If you suppress the voices of the Brad Landers of the world, you’re going to leave voices like Tucker Carlson as the ones people are listening to on this. It’s grim as hell.
If you suppress the voices of the Brad Landers of the world, you’re going to leave voices like Tucker Carlson as the ones people are listening to on this. It’s grim as hell.
I’m happy to give Tucker Carlson a platform on this. He is persuading segments of the Republican base to be better people. Evangelicals are starting to get restive, and that is the key group propping up Israel at this point.
Having college kids occupy libraries would detract from that, while also validating what Trump is doing to our universities. Having Trump attack colleges for allowing kids to protest Gaza has not been helpful to them while Israel is openly starving Palestinian civilians and killing US Citizens.
I am not sure that any protest ever "detracts" from anything. It's purpose is to do the opposite is it not? Call more attention to the problem? I disagree that ANYTHING can validate violations of the constitutions amendments. Can it? When do you see suppression of speech to be valid??
Protests are a complex thing. I very much supported the Gaza protests last year, but the net result was the near rupture of the Democratic coalition while also sparking a backlash on the right. Despite there being some positive movement on public opinion, they needed to be shut down, and were.
I again supported protests in May, and this was the result. I am not convinced we achieved any positive benefit from any of this. Meanwhile, things have gotten bad enough that the right is starting to recoil on their own. Why do we need to bring attention to it? Likely we would distract them.
There may be a protest that could work, but I do not think it is in the form we have seen thus far. Maybe something different will work, but it’s hard to control otherwise well meaning activists.
Do you mean control? Protest is to challenge the control isn't it? Even peaceful protest intends to disrupt, to get a response and that is always going to be unpredictable and not controlled. Curious what you think peaceful protest is about? Process? Purpose? Products?
Maybe not. But what is hoped to be gained is often only appreciated in theory and retrospect. Think Malcolm X and MLK which really made the changes? Or did the attention (pos and neg) do the heavy lifting? No one really knows just theories--- and results.
Yes, results is the important thing. But what results? There are many possible results, including that protests fail. There is a reason doctors take a Hippocratic oath. Sometimes an intervention hurts more than it helps.
There are many other factors in play which I will not discuss because this conversation is being monitored. If people want to help Gaza, a good way is to go protest Trump’s Epstein ties this weekend. Damaging Trump is a fantastic way to help Gaza, even if it doesn’t feel like it.
We don't all take the oath anymore FYI. UVA dropped it decades ago UofMich we took it with all others in the audience renewing theirs. First do no harm is what you are speaking to. But... as Ghandi and MLK proved harm may not be avoidable. Break it to fix it doctrine of protest. No?
The problem is that Tucker isn’t pushing them to be better people, he’s pushing them to channel their disgust at Israel’s actions into base antisemitism.
That may be why he is doing it, but that is not what his argument is. He is making a fairly robust defense of IHL, accusing Israel of war crimes, and asking for it to be treated like any other country. He also thinks we should not support them militarily, remain neutral, etc.
Importantly, he is being effective at persuading large parts of the right that what is happening in Israel is wrong. As long as Israel is a wedge issue for Dems and unites Republicans it just is extremely difficult to make progress. There needs to be opposition from the right.
Liberal activists who want to make progress should be preparing to primary Dems who support Israel. There is every indication that Trump and Netanyahu will keep this going, and try to force Gazan’s into concentration camps. The politics are shifting in favor of justice and we need to prepare.
The DOJ is burning down and Chuck Rosenberg still has colleagues who have a high opinion of Todd Blanche 😂
when you defeat, disempower, and humiliate people asking for a better way, you empower those who will not ask
@jaketapper.bsky.social hey you pro murder bastard, can you talk about this? Or still mourning your book sales?
that it should fall to brad landers is indictment enough.
yeah but current dem leaders see the ppl being killed in gaza as “human shields” and absolve the ppl dropping the bombs of responsibility
"We have no choice but to shoot the hostages. They'll understand once in the afterlife."
Correct! Because they think you stupid enough to think that the people who believe they are defending the Gazans have what?... military bases to store their weapons in? An armed police force to protect their women and children? The strip is way overpopulated. WHERE? WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES??
Thank you for continuing to express outrage regarding the appalling atrocities in Gaza. Too many of your colleagues apparently lack the courage to do so which makes them complicit in my view.
