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September 8, 2024
Key Takeaways:
- It's been 338 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; 101 hostages, many dead, some raped and possibly pregnant, remain captive in Gaza today.
- The 101 remaining hostages include seven Americans, four probably alive: Keith Siegal, Omer Neutra, Edan Alexander, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Itay Chen, Judi Weinstein Haggai, and Gad Haggai. A ceasefire conditioned on releasing all hostages must remain a top priority.
- Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff said at the national vigil for the hostages murdered by Hamas last weekend that "This is hard. I feel raw. I’m gutted." He spoke for all of us. President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Governor Walz issued the statements we'd want our leaders to issue.
- Donald Trump responded to the murders with a political rant. To my knowledge, JD Vance said nothing until September 4, when he gave a callous answer in response to an interview question. Also last week, Vance refused to condemn Tucker Carlson for praising and airing the views of a Holocaust revisionist. Walz has a long and strong record of support for Israel and the Jewish community.
- On Thursday, Trump suggested that he would lift sanctions on Iran, calling to mind his former national security advisor's warning that we cannot count on Trump to support Israel if he wins a second term.
- Trump engaged in more antisemitic rhetoric at a Republican Jewish Coalition meeting last week. Instead of condemning Trump, they applauded him. At the same event, Trump got Hersh Goldberg-Polin's name wrong.
Read to the end for corrections, what you may have missed last week, fun stuff, and upcoming events.
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Hi Steve,
I was among the thousands of people who attended the national vigil for the six murdered hostages on Tuesday evening at Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, D.C. We heard gripping and heartbreaking testimony from two hostage family members. Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff spoke for all of us when he said, "This is hard. I feel raw. I’m gutted."
Emhoff reiterated that "as the President and Vice President have said, Hamas is responsible for killing Hersh, Ori, Carmel, Alexander, Almog, Eden, and too many others — and Hamas’s leaders will pay for these crimes."
Read his full remarks or watch this excerpt. You can watch the entire vigil here.
You would think that this tragedy would unite us. It didn't. President Biden and Vice President Harris issued statements that reflected our support for Israel and our shared values on August 31, with no partisanship.
Donald Trump issued a political rant about the hostages on September 1. On September 5, speaking to the Republican Jewish Coalition (a group you'd think might care), Trump could not even get Hersh Goldberg-Polin's name right.
When Biden and Harris talk about the "hostages" they are working to bring home, they are talking about the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. When Trump talks about "the hostages" who are treated "horrifically," he's talking about January 6 insurrectionists held in U.S. prisons who he plans to pardon. Trump has shown no sympathy--only callousness--for the hostages. Ask your Republican friends how they could vote for such a person.
Although Kamala Harris speaks for the ticket, Governor Tim Walz, himself a strong friend of Israel and the Jewish community, issued a statement on September 1. To my knowledge, JD Vance said nothing until asked about the murders in a September 4 interview.
Ask your Republican friends if they've read what the four candidates have said and how they feel about voting for Trump and Vance after what they said--and didn't say--about the Hamas murders, especially compared to what Harris and Walz said.
Ask them how they feel about Vance voting against the package that included $14 billion in emergency aid to Israel twice, on February 13 when it could have passed and on April 23 when it did pass. The first time, Senate Republicans voted against the package 26-22 (Democrats supported it 46-2) but the second time even most Republicans supported it, 31-15. Yet Trump selected him as his running mate.
Last week, Vance declined to denounce the right-wing talk-show host Tucker Carlson for praising and airing the views of a Holocaust revisionist who falsely claimed that the Nazis’ destruction of European Jewry was not an intentional act of premeditated genocide. Harris campaign spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein called Vance's refusal to condemn Carlson "extremely dangerous."
We can count on Tim Walz. Walz has a 12-year record of unequivocal support for Israel in the House and strong support for the Jewish community as governor.
Walz stood up for Jewish students when campus protests erupted, and Walz defended a Jewish student when Walz was a teacher. When Harris selected Walz, dozens of Minnesota Jewish leaders signed a letter supporting Walz, personally attesting to his "genuine affection and understanding of the Jewish community."
Steve Hunegs, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, released a statement applauding Walz's pro-Israel record and stalwart friendship with the Jewish community. The statement included many examples of Walz's support for Israel, opposition to antisemitism, and advocacy of Holocaust education.
Walz wrote a master's thesis on Holocaust education--perhaps Tucker Carlson and JD Vance should read it.
We shouldn't be surprised by the difference between how Harris/Walz and Trump/Vance responded to Hamas murdering six more hostages. Compare the Democratic and Republican platforms on Israel. Ask your Republican friends if they've read the two platforms and if they have, how they could vote Republican if they care about Israel's safety and security: The Republican platform says nothing about Iran, October 7, the hostages, or aid to Israel. That should be a deal-breaker for anyone who claims to support Israel.
