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October 16, 2022
Key Takeaways:
- Republicans--but not Democrats--are defending Kanye West's antisemitic comments. It is no coincidence that only in the Republican Party is antisemitism not a barrier for statewide or national office.
- The Biden administration brokered a historic maritime agreement between Israel and Lebanon, which in some respects eclipses the Abraham Accords.
- The Biden administration's National Security Strategy includes an "ironclad" commitment to Israel's security, preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, and recognition that democracy at home is a national security imperative.
- If you're tired of hearing that this is the most important election of our lifetimes you're tired of democracy. Voting Republican means voting to make abortions illegal (even in cases of rape, incest, or danger to the mother), voting to keep assault weapons legal, surrendering our democracy to fascism, and replacing pluralism with antisemitism and racism.
Read to the end for upcoming events and fun stuff.
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Hi Steve,
Credit for today's subject line goes to our Republican friends on the House Judiciary Committee in a tweet they have not yet deleted. That's the whole tweet. Three names "spoken in succession with no other words to accompany them, as if they were saints."
I don't expect members of either party to condemn every offensive comment by every entertainer who identifies with their party (Kanye is a Republican). They'd have no time for anything else. But neither do I expect them to defend or support entertainers--or anyone--who makes antisemitic or racist remarks.
Every Republican who supports Donald Trump is complicit in his antisemitism. Everyone who defends Kanye is complicit in his antisemitism, including Republican candidates and those who give him an uncritical platform. Progressive Democrats, including Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), condemned Kanye, but aside from Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), Republicans have spoken out only in his defense. Philissa Cramer and Ron Kampeas report the whole story.
(Zeldin never condemned Trump for any of his antisemitic remarks and he voted to overturn the 2020 election. He's unfit to hold office, yet his condemnation of Kanye puts him above the entire Republican caucus.)
Dan Rather writes that the Republican response to racism and antisemitism "is a combination of silence, deflection, and various levels of endorsement."
Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, told Newsweek that "Kanye West's comments, which echo some of the darkest and oldest conspiracy theories about Jews, are deeply antisemitic and dangerous...It's incumbent on public figures to condemn this antisemitism, as opposed to giving it a platform, as was done by Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson."
Elad Nehorai writes that Tucker Carlson and his team "purposefully edited their footage to make Kanye’s comments into a dog whistle instead of a foghorn," thus purposefully coding Kanye’s antisemitism.
Aside from Zeldin, all of the condemnation of Kanye is coming from the Democratic side of the aisle. Looks like the "each side must condemn its own side" crowd took the week off. As Rex Huppke wrote, "if the end is near – and at this point, I’m rooting for it – West, Rokita, Tuberville and Greene are the Four Jackasses of the Apocalypse. But what’s somehow louder than their thunderously repugnant rhetoric is the silence from the political party that embraces them."
Bigger than the Abraham Accords? The Biden administration brokered a historic maritime agreement between Israel and Lebanon.
Israeli journalist Amir Tibon notes that the deal eclipses "the Abraham Accords in one important way: it could actually prevent a catastrophic war. The Abraham Accords, for all the optimism and economic benefits they created, did not save the life of one Israeli soldier. After all, Israel had never gone to war with Bahrain, the UAE or Morocco. The Lebanon deal mediated by Biden’s point man, Amos Hochstein, on the other hand, has the potential to avert a disastrous confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah."
Maybe Congress needs a Maritime Agreement Caucus.
The Abraham Accords are not peace agreements. They are economic normalization agreements sweetened by arms sales with countries over 1,000 miles from Israel. This new maritime agreement is with a country bordering Israel that could reduce the likelihood of further armed conflict. None of this diminishes the importance of the Abraham Accords, but we should recognize that even though the agreement with Lebanon lacks a clever name, it too is a significant achievement.
Israel's security establishment supports the maritime deal. Former U.S. ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro explains why this is a big win for Lebanon, a bigger win for Israel, and a setback for Hezbollah. Support for the Abraham Accords is bipartisan, but only Democrats are vocally supporting the maritime agreement. Looks like the "pro-Israel means supporting the democratically elected government of Israel" crowd took the week off.
President Biden's National Security Strategy reiterates his strong support for Israel. This document is essential to understanding Biden's national security and foreign policy views. The strategy includes seeking "to extend and deepen Israel’s growing ties to its neighbors and other Arab states, including through the Abraham Accords, while maintaining our ironclad commitment to its security. We will also continue to promote a viable two state solution that preserves Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state while meeting Palestinian aspirations for a secure and viable state of their own. As President Biden stated during his visit to the West Bank in July 2022, 'Two States along the 1967 lines, with mutually agreed swaps, remain the best way to achieve equal measure of security, prosperity, freedom, and democracy for Palestinians as well as Israelis.'”
Regarding Iran, Biden states that "we will continue to work with allies and partners to enhance their capabilities to deter and counter Iran’s destabilizing activities. We will pursue diplomacy to ensure that Iran can never acquire a nuclear weapon, while remaining postured and prepared to use other means should diplomacy fail. Iran’s threats against U.S. personnel as well as current and former U.S. officials will not be tolerated, and as we have demonstrated, we will respond when our people and interests are attacked. As we do so, we will always stand with the Iranian people striving for the basic rights and dignity long denied them by the regime in Tehran.”
The document notes that "the quality of our democracy at home affects the strength and credibility of our leadership abroad" and that "as Americans, we must all agree that the people’s verdict, as expressed in elections, must be
respected and protected."
Our Republican friends might not agree, but if you believe that the U.S.-Israel relationship is grounded in shared values, you understand that Biden is right.
Voting Republican means voting to make abortions illegal (even in cases of rape, incest, or danger to the mother), voting to keep assault weapons legal, surrendering our democracy to fascism, and replacing pluralism with antisemitism and racism. That's not good for America and it's not good for the U.S.-Israel relationship.
Are you tired of hearing every two years that this is the most important election of our lifetimes? Get used to it. It's true every two years. Democracy is hard work. You'll know democracy has died when you stop hearing that this is the most important election of our lifetimes: Elections aren't important in autocracies. Democracy is not practiced by other primates. For most of human history and in many countries today democracy is not the norm. Many Americans act as if they wouldn't mind living under semi-fascism as long as their rulers had the right racial, ethnic, and religious credentials.
Autocrats rise to power on the backs of a misinformed citizenry motivated by fear and hatred of others looking for someone to save them from the elites or strangers conspiring against them or seeking to replace them. (Spoiler Alert: In America, that someone will not be Black or Jewish.) American democracy is institutionally imperfect but it's all we have, it's all that protects us, and it's more fragile than we thought, as we've learned from the January 6 hearings.
It's not too late. Not if we treat this election as the most important election of our lifetime. Chag Sameach!
Last Week's Newsletter.
ICYMI. My relative running for Congress is part of a movement that endangers Jews. Should my family speak out?
Tweet of the Week. Paul Rudnick.
This Tweet Held Up Well. Pink, from 2009.
Best Reply to Pink's Tweet. Tony Posnanski, from 2018.
Twitter Threads of the Week. Oren Jacobson and All 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.
Video Clip of the Week. Comedian Ariel Elias faces down Trump-supporting heckler (and chugs what's left of the beer thrown at her).
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