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March 16, 2025
Key Developments and What We're Discussing Today:
1) It's been 527 days since October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel on Simchat Torah 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 251 hostage during a day of brutal savagery and sexual violence.
2) The 59 remaining hostages include five Americans. Edan Alexander is the only remaining American believed to be alive. Hamas holds the bodies of Omer Neutra, Itay Chen, Judi Weinstein Haggai, and Gad Haggai. We cannot rest until all the hostages are released.
3) Remember when daylight between the U.S. and Israel was considered a bad thing? Now that Trump is in office and his interests are diverging from Netanyahu's interests, Republicans don't seem to care as much.
4) Every Jewish organization should oppose Mahmoud Khalil's arrest and detention. It's bad for America and bad for the Jews.
5) The Trump administration is dismantling government agencies tasked with fighting antisemitism and using faux concerns about antisemitism--and Jews--as an excuse to violate American rights granted to us by the Constitution.
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On Monday, I participated in a small, in-person roundtable discussion with a delegation of 15 family members of hostages still held in Gaza. The consensus is that all 59 remaining hostages, alive and dead, must be returned at once. No more phased releases. Time is running out.
Among the most heartbreaking stories we heard was from a father whose son was kidnapped at the Nova Festival. Before his son left, his father said that he (the father) would take down their sukkah the next day. His son said, "no, wait a day for me to return, and I'll help you disassemble it." That sukkah is still standing.
Some Israelis are concerned that Trump will negotiate a deal with Hamas that will only free the American hostages, but the Trump administration seems to be denying it will make such a deal.
The time for selecting some Jews for life and some for death should have ended when the Shoah ended. All of the hostages must come home.
Israel is a Jewish state that, at its best, lives up to Jewish values. A primary value is redeeming captives. Yes, the price is high. But they all must come home. Those who died deserve a proper burial (burying the dead too is a Jewish value). Those who are alive cannot wait much longer.
What happens the day after? No one knows, other than it will not be Trump's Gaza-Lago real estate dream. Israeli occupation of Gaza would be a mistake. The least bad result would be for the Palestinian Authority to administer Gaza much as they administer the West Bank. The PA can work with Israel to prevent violence and terrorism, as they have proven in the West Bank (when was the last time a rocket was fired from the West Bank into Israel?).
An Arab peacekeeping force is subject to manipulation by Hamas, which has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamic extremists in many of those countries (it's no coincidence that the small Gulf countries that joined the Abraham Accords are relatively free of those influences).
What went wrong on October 7 was that the Israeli military was too fixated on "the concept," the idea that Gazans were content enough, Hamas seemed complacent, and an attack like what we saw would never occur. When the warning signs came, they didn't fit "the concept" so they were ignored.
As one person put it, Israel was eating sushi while Gaza was eating hummus. Israel forgot that while it sometimes indulged in Western thinking, Gazans were operating under a different worldview. Israelis eat hummus too. But not while thinking about the concept.
Raging, Petulant, Contradictory. No, Alon Pinkas is not writing about Trump's tariff policy. Pinkas writes that despite their inconsistencies, Trump's policies "have one overriding principle: Trump wants this Gaza saga off his table and is unhappy with Netanyahu's habitual procrastination and manipulation." This is not good for Israel.
Michael Koplow writes, "Whereas Trump’s conception of his interests consistently ran parallel to Israel’s during his first term, this time there is less convergence, and Israel is already finding itself on the wrong end of things more often than it did in the entire first Trump administration."
If you haven't gotten enough daylight from Daylight Savings Time, look for more daylight between the U.S. and Israel during the next four years.
The Trump administration is negotiating directly with Hamas, against Israel's wishes. Trump didn't inform Israel ahead of time. Whether Trump is right or wrong to negotiate with terrorists (in this case, he's probably right), that's daylight.
Can you imagine the hysteria from Republicans if Biden had negotiated directly with Hamas against Israel's wishes and behind Israel's back? Hamas may have agreed to release the American hostages with no plan to release the Israeli hostages in "an attempt to divide the U.S. and Israel by daring Jerusalem to deny an opportunity to free American hostages," according to the Times of Israel.
You won't hear as much about daylight from the Republicans and right-wing influencers who waxed hysterical about every disagreement, real or imagined, during the Biden administration. But you'll read about it in this newsletter.
Every Jewish organization should oppose Mahmoud Khalil's arrest and detention. If you are unclear about what happened, read this explainer from Joyce Vance.
Then watch this short video from Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT).
This is not about fighting antisemitism. This is about the Trump administration trying to set a precedent for cracking down on lawful speech by starting with someone whose speech is unpopular and, in the eyes of many, abhorrent.
Erwin Chemerinsky, a leading First Amendment expert, writes, "Arresting and seeking to deport a Columbia University student for his speech activities clearly violates the 1st Amendment — and does nothing to combat antisemitism on campus."
