Shabbat shalom!
Given the continuous gut punches we sustain from the daily news cycle, especially this week, I want to start with a tip of the kippah to The Jerusalem Youth Chorus, who appeared on America’s Got Talent with an inspiring performance of “Home”, by Phillip Phillips. Despite the violence surrounding them, this group of talented Israelis and Palestinians sing out for peace, justice, inclusion, and equality. It sickens me to think that these are the kind of kids that were slaughtered by Hamas. It will take a few generations of de-radicalizing the Palestinian schools and mosques before we find an enduring peace, but maybe these kids represent hope for an earlier solution. Or maybe I just kid myself.
I know, like many of you, I suffer from TDS: Trump Derangement Syndrome. Ever since the narcissistic clown came down that gaudy escalator, the world has suffered from his massive ego and now we all must deal with the formerly marginalized nut jobs that are collectively MAGA nation.
Lately, myself and many of my friends and family, have reluctantly stopped watching the news since it just makes you nauseous and leads to depression. But this mental health measure is not good for the nation and represents an attitude that can lead to apathy and a further erosion of our democracy. I know that sounds a little off the wall, but after listening to an interview with Washington Post columnist Anne Applebaum, an expert in how Democracies fall, I am concerned. Her take, detailed in several highly respected books (Twilight of Democracy, Red Famine, Iron Curtain, Between East and West, and Gulag, for which she won the Pulitzer Prize) is that democracies don’t fall suddenly. Like Hungary, Turkey, Venezuela, etc, the decline is slow, and is characterized by a hollowing of institutions, a rise of partisan judges supporting the autocratic leader, attacks on the free press and media, and replacing the professional class of agencies and bureaucrats with loyalists. Applebaum concludes that the more recent autocrats in Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, etc, all have one thing in common: Like the orange turd, they are more motivated by accumulating power, wealth and self-aggrandizement than by any ideology. They are cleptocrats.
Sounds too familiar and very alarming.
The “boiling frog” is an apologue describing a frog being slowly boiled alive. The premise is that if a frog is put suddenly into boiling water, it will jump out, but if the frog is put in tepid water which is then brought to a boil slowly, it will not perceive the danger and will be cooked to death.
Trump 2.0 is turning the heat up on the boiling frog of Democracy, and threatens the very fabric and civility of this great nation. We already know what the orange turd’s instincts are when he is ruining the ship. Now that he has more competent loyalists around him, there will be fewer guardrails. And this time we have Kevin Roberts and the Heritage Foundation to thank for putting idealogical meat around the MAGA bones. It’s making me very nervous. In my lifetime, I have never felt the country more on edge. While most of us abhor any kind of violence, political or otherwise, many of us were thinking, perhaps wishing, that the shooter’s aim was more true. Or as my brother noted from Twitter, “Nobody has been this disappointed in two inches since stormy Daniels”. Funny, but not funny. How am I going to deal with another four years of the orange turd? Property in Canada is starting to look more attractive all the time. I would consider moving to Israel, but they have their own problems.
Speaking of Israel, Bibi will be here soon, meeting with Biden and presenting to Congress, presumably to try and shore up bi-partisan support for the Jewish state. There is mounting pressure from within Israel and from the Biden administration to cut a hostage deal, but that is not likely to happen for at least a few more weeks, although there seems to be some progress to get something done. The best way to get a deal done is for the IDF to continue eliminating Hamas and continue dismantling tunnels and Hamas infrastructure. Hamas will respect power, but nothing else. They still need to be eliminated. Anything less than that is a loss for Israel and western civilization. I continue to be appalled by countries like Norway, Spain and Ireland that have rewarded Hamas for slaughtering Jews with recognition of a Palestinian state, a state which doesn’t exist.
And now, just today, the headlines could not be worse. After a Houthi drone strikes the heart of Tel Aviv, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) strikes a blow to the heart of most Israelis with their unambiguous non-binding ruling Friday that Israel’s 56-year long rule in “the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967” is “illegal,” and that it is obligated to bring its presence in that territory to an end “as rapidly as possible.”
The ICJ’s decision is an advisory opinion and has no direct legal consequences on Israel or other UN member states, but it could be another blow to the Israel’s international standing and add political pressure over its devastating nine-month-old war against Hamas. Israel did not take part in the hearings, instead submitting a written contribution that described the questions the court had been asked as “prejudicial” and “tendentious.”
