You're welcome to read for free, but you can chip in for the cost of the newsletter by clicking here and filling in the amount of your choice. You don't need a PayPal account; the link lets you use a credit card. If you have trouble, let me know. Or you can Venmo @Steven-Sheffey (if it asks, last four phone digits are 9479).

Friends,

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said last week that we are "confronting a domestic threat that we’ve never faced before: a former president who’s attempting to unravel the foundations of our constitutional republic, aided by political leaders who have made themselves willing hostages to this dangerous and irrational man." Trump maintains a dominant lead for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination and the vast majority of Republican officeholders either support him or fear him.

Some Republicans in Congress want to strip committee assignments from the few Republicans who voted for President Biden's infrastructure plan, but the response to Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) tweeting a video showing him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)? A collective shrug.

David Graham writes that "fiscal conservatives have every reason to be angry about spending, but one would hope to see the same sort of anger directed at President Trump’s attempt to steal the 2020 election, his fomenting of an insurrection on January 6, and the members of Congress who abetted him. There’s no use in arguing over the finer points of budgeting if you don’t have rule of law and a functional democracy to begin with...If you find it easier to know what you think about a spending bill than an attempt to overturn an election, or if the former makes you angrier than the latter, you’ve decided that party matters more than country."

The reality of what the Republican Party is hard for some of us to accept. But this is not partisan rhetoric. This is real. We ignore it at our peril. If you knew someone who was not vaccinated against Covid, my guess is that you would tell them to get vaccinated--for your sake and theirs. We should treat our friends who vote Republican the same way. Try to reason with them respectfully. Don't give up--their votes make you less safe. If your friendship with them is so fragile that you can't talk politics, then maybe you should consider what kind of friendship you have. This is not an academic debate. Republicans are endangering the essence of what our country stands for. That is not hyperbole.

Rad Future Clergy. Nearly 100 rabbinical students recently signed a letter challenging what they’ve been taught about Israel, illustrating my point last week when I recommended Daniel Sokatch’s new book, “Can We Talk About Israel?” over confirmation bias manuals that do more harm than good, such as Noa Tishby’s recent venture into the world of hasbara.

We've been teaching our kids a sanitized, mythological version of Israel that cannot meet the test of intellectual scrutiny. When my kids attended Jewish day school, the dance troupe wore t-shirts with a map of Israel on the front whose outline included the entire West Bank and no Green Line. Yet we complain that the Palestinians give their kids maps that erase Israel.

If our kids think that the West Bank is part of Israel, then how can we blame them for thinking of apartheid when they see different legal systems in the West Bank for Jews and Palestinians? When Ben & Jerry's announces it will not do business in West Bank settlements while simultaneously announcing that it will continue to do business in Israel and we accuse Ben & Jerry's of boycotting Israel, we contradict the truth and reinforce the self-defeating notion that the West Bank is part of Israel.

Further, as Daniel Sokatch pointed out when we spoke last week, U.S. policy correctly deems settlements an obstacle to peace, so how can we object when an ice cream company refuses to do business with what our own country has said for decades is an obstacle to peace?

If any subset of young Jews is intellectually curious, open-minded, and concerned about Israel, it is rabbinical students. Yet when they learn the full truth about Israel, who will they turn to--the mainstream and right-wing organizations that misled them, or the organizations, regardless of their political leanings, that at least base their politics on reality?

Mainstream and right-wing Jewish organizations, in part because they are funded in many cases by right-wing donors who would go ballistic if the full truth were taught, continue to provide our kids with hasbara instead of education, leaving young adults like these rabbinical students to turn elsewhere for the truth. Wouldn't we rather they turn to us? They would if we teach them the truth, but too many adults in our community resist teaching the truth. They either deny the truth or think the truth will turn our kids away from Israel, a sign of their own insecure relationship with Israel.

The debate about how to teach our kids about Israel parallels the debate about Critical Race Theory (CRT). CRT is generally taught at the law school level, but applications of the theory, which should be non-controversial, can guide teaching at all ages. CRT "acknowledges that the legacy of slavery, segregation, and the imposition of second-class citizenship on Black Americans and other people of color continue to permeate the social fabric of this nation." How can anyone deny that? As the ACLU notes, "our country needs to acknowledge its history of systemic racism and reckon with present day impacts of racial discrimination — this includes being able to teach and talk about these concepts in our schools."

But some people prefer to whitewash American history and do not realize that we cannot understand what is happening today without understanding how we got here. Similarly, one cannot understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without understanding the history of the conflict and that both sides, as Sokatch says, are victims and villains.

American history is different from Israeli history. Palestine isn't Ferguson. While the effects of American racism and Israeli control of Palestinians in the West Bank at times appear superficially similar, the analogy breaks down as one learns more about the Israel-Palestinian conflict. Rather, the parallel I'm drawing is between the reluctance of some supporters of both countries to teach truths that contradict the myths they think are crucial to the national narrative.

If we don't teach our kids the facts about Israel and the Palestinians, they'll learn the facts from someone else, perhaps someone who knows the facts but does not love Israel. Who would you prefer they learn from?

