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August 17, 2025
Key Developments and What We're Discussing Today:
- Today, August 17, marks 681 days since October 7, 2023. The Hamas-led attack on Simchat Torah resulted in 1,182 fatalities (including 44 Americans) and over 4,000 wounded. 251 hostages (210 alive, 41 dead bodies) were taken during a day of brutal savagery and sexual violence. It was the largest single massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, with more than one in every 10,000 Israelis killed, and the third overall deadliest terrorist attack in the world to date.
- The 50 remaining hostages, 27 known to be dead, 20 thought to be alive, and three of unknown status, include the bodies of two Americans: Omer Neutra and Itay Chen. It is beyond outrageous that after all this time, they are still enduring torture and starvation in tunnels with no outside contact. It is beyond outrageous that no hostages have been released since June. Releasing the hostages is clearly not a priority for Trump and Netanyahu, but it's a top priority for us.
- Democrats who speak out against annexation and starvation are pro-Israel and working to strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship. Republicans who remain silent are complicit in weakening the U.S.-Israel relationship. Those who support annexation are supporting an end to a Jewish, democratic state of Israel.
- What it means to be "pro-Israel" must reflect Israel's challenges in 2025. Republicans and some Jewish organizations might be happy to accept checks from donors dated 1967, but those who care about Israel must address today's realities.
- Politics with Dana and Steve is co-hosting an event on September 18 in Chicago with Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, the leading (and my favorite) candidate in the Illinois 9th congressional district Democratic primary. See below for details.
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Greetings!
In response to criticism that he had changed positions, John Maynard Keynes is reputed to have replied, “When the facts change, I change my mind - what do you do, sir?”
For most of Israel's history, supporting Israel meant supporting its government. For most of Israel's history, it did not matter which party was in power in the U.S. or Israel. Both countries pursued policies consistent with the values that underlaid the U.S.-Israel relationship.
The values that underlie the U.S.-Israel relationship have not changed. The facts have changed. Yet some in our community refuse to change their minds.
In the U.S., the Republican Party has abandoned the bipartisan consensus supporting a two-state solution, the only solution that will secure Israel's future as a Jewish, democratic state.
Republicans nixed language supporting a two-state solution in the Israel 75th birthday resolution the House passed in April 2023. The GOP's 2024 platform made no mention of a two-state solution. GOP Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) visited a West Bank settlement two weeks ago and declared his support for Israeli annexation of the West Bank.
Dan Perry wrote, "Johnson may have thought he was offering solidarity with Israel. Instead, he produced a reckless endorsement of the very forces undermining the country’s long-term survival as a Jewish and democratic state" because if Israel annexed the West Bank, it would have to give 3 million Palestinians citizenship and the right to vote or become "an openly undemocratic state."
Netanyahu's government abandoned any pretense of supporting a two-state solution. In July, the Knesset overwhelmingly passed a resolution rejecting a two-state solution.
Last week, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced construction in El, the narrow strip of land that extends between Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. Smotrich said his goal was to "bury the idea of a Palestinian state."
Smotrich said the land had been given to the Jews by God and that plans by some countries to recognize a Palestinian state later this year are "not going to happen. There will be no state to recognise."
Amir Tibon writes that this is "a major step in the direction of annexing the West Bank to Israel –and shutting down for good the possibility of creating a territorially contiguous Palestinian state."
The pro-Israel community has generally opposed pressure on Israel, but now is the time for Trump to pressure Netanyahu not to take this near-irreversible step. Our values have not changed, but never before has any Israeli government behaved so inconistently with our values.
If the GOP and Israel's current government have their way, Israel will become an international pariah. Support for Israel in the U.S. will evaporate, thus ending the decades-long strong, enduring and mutually beneficial relationship with our ally Israel.
Rob Eshman writes that if Netanyahu's plans come to pass, "American Jews who think of themselves as pro-Israel would no longer be defending a democratic, Jewish-majority state. Instead, they would have to justify active support for a country engaged in an endless occupation of both Gaza and the West Bank. Between those territories, an Israeli occupation would deny approximately 5 million people their full rights. And it would keep Israel perpetually engaged in the violent suppression of resistance."
"Pro-Israel" today means doing all we can to prevent that version of Israel from becoming reality. It means not making the silly arguments that Nicholas Kristof debunked yesterday.
Israel does not forfeit its right to exist because its government makes unwise or immoral decisions. Imagine if the U.S. were held to that standard. Yet the political reality is that the case for U.S. support for Israel will be much harder if Israel continues down this path, and U.S. support for Israel is essential for Israel in today's world.
