The Israelis are fighting back against Netanyahu and I am glad about that. He and his Likud party are made up of Ultra Orthodox Jews (men)who are, in my opinion, dangerous. These are the same people who have settled in on the West Bank and have caused agony and killings there. I am not saying that the Palestinians are innocent because they’re certainly not. But, Israelis know how corrupt Bibb is. He, like, Fake 45, has many accusations against him about bribery, sexual affairs, his wife, etc. He is hardly an upstanding citizen. This move by he and his crazy group is political suicide and that is how I feel about our SCOTUS. We have 6 conservatives, 3 who are not legitimately there, 1 who is an absolute liar and whose wife is an insurrectionist, and the Chief, who sways where ever the wind blows, as long as his wife is making millions for them. I see similarities, for sure. I would hope that my father, who wanted to move to Israel when he and mom married in 1946, would not have been attracted to the party of crazies but I really don’t know. In Poland, before he escaped to America in 1936, he had been a young Zionist leader. If you have ever read the book, Mila 18 by Leon Uris, you would know that many Zionists and their pals in the Underground, were killed. I read it 10 years after the book was written and I called my dad to tell him I was so sorry about the treatment of Jews and the people who helped them. He recited each character’s name who appeared in the book. I was astonished. He said they were all of his friends.
My allegiance is to anyone who believes in absolute freedom and democracy. I do not care if you are religious or not. If you fight for the rights of others and not get caught up in the mishegas of everything, I like you!
I think you are giving "Kreepy Krying Kavanaugh" an unintentional pass as far as lying is concerned, though --- it looks like he repeatedly perjured himself in his hearing for the nomination to the D.C. Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court, quite apart from the probable guilt with respect to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. See:
Oh no, I will never give Kav-The-beer-drinking-guy a pass…ever! What happened to Christine Blasey Ford was a travesty. We know that Leonard Leo paid Kav’s debts off.
Marlene, Thank you for sharing your story about your father. I am not anti Israel but I can’t understand why they refuse to recognize Palestinians as human beings who want to have a place to call home. As you stated the Palestinian people have faults also but they are as human as the Israeli people are. Netanyahu is corrupt and I don’t understand how he keeps getting back into power.
Barbara, the Palestinian people have really been abused by their extremists, as well, for many years. During the 1972 Olympics in Munich, the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization attacked and killed members of the Israelis Olympic team. Their mission was to demand release of prisoners in Israel. Those militants died but so did the hostages by the fiasco created by the West German police. Israel has never forgotten. Yassar Arafat was the head of the PLO at the time.
Israel is a small country surrounded by fascist nations. They produce technology for the world, food for throughout Europe, and have advanced medicines. Others are jealous of their accomplishments but Israel has gone too far in her thinking as she is governed by crazy men who interpret the Bible as the one and only which can save them. It’s convoluted thinking on both sides.
Trump at Israel’s urging and his own extreme jealousy of Obama destroyed the peace treaty with Iran. The people of Ukraine and Iran are suffering for this absolute betrayal of western interest. Saudi the gouger and the uae were in on it and they paid off the trumps openly.
Trump made a lie of Americas word, and ensured the continued rule of the hard liners.
ALL of America is complicit yet it is never mentioned.
I wouldn’t say “ALL” of America is complicit but I do agree that Fake 45 and his family plus his dastardly “advisors” put us in a very precarious position in the world. The Biden admin has been very effective with concentrating on what is needed for Americans to exist, to eat, to clothe, to transport, etc. They have guaranteed us a place at the table unlike the what the GQP provides, which is nothing.
Had to look up mishegas: craziness; senseless behavior
Word for the day.
A neighbor when I was very young named her dog that.
She was from Brooklyn.
I thought she was calling him
My Sugar (That's an odd name for a. dog, thought I)
They eventually moved back East, and I was sorry, because they were good neighbors, reformed Jews, and a big asset to our state, as director of the new state library. I babysat their very good children. I often think about the Merskys.
I also often think how it would be to live in a country surrounded by 47 Muslim nations hell bent on destroying anyone who is not Muslim.
If you believe everyone haa a right to choose their religion, it's difficult to comment on a government when it is also the state religion without sounding like one is commenting on the religion too. I try to differentiate between the people and the government. I don't think Palestine is self governing, but run by Hamas.
I know the difference between the two, believe me! Yiddish words are often spelled differently based on the countries relatives came from. But it’s fun, right?
it really is...trying to find your own transliteration that's somehow "better" than somebody else's has engendered a lot of fun conversations I've had over the years.
But maggat america loves Netanyahu. And they praise democratic Israel. Of course to evangelicals believe Israel will convert, while Netanyahu adherents are also religious fanatics.
for laughs, I sometimes turn on the Jewish Broadcasting Service when I'm channel surfing. there's a senile old rabbi who's on a lot. he recently dismissed a Jewish Congressman (I can't remember who right now...senior moment) who dropped out of Yeshiva before high school and is therefore "someone we can all consider an "ignoramus about anything Jewish." I have a BUNCH of old friends who are in the same position, and I'd certainly call their knowledge of Jewish things pretty ADVANCED.
but those "leaders" of the Satmar Hasidim (there I go again!) belong in jail.
