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November 19, 2023
Key Takeaways from a longer-than-usual newsletter:
- Hamas proved on October 7 that calls for a ceasefire are premature. The only acceptable result is the release of all hostages and the end of Hamas rule in Gaza.
- Good news for Joe Biden: A new poll from the non-partisan Jewish Electorate Institute shows that Jewish voters overwhelmingly support Biden over Trump (and Democrats over Republicans) on handling the Israel-Hamas war and on fighting antisemitism.
- The Biden administration's granting of Iraq a $10 billion waiver to purchase electricity from Iran is necessary for our national security, can only be used for humanitarian purposes (yes, we can make sure), and is pursuant to policies implemented by the Trump administration. The GOP had no problem when Trump granted the same waivers for the same reasons with the same safeguards (this is the 21st time it's been renewed).
- The March for Israel was amazing; it was the largest rally of U.S. Jews ever. It was peaceful, it was fun, and it was marred only by the presence of Pastor John Hagee, a disgusting bigot who should not have been invited. At a time when we are wondering where our allies are for us, this was not the time for us not to be there for them (and ourselves) by inviting Hagee. Most of us were not there for Hagee and do not share his views. Let's remember our rally the next time we question or criticize the speakers chosen by other organizations for their rallies.
Read to the end for corrections, what you may have missed last week, fun stuff, and upcoming events.
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Hi Steve,
Israel declared war on Hamas after Hamas brutally murdered and tortured 1,200 people (including at least 32 Americans) on October 7, wounded more than 3,300, and took more than 240 hostages, including babies, children, and the elderly (among them at least ten Americans). One of the hostages gave birth recently; can you imagine what she and her baby are going through? It's been 43 days for the hostages and their families.
These hostages are not prisoners of war. Hamas is a terrorist group, not a resistance group. A ceasefire was in place on October 6 and some people want to try it again--it worked out pretty well last time, right? More Jews were murdered on October 7 than on any day since the Holocaust.
Advocates for a ceasefire now have yet to address the unacceptable result it would likely bring about: Hamas left in place, holding more than 240 hostages, with the capacity and stated intent to repeat October 7– again and again and again. Conor Friedersdorf asks the question ceasefire now proponents cannot answer. "If both parties agreed to a ceasefire, then Hamas violated the ceasefire, what would be the right thing to happen next?" Wash, rinse, repeat? This has to end, and for this to end, all the hostages must be safely returned and Hamas can no longer rule Gaza.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) said at Tuesday's March for Israel that "not everyone calling for a ceasefire wants Israel to cease to exist. But everyone who wants Israel to cease to exist is calling for a ceasefire." A ceasefire now would only benefit Hamas. Some say that Israel's war against Hamas fuels recruitment for Hamas. I don't recall anyone arguing against the Allied bombing of Germany by warning that the suffering of German civilians would fuel recruitment for Nazis.
Hamas embeds itself in civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals. Arguing that Israel cannot bomb those targets is arguing that terrorists can grant themselves immunity by operating from civilian areas and that victims of terrorism cannot defend themselves with force. What should Israel do instead? Resign itself to sending millions of its citizens to bomb shelters whenever a terrorist decides to fire a round of rockets? Would you want to live that way, Steve?
President Biden wrote yesterday that "if Hamas cared at all for Palestinian lives, it would release all the hostages, give up arms, and surrender the leaders and those responsible for Oct. 7. As long as Hamas clings to its ideology of destruction, a cease-fire is not peace. To Hamas’s members, every cease-fire is time they exploit to rebuild their stockpile of rockets, reposition fighters and restart the killing by attacking innocents again. An outcome that leaves Hamas in control of Gaza would once more perpetuate its hate and deny Palestinian civilians the chance to build something better for themselves."
The moral and strategic clarity of Biden's oped, which points toward reunification of Gaza and the West Bank under a single governance structure, ultimately under a revitalized Palestinian Authority, with a two-state solution as the goal, is worth your taking the time to read and understand (you'll also understand why Biden's aid package combines aid to Ukraine and Israel, and why Congress must pass both).
