|
March 23, 2025
Key Developments and What We're Discussing Today:
1) It's been 534 days since October 7, 2023. The Hamas-led attack on Simchat Torah was one of the largest terror attacks in history, resulting in 1,182 fatalities (including 44 Americans) and over 4,000 wounded. A total of 251 hostages were taken during a day of brutal savagery and sexual violence- 210 were alive and 41 were dead bodies. It was the largest single massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, and the deadliest per capita terrorist attack, with just over one in every 10,000 Israelis killed, and the third overall deadliest terrorist attack in the world to date.
2) Trump has not secured the release of any hostages since the last hostages under the agreement Biden negotiated were returned on February 27. 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. We cannot rest until all the hostages are released.
3) Netanyahu is putting his political survival above the survival of the hostages.
4) Trump's support for Israel's government is no excuse for his administration's antisemitism. Whether from the right or the left, the most dangerous form of antisemitism is antisemitism condoned or emboldened by the government.
5) Too many of us have lost our critical thinking skills, preferring to get information from social media influencers and propagandistic movies instead of reliable media.
6) The Senate should reject Trump's nominations of Mike Huckabee for ambassador to Israel and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) for ambassador to the UN.
If you want your news and opinion from wild-eyed lunatics on Instagram, you've come to the wrong place. 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,
This newly-issued report on October 7, 2023, is a vital resource to read and to share.
Haaretz's March 19 editorial explains that Netanyahu, not Hamas, is primarily responsible for the breakdown of ceasefire negotiations and that Netanyahu put his political survival above the survival of the hostages. The difference between pro-Israel and pro-Netanyahu has never been starker. Go deeper with Michael Koplow's analysis.
None of this absolves Hamas for its reprehensible actions on and since October 7, 2023 or draws a moral equivalence between Netanyahu's government and Hamas. The issue is the safety and security of Israel and return of the hostages before time runs out. We don't do Israel any favors by blindly following Netanyahu, just as allies of the U.S. don't do us any favors by blindly following Trump.
Allow me to take the lazy way out. I would usually cite parts of an article like this to make a broader point, but this article is so good that it's too hard to summarize with representative quotes.
You will be much smarter if you read Zach Beaucamp's analysis of the Trump right's pro-Israel antisemitism. It's brilliant, although Joshua Shanes's critique is valid, especially of the term "pro-Israel," which for Trump means "pro-rightwing, Islamophobic, violently oppressive "greater Israel.""
Have we lost our critical thinking skills? We know how to consume food. Too many of us don't know how to consume news. We need to lay off the sweets and stop watching wild-eyed "social media influencers" who trigger our emotions by breathlessly telling us about one outrage, real or imagined, after another (but not telling us who's paying them to tell us).
These content creators have influence only because we let them manipulate us. Videos are great for music and comedy. When it comes to news and analysis, we should focus our limited time on people who are qualified, not randos on Instagram or people famous for something other than policy expertise. This is known as the fallacy of irrelevant authority.
Reading articles written by experts is generally better because it allows us to pause and think about what we are reading without being triggered by the images that we see or the angry faces telling us what to think and because articles written by experts are more likely to be accurate.
Evolution has instilled in us a sense that what we see is true. The influencers without expertise prefer video because they know how absurd, and easily debunked, what they are saying would be if we read it instead of watched it.
Movies work the same way. See them if you want to be entertained. Don't see them for facts. I liked "A Complete Unknown" despite, not because, it was historically inaccurate and its inaccuracy didn't matter to me because I didn't see it to be educated.
If you watch the new October 8 movie, how do you know you're getting unbiased information? How do you know you're seeing the whole picture and not selected images?
You don't. That's how propaganda works. You see with your own eyes what seems real but what might not be true and the images create emotions before you can think about them--which is why it's so effective. Emily Tamkin's review of Sen. Chuck Schumer's (D-NY) new book on antisemitism touches on misperceptions about campus antisemitism relevant to this film.
If the only way to understand something is to see it, be careful to thoroughly investigate the veracity of what you're seeing and who is behind what you're seeing. Most of the time, reading is better and faster.
We must use our time wisely. How can I judge an Instagram reel or a movie if I haven't seen it? Easy. Do you go to restaurants that have received bad reviews to see for yourself if they are bad? Do you see movies that have received poor reviews to see for yourself if they are bad?
To those urging me to see October 8: When you saw it, did you take detailed notes? I'm guessing you didn't. The images flashed by on the screen. It triggered your emotions. You left with a feeling but you can't fact-check what you saw because it's not in front of you. That's the game.
Have you seen No Other Land, the Israeli-Palestinian film that won an Academy Award for Best Documentary? Might an Oscar-winning movie at least be worth seeing? If you haven't seen it, tell me why you haven't seen for yourself what the fuss is about. Tell me why you haven't seen Israelism (I saw that one and it was a big nothing). Then tell me again why I should see October 8.