The Israeli situation is obviously a right-wing power grab that benefits Yahoo’s personal corruption. If they ram through the changes then with 61-votes the religious fascists can turn Israel into a dictatorship, purge the country of Palestinians, and others they don’t consider Jewish enough. Israel can’t be a Jewish state and also a liberal democracy. Just as we can’t be a White Christian country and also a democracy.
Our SCOTUS problem has become urgent because *Rump has packed it with just enough right-wing political hacks, instead of jurists, to give it a 6-3 supermajority. The Rethugs, for years, have decried ‘activist judges’, and a liberal SCOTUS as legislating from the bench. Which is exactly what the unqualified political hacks they have put on the bench are doing now. Their goal is to reverse all social progress of the past 60-years. Any SCOTUS with an agenda is very dangerous, as we have already seen in the last year, and also in the past. A one-vote SCOTUS majority made Bush Jr. President in 2000. The SC is in dire need of restructuring, as is the Congress. I doubt I’ll live to see it, but minimum and maximum age requirements, term limits, and court size all need to be addressed, in my view.
In the debt-relief cases before the court now my cynical self thinks the game is already rigged. However, what little is left of my optimistic self thinks, given the great job the Solicitor General did destroying the plaintiffs, that there may be two votes to join the three liberal justices for a 5-4 majority in favor the of student debt relief. Faced with fact, law, precedent, and reasoning, Roberts and Kavanaugh might defy prediction. I’m quite prepared to be wrong. Rather than deciding the case on whether the government should grant debt relief the decision might hinge on who has ‘standing’, which the plaintiffs clearly do not have - at least to my non-lawyer mind.
I too, feel our solicitor general has done an excellent job in saying student debts get reliefs. After all, these debts were created by the government and the big banks. The amount of money hanging over people’s heads is unsustainable. Had they been more flexible in their policies of the payback solution, we would not see so many saddled with problems.
Some is, some isn't. It is not inherently antisemitic. Invoking double standards that demand behavior by Israel that would never be demanded of other countries, for example, can definitely qualify as a thinly veiled way of expressing hatred of Jews.
You have to be specific, some of the complaints about Israel would NEVER be made about any other nation's response to an ongoing organized terrorist threat. Besides, right now it's Israelis protesting relentlessly in the streets against their own elected government's moves towards gutting the judicial process, sure as hell looks like democracy in action to me!
If around here is limited to this blog, sure. If you extend it to include the surrounding interwebs, or real cities and towns, no way.
Perhaps the most common form of it in the USA is treating our own responses to domestic terrorist attacks (on whatever scale) differently than Israeli responses to terrorist attacks from Hizbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad or others. In some cases the attacks by those terrorists are either not reported at all, so the account begins with the Israeli response, or the terrorists are simply termed "gunmen" or "militants," despite having directly targeted civilians. Another tack is to claim they are 'Israeli Arabs" when they don't have Israeli citizenship. Yet another is down-playing the potentially lethal effects of "rock throwing," despite the size of the concrete or stones and despite civilians being targeted. This sub-topic alone has a long history over many decades.
It's a very different kettle of fish from criticizing policies of the Israeli state which overreach or actually discriminate invidiously. Plenty of that comes from Israelis themselves! But double-standards on dealing with terrorism, or in news accounts about specific events, not so much.
in this whole deal, it's very, very difficult to talk about things in a way that's not going to piss off SOMEBODY, at which point the whole conversation becomes something ELSE.
and I used to be tarred as a "self-hating Jew" so often for my rather mild "not every Palestinian is an enemy who is dedicated to the destruction of Israel" shtick that for quite a few years, I've just begged off being included in the conversation because who, finally, needs that kind of shit?
Correct, at least as a non-Jewish sympathetic observer I don't have to deal with that! Just your run-of-the-mill skeptical humanistic existentialist Taoist here!
I was and am talking about this discussion. I didn't think that required explanation. Of course antisemitism is real, frightening, and genuinely threatening, not something I would dismiss, certainly in one line.
actually, there ARE some groups whose anti-Israeli line is coming from a generally antisemitic place. but many aren't at all. what I consider to be a joke (and always have) is the sick rhetorical ploy of referring to Jews who criticize Israel as "self-hating Jews." and it's been used for DECADES now.
Start by studying the role of Israel in the Middle East vis-a-vis US defense capabilities and intelligence gathering. It amounts to a use of taxes to fund their role in that, as well as to deter terrorist states like Iran.
I was in ONI as a field officer in Vietnam, though that was secret. I was told by a buddy who would know that a Israelis commando team at our behest went into Egypt and removed to Israel for examination an entire SA-2 site! Through reverse engineering, we developed and put in our attack planes two devices that made most, not all, SA-2 missiles ineffective. There were blind spots.
But Israel is now a country quite different. Right-wing religious fanatics run it. Intel from it should be considered F-6. And always self-serving.
Mossad and Israeli forces were something else in those days. Hard to remember the Entebbe raid was an example of real-life intelligence, imagination, and courage, not just a thrilling movie. Now the army stands by while settlers wreak vicious revenge on Palestinian villagers.
My distinct impression is that those settlements are there mainly because of pols, most enthusiastically but far from exclusively Republicans, in thrall to AIPAC.
