|
September 3, 2023
Key Takeaways:
- Voting the party, not the person, is the most rational decision you can make in the 2024 election. Spend your time ensuring Democrats win up and down the ballot. Don't waste your time going down rabbit holes dug by your Republican friends.
- Don't let anyone divide our community on Israel or antisemitism. The record is clear that Democrats are better than Republicans on those issues.
- Pro-Israel means supporting not only U.S. democracy but Israel's democracy, which means supporting Israel's protest movement and opposing settlement expansion and annexation--and urging Congress to do the same.
- Invitations to the White House are a privilege, not a right. Two former Shin Bet chiefs have urged President Biden not to invite Prime Minister Netanyahu to the White House in September amid reports that a deal between Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the U.S. is in the offing. Whether such a deal is in our interests depends on what terms Netanyahu is willing to agree to.
Read to the end for corrections, what you may have missed last week, fun stuff, and upcoming events with Maryland U.S. House candidate Joel Rubin and California U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Adam Schiff.
You're welcome to read for free, but if you want to chip in to help defray the cost of the newsletter, click here to pay by credit card or PayPal. Just fill in the amount of your choice. 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. You don't need a PayPal account. Or you can Venmo @Steven-Sheffey (last four phone digits are 9479). You can send a check too.
Hi Steve,
Every two years we are told that this is the most important election of our lifetimes. We no longer hear that it doesn't matter who wins because both parties are the same. That's an improvement, but how can we keep going at this pace? It feels like democracy, climate change, gun control, reproductive freedom, and the economy hang in the balance all the time. That feeling can be stressful.
The good news is that the 2024 election is not only the most important election of our lifetimes, it's the easiest. One reason cynics used to tell us there was no difference between the parties was that both parties spanned a broad cross-section of ideologies. We had conservatives from the South in the Democratic Party and liberals from the Northeast in the Republican Party. Not anymore.
Today, the Democratic Party contains moderates and liberals. The Republican Party...well, to call it conservative would be flattery. Today's Republican Party "is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition."
Two respected centrist political scientists, Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein, wrote that in 2012. Trump's commanding lead in the GOP primaries--including the willingness of every Republican presidential candidate except Asa Hutchinson (and possibly Chris Christie) to support Trump if Trump becomes the nominee even if Trump is convicted--proves that what they wrote then is true today. Hutchinson was also the only candidate at the GOP debate who raised his hand to indicate that he believed human behavior is causing climate change. Spoiler Alert: Hutchinson will not be the 2024 Republican candidate for president.
What is there to think about in this election? The question is not who to vote for or which party to support. The question is how much you care about our country and what you'll do to re-elect President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris and to support Democrats up and down the ballot. Today, party affiliation is the single most important criterion we have.
Voting the party, not the person, is not ignoring the issues. The party is the issue because nothing is more important than which party controls Congress and the White House and because nothing tells you more about how a candidate will vote than their party affiliation. We like to pat ourselves on the back for being independent thinkers, seeing both sides, and carefully weighing the issues, but if you're doing that in this election you're doing it wrong.
David Sedaris compared that kind of decision-making to "being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. 'Can I interest you in the chicken?' she asks. 'Or would you prefer the platter of [s--t] with bits of broken glass in it?'
"To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.
"I mean, really, what’s to be confused about?"
Sedaris wrote that in 2008. I've pulled articles from 2008 and 2012 not because I'm lazy (well, I am, but that's not why) but because it's important to understand that what is happening today is not new. It's not hyperbole: Every recent election has been the most important of our lifetimes.
Pick any concern you have, real or imagined, about Joe Biden or any Democrat. Putting Biden and the Democrats in the worst possible light, are you going to vote for Trump or any Republican who would support Trump even if Trump is convicted? Don't waste your time debating issues that don't matter. Invest your time in winning the 2024 elections. They are the most important elections of your lifetime.
Some within our community will try to divide us by raising false issues about Israel and antisemitism. We could have an interesting academic discussion about whether we might vote Republican if Republicans were better on those issues, but they are not. Democrats are better than Republicans on Israel. And if anyone denies that Democrats are better than Republicans on antisemitism, don't take the bait. I mean, really, what's to be confused about?
We must support Israel's democracy too. Shared strategic interests come and go. Shared values are the basis for the U.S.-Israel alliance. If we want the alliance to endure then we have to ensure that democracy remains a shared value. We do that for the U.S. by electing Democrats. We do that for Israel by supporting a two-state solution, by opposing settlement expansion and annexation (which is what anyone who supports a two-state solution must do), and by supporting Israelis protesting to protect their democracy.
Please urge your member of Congress to cosponsor H.Con.Res.61, Rep. Jan Schakowsky's (D-IL) resolution in support of Israeli democracy. On August 24, Ben Samuels reported that the number of co-sponsors has more than tripled since it was introduced on July 27. The resolution is supported by Politics with Dana and Steve, Jewish Democratic Council of America, Jewish Democratic Outreach of Pennsylvania, J Street, Israel Policy Forum, UnXeptable, Partners for Progressive Israel, Ameinu, NY Jewish Agenda, Americans for Peace Now, Union for Reform Judaism, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, National Council of Jewish Women, and T’ruah, among others.
Supporting Israel's democracy means opposing settlements and annexation. To a large extent, the Israeli protests in Israel for democracy – which we should support – have masked the differences between those in Israel who are concerned about the threats to their democratic freedoms on their side of the 1967 lines and those in Israel who realize that Israel faces two threats to democracy: the judicial reforms proposed by the current government, and the current government policy of continued settlement expansion (and the goal of some of its ministers to annex some or all of the West Bank).
