic rhetoric but because "to watch the hearing was to be reminded that to haul a university president before Congress both fails to fight antisemitism and misunderstands the function of universities."
- Princeton professor Daniel Kurtzer, former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt, asks why Palestinians and their allies aren't condemning calls to support Hamas on U.S. campuses, adding that "it is wrong to advise students to go home and stay home. It is wrong to advise students not to apply to the best universities. It is wrong to pull support from these universities. It is wrong for politicians to try to capitalize on the situation. And it is wrong for the prime minister of Israel to make incendiary comments comparing the situation on American college campuses to Nazi Germany."
- Trump's lawyers argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that it could be an “official act” for which a president should be immune from criminal prosecution if “the president decides that his rival is a corrupt person and he orders the military or orders someone to assassinate him.” If you care about democracy and the rule of law, vote for Joe Biden in November.
Tweets of the Week. President Biden and Gail Simone.
Twitter Thread of the Week. Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL).
Video Clip of the Week. Rod Stewart surprises Jeff Beck on stage. (Here's the backstory.)
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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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