What I find encouraging about the stand-off in Israel by both civilians and military is that are free to exercise their right to assemble, confront and denounce the actions of the leader-who-would-be King. That's one reason we're still able to support the government, which by the way, has representative Christians, Jews, Muslim and other minorities in their government.
Imagine such an outcry in almost any other country in the Middle East. The price is torture, prison and death. Giving military aid to protect a fragile democracy in a region largely sworn to destroy it, is common sense. If we want to avoid wholesale, international military invasion (such as the continuing attack on Ukraine from a country sworn to destroy its sovereignty), we must provide billions of "US tax payers dollars". Freedom is not cheap. Better to pay with money then with blood!
The alternative is unthinkable in a world where laws are too often used to protect the interests of the rich and powerful. Instead of second-guessing foreign policy, pay attention and be thankful we have the freedom to ask dumb questions. Hope this helps!
Lucian, again an excellent column! I'm grateful for the clarity of your writing regarding issues that are often not explained clearly in The New York Times. I would only add one thing to this column, which is the risk the SCOTUS will be taking if they hold for the plaintiffs in the student loan case. As much as this court ignores precedent, American courts cannot function without it. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, as they say. If the court allows law suits where the plaintiff lacks proper standing to sue, all sorts of groups would be able to sue over anything. Environmental groups could sue over issues where they were not directly affected, for example. Taxpayer lawsuits would run rampant. Even a very conservative, result-oriented court should be wary of this particular slippery slope, as the court system could find itself overwhelmed. Of course, it's possible that the SCOTUS would try to declare this a singular event with no precedential value, but to my knowledge, that hasn't worked all that well in the past.
The practice of manipulating the judiciary goes back to the earliest days of the American Republic. John Adams, the second president, having been defeated for reelection to the presidency decided to fill all vacant judgeships with loyal Federalist followers. The landmark case of Marbury v. Madison was a case involving a presidential appointee who did not receive his official certificate attesting to his appointment before Adams' term of office expired, and he left office. John Marshall, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was himself appointed by Adams, and did in fact receive his official appointment papers, but when it came to Mr. Marbury, who had been appointed to be justice of the peace within the District of Columbia, Justice Marshall effectively threw Mr. Marbury 'under the bus' as the saying goes today, because Marshall was intent on establishing judicial supremacy by virtue of claiming the right to judicial review over acts of Congress. Chief Justice Marshall most certainly obtained his objective, and he was perfectly content with the idea of leaving Mr. Marbury 'twisting in the wind' or 'hung out to dry', or what other hoary cliché you might want to use. The fact is that control of the judiciary through appointments has been a political football since time immemorial. Certainly the kings of England knew about that sort of thing, even when judges went rogue from time to time. Eventually, as we are seeing now, presidents abuse the power of appointment, and some sort of pushback or retribution follows. The fact that the drafters of the Constitution endowed the judiciary with lifetime appointments is a testament to the value they placed on having an independent judiciary, more or less insulated from day-to-day politics; and these men knew what they were talking about. Back then, a lifetime appointment for a man already in his forties or fifties probably meant a judicial career on the Supreme Court or one of the lesser courts of about 15 to 20 years, but certainly not much longer. Nowadays, a 15 year term of office is more common for judicial appointments to a state's highest court (such as in California), often coupled with a nonpartisan election in which the voters confirm the 15 year term of office to which the incumbent has been appointed. The idea, then, is not that the judges should be wholly immune from politics, but rather the politics to which they are allowed to engage themselves in should necessarily be that which takes the long view of what the public interest is, and what the law requires. What we are seeing now in Israel, with Bibi Netanyahu engaged in a graceless and sordid power grab we saw over the first 20 years of the current century exercised by a soulless Republican Party bent on aggrandizing power for itself. For their part, the Israeli public is largely fighting back; and my guess would be, that Netanyahu will ultimately fail in his efforts to turn Israel into something that looks like Hungary today. If the Israeli public continues to protest in ever-increasing numbers, Netanyahu's one-vote majority in the Israeli Knesset is bound to crack. At least I hope so.
Lucian, I hope I can be forgiven for posting something that has nothing to do with the subject matter, but I notice by several comments that we have several Jewish members of our group and I feel with all the serious situations today a little light humor would be in order. I was born in Scotland and my parents although not religious were basically presbyterians. .
" They are the Presbyterians By Harry Golden from his book Only in America The World Publishing Company 1958.
ACCORDING to a number of Midrashic sources, ten of the twelve tribes of Israel whom Moses had blessed in the wilderness were carried away by the Assyrians after the fall of Samaria in 722 B.C. Since there were numerous prophecies that they would return, there was a lively expectation that they might be found by diligent search. Many Christian scholars have been deeply concerned with this problem.
There was even a legend that Prester John would one day appear leading the ten tribes bearing the banners of Christendom. Cotton Mather and Thomas Thorowgood were convinced that the American Indians were the Ten Lost Tribes. The strange thing about it is that through all these centuries the Gentile world has been more concerned about what happened to the Ten Lost Tribes than the Jews themselves. The Jewish position, however, is most logical. Things haven’t been going exactly plushly for the Jews these past two thousand years, so why should we go out and find ten more tribes for them? Look at all the additional “restricted” juice boxes and “exclusive” slot machines they’d have to make. The Ten Lost Tribes would have been the worst kind of fools if they had revealed themselves all these years. As a matter of fact, I really believe they have been lying low waiting for the time when the coast is clear.