Republican hypocrisy on antisemitism and Israel continues. They hope we'll forget, but we won't. In September, a few Democrats, aided by the entire Republican caucus, delayed Iron Dome funding by two whole days. Oddly enough, only the Democrats were called out, and they were accused of antisemitism (because they opposed the supplemental funding for Iron Dome, and Iron Dome saves Jewish lives).

Fifty-two days later, Senate Republicans continue to block Iron Dome funding but no one is being accused of antisemitism or blaming Republican leadership for not joining with Democrats to quickly pass Iron Dome funding. Only a collective shrug from the GOP.

Two years ago, one of the least senior of 435 members of Congress observed that one particular pro-Israel lobbying group (check your in-box--you probably have a fundraising email from them right now) spends money to influence politicians, leading to condemnations across the board.

A couple weeks ago, the leader of the Republican Party, a former and possibly future President of the United States, claimed that Israel literally owned Congress ten years ago. The ADL's Jonathan Greenblatt said that "the accusation that Israel 'ever' controlled Congress is despicable and reeks of antisemitism. No friend of our community or the country speaks this way. This wasn’t a lapse of judgment or a misstatement. It’s a disturbing window into a bigoted worldview."

But Trump's statement was met with another collective shrug from our Republican friends, who continue to block President Biden's nomination of Dr. Deborah Lipstadt, one of the world's leading authorities on antisemitism, to be Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism.

Sanity at the UN. The Biden administration reverted to long-standing U.S. policy by abstaining on a U.N. General Assembly resolution that affirmed the importance of resuming humanitarian aid to the Palestinians through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The Trump administration cut funding for UNRWA and voted against such resolutions. Biden abstained rather than voting Yes because the resolution contained language alluding to a Palestinian right of return, which the U.S. believes is a final status issue to be resolved by the parties to the conflict. Since this was not a Security Council resolution, the U.S. could not veto it, and the decision to abstain--indicating ambivalence--was correct. Ambassador Richard Mills explained the U.S. position.

Yardena Schwartz writes that Biden's decision to resume UNRWA funding came "with an unprecedented push for change—something the Trump administration, for all its criticism of UNRWA, never endeavored...continued U.S. financing will require UNRWA to implement various reforms, including combating incitement and antisemitism in its educational curriculum, requiring the neutrality of its staff, and ensuring UNRWA facilities are not used by terrorist organizations and its staff are not affiliated with them."

Last week's newsletter.

ICYMI. You don’t have to choose between loving Israel and opposing the occupation.

Tweet of the Week. Tim Vertz.

Video Clip of the Week. Electile Dysfunction.

Upcoming Events. Dana Gordon and I will be hosting Rep. Cindy Axne (D-IA) on Zoom at 6:45 pm on Thursday, December 9. RSVP here to get the Zoom link.

We are hosting Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) on Zoom at 3:00 pm on Sunday, January 9. RSVP here to get the Zoom link.

For both events, contributions are encouraged but not required. You can attend either or both for free and you can contribute even if you cannot attend--those links can do it all. Axne and Casten are outstanding members of Congress who need and deserve our help to get re-elected.

I guess this is a good problem to have: This list is now so large that while many people are local, even more live outside the Chicago area and have no interest in local news. If you want to be on a list that will receive infrequent newsletters about local issues and events, reply to this email and I'll add you.

Did someone forward this newsletter to you? Why not subscribe? It's free! Just click here. 

Donations are welcome (because this costs money to send). If you'd like to chip in, click here and fill in the amount of your choice. You don't need a PayPal account; the link allows you to use a credit card. If you'd rather send a check, please reply and I'll send you mailing information (please do NOT send checks to the P.O. Box). Venmo to @Steven-Sheffey (last four 9479) is fine too.

You’re reading this. So are other influentials. If you want the right people to know about your candidate, cause, or event, reply to this email to discuss your ad.

The Fine Print: This newsletter usually runs on Sunday mornings. If you receive it as an ICYMI on Wednesday it's because you didn't open the one sent on Sunday. Unless stated otherwise, my views do not necessarily reflect the views of any candidates or organizations that I support or am associated with. I reserve the right to change my mind as I learn more. I am willing to sacrifice intellectual consistency for intellectual honesty. Smart, well-informed people may disagree with me; read opposing views and decide for yourself. A link to an article doesn't mean that I agree with everything its author has ever said or that I even agree with everything in the article; it means that the article supports or elaborates on the point I was making. I take pride in accurately reporting the facts on which I base my opinions. Tell me if you spot any inaccuracies, typos, or other mistakes so that I can correct them in the next newsletter (and give you credit if you want it). Advertisements reflect the views of the advertisers, not necessarily of me, and advertisers are solely responsible for the content of their advertisements. I read, value, and encourage replies to my newsletters, but I don't always have time to acknowledge replies or to engage in one-on-one discussion. Don't expect a reply if your message is uncivil or if it's clear from your message that you haven't read the newsletter or clicked on the relevant links. © 2021 Steve Sheffey. All rights reserved.