I love Chris but he needs a new production crew- or a new network! MSNBC is obsessed with dogging democrats with their "trying to examine and analyze" crap. No one wants to watch or be on a team that attacks it's own day in and day out. I CERTAINLY do not donate to politicians who are doing this.
Did something happen? Who is suppressing Brad Landers of the world?
Do you really imagine a lot of people give a damn what Tucker has to say at this point in time?
Um yeah, they demonstrably do.
Ah yes, the fact free zone. www.newsweek.com/tucker-carls...
Do you think Stephen Miller is any better? Is like Hitler manifested himself in the prominent leadership of Israel
forward.com/opinion/7575... (My thoughts in the Forward about why anyone who cares about Israel or the Jewish people should be speaking out on Gaza)
Thanks for writing this, Rabbi. I feel so spiritually lost these days, not because my own local Rabbis won't condemn Israel's current actions in Gaza (though they should)--but because they don't even grapple with what's happening there. At least not publicly in a way that has reached me.
Gaza has become Israel’s Warsaw Ghetto. Netanyahu is now up there with Stalin and Mao in using engineered famines to murder large numbers of powerless people
To my mother AnneDore: You taught to me respect the Star of David as an expression of love.
open.substack.com/pub/jeremybe...
Jewish actor, Mandy Patinkin, who played the part of Inigo Montoya in the movie The Princess Bride, has an important message for all Jews regarding Gaza. Listen. Nothing more important can be said. Look for YouTube or substack interview, Sunday morning show. He and his family are fantastic.
youtube.com/shorts/XCRsZ...
Gaza now looks like Warsaw in 1945.
Americans, especially Jewish Americans, should be demanding that the people of Gaza are starving! Didn’t we once pledge “Never Again”? We’ll never is here, protest, call Congress. 2022243121 trump lost interest when he was told he couldn’t throw all Palestines off the land to build a golf course!
Obscene that we have closed our eyes to this. Where is our humanity?
They must think we’re gonna forget
Has Josh Shapiro condemned this stronglly enough or does he not even have to worry about getting asked about it.
Where are Christian leaders? This is ethnic cleansing; it is genocide. And American is complicit.
I've long thought that Israel is analogous to the the abused child who grows up to become an abuser themself
I just said that! And in the case the brutal Zionist terrorist turned (checks notes) prime minister Menachem Begin, it was literally true. He and his father were beaten by Polish nationalists when he was a child just after World War I.
📌
I am black in a jewish neighborhood (Temple is two blocks). NONE of our jewish neighbors are mentioning the people of Gaza. Caring about Gazans is called anti-semitism. My white and black friends are decrying ever supporting anything Jewish. "They took their lessons from Hitler" is the belief. SAD
How do you know this? The statistics are against you. First, most American Jews despise this Israeli government. In my neighborhood plenty of people are working to support relief efforts in Gaza, condemning the Israeli government, and supporting Israeli protesters. I don't think you know.
One also has to wonder whether Jews might not be entirely forthcoming to “neighbors” who are “decrying ever supporting anything Jewish.” That doesn’t strike me as a foundation prone to yielding honest dialogue over fraught and emotional subjects.
It's almost as if Jill Jacobs writes an article justifiably demanding a moral response from legacy organizations, who she says are hesitating out of fears of antisemitism, and along comes this person to demonstrate how it works.
Why as a Jew am I going to be open with people that attack me for who I am. They conflate who I am with the crimes of Bibi. I’m pro-Israel, but I believe in a real two state solution. I believe Israel had a right to defend itself. What Bibi is doing in Gaza is not in my name.
LOL I don't know how you relate to your neighbors but we are frank with one another. Very diverse group. Sort of close knit. I noted that others are decrying but even if I did they would not be upset just as I was not upset when they didn't donate to the Floyd fund. Our differences are our strength!
You are correct. I don't know. Does anyone know ALL of EVERYTHING different groups do? Do you? I form opinions based on what I do know. And if I am unaware that lack of visibility should be of concern too. Could you provide the polls of the American Jewish opinions? I would be interested to know.
Google is free. I am not judging other groups, except for Trump voters, BECAUSE THEY VOTED FOR TRUMP. I think what David said is spot on. We don't have to perform for you. Here's a picture of Israelis demanding an end to this government and the war
and one more thing: you said my feelings are like those of a person wrongly accused of racism? When someone accuses me of racism I sit with it and think about what I might have done to warrant the accusation, and you should sit with the possibility that prejudice is leading you astray.