Which brings me to my own theory. I have a strong suspicion that the Ten Lost Tribes are really the inhabitants and the ancestors of the inhabitants of Scotland. I have several reasons for my theory. First of all, we Jews have a sort of natural affection for the Scots. There must be a reason for this. I have heard epithets thrown around at every race and nationality on earth, but I have yet to hear a Jew say an unkind thing about a Scotsman. Secondly, let us consider the Presbyterian religion which at its very inception was in effect a return to basic Orthodox Judaism—sort of an Anglicized Judaism with all its laws and most of its rituals. Both Calvin and Knox emphasized a belief in the One God, Jehovah, and for the first three hundred years of Presbyterianism, all the emphasis was on the Torah, specifically on the Five Books of Moses. The struggles within Calvinism were identical with the various reform movements within Judaism. I have come across records in my study of Calvinism of congregations forbidding the use of as much as a vase of flowers anywhere in the church, and on one occasion a few angry covenanters in this country smashed an organ or, as they called it, “the unholy whustles.” In the home country, in the early days of Presbyterianism, they did not even allow a portrait of the ruling monarch in their house of worship—identical with Judaistic tradition. It is well to remember, too, that Britain achieved her greatest hour of empire during that generation when a Scotsman and a Jew directed her destinies (Gladstone and Disraeli). And do you think it was a coincidence that Lord Balfour, the man who gave Palestine to the Jews, was a Scot? Of course, it was no coincidence. Lord Balfour may have been aware of the connection between Scotland and the Ten Lost Tribes.
In addition, my thesis is strengthened by the phenomenon that of all the civilized countries of the world Scotland is the only one without a history of anti-Semitism, and this on top of the fact that these wonderful Scots have had plenty of provocation. No
one has given the Presbyterians more trouble than the Jews—on account of the Psalms of David. When we gave them the Psalms we caused many a Scotsman to lose his sense of humor, It was family against family, and friend against friend. The Psalms of David have caused more schisms among the Presbyterians than all the other theologies combined. Some said that the Psalms should be sung, but others said they should be recited. Then for another hundred years there were four or five more reform movements—all about our King David’s magnificent poetry. Some Scots said the Psalms should be sung kneeling, others were against kneeling and remained seated, while in every church there was always one wonderful individualist of the Clan Cameron who said the Psalms should be sung—standing. And through all of this four hundred years of discussion, philosophy, and schism on these Psalms of our King David, they have kept their sense of honor and decency, and have remained among our best and most loyal friends.
What a dull world this would be without Scotland—and without Jews and King David!
Brilliant. My father Neil (Cyril) McDonald, a watchmaker born in Brechin, will have a whisky and water and a comfortable chair ready if you would like a wee chat when you reach the other side.
Lucian, another fantastic, concise article. Thank you!
Also, I feel very, very fortunate to be able to read all the articulate points brought up by the subscribers to this blog...especially on the subject on Israel. I really try to understand both sides but am often overwhelmed...so thanks everyone!
Speaking of the Supreme Court Adan Schuff just tweeted a short video about how McConnell pulled a fast one. A must watch https://twitter.com/i/status/1631080774102384641 This was my comment: "Replying to @RepAdamSchiff This is a prime example of @GOP cunning manipulative strategy & hypocricy & part of the reason I stopped voting Republican. When Trump came along that was the last nail in the coffin and now they have the disgraceful antics & mutterings of the crazed @FreedomCaucus
The Israelis are fighting back against Netanyahu and I am glad about that. He and his Likud party are made up of Ultra Orthodox Jews (men)who are, in my opinion, dangerous. These are the same people who have settled in on the West Bank and have caused agony and killings there. I am not saying that the Palestinians are innocent because they’re certainly not. But, Israelis know how corrupt Bibb is. He, like, Fake 45, has many accusations against him about bribery, sexual affairs, his wife, etc. He is hardly an upstanding citizen. This move by he and his crazy group is political suicide and that is how I feel about our SCOTUS. We have 6 conservatives, 3 who are not legitimately there, 1 who is an absolute liar and whose wife is an insurrectionist, and the Chief, who sways where ever the wind blows, as long as his wife is making millions for them. I see similarities, for sure. I would hope that my father, who wanted to move to Israel when he and mom married in 1946, would not have been attracted to the party of crazies but I really don’t know. In Poland, before he escaped to America in 1936, he had been a young Zionist leader. If you have ever read the book, Mila 18 by Leon Uris, you would know that many Zionists and their pals in the Underground, were killed. I read it 10 years after the book was written and I called my dad to tell him I was so sorry about the treatment of Jews and the people who helped them. He recited each character’s name who appeared in the book. I was astonished. He said they were all of his friends.
My allegiance is to anyone who believes in absolute freedom and democracy. I do not care if you are religious or not. If you fight for the rights of others and not get caught up in the mishegas of everything, I like you!
Mila 18 is an excellent book!
I think you are giving "Kreepy Krying Kavanaugh" an unintentional pass as far as lying is concerned, though --- it looks like he repeatedly perjured himself in his hearing for the nomination to the D.C. Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court, quite apart from the probable guilt with respect to Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. See:
www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/dozens-potential-sources-information-have-not-been-contacted-fbi-kavanaugh-n916146
It looks like he got away with it, though.
