|
March 9, 2025
Key Developments and What We're Discussing Today:
1) It's been 520 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.
2) The 59 remaining hostages include five Americans. Edan Alexander is the only remaining American believed to be alive. Hamas holds the bodies of Omer Neutra, Itay Chen, Judi Weinstein Haggai, and Gad Haggai.
3) Trump spoke at great length on Tuesday but couldn't find time to mention Hamas, Iran, or antisemitism. He did not acknowledge the freed hostages in the chamber. He mentioned Israel only in the context of the Iron Dome system he wants to build in the U.S.
4) Trump opened direct negotiations with Hamas against Israel's wishes and without Israel's knowledge. If the negotiations succeed it will have been worth it, but so much for no daylight and no negotiating with terrorists.
5) Democrats never censured Republicans for heckling during presidential addresses, but Republicans censured Rep. Al Green (D-TX).
6) The Trump administration is infected with antisemitism. Its revocation of grants to Columbia University isn’t about combating antisemitism; it’s about, as Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) said, the Trump administration’s war on education and science. It will not make Jewish students safer.
Unlike the Washington Post, this newsletter's content is not subject to the whims of a billionaire. This is an independent reader-supported newsletter. You're welcome to read for free, but if you get something out of this newsletter, you can give something back by credit card or PayPal, by Venmo @Steven-Sheffey (last four phone digits are 9479), or by check. Thank you.
Hi Steve,
Trump's address to a joint session of Congress lasted more than 90 minutes, the longest such address in at least 60 years. If I had wanted to watch an incompetent dictator, I would have watched the Marx Brothers' "Duck Soup," which is only 70 minutes long and much funnier.
A favorite Republican game when Democrats hold the White House is to point out how little was said about Israel. Despite speaking longer than any Democrat in recent memory, Trump never mentioned Hamas even though Hamas is holding American hostages. He never mentioned Iran. He called out several guests in the chamber but not the freed Israeli hostages in the chamber. He never mentioned antisemitism.
His lone mention of Israel was not in the context of the U.S.-Israel alliance (he didn't mention that), not in the context of our commitment to Israel's safety and security ( he didn't mention that) but only in the context of the "golden dome," the impractical and unnecessary version of Iron Dome he wants to build for the United States.
On Wednesday, eight released hostages flattered Trump to absurd lengths. I don't blame the released hostages. They know that playing to Trump's ego is all they can do.
They learned from French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer who, as Daniel Kurtzer and Aaron David Miller wrote, "played nice and all but prostrated themselves before Trump, catering to his outsized vanity and narcissism."
They should never have had to do it. The fate of the 59 hostages still in Gaza should not depend on the whims of an unprincipled convicted felon.
Trump's empty rhetoric will not free the hostages. On March 5, in a post replete with the customary words in all caps and initially capitalized in the middle of sentences, Trump demanded that Hamas release all of the hostages "now, not later" or "there will be hell to pay later."
S0und familiar? Trump made similar demands on December 2 and on January 7 and February 10. Where are the Republicans who were outraged when they thought Obama failed to act when Syria crossed a red line? Fifty-nine hostages remain in Gaza despite Trump's hollow threats.
Remember when "no daylight" between the U.S. and Israel was a Republican watchword? Remember when we weren't supposed to negotiate with terrorists? Dear Leader has decided that daylight and negotiating with terrorists is now okay, so Republicans are keeping their mouths shut (unless they are supporting Trump).
The Trump administration is negotiating directly with Hamas, against Israel's wishes. Trump didn't inform Israel ahead of time. Can you imagine the hysteria from Republicans if Biden had negotiated directly with Hamas against Israel's wishes and behind Israel's back?
The Israeli government is concerned that Trump will focus on the American hostages and lose interest if he gets them out. Biden and Harris were focused on gaining the release of all the hostages--because Israel is an ally.
Never negotiate with terrorists is a pretty slogan but as Yitzhak Rabin (and others) have said, "You don't make peace with friends. You make it with very unsavory enemies." Israel has negotiated with Hamas in the past.
The issue is not that Trump is negotiating with Hamas. If the result is that all the hostages come home, it will have been worth it. If only the American hostages come back it will have been worth it as long as Trump does not sell out the Israeli hostages.
Noam Tibon writes that Trump should talk to anyone, anywhere, to save the hostages.
Michael Koplow explains in this short thread why "it should not surprise anyone that the Trump administration is doing this, or that there is all of a sudden very visible daylight between the U.S. and Israel."
Speaking of hypocrisy, how about House Republicans censuring Rep. Al Green (D- TX) for interrupting Trump's address to Congress? They were okay when Republicans heckled Democratic presidents.
Watch a real president react to booing and heckling by members of Congress during his address to a joint session of Congress. Democrats did not censure Republicans who disrupted presidential addresses.
So why did Republicans censure Green? AOC explains why.
Ten Democrats voted with the Republicans to censure Green, allowing Republicans to claim that the censure was bipartisan.