On Thursday, Trump suggested that he'd lift sanctions on Iran. He added that he wants "to use sanctions as little as possible." Trump's incoherence allows him and his supporters to backtrack and explain away anything he says, so watch for yourself what he said on September 5.
Trump is not serious about stopping Iran--or Russia. He doesn't care about Israel. As former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton said, "Trump’s support for Israel in the first term is not guaranteed in the second term, because Trump’s positions are made on the basis of what’s good for Donald Trump, not on some coherent theory of national security.”
The Biden-Harris administration has not lifted any sanctions on Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism. Instead, the Biden-Harris Administration has imposed more than 600 new sanctions on Iran and its destabilizing terrorist proxies like Hamas and Hezbollah.
Yet Trump and his Republican allies falsely accuse Biden of giving money to Iran. Ask your Republican friends whether they will now withdraw their support for Trump if they are as concerned about Iran as they say they are. Or maybe they'll do what cult members typically do when their leader says something antithetical to their beliefs: change their beliefs. Remember when the GOP used to be the party that claimed to be tough on Russia?
The vast majority of Republicans voted to cut aid to Israel two weeks before October 7. On September 29, 198 Republicans--90% of all House Republicans--voted for HR 5525, a so-called continuing resolution that would have cut aid to Israel by nearly 30%. Republicans wrote the bill without Democratic input, brought it to the floor, and voted for it even though it violated our Memorandum of Understanding with Israel. It failed because 21 Republicans and 211 Democrats voted against it. No Democrats voted for it. Trump said nothing about it.
If your Republican friends are represented by any of those 198 Republicans, ask how in good conscience they could vote to reelect them--or vote for Trump. After October 7, Republicans blocked the Biden-Harris administration's emergency aid request for Israel for six months.
Trump added to his list of antisemitic statements last week. Trump insulted Jews who back Democrats (roughly 70% of all Jewish voters) and leveled false accusations against Biden and Harris at the Republican Jewish Coalition confab on Thursday.
How must the RJC feel to be on the receiving end of Trump's antisemitism time and time again? I'm guessing some serious Kevin Bacon Animal House vibes.
If you don't think Trump is antisemitic, read Rob Eshman's article. It's impossible to conclude otherwise.
Trump has a long record of antisemitism and accusing Jews of disloyalty. Those are not the only antisemitic tropes he's used. Trump dined with Kanye West and white nationalist/Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. Trump said that there were "very fine people on both sides" of the 2017 Charlottesville march that featured white supremacists carrying tiki torches chanting "Jews will not replace us."
Trump repeatedly invokes Hitler and the Nazis and called for the "creation of a unified reich" on May 21, 2024. No less an authority than JD Vance once called Trump "America's Hitler."
Yet Republicans had the chutzpah to criticize the Jewish Democratic Council of America's new ad instead of criticizing Trump for his antisemitic, anti-democratic rhetoric.
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 pointed out any errors in last week's newsletter.
In Case You Missed It:
- There is no daylight between Harris and Biden on policy regarding Israel and antisemitism, which is clear if you know what Harris has said and done. These are the key resources to read and share:
- JDCA Key Facts on Harris, Walz, Trump, Vance, and Project 2025.
- The White House condemned an anti-Israel protest in New York held the day of Hersh Goldberg-Polin's funeral that included the waving of flags of the Hamas terror organization.
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A campus guide to identifying antisemitism in a time perplexity. This is the best guide I've seen. It includes screening questions and controversial words/phrases/concepts. Our students will be much better off to the extent that universities and Jewish organizations use this Nexus Task Force guide. It's nuanced because we can't credibly fight antisemitism on campus if we don't understand the nuance. How do we apply these guidelines? Easy: Use First Amendment principles.
- Gershom Gorenberg writes that "Hamas killed six more Israeli captives. Netanyahu abandoned them," concluding that "he could have brought Hersh home, but he didn't." Rob Eshman is right: "For too long the majority of American Jews have taken their marching orders from the official Israeli government line. Now is the time to join with the Israelis who challenge it." If you care about Israel's future, you must internalize that pro-Israel is not the same as pro-Netanyahu. Today, it is the opposite. The Times of Israel's David Horovitz writes that under Netanyahu, Israel is under existential danger and that "facing a genocidal Iranian regime and its proxies, Netanyahu’s new obsession with the Philadelphi Corridor risks the lives of the hostages and, ultimately, the future of our country." For more detail, read Michael Koplow on the lies we tell ourselves.
- Speaking of Trump-supporting Jewish influencers who spread misinformation, if you know anyone who takes Lizzy Savetsky seriously, share Julie Zebrak's tweet with them and then give them some calming tea. The Russian misinformation campaign and right-wing efforts to manipulate the media are reminders not to believe everything you see and read online, including within the Jewish media space.
Tweet of the Week. David Halperin.
Twitter Thread of the Week. Gershon Baskin (I know it's only one tweet but it's long enough to be a thread).
Video Clip of the Week. What does a yellow light mean?
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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