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May 19, 2024
Key Takeaways:
- It's been 226 days since October 7, 2023, 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; 132 hostages, some dead, some raped and possibly pregnant, remain captive in Gaza today.
- These remaining hostages comprise five religions and 25 nationalities, including eight Americans, five probably alive: Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Keith Siegal, Omer Neutra, Edan Alexander, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Itay Chen, Judi Weinstein Haggai, and Gad Haggai.
- President Biden has proven himself better on Israel and antisemitism than Donald Trump. The key to understanding this is understanding Biden's actual policy toward Israel, not the fictional version that Republicans are selling and that some in our community are buying. Last week, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan distilled Biden's policies into ten bullet points.
- Republicans voted to cut aid to Israel in September and blocked emergency aid to Israel for six months--and they have the chutzpah to lie about Biden's record on Israel by advancing legislation last week that does nothing to make Israel safer or more secure.
Read to the end for corrections, what you may have missed last week, fun stuff, and upcoming events.
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Hi Steve,
Who do you think we should support? The self-proclaimed Zionist with a decades-long record of supporting Israel and opposing antisemitism or the corrupt, ignorant, would-be authoritarian who incited an insurrection on January 6 with a decades-long record of antisemitism and who openly criticized Israel and its leaders (talk about daylight) days after October 7?
David Sedaris compared that kind of decision-making to "being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. 'Can I interest you in the chicken?' she asks. 'Or would you prefer the platter of [s**t] with bits of broken glass in it?'
"To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.
"I mean, really, what’s to be confused about?"
Sedaris wrote that in 2008 and it's true today. Considering voting for Donald Trump because you're concerned about something Joe Biden did is like asking how the chicken is cooked. But that's what the loud low-information segment of our community is telling us to do when they tell us to vote for Donald Trump.
Biden is the first president to visit Israel during wartime. The first president to directly defend Israel from attack with U.S. troops and assets--were it not for Biden, Israeli deaths from Iran's missile attack would have dwarfed October 7. Biden requested the largest emergency aid package in Israel's history, and while Republicans were blocking the request for six months, Biden approved over 100 arms sales to Israel.
Biden vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Palestinian statehood. The administration told the world on May 16 that the only thing standing in the way of an immediate and prolonged ceasefire "is Hamas. Hamas could stop fighting today by releasing the first hostage." If you've forgotten all that Biden has done for Israel since October 7, refresh your memory.
Every U.S. administration has had public disagreement with Israel. We only heard that one arms shipment was paused because Israel's government leaked it and Biden confirmed it when asked. And that's all it was. One non-critical arms shipment designed to send a signal that the administration is serious about its concerns that a full-scale Rafah operation could trigger a humanitarian crisis inconsistent with U.S. and Israeli objectives.
Michael Koplow reminds us in his analysis, Why Biden is Right, that "the impact of the delayed arms shipment is somewhere between negligible and non-existent when it comes to Israel’s ability to fight and defeat Hamas." Israel has sufficient stockpiles of these large bombs to conduct the operation Biden is warning against.
David Rothkopf writes that Netanyahu's insistence that he would go ahead with operations in Rafah whether there was a ceasefire or not "was a major disincentive for Hamas to enter into any peace deal" and that "at a time when the elected government in Jerusalem seems committed to demonstrating its incompetence in new ways almost every day, only Joe Biden has remained committed to the security and the future of the State of Israel."
Last week, the administration advanced a $1 billion arms sale to Israel. If the administration is trying to restrict military support for Israel, it sure has a funny way of doing it. Republicans voted overwhelmingly to cut aid to Israel in September, and the GOP blocked Biden's emergency aid request for six months. That's how you restrict military support for Israel.
Read and share Jake Sullivan's summary of Biden's policy on Israel. There are two types of people in our community: Those who desperately want to believe the worst about Biden and those who feel relieved, not cheated, to find out that in reality, Biden is good for Israel. To find out which category you're in, read National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan's ten-point overview of President Biden's approach to the Israel-Hamas War and gauge your reaction. If you find yourself relaxing, congratulations--reality suits you. If you find your blood pressure rising, then maybe Israel's safety and security isn't your real concern.