David Rothkopf makes a good case for using primaries to "get rid of the Dem politicians who are not carrying their weight or who are not up to the moment…and especially to get rid of the Vichy Democrats...who think that compromising with MAGA, splitting the difference with the people who are actively seeking to destroy our democracy and divide our society, is the way forward."
I think we should focus our resources on replacing Republicans with Democrats rather than replacing Democrats with Democrats. Winning Democratic control of the House and Senate, not ideological purity, should be our 2026 objective. If any of those ten Democrats draw primary challengers, I would not spend a dime to defeat them. But neither I spend a dime to defend them.
The Trump administration is loaded with antisemitism. If you felt uncomfortable watching Trump and Vance bully Zelensky in the Oval Office but couldn't put your finger on why, historian Timothy Snyder might have the answer: The encounter in the White House was antisemitic.
Michael Wolff, Trump's biographer, said in an interview published last week that Trump "doesn't care about Israel. He doesn't care about anything but himself" and that Trump is antisemitic.
Trump has a long record of antisemitism and accusing Jews of disloyalty. Those are not the only antisemitic tropes he's used. Trump dined with Kanye West and white nationalist/Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes. Trump said that there were "very fine people on both sides" of the 2017 Charlottesville march that featured white supremacists carrying tiki torches chanting "Jews will not replace us."
Trump repeatedly invokes Hitler and the Nazis and called for the "creation of a unified reich" on May 21, 2024. No less an authority than JD Vance once called Trump "America's Hitler."
Trump's new deputy press secretary at the Department of Defense, Kingsley Wilson, is a prolific purveyor of antisemitic conspiracy theories. Democrats have condemned her antisemitism. Republicans have remained mum.
Last month, Marco Rubio picked Darren Beatty for undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs. He was fired in 2018 for speaking to a conference of white nationalists.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth supports a new Christian crusade. Last week, he renamed a base for a Confederate general and must have thought himself so clever for finding someone else with the same last name to claim he was naming it after.
Anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's choice to head Health and Human Services, promoted an antisemitic conspiracy theory about Jews and COVID.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Trump's choice for UN ambassador, supports the Great Replacement Theory, the same racist, antisemitic conspiracy theory that the shooter who killed ten Black Americans in Buffalo believed in.
Maybe DOGE should focus its efforts on weeding out antisemites rather than firing essential workers.
Don't be fooled by Trump's action against Columbia University. The Trump administration canceled $400 million in grants and contracts to Columbia last week.
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) said in a statement, "Revoking federal grants to Columbia University isn’t about combating anti-Semitism; it’s about the Trump administration’s war on education and science. If the Trump administration were as serious about anti-Semitism as they claim, they would not have filled their ranks with unapologetic antisemites."
Read more about Trump's dangerous decision in Ilan Goldenberg's thread.
If you think this is about fighting antisemitism, I've got a wall that Mexico paid for to sell you.
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 pointed out any errors in last week's newsletter.
In Case You Missed It:
1) Trump's speech ran so long and so late that you may have missed Sen. Elissa Slotkin's (D-MI) much shorter and much better response. (Full disclosure: When Slotkin first ran for Congress, when other Jewish groups would not host her because she was "not viable," Politics with Dana and Steve--Dana Gordon and I--were the first Jewish group in the Chicago area to host an event for her.)
2) Shalom Hartman President Yehuda Kurtzer explains why Trump’s attack on democracy is as deep a Jewish concern as antisemitism or Israel.
3) Ron Kampeas writes that Trump’s dressing down of Zelensky is not just bad for Israel. It’s bad for the Jews.
4) The Congressional Jewish Caucus sent a letter to Google urging the company to reverse its decision to remove International Holocaust Remembrance Day and Jewish American Heritage Month from its default calendar display.
5) Michele Goldberg describes the right's Trump Derangement Syndrome. If you know someone suffering from this syndrome, send this article--or better yet, this newsletter--to them.
6) Ilan Goldenberg explains why cutting off all aid to Gaza is a mistake.
7) Fact-checking 26 suspect claims in Trump’s address to Congress.
8) The fundamental problem with DOGE is that Trump and Musk don't understand that government cannot and should not be run like a business.
Social Post of the Week. Laurence Tribe.
Thread of the Week. Andrew Miller on Trump's interest in a new nuclear deal with Iran.
Video Clips of the Week. Democrats need to start talking like this French senator. And in memory of our rescue dog Cleo, this poem from Jimmy Stewart.
Vintage Music Clip of the Week. The Bangles.
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).
I hope you enjoyed today's newsletter. It takes time to write and costs money to send. If you'd like to support my work, click here and fill in the amount of your choice. You don't need a PayPal account. If you see something that says "Save your info and create a PayPal account," click the button to the right and it will go away. Or you can Venmo @Steven-Sheffey (last four phone digits are 9479). Or you can send a check.
| 