Oh no, I will never give Kav-The-beer-drinking-guy a pass…ever! What happened to Christine Blasey Ford was a travesty. We know that Leonard Leo paid Kav’s debts off.
I only meant you didn't mention it could extend beyond simply lying to lying under oath, perjury!
😰😡
yup.
Marlene, Thank you for sharing your story about your father. I am not anti Israel but I can’t understand why they refuse to recognize Palestinians as human beings who want to have a place to call home. As you stated the Palestinian people have faults also but they are as human as the Israeli people are. Netanyahu is corrupt and I don’t understand how he keeps getting back into power.
Barbara, the Palestinian people have really been abused by their extremists, as well, for many years. During the 1972 Olympics in Munich, the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization attacked and killed members of the Israelis Olympic team. Their mission was to demand release of prisoners in Israel. Those militants died but so did the hostages by the fiasco created by the West German police. Israel has never forgotten. Yassar Arafat was the head of the PLO at the time.
Israel is a small country surrounded by fascist nations. They produce technology for the world, food for throughout Europe, and have advanced medicines. Others are jealous of their accomplishments but Israel has gone too far in her thinking as she is governed by crazy men who interpret the Bible as the one and only which can save them. It’s convoluted thinking on both sides.
Trump at Israel’s urging and his own extreme jealousy of Obama destroyed the peace treaty with Iran. The people of Ukraine and Iran are suffering for this absolute betrayal of western interest. Saudi the gouger and the uae were in on it and they paid off the trumps openly.
Trump made a lie of Americas word, and ensured the continued rule of the hard liners.
ALL of America is complicit yet it is never mentioned.
I wouldn’t say “ALL” of America is complicit but I do agree that Fake 45 and his family plus his dastardly “advisors” put us in a very precarious position in the world. The Biden admin has been very effective with concentrating on what is needed for Americans to exist, to eat, to clothe, to transport, etc. They have guaranteed us a place at the table unlike the what the GQP provides, which is nothing.
My point maybe that America should know what was done but the pro saudi lobby is bi partisan.
Had to look up mishegas: craziness; senseless behavior
Word for the day.
A neighbor when I was very young named her dog that.
She was from Brooklyn.
I thought she was calling him
My Sugar (That's an odd name for a. dog, thought I)
They eventually moved back East, and I was sorry, because they were good neighbors, reformed Jews, and a big asset to our state, as director of the new state library. I babysat their very good children. I often think about the Merskys.
I also often think how it would be to live in a country surrounded by 47 Muslim nations hell bent on destroying anyone who is not Muslim.
If you believe everyone haa a right to choose their religion, it's difficult to comment on a government when it is also the state religion without sounding like one is commenting on the religion too. I try to differentiate between the people and the government. I don't think Palestine is self governing, but run by Hamas.
Hamas can go to Hell.
HA! I love they named their dog that! It’s such a great word. I say it to my husband (raised Catholic) all of the time.
I've always spelled it "mishugas." you might be mixing it up with "meshugana" the first is an adjective; the second is a noun.
returning to revise, I realize that you must ignore the previous paragraph. they're BOTH nouns. "mishuga" is the adjective.
and lemme score a point for correcting myself in full sight...
and I sure am glad that Substack revived the "revise" option
I know the difference between the two, believe me! Yiddish words are often spelled differently based on the countries relatives came from. But it’s fun, right?
it really is...trying to find your own transliteration that's somehow "better" than somebody else's has engendered a lot of fun conversations I've had over the years.
Thanks. Two points, one for each version, which can accumulate. So if I name my favorite animal that, which one do I use?
Try “Mish”!
Fundamentalists in Iran in Saudi in Afghanistan in America and in Russia. Are filthy anti human mad men.
YES! Very much so! That’s why there have so many threats against Jews here. It’s always takes only one bad seed to create havoc for everyone else.
But maggat america loves Netanyahu. And they praise democratic Israel. Of course to evangelicals believe Israel will convert, while Netanyahu adherents are also religious fanatics.
that's certainly the way it is here as well.
for laughs, I sometimes turn on the Jewish Broadcasting Service when I'm channel surfing. there's a senile old rabbi who's on a lot. he recently dismissed a Jewish Congressman (I can't remember who right now...senior moment) who dropped out of Yeshiva before high school and is therefore "someone we can all consider an "ignoramus about anything Jewish." I have a BUNCH of old friends who are in the same position, and I'd certainly call their knowledge of Jewish things pretty ADVANCED.
but those "leaders" of the Satmar Hasidim (there I go again!) belong in jail.
The Israeli situation is obviously a right-wing power grab that benefits Yahoo’s personal corruption. If they ram through the changes then with 61-votes the religious fascists can turn Israel into a dictatorship, purge the country of Palestinians, and others they don’t consider Jewish enough. Israel can’t be a Jewish state and also a liberal democracy. Just as we can’t be a White Christian country and also a democracy.
