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February 23, 2025
Key Developments and What We're Discussing Today:
1) It's been 506 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) Hamas released six hostages yesterday after returning the bodies of Oded Lifshitz, Kfir Bibas, Ariel Bibas, and a body Hamas falsely claimed was Shiri Bibas (they returned her actual body the following day). The 63 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) Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) has good advice on how we can and should defend democracy; I share below what he told me.
4) We don't have kings in America. Last week, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker modeled how Democrats should talk about Trump.
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Hi Steve,
Yesterday, Hamas released Tal Shoham, Omer Shem-Tov, Omer Wenkert, and Eliya Cohen, kidnapped on October 7, and Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, who have been held by Hamas since 2014 and 2015, respectively.
On Thursday, Hamas returned the bodies of Oded Lifshitz, Kfir Bibas, and Ariel Bibas. Hamas also returned a body it falsely claimed was the body of Shiri Bibas. The body was not one of the hostages; it was an unidentified woman from Gaza.
Forensics experts found that Kfir and Ariel were not killed in an IDF airstrike as Hamas falsely claimed. Hamas brutally murdered them about a month after Hamas kidnapped them, not by shooting but with their bare hands. Hamas returned the actual body of Shiri Bibas on Friday; she too was brutally murdered.
Hamas's kidnapping and murder of the Bibas children--one nine months old when he was kidnapped, the other four years old--and their mother epitomizes the savagery and barbarity of Hamas.
Rob Eshman writes that the only appropriate response is rage and that too many people failed the Bibas family.
Murdered hostage Oded Lifshitz wrote in 2019 that Netanyahu was no protector of Israel.
Between what is happening in Israel and what is happening here, the world is a dark place. But we cannot give up hope. If we do, the light will never return.
How can we defend democracy? Republicans hold a slim majority in the Senate and a slimmer majority in the House, which means that unless we can peel away some Republicans, Democrats don't have many legislative options.
I asked Rep. Sean Casten (D-IL) for some advice that I could share. He said that the key is to drive down Trump's approval rating, which is already slipping, so that Republicans in Congress feel more comfortable breaking with him.
We have to try whatever we can and keep doing what seems to be working. "Most of what we do won’t work but we don’t have time to wait. Fire on lots of fronts, drop what doesn't work, double down on what starts to work."
Casten recommends that activists "use every tool available for public pressure. Marches, sit-ins, boycotts, etc. Anticipate that once that becomes successful Trump will declare martial law precisely because he understands how dangerous that is to him. Study the civil rights era; learn how they dealt with that."
Remember that Republicans, not Democrats, are the problem: "Some Democrats will be outspoken, some will be cautious. Sometimes that reflects temperament, sometimes their district or political capital. But the worst Democrat in the House will vote for good legislation. The best Republican in the House will vote for bad legislation." Criticizing Democrats who vote the right way for their choice of tactics does not help.
On messaging, Casten recommends that we "amplify Republican cowardice. Trump is the bully in the room. The rest are sycophants who want to look tough by standing behind him."
We need to force Republicans to either alienate their base or alienate Trump by pointing out the gap between who they think they are or want us to believe they are ("I'm a tough guy") and who they are ("I'll do whatever Trump tells me to do"). We need to bring that gap to the forefront. They can't be both and they can't win if we force them to choose between those two poles.
Most importantly, Casten said that "courage is contagious. So is fear. When you see someone being courageous, give them your support. Demonstrate that courage is accretive to ensure others also stand up. Tyranny is only constrained by the endurance of the oppressed, so amplify those with endurance and show that [their] behavior is rewarded."
Trump will do much to encourage fear. "We have to be just as loud amplifying love."
Act like everyone who had nothing left to lose and suddenly found that their bravery was contagious. And if you find yourself thinking "yes, but I am a person who does have something to lose and I don't know if I can take that risk" then ask yourself why we always seem to wait for the most vulnerable to show us what leadership actually looks like.
"Trump is counting on people being individually afraid of retribution. We beat him by collectively standing up. The first person never knows if someone will follow of course. But they will."
We don't have kings in America. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker modeled speaking truth to power in his State of the State address, most of which focused, not surprisingly, on issues specific to Illinois. Read or watch it if you want to understand how a well-run state is governed.
The last ten minutes of his speech shifted to national issues. Everyone should read or watch it. Here is the text of the last ten minutes. Here is the text and video of his full speech.
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, so a new streak of perfection begins.
In Case You Missed It:
1) Jay Michaelson on what happens when Trump refuses to obey adverse rulings from the Supreme Court.
2) Bret Stephens on JD Vance's Munich disgrace.
3) Tom Nichols on the death of government expertise.
4) Dan Pfeiffer on how to make Trump unpopular again.
5) Paul Krugman on how Trump is making microbes great again.
6) A guide to the legality of Trump's major moves thus far.
7) Dahlia Scheindlin on the weird, fraudulent, and immoral justifications for Trump's Gaza plan.
8) Fact check on Trump's flood of false claims about Ukraine.
9) Brian Barrett on DOGE: "It takes a certain swashbuckling arrogance to propel a startup to glory [but] the United States is not a startup. The federal government exists to do all of the things that are definitionally not profitable, that serve the public good rather than protect investor profits. (The vast majority of startups also fail, something the United States cannot afford to do.)"
10) Steve Bannon raised his arm in a gesture that resembled a Nazi salute last week. How many times do Trump supporters have to give these salutes before we see them for what they are and what the Republican Party has become? Once again, no condemnation from the GOP.
Social Posts of the Week. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Tyler Rhodes.
Thread of the Week. Tom Malinowski.
Video Clips of the Week. Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris.
Vintage Music Clips of the Week. The Jam on Marc Bolan's show. The Jam's drummer, Rick Buckler, passed away last week. I saw The Jam at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago in 1982. It was the loudest concert I've ever attended; amazing that three people could make that much noise. (If you're unfamiliar with the music of Marc Bolan and/or The Jam, the way they are dressed--Bolan nearing the end of his era and The Jam on the cusp of theirs--are all you need to know).
And of course the only king America has ever had.
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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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