The Jew News Review – February 8, 2025 – “Super Sunday?”

Shabbat shalom!

And a tip of the kippah and big welcome home to three more Israeli hostages: Or Levy, Eli Sharabi, and Ohad Ben Ami. They emerged from the hell tunnels of Gaza after 1.5 years of captivity looking weak, pale and emaciated. This is what famine really looks like:

Here are their captors, celebrating the orchestrated carnival show hostage release hosted by Hamas and its supporters. This is what famine does NOT look like:

Let’s hope the momentum continues and more hostages come home, hopefully alive and well. 

Meanwhile, the shit show back home continues unabated, with the courts being the only guardrail left to impede the orange King and his jesters from completely ignoring and potentially destroying democracy. I am all in favor of eliminating waste and stupid expenditures in our government, but there is a right way to do so, which includes time, effort, and hard work, all of which are anathema to the orange turd and his “break shit” entourage of racist nerds. 

But, fear not America. It’s Super Bowl Sunday! To say the day is our premier cultural event would be doing capitalism and commerce a huge disservice. The actual football game is beside the point. Just like bread is merely a platform for butter, the game itself is just a weekend long delivery method for liquor conglomerates to catch your eyeballs and offer a QR code or two. In between spurts of actual action, we get to watch oversized men adjust their butt cracks, then at half time we can enjoy a little USA vs Canada action with Kendrick Lamar making fun of Drake! ( or vice versa, I actually don’t know either of them, or who comes from where). All of this amazing shit happens while we gorge ourselves on very unhealthy but delicious stuff, get covered in orange Dorito dust, and then watch Patrick Mahomes win another trophy. Honestly, my European friends will get all snooty about our addiction to this insanity, but it doesn’t get any better! God bless America!

I have no dog in this Super Bowl fight. Since I have been mathematically eliminated from winning anything in my playoff pickem pool, I am free to kick back, stuff myself, and enjoy the onslaught of crass and creative commercials that are typically more entertaining than the game itself. Here are a couple of my favorites from prior years. I couldn’t resist the Hellmann’s ad, having just watched on our plane ride to Palm Springs, the greatest RomCom ever made.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/UX9qfSEKyuc?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0

And, this bit from another great comedy, Groundhog Day.

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/P3qH4TKLP0c?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0

It’s been a while since I provided my usual round up of Jew news from around the world. So, without further ajieu, here is your weekly smorgasbord of superbly selected semitic stories from sources such as The Forward, JTA, The Times of Israel, Haaretz, Nosher, Kveller, and Jewish Boston to name a few.