Our SCOTUS problem has become urgent because *Rump has packed it with just enough right-wing political hacks, instead of jurists, to give it a 6-3 supermajority. The Rethugs, for years, have decried ‘activist judges’, and a liberal SCOTUS as legislating from the bench. Which is exactly what the unqualified political hacks they have put on the bench are doing now. Their goal is to reverse all social progress of the past 60-years. Any SCOTUS with an agenda is very dangerous, as we have already seen in the last year, and also in the past. A one-vote SCOTUS majority made Bush Jr. President in 2000. The SC is in dire need of restructuring, as is the Congress. I doubt I’ll live to see it, but minimum and maximum age requirements, term limits, and court size all need to be addressed, in my view.
In the debt-relief cases before the court now my cynical self thinks the game is already rigged. However, what little is left of my optimistic self thinks, given the great job the Solicitor General did destroying the plaintiffs, that there may be two votes to join the three liberal justices for a 5-4 majority in favor the of student debt relief. Faced with fact, law, precedent, and reasoning, Roberts and Kavanaugh might defy prediction. I’m quite prepared to be wrong. Rather than deciding the case on whether the government should grant debt relief the decision might hinge on who has ‘standing’, which the plaintiffs clearly do not have - at least to my non-lawyer mind.
I too, feel our solicitor general has done an excellent job in saying student debts get reliefs. After all, these debts were created by the government and the big banks. The amount of money hanging over people’s heads is unsustainable. Had they been more flexible in their policies of the payback solution, we would not see so many saddled with problems.
Remind me again why we give Israel billions of US tax payer dollars still? And no, I’m not anti-semitic. I sincerely want to understand this.
I hope we can ditch here the notion that criticism of Israel is antisemitic.
Some is, some isn't. It is not inherently antisemitic. Invoking double standards that demand behavior by Israel that would never be demanded of other countries, for example, can definitely qualify as a thinly veiled way of expressing hatred of Jews.
Demanding that Israel act like a modern democratic nation isn’t two faced. Complaining about it is hypocrisy.
You have to be specific, some of the complaints about Israel would NEVER be made about any other nation's response to an ongoing organized terrorist threat. Besides, right now it's Israelis protesting relentlessly in the streets against their own elected government's moves towards gutting the judicial process, sure as hell looks like democracy in action to me!
I think people around here generally know the difference.
If around here is limited to this blog, sure. If you extend it to include the surrounding interwebs, or real cities and towns, no way.
Perhaps the most common form of it in the USA is treating our own responses to domestic terrorist attacks (on whatever scale) differently than Israeli responses to terrorist attacks from Hizbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad or others. In some cases the attacks by those terrorists are either not reported at all, so the account begins with the Israeli response, or the terrorists are simply termed "gunmen" or "militants," despite having directly targeted civilians. Another tack is to claim they are 'Israeli Arabs" when they don't have Israeli citizenship. Yet another is down-playing the potentially lethal effects of "rock throwing," despite the size of the concrete or stones and despite civilians being targeted. This sub-topic alone has a long history over many decades.
It's a very different kettle of fish from criticizing policies of the Israeli state which overreach or actually discriminate invidiously. Plenty of that comes from Israelis themselves! But double-standards on dealing with terrorism, or in news accounts about specific events, not so much.
exceedingly well put, Richard.
in this whole deal, it's very, very difficult to talk about things in a way that's not going to piss off SOMEBODY, at which point the whole conversation becomes something ELSE.
and I used to be tarred as a "self-hating Jew" so often for my rather mild "not every Palestinian is an enemy who is dedicated to the destruction of Israel" shtick that for quite a few years, I've just begged off being included in the conversation because who, finally, needs that kind of shit?
Correct, at least as a non-Jewish sympathetic observer I don't have to deal with that! Just your run-of-the-mill skeptical humanistic existentialist Taoist here!
I was and am talking about this discussion. I didn't think that required explanation. Of course antisemitism is real, frightening, and genuinely threatening, not something I would dismiss, certainly in one line.
actually, there ARE some groups whose anti-Israeli line is coming from a generally antisemitic place. but many aren't at all. what I consider to be a joke (and always have) is the sick rhetorical ploy of referring to Jews who criticize Israel as "self-hating Jews." and it's been used for DECADES now.
schmucks.
Start by studying the role of Israel in the Middle East vis-a-vis US defense capabilities and intelligence gathering. It amounts to a use of taxes to fund their role in that, as well as to deter terrorist states like Iran.
I was in ONI as a field officer in Vietnam, though that was secret. I was told by a buddy who would know that a Israelis commando team at our behest went into Egypt and removed to Israel for examination an entire SA-2 site! Through reverse engineering, we developed and put in our attack planes two devices that made most, not all, SA-2 missiles ineffective. There were blind spots.
But Israel is now a country quite different. Right-wing religious fanatics run it. Intel from it should be considered F-6. And always self-serving.
Not sure the government is able to micro-manage Mossad intel results shared with allies in that way.
Mossad and Israeli forces were something else in those days. Hard to remember the Entebbe raid was an example of real-life intelligence, imagination, and courage, not just a thrilling movie. Now the army stands by while settlers wreak vicious revenge on Palestinian villagers.
the really crazy bastards for me are those settlers.
and I know many people (all Jewish, btw) who had dire predictions once those settlements (which are, I think, illegal) started to pop up.
My distinct impression is that those settlements are there mainly because of pols, most enthusiastically but far from exclusively Republicans, in thrall to AIPAC.