Indeed, Jennifer Rubin writes that "true friends of Israel should rethink knee-jerk objections to Biden’s efforts to steer Israel toward a strategy with achievable, durable results. Blindly endorsing and supporting Netanyahu’s ill-conceived approach — one that’s increasingly objectionable to Israel’s own military — serves neither Israel nor the United States."
The little bill that wasn't: Last week, instead of bringing the Countering Antisemitism Act up for a vote, House Republicans brought the misnomered Israel Security Assistance Support Act to the floor. It sounds like a good bill if all you know is its title and if you don't know how to find the text of a bill. It contains falsehoods about President Biden's statements and positions and would cut funding for agencies working to support Israel and bring home the hostages.
As the White House noted, "this bill, if enacted, could lead to spiraling unintended consequences, prohibiting the United States from adjusting our security assistance posture with respect to Israel in any way, including to address unanticipated emergent needs, even if Israel and the United States agree that military needs have changed and supplies should change accordingly."
The bill is a joke that passed despite overwhelming Democratic opposition. It will never pass the Senate, although I wouldn't put it past House Republicans to sneak it into an appropriations bill. Read the statements of opposition to this stunt from some true champions for Israel: Steny Hoyer, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Jerry Nadler, Kathy Manning, Brad Schneider, and Dan Goldman.
Another myth busted: The U.S. is not withholding intelligence about Hamas from Israel. This is how the right-wing spin machine operates: First, baseless speculation from unnamed sources. In this case, claims that the U.S. might persuade Israel not to invade Rafah by offering intelligence on Hamas (Israel's intelligence on Hamas is probably better than ours, but never mind that). Then, based on this speculation, more speculation--wait a minute: If the U.S. is dangling intelligence information, then that means the U.S. has been withholding intelligence information. Scandal! Betrayal! Why isn't the administration saying anything about this rumor I started? It must be true! Pay attention--this happens again and again, and some people fall for it every time.
Claims that Biden is trying to mollify some anti-Israel fringe in the Democratic Party are false. The premise is wrong: Biden's support for Israel remains ironclad. Anyone who tells you otherwise either doesn't know the facts or doesn't want you to know the facts (if you've read this far and clicked the links, you know that). The Democratic Party remains staunchly pro-Israel. Good politicians know their base. Biden has been in politics for decades. He knows his. Supporting Israel's safety and security and supporting humanitarian assistance for Palestinians are not contradictory; they are complementary.
If you are concerned about antisemitism, you should be. The question potential Trump voters have to ask themselves is how they square their willingness to vote for Trump with Trump's long history of antisemitic rhetoric and Republican mainstreaming of antisemitic rhetoric and why they ignore Biden's concrete actions to fight antisemitism, including campus antisemitism.
Debunking the delulu falsehoods leveled against Biden by the dryopithecine segment of our community is like playing whack-a-mole. They are ripping a page out of the Steve Bannon playbook and flooding the zone with s**t.
A good clue that you're not reading a serious source is references to arms embargoes, loving Hamas, betrayal, and similar absurdities. Delete them and don't engage--those people cannot be reasoned with. But if you have questions that I have not addressed from serious people, let me know and I'll address them in subsequent newsletters.
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 typed "week" when I meant "weeks." Aside from that, it was perfect.
In Case You Missed It:
- Young Jews are fleeing Jewish institutions. Rabbi Jill Jacobs explains how to keep them.
- Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert thinks that "Netanyahu is deliberately and knowingly foiling any chance of reaching" a deal to free the hostages.
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New York Times investigation: "For decades, most Israelis have considered Palestinian terrorism the country’s biggest security concern. But there is another threat that may be even more destabilizing for Israel’s future as a democracy: Jewish terrorism and violence, and the failure to enforce the law against it." If you care about Israel, you have to understand this. Either Israel's friends can pressure Israel's government to address this or we can close our eyes and let Israel's enemies do it.
Tweets of the Week. Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Simon Rosenberg.
Combined Tweet/Video Clip of the Week. Philippe Lemoine/Jon Stewart.
Cartoon of the Week. Bill Bramhall.
Video Clips of the Week. Keep America Afloat and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken performs“Rocking to the Free World” in a bar in Kyiv.
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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