You'd be better off spending your time reading The Conflict Over the Conflict, by Ken Stern. It was written before October 7 but it will give you an excellent lens through which to view the events on campus post-October 7.
When it comes to articles and posts, don't believe them, let alone share them, until you've verified that they are accurate. That means googling to see if any reputable source is reporting the same facts.
I doubt that most Trump voters would have voted for Trump if they knew they were voting for measles outbreaks, airplane crashes, higher prices, crashing stock markets, betrayal of Ukraine, alienation of allies, tariffs, antisemitism, illegal dismantling of vital government agencies, threats to Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, lawlessness, authoritarianism--and Elon Musk for co-president. Some still might not now know that's what they voted for.
But they all would have known if they had consumed their news more carefully--the nearly half of those who voted for Harris knew what they were voting against because they were better informed, and being better informed, they knew that what Trump was selling was not what they wanted to buy.
What the Huck? The Senate is expected to consider Trump's nomination of Mike Huckabee for U.S. ambassador to Israel next week. Huckabee is a right-wing Evangelical extremist who has engaged in racism.
He is a strong ally of the settler movement and supports Israeli annexation of the West Bank, which would effectively make Israel an apartheid state and weaken support for Israel in the U.S. and around the world.
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) said, "As a secular Zionist, I find nothing remotely appealing about the fundamentalism of Mike Huckabee.”
Tristan Sturn explains that the goal of Huckabee's ideology "is the removal of Palestinians from the biblically defined land of Israel to facilitate Christ’s return. ... Huckabee envisions a state of Israel that extends from the river to the sea: From the Mediterranean to the river Euphrates, and down to the River Nile."
We'll have to wait and see to find out if Huckabee's vision of the end of days is theologically sound, but its practical implications for Israel and the Palestinians are horrifying.
Seriously? Stefanik? The following week, the Senate is expected to consider Trump's nomination of Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) for U.S. ambassador to the UN.
Stefanik supports the Great Replacement Theory, the same racist, antisemitic conspiracy theory that the shooter who killed ten Black Americans in Buffalo believed in.
Stefanik backed Carl Paladino for Congress. She voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election results.
Imagine Stefanik in the UN lecturing other countries about antisemitism and democracy--assuming anyone can hear what she's saying over the laughter.
The Nexus Project is right: Anyone or any organization that cares about fighting antisemitism must speak out against this nomination.
A fun game you can play at home. How many times have you seen someone complain on social media that they aren't seeing "allies" standing with Israel or about how some people have the nerve to post about how others are suffering instead of posting about Israel?
If you have some time, scroll down their timelines and see how often they've stood with others. Have they been posting about the Chinese genocide of the Uyghurs? The rapes and murders in Congo by Rwandan-backed rebels? The humanitarian crisis in Sudan? The hundreds of adults and children kidnapped in Iraq by government-linked militias? How about the problems of non-Jewish minorities in the United States? My guess is that you'll be scrolling for a long time.
Yet they complain about others only focusing on the Palestinians or not posting about Israel when they focus only on Israel. Maybe instead of whining, they should lead by example and speak up for others if they expect others to speak up for them. Or maybe they just like to complain.
No one can speak out on every important issue. Pick the issues that matter most to you, for whatever reason, and let others choose their issues. None of us are in a position to criticize others for their choices. I focus on Israel. That's my choice, and it's not a double standard if I don't look for the absolute worst thing in the world and make that my top priority.
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) Ilan Goldenberg writes about what Democrats can learn from Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg's remarks at the Democratic National Convention
2) David Litt thinks that Democrats could use a little more disarray.
3) The Nexus Project condemned Trump's executive order to dismantle the Department of Education, noting that it "reveals the profound hypocrisy of an administration that claims to care about Jewish safety while dismantling the very institution responsible for investigating antisemitism cases and enforcing civil rights protections."
4) Trump's anti-DEI initiatives include attacks on Holocaust remembrance, sexual assault, and suicide prevention.
5) Trump’s antisemitism chief shared a ‘Jew card’ post from a white supremacist.
6) Trump's FEMA funding freeze jeopardizes funding for Jewish institutions, including synagogues and day schools.
7) Alex Sinclair refutes the claim that all Gazans hate Jews and hate Israel and that therefore peace with them is impossible, and Dahlia Scheindlin debunks claims that all Gazans are guilty because they have not risen up against Hamas and voted for Hamas nearly 20 years ago.
8) Emily Tamkin writes that Trump’s crusade against Columbia is ripped straight from Hungary’s anti-Soros playbook and 18 constitutional law scholars analyze Trump's funding cuts for universities.
9) W.J. Hennigan urges Trump to stop Iran's nuclear threat with a deal, not a conflict.
Social Posts of the Week. Halie Soifer and JFK Conspiracies.
Video Clip of the Week. Norm Macdonald's first TV appearance.
Vintage Music Clip of the Week. The first MTV video.
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.
| 