I'm sure that's true. but the settlers themselves tend very heavily (if not exclusively) to be religious fanatics.
As nearly as I can determine, all of the aid is used to supplement their military and for security.
how would you be able to tease out those two things? it doesn't strike me as information that would be entirely forthcoming.
Although I can’t vouch for the veracity of the source, here is the info. https://finmasters.com/us-foreign-aid/
What I find encouraging about the stand-off in Israel by both civilians and military is that are free to exercise their right to assemble, confront and denounce the actions of the leader-who-would-be King. That's one reason we're still able to support the government, which by the way, has representative Christians, Jews, Muslim and other minorities in their government.
Imagine such an outcry in almost any other country in the Middle East. The price is torture, prison and death. Giving military aid to protect a fragile democracy in a region largely sworn to destroy it, is common sense. If we want to avoid wholesale, international military invasion (such as the continuing attack on Ukraine from a country sworn to destroy its sovereignty), we must provide billions of "US tax payers dollars". Freedom is not cheap. Better to pay with money then with blood!
The alternative is unthinkable in a world where laws are too often used to protect the interests of the rich and powerful. Instead of second-guessing foreign policy, pay attention and be thankful we have the freedom to ask dumb questions. Hope this helps!
Lucian, again an excellent column! I'm grateful for the clarity of your writing regarding issues that are often not explained clearly in The New York Times. I would only add one thing to this column, which is the risk the SCOTUS will be taking if they hold for the plaintiffs in the student loan case. As much as this court ignores precedent, American courts cannot function without it. What's good for the goose is good for the gander, as they say. If the court allows law suits where the plaintiff lacks proper standing to sue, all sorts of groups would be able to sue over anything. Environmental groups could sue over issues where they were not directly affected, for example. Taxpayer lawsuits would run rampant. Even a very conservative, result-oriented court should be wary of this particular slippery slope, as the court system could find itself overwhelmed. Of course, it's possible that the SCOTUS would try to declare this a singular event with no precedential value, but to my knowledge, that hasn't worked all that well in the past.
George this aspect you’re highlighting was something I didn’t know. Wow, just wow.
The practice of manipulating the judiciary goes back to the earliest days of the American Republic. John Adams, the second president, having been defeated for reelection to the presidency decided to fill all vacant judgeships with loyal Federalist followers. The landmark case of Marbury v. Madison was a case involving a presidential appointee who did not receive his official certificate attesting to his appointment before Adams' term of office expired, and he left office. John Marshall, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was himself appointed by Adams, and did in fact receive his official appointment papers, but when it came to Mr. Marbury, who had been appointed to be justice of the peace within the District of Columbia, Justice Marshall effectively threw Mr. Marbury 'under the bus' as the saying goes today, because Marshall was intent on establishing judicial supremacy by virtue of claiming the right to judicial review over acts of Congress. Chief Justice Marshall most certainly obtained his objective, and he was perfectly content with the idea of leaving Mr. Marbury 'twisting in the wind' or 'hung out to dry', or what other hoary cliché you might want to use. The fact is that control of the judiciary through appointments has been a political football since time immemorial. Certainly the kings of England knew about that sort of thing, even when judges went rogue from time to time. Eventually, as we are seeing now, presidents abuse the power of appointment, and some sort of pushback or retribution follows. The fact that the drafters of the Constitution endowed the judiciary with lifetime appointments is a testament to the value they placed on having an independent judiciary, more or less insulated from day-to-day politics; and these men knew what they were talking about. Back then, a lifetime appointment for a man already in his forties or fifties probably meant a judicial career on the Supreme Court or one of the lesser courts of about 15 to 20 years, but certainly not much longer. Nowadays, a 15 year term of office is more common for judicial appointments to a state's highest court (such as in California), often coupled with a nonpartisan election in which the voters confirm the 15 year term of office to which the incumbent has been appointed. The idea, then, is not that the judges should be wholly immune from politics, but rather the politics to which they are allowed to engage themselves in should necessarily be that which takes the long view of what the public interest is, and what the law requires. What we are seeing now in Israel, with Bibi Netanyahu engaged in a graceless and sordid power grab we saw over the first 20 years of the current century exercised by a soulless Republican Party bent on aggrandizing power for itself. For their part, the Israeli public is largely fighting back; and my guess would be, that Netanyahu will ultimately fail in his efforts to turn Israel into something that looks like Hungary today. If the Israeli public continues to protest in ever-increasing numbers, Netanyahu's one-vote majority in the Israeli Knesset is bound to crack. At least I hope so.
When Netanyahu's judicial demolition derby goes too far even for trump's ambassador to Israel you know he's off the cliff, legs spinning. Netanyahu's race to the bottom is sickening. https://www.axios.com/2023/03/01/david-friedman-israel-judicial-overhaul-netanyahu
Lucian, I hope I can be forgiven for posting something that has nothing to do with the subject matter, but I notice by several comments that we have several Jewish members of our group and I feel with all the serious situations today a little light humor would be in order. I was born in Scotland and my parents although not religious were basically presbyterians. .
" They are the Presbyterians By Harry Golden from his book Only in America The World Publishing Company 1958.