Some people would have us believe that Democratic criticism of Israel and support for thousands of Israelis marching in the streets to end the war in Gaza now and bring home the hostages now is anti-Israel.
"Anti-Israel" today is doing nothing while Netanyahu's government destroys the U.S.-Israel alliance and turns Israel into a country that most Americans will not support. If Israel is not a democracy, why would they? If Israel is contributing to a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, why would they?
The answer is not to attack Democrats for speaking out for what we all know is right and for what will preserve and strengthen the U.S.-Israel relationship. The answer is to ask why Republicans seem as afraid of Netanyahu as they are of Trump. The answer is to call out Republicans for abdicating their responsibility for ensuring a safe, secure, Jewish, democratic state of Israel.
Democrats are not changing their position on Israel. Netanyahu's government is changing Israel's policies and the world's perceptions of Israel, all for the worse. The facts have changed. Democrats are responding.
Criticism of Israel makes me uncomfortable. Sometimes, it seems like an attack on my identity. Do you want it to stop? I do. We can't stop it by denying reality, asking others to deny reality, or by absurdly claiming that Jewish pro-Israel stalwarts like Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), and Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) are suddenly turning against Israel.
The answer, as Nimrod Novik writes, is "to stand with the democratic-liberal Israeli majority in the only way which counts: financial support for those who reflect, promote and fight for the pre-Bibi Israel, the Israel they remember and felt proud to associate with, and make it better."
A return to the Israel that lives up to the values in its Declaration of Independence would mean an end to the criticism we don't like to hear.
JDCA CEO Halie Soifer writes in her must-read post that in 2025, "American support of Israel should not be about rubber-stamping the agenda of Netanyahu, just as American patriotism should not be equated with blind devotion to Trump. With strong disapproval of both leaders among a majority of Jewish Americans and Democrats, we need to broaden the definition of what it means to stand with Israel outside the narrow lens of what serves Netanyahu and Trump’s political agendas."
Soifer added, "We can oppose settler violence, a military takeover of Gaza City, annexation of the West Bank, and the erosion of democratic norms, while also supporting Israel’s fight against Hamas. We can call for an end to the war and the suffering of innocent Palestinians in Gaza while also demanding the immediate release of every Israeli hostage. And we can reiterate that a two-state solution – however distant it may be – remains the only way to ensure Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state, despite the fact that it’s been completely abandoned by Netanyahu and Trump and their respective governments."
We can have good-faith disagreements about the best tactics to safeguard the U.S.-Israel relationship. But if we see the world through the lens of 1948, 1967, 1973, or even October 7 but no further, we cannot be truly pro-Israel.
Republicans and some Jewish organizations might be happy to accept checks from donors dated 1967. Those of us who care about the Israel of today and tomorrow must address 2025's realities.
Upcoming Event. Alan & Andrea Solow, Jon Carson, Politics with Dana & Steve, and Mark & Margie Zivin are hosting Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, the leading candidate in the 9th Illinois congressional district Democratic primary (Rep. Jan Schakowsky is retiring), on Thursday, September 18, from 5:30 pm to 7:00 pm CT, in person in Chicago. RSVP and contribute here.
In Case You Missed It:
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Highland Park, Illinois, a deep-blue town of 30,000, adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism last Monday. Lily Greenberg Call last week urged California against adopting the IHRA definition because it would it would import "one of the most troubling censorship tactics from the Trump era into a deep-blue state." Every jurisdiction should reject efforts to adopt this misguided and wrongheaded approach to fighting antisemitism and not make the same mistake Highland Park made.
- Slain hostage Itzhak Elgarat died from severe torture during interrogation in captivity.
- Bono: Israel and Gaza, held hostage by fundamentalism. Finally, a musician who knows what he's talking about when he talks about politics. Remember when they put that U2 album on everyone's iPod? They should figure out how to put Bono's op-ed on everyone's phone.
Social Posts of the Week. California Governor Gavin Newsom and so many more to choose from, but this one too.
Thread of the Week. Daniel Seidemann.
Video Clip of the Week. Kelsey Cook.
Vintage Music Clip of the Week. John Lennon: Come Together (released last week).
For those new to this newsletter. This is the newsletter even Republicans have to read and the original home of the viral and beloved Top Ten Signs You're At a Republican Seder (yes, I wrote it). If someone forwarded this newsletter 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 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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