Reasonable minds can differ on whether Israel's settlement policy is putting it on the road toward apartheid, as at least three former Prime Ministers, Yitzhak Rabin, Ehud Barak, and Ehud Olmert, have warned, or whether Israel is currently practicing apartheid via its policies in the West Bank, as two former Israeli ambassadors to South Africa argued in 2021 and as Benjamin Pogrund argued last month (Pogrund grew up in South Africa and until last month had vigorously rejected claims that Israel was an apartheid state).
But what is beyond dispute is that Israel's settlement policies are pushing Israel further from a two-state solution. Does it make you uncomfortable when Israel is accused of apartheid and racism? It makes me uncomfortable, and that's putting it mildly. The best response to those accusations is not to cry "antisemitism" or to shut our eyes, put our hands over our ears, and shout "la la la" as loud as we can (and I say that with all due respect to the ostensibly pro-Israel organizations who have adopted those policies).
The best response from those of us who love Israel and want the U.S.-Israel alliance to endure is to work to end the occupation while recognizing and making clear three points:
- While Israel holds most of the cards, Israel cannot unilaterally create a Palestinian state and the Palestinians too have steps to take, including ending terrorism and rocket attacks;
- Palestinian intransigence does not excuse Israeli failure to take steps it can take that will not harm its security (such as stopping settlement expansion and dismantling illegal outposts); and
- Israel faces external security threats, including from Iran; the U.S. should continue to provide military assistance to Israel sufficient to meet those threats.
Should Biden invite Netanyahu to the White House? An invitation to the White House is a privilege, not a right. Amid reports that Biden might meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House in late September, two former Shin Bet chiefs urged Biden not to extend a White House invitation to Netanyahu because doing so could be seen as legitimizing his judicial coup and because key ministries in Netanyahu's government "are held by right-wing extremists, racist Jewish supremacists, who are trying to promote the de-facto annexation of the West Bank and by doing so, create a binational apartheid state," warning that Israel could evolve from a "strategic ally to a strategic burden."
A potential deal between Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United States could justify a White House visit if the deal moves Israel and the Palestinians closer to the two-state solution that Israel needs to ensure its survival as a Jewish, democratic state. Saudi Arabia is a brutal theocracy and any deal, however distasteful, would be purely transactional.
Shira Efron and Evan Gottesman outline the stakes, concluding that we should ensure that "Arab-Israeli normalization doesn’t come at the expense of a viable two-state solution." If Netanyahu wants a visit to the White House in exchange for meaningful progress toward a two-state solution (which would have to include preservation of Israeli democracy), then a White House visit would be a privilege earned.
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. In last week's newsletter I correctly stated that at the Republican debate, only Asa Hutchinson clearly indicated that he would not support Trump if Trump is convicted and is the GOP nominee and that it was unclear whether Christie raised his hand or not. But they were not asked to raise their hand if they would not support Trump if he was convicted; they were asked to raise their hand if they would support Trump if convicted and only Hutchinson clearly kept his hand down.
In the fourth bullet point I misspelled "Ehud Barak" as "Ehud Bark." Several readers were kind enough to point this out. Here, in full, is Rabbi Jack Moline's correction:
Former Israeli Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ehud Bark, who I'm guessing is pro-Israel, urged Jewish Americans to "talk over the heads of AIPAC"
Asked how it is living under the current administration, he answered, "Ruff."
He was taken by surprise when asked how to greet the Chinese ambassador. "Bow. Wow."
The interview ended suddenly when news reached him of the unauthorized crossing of a squirrel from the territories.
The typo was worth it for that.
In Case You Missed It:
- Remember the story early last week about some shellfish that was dumped into a Jewish fraternity and the instant assumption that it was an antisemitic incident? Turns out it wasn't antisemitic (more here).
- Republicans are blocking essential food aid for Palestinians over unfounded concerns that the money could be diverted to terrorism or antisemitic education. The conditions they are asking for, as Ben Samuels reports, are already State Department-mandated requirements in its framework agreement with UNRWA. For the GOP, the cruelty is the point does not stop at the border--nor does GOP ignorance of U.S. policy.
Tweet of the Week. Scott Linen.
Twitter Thread of the Week. Tom Nichols.
Video Clip of the Week. Last week, we featured Chuck Berry with a famous backup band. Here he is with even more famous backup (stay for the second song, in which a certain backup singer's mic is muted after what happened in the first song).
Upcoming Events. Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) is sponsoring an event for Joel Rubin on Tuesday, September 19, from 5:30 pm ET to 7:00 pm ET in person in Washington, DC with a Zoom option. Joel is running to protect Maryland's most vulnerable U.S. House seat and he's great on all of our issues. Politics with Dana and Steve are co-hosting this event. RSVP here.
Politics with Dana and Steve is hosting a light breakfast and conversation with U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) in Highland Park, IL on Friday, October 6, from 9:00 am CT to 10:00 am CT. RSVP here.
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.
My most popular Times of Israel posts are How Not To Define Antisemitism and Pro-Israel Or Pro-Bibi? I periodically update my Medium posts on why Democrats are better than Republicans on Israel and antisemitism. You can read my most recent effort to define "pro-Israel" here (it's a work in progress, as am I).
I hope you enjoyed today's newsletter. Donations are welcome (this takes time to write and costs money to send). If you'd like to chip in, click here and fill in the amount of your choice. 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. You don't need a PayPal account. Or you can Venmo @Steven-Sheffey (last four phone digits are 9479). You can send a check too.
I accept advertisements. Let me know if you're interested.
| 