ACCORDING to a number of Midrashic sources, ten of the twelve tribes of Israel whom Moses had blessed in the wilderness were carried away by the Assyrians after the fall of Samaria in 722 B.C. Since there were numerous prophecies that they would return, there was a lively expectation that they might be found by diligent search. Many Christian scholars have been deeply concerned with this problem.
There was even a legend that Prester John would one day appear leading the ten tribes bearing the banners of Christendom. Cotton Mather and Thomas Thorowgood were convinced that the American Indians were the Ten Lost Tribes. The strange thing about it is that through all these centuries the Gentile world has been more concerned about what happened to the Ten Lost Tribes than the Jews themselves. The Jewish position, however, is most logical. Things haven’t been going exactly plushly for the Jews these past two thousand years, so why should we go out and find ten more tribes for them? Look at all the additional “restricted” juice boxes and “exclusive” slot machines they’d have to make. The Ten Lost Tribes would have been the worst kind of fools if they had revealed themselves all these years. As a matter of fact, I really believe they have been lying low waiting for the time when the coast is clear.
Which brings me to my own theory. I have a strong suspicion that the Ten Lost Tribes are really the inhabitants and the ancestors of the inhabitants of Scotland. I have several reasons for my theory. First of all, we Jews have a sort of natural affection for the Scots. There must be a reason for this. I have heard epithets thrown around at every race and nationality on earth, but I have yet to hear a Jew say an unkind thing about a Scotsman. Secondly, let us consider the Presbyterian religion which at its very inception was in effect a return to basic Orthodox Judaism—sort of an Anglicized Judaism with all its laws and most of its rituals. Both Calvin and Knox emphasized a belief in the One God, Jehovah, and for the first three hundred years of Presbyterianism, all the emphasis was on the Torah, specifically on the Five Books of Moses. The struggles within Calvinism were identical with the various reform movements within Judaism. I have come across records in my study of Calvinism of congregations forbidding the use of as much as a vase of flowers anywhere in the church, and on one occasion a few angry covenanters in this country smashed an organ or, as they called it, “the unholy whustles.” In the home country, in the early days of Presbyterianism, they did not even allow a portrait of the ruling monarch in their house of worship—identical with Judaistic tradition. It is well to remember, too, that Britain achieved her greatest hour of empire during that generation when a Scotsman and a Jew directed her destinies (Gladstone and Disraeli). And do you think it was a coincidence that Lord Balfour, the man who gave Palestine to the Jews, was a Scot? Of course, it was no coincidence. Lord Balfour may have been aware of the connection between Scotland and the Ten Lost Tribes.
In addition, my thesis is strengthened by the phenomenon that of all the civilized countries of the world Scotland is the only one without a history of anti-Semitism, and this on top of the fact that these wonderful Scots have had plenty of provocation. No
one has given the Presbyterians more trouble than the Jews—on account of the Psalms of David. When we gave them the Psalms we caused many a Scotsman to lose his sense of humor, It was family against family, and friend against friend. The Psalms of David have caused more schisms among the Presbyterians than all the other theologies combined. Some said that the Psalms should be sung, but others said they should be recited. Then for another hundred years there were four or five more reform movements—all about our King David’s magnificent poetry. Some Scots said the Psalms should be sung kneeling, others were against kneeling and remained seated, while in every church there was always one wonderful individualist of the Clan Cameron who said the Psalms should be sung—standing. And through all of this four hundred years of discussion, philosophy, and schism on these Psalms of our King David, they have kept their sense of honor and decency, and have remained among our best and most loyal friends.
What a dull world this would be without Scotland—and without Jews and King David!
Great stuff!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clan_Turnbull
^^^^
About the tradition of the "Border Reivers," when one of my cousins --- now a psychotherapist in
Brookline, Massachusetts --- was living in Weybridge, she journeyed up to the Borders to
look into the family history, and asked a local about the Turnbulls. He replied (My paraphrase
and spelling), "Och lassie, ya dinna want to ken all aboot that, they ware nothin' but horse thaves!"
Brilliant. My father Neil (Cyril) McDonald, a watchmaker born in Brechin, will have a whisky and water and a comfortable chair ready if you would like a wee chat when you reach the other side.
Love it!
I am so glad I subscribed to your substack column .. this is a great one
“The trouble with Balance of Power is not that it has no meaning, but that it has too many meanings.” —Innis L. Claude Jr.
Currently our Supreme Court is a court the way Fox News is news...
Well written and well reasoned. We have to do something about the Supreme Court, now.
Lucian, another fantastic, concise article. Thank you!
Also, I feel very, very fortunate to be able to read all the articulate points brought up by the subscribers to this blog...especially on the subject on Israel. I really try to understand both sides but am often overwhelmed...so thanks everyone!
Speaking of the Supreme Court Adan Schuff just tweeted a short video about how McConnell pulled a fast one. A must watch https://twitter.com/i/status/1631080774102384641 This was my comment: "Replying to @RepAdamSchiff This is a prime example of @GOP cunning manipulative strategy & hypocricy & part of the reason I stopped voting Republican. When Trump came along that was the last nail in the coffin and now they have the disgraceful antics & mutterings of the crazed @FreedomCaucus
What? Our government doing something for the wellbeing of it citizens? Not our corporations? Clearly unconstitutional.
Student debt is "high tech debtor's prison," almost impossible to discharge.