Above all, we must never forget the hostages. We must demand and continue to demand that Hamas release all of them now, from the youngest to the oldest. Think of them during Thanksgiving. Look around your table and imagine if your loved ones were spending the day held in captivity by brutal terrorists. Because for 240 people and their families, that is exactly what is happening. A temporary ceasefire preceded by release of the hostages is the only ceasefire worth considering at this point.
Good news for Joe Biden. A new survey from the non-partisan Jewish Electorate Institute (JEI) found that 74% of Jewish voters approve of President Biden’s handling of the war between Israel and Hamas. By a 39-point margin, Jewish voters said they trust Biden more than Trump--the presumptive 2024 GOP nominee--to fight antisemitism. 68% of Jewish voters say they would support Biden over Trump, who would have the support of only 22% of Jewish voters – an eight-point decline in Jewish voters’ support for Trump compared to a similar poll before the 2020 election. Jewish voters trust Biden and Democrats far more than Trump and Republicans to fight antisemitism. Read the details here. (Spoiler alert: It only gets better for Biden.)
Another day, another Republican falsehood about Biden and Iran. Last week, the administration extended by four months a sanctions waiver that will allow Iraq to continue to purchase electricity from Iran and gives Iran limited access to the proceeds to buy humanitarian goods. According to the AP, "there is roughly $10 billion in Iraqi payments for Iranian electricity currently being held in escrow accounts in Iraq, and the waiver will allow Baghdad to maintain its energy imports without fear of U.S. penalties for violating sanctions on Iran."
The GOP is running the same playbook about the administration's $10 billion Iraq-Iran electricity waiver that it runs every time the administration grants a waiver, so let's go through this again:
The waiver for Iraq to use its own funds to pay for Iranian electricity imports has previously been renewed 20 times and continues a practice that began under the Trump administration. Without a waiver, Iraq would not be able to pay for electricity imports. Trump issued the same waivers for Iraq to buy electricity from Iran under his "maximum pressure" sanctions regime, but I don't recall the Republicans criticizing Biden today criticizing Trump back then. Who said elephants never forget?
Under these waivers, no money is permitted to enter Iran. These funds, which are held abroad in restricted accounts, never enter Iran and can only be accessed for transactions for the purchase of food, agricultural commodities, medicine, medical devices, and other non-sanctionable transactions. We have always had humanitarian carve-outs in our sanctions regime--U.S. policy for decades has been that our sanctions do not prevent humanitarian goods and services from flowing to ordinary citizens, no matter how objectionable their governments. If you want more, read my October 8 post about the flap over the $6 billion waiver (which includes a debunking of the fungibility argument).
The optics of issuing the waiver might not be perfect, but as State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said, "we don’t worry about optics; we worry about reality. And the reality is that these funds ... can only be used for humanitarian and other non-sanctionable purposes. And when it comes to holding Iran accountable for its destabilizing activities, I would remind you that we have imposed more than 400 sanctions on Iran since the outset of this administration. In the past few weeks ... the Pentagon has conducted strikes against Iranian-backed militias."
Lessons from the rally. Nearly 300,000 people attended the March for Israel on Tuesday, making it the largest Jewish rally in U.S. history. The weather was perfect, the logistics were perfect, and the day was filled with moving speeches and great music from the U.S. and Israel. It was peaceful. No one vandalized private or government property, no one took down American flags, no one left a trail of graffiti. It was a wonderful and important rally. I'm glad I attended and showed up for Israel, for the hostages, and against antisemitism.
Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV), House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Rep. Kathy Manning (D-NC), and Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) reiterated our commitment to Israel and our opposition to antisemitism. Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Israeli Ambassador Michael Herzog eloquently made the case for Israel. Hearing from the families of the hostages moved everyone to tears and to action.
The Republicans on stage mainly said the right things. Yet it was hard to forget, especially as Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) spoke, that only two weeks ago House Republicans voted to condition emergency aid to Israel on cuts to the IRS, that less than two months ago they voted to cut aid to Israel by 30%, and that Johnson displays a Christian nationalist flag outside his office.