1. Kanye embarks on a new antisemitic spree on X, saying, “I’m never apologizing for my Jewish comments” – Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, flooded the social network X with antisemitic comments early Friday morning, in a repeat of the spree that cost him his fashion deals and public esteem two years ago. In dozens of tweets to his 32 million followers, Ye praised Hitler, called himself a Nazi and said antisemitism was “just some bulls–t Jewish people made up to protect their bulls–t.” He also emphasized that he was unrepentant and in control of his faculties. “AMY JEWISH PERSON THAT DOES BUSINESS WITH ME NEEDS TO KNOW I DONT LIKE OR TRUST ANY JEWISH PERSON AMD THIS IS COMPLETELY SOBER WITH NO HENNESY,” he wrote in all caps, adding, “IM NEVER APOLOGIZING FOR MY JEWISH COMMENTS.”
2. Gaza-Lago – Three perspectives:
   1. Opinion | Trump’s plans for Gaza could undermine the ceasefire. The hostages will pay the tragic price. With negotiations over Phase 2 of the ceasefire deal set to begin shortly, writes Alex Lederman of the Israel Policy Forum, Trump’s off-the-cuff proposal for U.S. interference has imperiled the lives of the hostages who remain in Gaza.
   2. Opinion | Don’t let Trump’s theatrics distract from the true horror of his plans for Gaza. The outrage machine kicked into high gear in the wake of Trump’s proposal, with quick rebukes coming from all corners of the American and Arab political environment — even as many Israelis embraced the plan. “But I hope that, when we strip away the attention-drawing theatrics of this announcement, we remember that the cruelest and most ridiculous part of it is an idea Trump floated last month to far less fanfare: forced displacement of Gaza’s entire Palestinian population,” writes our columnist Emily Tamkin. Read her essay ➤
   3. Opinion | In Trump’s Gaza pronouncement, a disdain for humanity worthy of Caligula. To understand the psychology behind Trump’s proposal, our culture columnist Robert Zaretsky proposes turning to a play about the notorious Roman emperor Caligula by Nobel laureate Albert Camus. Camus cast Caligula, whom many historians have suggested was mad, as being a master of understanding life’s absurdity — including the absurdity of his own power, which let him set “no value on the lives of Romans or anyone else’s,” and decide that, on his whim, “there will be a catastrophe, and I will stop the catastrophe when I choose.” Read his essay ➤
3. And more reactions:
   1. Egyptian officials reportedly warned the Trump administration that the president’s proposal could endanger the country’s long-standing peace treaty with Israel. (Times of Israel)
   2. Jordanian experts warned that the plan could pose a serious threat to Jordan’s security, with one saying “Jordan could cease to exist if this displacement plan is executed.” (Times of Israel)
   3. A coalition of American Reform Jewish organizations, including the Union for Reform Judaism and the Association of Reform Jewish Educators, issued a letter decrying Trump’s plan as “unrealistic and dangerous.” (Union for Reform Judaism)
   4. Palestinians are rejecting Trump’s call to expel them from Gaza. “I won’t leave,” said Mustafa al-Gazzar, 80. “Put that in your brain.” (AP)
   5. Palestinian-Americans expressed horror at the idea of expelling people from Gaza, with one leader at a D.C.-based think tank calling the plan “outrageous, criminal, harebrained.” (New York Times)
   6. Mainstream pro-Israel groups have mostly been stunned into silence. (JTA, Religion News Service)
   7. Sen. Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, joined other lawmakers who are skeptical of the Gaza plan. “I thought we voted for America First,” he posted on social media. (X)
4. Painful release – Some American Jews are grieving as Hamas terrorists convicted of murdering their friends in attacks decades ago are set free as part of the ceasefire deal. “As I’ve been trying to process it all I just keep thinking about how Jewish it all feels,” said Amanda Pogany, whose best friend, Marla Bennett, was killed in the 2002 bombing at the Hebrew University cafeteria in Jerusalem. “We are a people that is constantly navigating joy and sorrow simultaneously.” Go deeper ►The latest…
   • Two Israeli soldiers were killed and eight wounded when wind brought down a surveillance platform in Gaza. (Haaretz, Times of Israel)
   • Fourteen Jewish groups are urging the Supreme Court to allow American victims of Palestinian terrorists to sue in U.S. courts. (AJC)
   • United Airlines plans to resume flights from the U.S. to Israel in March. Deltaplans to follow in April. (Globes)
5. On campus…
   1. 🏫 Georgetown Law’s Students for Justice in Palestine plans to host an event next week with a convicted member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who was imprisoned for withholding information about a deadly 2019 bombing that killed an Israeli teen. (Jewish Insider)
   2. ⚖️ A federal judge ordered Cooper Union, a private Manhattan college, to face a lawsuit alleging the school failed to protect Jewish students who barricaded themselves in a library amid pro-Palestinian demonstrations. (Reuters, Times of Israel)
   3. 🎒 A conference held this week at Brown University — focused on the prevalence of non-Zionist Jewish traditions — received more than 1,500 emails in protest, forcing organizers to increase security measures for the two-day event. (Brown Daily Herald)
6. In Australia….
   1. 🥓 Police arrested a Melbourne man for allegedly scrawling antisemitic graffiti, spitting on a passerby and throwing a packet of bacon at them. It’s the latest in a spate of anti-Jewish crimes in Australia. (JTA)
   2. 🇦🇺 Australia on Thursday passed new anti-hate crime laws, in an effort to combat the recent surge in antisemitism. Among other things, people who give a Nazi salute in public will get a minimum of 12 months in jail. (Reuters)
   3. 🤔 Australia, a haven for Jews for generations, has seen a significant increase in antisemitic attacks since October 2023 — including vandalism, arson, and threats against Jewish institutions, prompting authorities to investigate potential foreign involvement. “This is a time of national crisis,” said one local politician. (AP, Wall Street Journal)

That’s a wrap. Enjoy the Super Bowl everyone! Or not. And let’s be careful out there.

Brad out.