Yikes. What about the rest of the news for the Jews you may be asking? Here then is this week’s generous selection of Jewie journalistic gems, culled and carefully curated, and copied and pasted from the likes of The Forward, JTA, The Times of Israel, Kveller, Jewish Boston, Haaretz, and other Jewish journals:
- ICJ says Israel’s actions in West Bank amount to de facto annexation, calls for end of Israeli control – In its decision, the ICJ said it determined Israel’s policy of settlement in the West Bank violates international law, and that Israel had effectively annexed large parts of the West Bank — along with East Jerusalem, which was formally annexed and designated as sovereign Israeli territory in 1980 — due to some of the apparently permanent aspects of Israeli rule there.The legal consequences of its findings, the court ruled, were that Israel must end its control of these areas, cease new settlement activity, “repeal all legislation and measures creating or maintaining the unlawful situation” — including those which it said “discriminate against the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” — and provide reparations for any damage caused by its “wrongful acts.” Never going to happen. But, this could lead many countries and organizations, like the Olympics, to sanction Israel in many ways.
- Drone strike in Tel Aviv and Israeli retaliation – Without warning, on July 19, a drone strike hit a residential area of Tel Aviv at 3:12 a.m., causing significant damage and one fatality. Heightened security measures have been implemented citywide as residents are shaken and concerned, expressing both fear and resilience. In retaliation, reports say Israeli jets targeted and destroyed Houthi fuel depot and oil refineries.
- More on the war ….
- Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, visited the Temple Mount Thursday, posting video of himself saying he had gone there to pray, in a move that imperiled ceasefire talks. Jewish prayer is taboo at the site, also known as the al-Aqsa mosque compound and the holiest Muslim spot in Jerusalem.
- The Israel Defense Forces will issue its first draft call-ups to Haredi men on Sunday, with 1,000 notices sent in the first round, and 2,000 more to follow in coming weeks.
- An overwhelming majority in the Knesset voted against the creation of a Palestinian state, approving a resolution that asserts “the establishment of a Palestinian state in the heart of the Land of Israel would pose an existential danger to the State of Israel and its citizens.”
- What a J.D. Vance vice presidency would mean for American Jews and IsraelSen. J.D. Vance of Ohio said in his first interview as former President Donald Trump’s running mate that Israel should end its war in Gaza “as quickly as possible.” He added that “after the war you want to reinvigorate that peace process between Israel, Saudi Arabia, the Jordanians and so forth.”Trump’s decision to add Vance to the ticket has worried some in the Jewish community, as our senior political reporter, Jacob Kornbluh, explains this morning.
- On antisemitism: Vance was critical of this spring’s campus demonstrations, but he has yet to sign on to either the bipartisan Countering Antisemitism Act or a bill which mandates the Department of Education classify anti-Zionism as antisemitic. Vance was also a promoter of the Great Replacement Theory, which the ADL and others consider antisemitic.
- On the war in Gaza: As a staunch supporter of Trump’s America First agenda, Vance has called out interventionist policies, and took a leading role in building opposition to President Joe Biden and House Speaker Mike Johnson’s emergency funding plan for Israel and Ukraine. “If we are going to support Israel, as I think that we should, we have to articulate a reason why it’s in our best interest,” he said in May.
- On the Jewish vote: Vance recently excused Trump after the former president accused American Jews of disloyalty to Israel and suggested they hate their religion by voting for Democrats. Vance called it a “reasonable” argument to make in courting Jewish voters.
- ✍️ Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt unveiled a document Wednesday signed by the U.S. and more than 30 other countries offering guidelines for dealing with global antisemitism. The release coincides with the 30th anniversary of the bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina, which killed 85 people. (Jewish Insider, NBC News)
- Baseball, thank god, is back! And so are the Jews! On Sunday, Zack Gelof and Garrett Stubbs made history of sorts, when Gelof hit a grand slam off Stubbs in the ninth inning of the Oakland Athletics’ 18-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies. According to the Jewish Baseball Museum, it was the first-ever grand slam hit by a Jewish batter off a Jewish pitcher. On Tuesday, Atlanta Braves pitcher Max Friedmade his first career All-Star appearance, tossing a scoreless and hitless second inning as his National League squad lost 5-3. (Fried made the 2022 All-Star team but did not appear in the game.)
- NOT A SHOE-IN. Adidas released a new sneaker campaign recalling the 1972 Munich Olympics, at which 11 Israeli athletes were killed in a terrorist attack. But many Jewish groups bristled at the sportswear giant’s choice for the face of the launch: Palestinian-American supermodel and activist Bella Hadid. Following the backlash, the company said it would “revise” its campaign.
That’s all for the week everyone! Try to enjoy the weekend, and stay out of any boiling pots of water. And remember, let’s be careful out there.
Brad out.
Jew News Review 