Toward the end, Pastor John Hagee spoke. Emily Tamkin writes that Hagee "has a history of deeply offensive comments: that God sent Hitler to carry out the Holocaust 'to help Jews reach the promised land,' that Hitler was a 'half-breed Jew,' and that Israel is the only home God ever intended the Jewish people to have. One could reasonably object to this person being on a stage at a rally against antisemitism." Joshua Shanes explains that Hagee "is a Muslim-hating, antisemitic, annexationist extremist. He’s no friend of Israel."
In 2005, Hagee said that legalizing same-sex marriage “will open the door to incest, to polygamy, and every conceivable marriage arrangement demented minds can possibly conceive. If God does not then punish America, He will have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”
Think I'm exaggerating about Hagee? Then ask yourself why John McCain rejected Hagee's endorsement in 2008.
And yet there he was, invited to speak at a massive rally in front of nearly 300,000 people, mostly Jews. At a time when we are wondering why allies aren’t standing with us, inviting a hater like Hagee to a march in support of Israel, to free the hostages, and against antisemitism is almost an answer to the question. Hagee should not have been welcome on Tuesday if we are serious about hate having no home in our community.
How would you feel if someone attacked the rally because one bigot out of many great speakers was invited to speak and was applauded and cheered? And what if someone demanded that the other speakers who spoke from the same stage condemn Hagee? Or condemned the other speakers for appearing on the same stage as Hagee?
I don't think you'd think that was fair. Maybe you'd try to defend the decision by arguing that Hagee only spoke for ten minutes in a more than three-hour program as if that was an exemption. Maybe you'd argue that Hagee was invited not because of his bigotry, but because he had previously been an ally on some important issues and because when you're feeling oppressed, you don't always have the luxury of choosing your allies. Remember that the next time someone else has a rally with speakers you don't approve of. Remember that the next time anyone says they have to platform bigots. They don't. Neither do we.
I went to the rally because I thought the good of attending outweighed the presence of John Hagee, whom I detest and whose presence at the rally I condemn. I would not like it if someone thought that my presence at the rally was an endorsement of Hagee (for the record, I turned my back when he spoke, and others did too; also for the record, I think women should have been allowed to sing from the stage).
Let's judge others the way we judge ourselves. Conversely, groups outside the Jewish community ought to look in the mirror before they criticize Hagee at the rally. Those within the Jewish community are voicing our condemnation of Hagee. Can other groups whose events feature objectionable speakers say the same about theirs?
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 brought any mistakes to my attention last week, so it looks like last week's newsletter was perfect.
In Case You Missed It:
- Jonathan Chait: Republicans have an antisemitism problem. The Democratic Party doesn't. "It is certainly true that there is antisemitism on the left, frequently presenting itself as criticism of Israel. (The usual trick is to make an antisemitic statement and replace 'Jews' with Zionists.') But it is overwhelmingly directed in opposition to the Democratic Party. The most antisemitic activists on the right tend to be pro-Trump, which is why the ranks of J6ers were overrepresenting with white nationalists. The most antisemitic activists of the left despise Joe Biden and generally oppose the Democratic Party."
- Hillary Clinton: Hamas must go. Hamas has "proved again and again that they will not abide by cease-fires, will sabotage any efforts to forge a lasting peace, and will never stop attacking Israel."
- Rabbi Jay Michaelson: "This week’s raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City is the starkest example yet of the moral dilemma Israel faces in its campaign: how to attack military targets that are deliberately located in civilian areas."
- Nearly 80% of Jewish voters over 36 years old think that antisemitism on campus is a very serious problem, but only 37% of Jewish voters 18-35 think that antisemitism on campus is a very serious problem. Weird that the age cohort most likely to know what is happening on campus is the least concerned.
Tweet of the Week. Alan Gross and best social media post ever.
Potential Tweet of the Year. Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY).
Twitter Thread of the Week. Amy Spitalnick.
Video Clips of the Week. Rep. Sean Casten's (D-IL) Thanksgiving message to Republicans and the key to surviving Thanksgiving this year.
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 Medium posts on why Democrats are better than Republicans on Israel and antisemitism and on why the Antisemitism Awareness Act and the IHRA definition are the wrong solutions to real problems. You can read my most recent effort to define "pro-Israel" here (it's a work in progress, as am I).
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