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December 8, 2024
Key Developments and What We're Discussing Today:
1) It's been 429 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; 100 hostages, many dead, some raped and possibly pregnant, remain captive in Gaza.
2) The 100 remaining hostages include seven Americans, three probably alive: Keith Siegal, Omer Neutra, Edan Alexander, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Itay Chen, Judi Weinstein Haggai, and Gad Haggai.
3) We learned last week that Omer Neutra was murdered on October 7, 2023. His body has not been returned. The IDF recovered hostage Itai Svirsky's body last week.
4) President Biden's pardon of Hunter Biden was justified and not comparable to pardons issued or soon to be issued by Donald Trump.
5) The Biden administration and members of Congress rejected accusations of genocide against Israel from Amnesty International.
6) Last week, the worst scandal in presidential history rocked the Biden administration to its core: Biden was photographed carrying a book. This will tarnish his legacy forever.
7) And some stuff you might have missed.
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Hi Steve,
President Biden said last week that he and Dr. Jill Biden were "devastated and outraged to learn of the death of Omer Neutra, an American citizen, whose body Hamas has apparently been holding since they killed him during their brutal terrorist attack on October 7." The hostages must be freed now, and that means an end to the war now.
Omer Neutra's parents issued a statement calling on Israel to work with President Biden and President-elect Trump to bring home all the hostages as soon as possible. The IDF recovered hostage Itai Svirsky's body and brought him back to Israel.
Trump blustered that he wants the hostages released before he becomes president or there will be 'ALL HELL TO PAY." Putting it in all caps tells Hamas that he really, really means it. Why didn't Biden think of that?
Maybe while he's at it, Trump will get Mexico to pay for a wall. Some people find Trump's tough talk reassuring. But this is real life, not a staged wrestling match. The hostages are real people.
Marc Broklawski summarized Trump's post as "Empty threats, zero empathy. Families are begging for real action, for deals to bring their loved ones home—but all he cares about is flexing for his Inauguration Day. Not a word about Omer Neutra or his grieving family."
President Biden pardoned Hunter Biden. I'm glad that he did. Hunter Biden was targeted because of whose son he is. That's not justice. President Biden's statement speaks for itself. Comparing Hunter Biden to the January 6 insurrectionists or Jared Kushner's father is absurd. Trump was going to issue the pardons he will issue regardless of this pardon. Biden's pardon does not diminish our standing to point out the moral depravity of Trump's past and likely future pardons.
I would normally agree with the reasons for not pardoning Hunter Biden. But these are not normal times. We cannot pretend that the Trump administration will administer justice fairly. Ron Filipowski explains why this pardon is justified.
Trae Crowder demolished the arguments against the pardon as only he can.
Mikel Jollet summed up the entire controversy in one short post.
Read any good books lately? The usual suspects are whinging because President Biden was photographed carrying a book. Oh, no! The president reads books! If that's not an impeachable offense, I don't know what is.
The book in question was Rashid Khalidi's The Hundred Years' War on Palestine. I have no idea whether it was an impulse purchase, whether someone recommended it to him in the store, or whether it was on his list of books to read one day.
Nor do I care. I am more concerned that our incoming president owned and possibly read Mein Kampf and praised its author than I am that our outgoing president might be reading an alternative history of Israel and Palestine.
Biden is a self-proclaimed Zionist with a strong, decades-long record of support for Israel. His support for Israel during his presidency was unprecedented. He requested the largest emergency aid package in history for Israel. He twice used U.S. troops to defend Israel when Iran attacked Israel with ballistic missiles. Until Biden, no president had ever used U.S. troops to defend Israel. Biden was the first president to visit Israel during wartime.
Yet some gobemouches are concerned that he might be reading a book they don’t like, that they probably have not read, and that if it says what they think it says, is inconsistent with Biden’s 50 years of support for Israel. Or maybe our addlepated friends think Biden has been playing the long con for decades so that he could get away with reading a book in retirement.
President Biden’s track record on Israel speaks for itself. Reading a book that argues a view he disagrees with to understand that perspective is not the same as buying into that view. If Biden is curious about a book like this, maybe we should encourage every politician to read it–Israel would be safe and secure for decades to come if our future leaders modeled themselves on Joe Biden. Rob Eshman recommends that we read Khalidi's book too.
But I get the concern. One day, this might rank among the worst scandals in presidential history.
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. I sent a corrected version of last week's newsletter because in the first version, in the same sentence, I managed to misspell "Israel" and say "Hamas" when I meant "Hezbollah." Also, I wrote that Trump's share of the popular vote in 2024 was one of the smallest in modern history. I should have written that Trump's popular vote margin was one of the smallest of any victorious presidential candidate in modern history.
In Case You Missed It:
1) The White House reiterated that allegations of genocide against Israel are "unfounded" in response to an Amnesty International report released on Wednesday. Pressed at a State Department briefing on Thursday, spokesperson Vedant Patel said, "People, organizations, groups are entitled to draw their own conclusions. The U.S. conclusion is that these allegations of genocide are unfounded." In May, Jay Michaelson analyzed the claims of genocide against Israel and found them wanting.
Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL) said, "Amnesty's report accusing Israel of genocidal intent in Gaza is deeply flawed, speculative and misleading. Its conclusions hinge on inferences rather than direct evidence and rely on ambiguous concepts such as ‘dual intent’ to fill gaps in the absence of proof, as the report itself admits." Florida Democratic Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Lois Frankel noted that Amnesty's report "rests entirely on a politically driven revisionist definition of what constitutes a genocide."
2) Former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon accused Israel of war crimes and ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Others disagree. But if your definition of "anti-Israel" or "antisemitic" includes this type of criticism of Israel, then you have to ask yourself whether you are prepared to call Yaalon anti-Israel or antisemitic. Or maybe you need to find a better definitions.
In a must-read op-ed published on Friday, Yaalon explained why he made these accusations: "to protect Israel, to preserve our strength and righteousness. This is why I have sounded a warning about ethnic cleansing. I know that the vast majority of Israelis want a democracy based on the Declaration of Independence, and not a messianic dictatorship that embroils us in war crimes. They prefer to continue the process of separating from the Palestinians, achieved in a responsible way – not to annex, expel and settle in their place."
Rabbi Jill Jacobs writes that supporting Israel now means telling the truth about Israel's government.
3) Slightly long but important read from Barack Obama: My Remarks at the 2024 Obama Foundation Democracy Forum.
4) Asli Aydintasbas: Trump will overplay his hand. Here's how to be ready.
5) Natalia Mehlman Petrzela and Rachel Schreiber write that misogyny and antisemitism are a toxic brew.
6) Rashid Khalidi was interviewed by Haaretz on November 30.
7) I continue to recommend Daniel Sokatch's Can We Talk About Israel?: A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted to anyone looking for one book to read about the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
8) Marcie Jones asks if Kash Patel for FBI is Trump's most dangerously clownstupid nomination yet. Ruth Marcus writes that Patel is a dangerous and qualified choice for the FBI.
9) Anna Gifty writes that Trump, not Harris, ran on identity politics, but Trump "didn’t campaign on making life better for certain identity groups. He campaigned by mobilizing people against ones they loathe and fear."
10) Joyce Vance: George Orwell and the Founding Fathers.
Social Post of the Week. Eric Columbus.
Useful Post of the Week. Percentages are reversible.
Video Clip of the Week. Steve Martin's Holiday Wish.
Vintage Music Clip of the Week. The Beatles creating a masterpiece: Something.
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 why Democrats are better than Republicans on Israel and antisemitism and on the IHRA definition of antisemitism. My definition of "pro-Israel" is here (it's a work in progress, as am I).
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