Chemerinsky notes that "the Supreme Court repeatedly has made clear that hate speech is constitutionally protected and cannot be a basis for punishment by the government. In fact, even if Khalil voiced his support for Hamas, that, too, is an idea that can be expressed under the 1st Amendment. Speaking in favor of Hamas is not, by any stretch of the definition, material support for a terrorist organization.
"Thus, even those who loathe what Khalil said should fervently defend his right to say it and oppose the Trump administration’s actions...As I constantly explain to my students, the only way my speech will be safe tomorrow is to protect the speech that I detest today."
If you've heard arguments to the contrary and if Chemerinsky, a law professor at one of the best law schools in the country, doesn't convince you, read this analysis from David Schraub.
Popular views often don't need free speech protections. Free speech, guaranteed by the First Amendment, protects unpopular and even abhorrent speech because one day any of us might need that protection, especially minorities and especially Jews.
I am thankful for the Jewish groups that have spoken out against Khalil's arrest (not in support of Khalil's views--a completely different subject) and ashamed of those that have remained silent or worse, supported his arrest (see #3 on David Litt's list).
With antisemitism on the rise, Jews ain't too popular these days. We could be next. I think someone once wrote a poem about this.
Trump claims to be opposing antisemitism. His actions tell a different story. His administration is filled with antisemites. Last week, Trump eviscerated the office that handles antisemitism complaints.
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) said in a statement, "Trump's claim to fight antisemitism on college campuses is a sham. He cannot dismantle the very office that investigates antisemitism on college campuses and helm an administration that hires and associates with antisemites, while credibly claiming to combat antisemitism."
The Trump administration purports to fight antisemitism by hurting Jews.
Emily Tamkin writes that Trump's actions, including cutting funds for Columbia University and arresting Khalil, "are not about fighting antisemitism or, for that matter, keeping Jews safe [but are] a cynical ploy by an administration full of people who promote and enable antisemitic conspiracies, which is fixated on attacking higher education, free speech, free assembly, and immigration and due process norms by using Jews, Jewish fear, and antisemitism as pretense to do that."
Lila Corwin Berman has the details on how Trump is gutting colleges' best tools to fight antisemitism.
Jonathan Chait explains that "Donald Trump opposes left-wing anti-Semitism because it is left-wing, not because it is anti-Semitic. And his campaign to supposedly stamp it out on campus is a pretext for an authoritarian power grab."
Chait continues, "Right-wing anti-Semitism has exploded as a consequence of the Trumpist no-enemies-to-the-right principle.
"It is true that anti-Semitism has also surged on the left, frequently disguised as anti-Zionism. The key difference is that it has utterly failed to gain legitimacy within the Democratic Party. Indeed, the movements that have given comfort to anti-Semitism on the left have exuded hostility toward the Democrats, sometimes even expressing a preference for Trump. Democrats have managed to keep left-wing anti-Semitism marginal because they recognize that it exists. By denying right-wing anti-Semitism, Republicans have allowed it to spread."
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks wrote that antisemitism (or any hate) "becomes dangerous in any society when three things happen: when it moves from the fringes of politics to a mainstream party and its leadership; when the party sees that its popularity with the general public is not harmed thereby; and when those who stand up and protest are vilified and abused for doing so."
In the United States, antisemitism and hate moved to the mainstream of the GOP and its leadership. The Republican Party controls all three branches of government.
Protecting our rights and our democracy has never been more important.
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. A sentence in last week's newsletter was missing a word that did not change the meaning.
In Case You Missed It:
1) Democracy dies in dumbness. Bret Stephens writes that until Trump, "no U.S. president has been so ignorant of the lessons of history. Until him, no U.S. president has been so incompetent in putting his own ideas into practice."
2) Trump said that Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the highest-ranking elected Jewish official in America, “is a Palestinian as far as I’m concerned. You know, he’s become a Palestinian. He used to be Jewish. He’s not Jewish anymore." JDCA CEO Halie Soifer said, "These comments are abhorrent but revealing of why the vast majority of Jewish voters will never support Donald Trump."
3) I updated my post on why we should oppose the Antisemitism Awareness Act. Despite the good intentions of some of its supporters, it is the wrong way to combat the rising plague of antisemitism. The IHRA definition of antisemitism is flawed. UCLA Professor of Jewish History David Myers writes that campus antisemitism is a real problem, and he recommends better approaches to fighting antisemitism.
4) Elon Musk shared and then deleted a post claiming that Hitler, Stalin, and Mao were not responsible for the deaths of millions of people.
5) Ilan Goldenberg explains why support for Israel in the U.S. is dropping.
6) Shaul Maggid writes about the dark side of Purim, which we celebrated Thursday night and Friday. Read to the end.
7) Judd Legum on the MAGA plan to cripple DC.
Social Posts of the Week. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Anshel Pfeffer.
Cartoon of the Week. Paul Noth.
Video Clip of the Week. Monkey Business Promo.
Vintage Music Clip of the Week. Paint It Black.
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I periodically update my posts on the IHRA definition of antisemitism and on why Democrats are better than Republicans on Israel and antisemitism. My definition of "pro-Israel" is here (it's a work in progress, as am I).
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