I appreciate your stand very much!
I do all the time. Especially since I live with neighbors who call me out on my views frequently. But the presumption that I google what you do or know what you know is pretty biased and presumes a lot. Information is better accepted without snark. Just saying. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing this. And as much as I despise Trump... I do not lump all Trump voters in one group really... just for ease with character limits. So why is Bibi still in charge if MOST Jewish people are against what he is doing? Is there an electoral college their or something? What happened?
I just explained to you how their electoral system works. Please see above. It's true.
were you able to find it? It's a parliamentary system and it's even worse.
You're conversing with a bot-troll, by the way.
Because Israel is a country. And he is in charge of that country. Trump has a 37% approval rating, and he is still president. That is not even taking into account that fact that American Jews are not Israelis.
"I form opinions based on what I do know." All the world's problems can be reliably traced back to this simple statement.
I work with a Jewish woman & was shocked when she said “Palestinians VOTED Hamas into power!” I was shocked, but that’s her take on it.
yes yes, they apparently did vote for hamas. but, they most certainly did NOT vote for bibi, who is architecture-in-chief of this current nightmare.
oops. architect 🙄
The population of Gaza who were under 18 at the last election is ... let's just say immense. (I also think genocide can't be justified by a vote that long ago regardless.)
i honestly don't think genocide can be justified for ANY reason. period, full stop. not even if calling it any other name. having watched israel's conflicts over the past half century, have to say, from my perspective (not jewish), they've been reliably & almost relentlessly aggressive.
i keep wondering when the leadership there will stop acting from fear (that's become hatred, on both sides), & realize they've become the very monsters they both fear & despise. asked a rabbi 40+ yrs ago if israelis ever considered this, and he was stunned; clearly he & no one else he knew ever had.
Re your first paragraph: yes. Period. Full stop. Hamas should be prosecuted for their crimes; systematic bombing and starvation into oblivion, otoh, is a greater crime, rather than justice.
"otoh..." i don't follow? of course hamas should also be prosecuted for their crimes. not clear who is doing the "systematic bombing..." in your statement. imho, as stated, that appears to have been israel's chosen role of offense for at least half a century.
I'm saying *even* Hamas, who are criminals and should be treated as criminals, should not be being bombed and starved into oblivion by Israel.
ah! yes! absolutely! in total agreement! thx for clarifying specifically. (lordy, could this mess be more complicated??)
I agree, a vote yesterday or a century ago... I cannot think of ANY justification for genocide.
Her meaning was they brought it on themselves, that’s what I got from it, anyway. :(
Truly amazing the way one vote two decades ago justifies for some folks killing and starving children today.
I agree but, how much can a 5 year old bring on himself? Why do we fall for "Israel has a right to defend itself " and it is nuclear state with endless weapons and money but no one else has a right to self defense? What are the alternatives for Palestinians? Insurgence always grows among people.
I just didn’t even know how to respond. I felt uncomfortable with the comment, tho. :(
I mean Israelis voted for 30 years of Netanjahu then 🙃
Tbh, if you’re friends with people who say shit like that, I kind of have a feeling that you’re not checking too hard if your Jewish neighbors are opposing what’s happening in Gaza (hardly a fringe belief in the US Jewish community).
Bluesky bots are now a thing.
Holocaust. Makes me beyond sick.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I guess I would ask people to compare this photo to the ones of people rescued from the concentration camps at the end of world war II.
thank you, rabbi. speaking out against policies & actions that go against the teachings of judaism is NOT anti-semitic. speaking out against the murder of innocents at schools, hospitals, refugee camps & aid stations providing food & water is NOT supporting hamas. palestinians are NOT the enemy.
Thank you for this article. What you’re hearing and seeing from Jewish leaders is no different from those who will not speak truth to Trump. And it’s especially awful when anti-Trump Jews can’t see that there’s both a parallel *and* an overlap.
The point you made on Ezra Klein's show has stuck with me: that if criticizing Israel is always equated with antisemitism there will wind up being a lot of people who say, "Okay, then I'm an antisemite." Super grim.
There is—horribly—the very real point that the Trump admin treats criticizing Israel as a *criminal offense*, and many are quiet to avoid being disappeared. It's an obscene tragedy, but it's not cowardice; it's true. My own largely Jewish family hates Netanyahu but is afraid to say anything.
Zionist Israel says that helping Palestinians is antisemitic, even though they are Semitic people, too. The hostile occupation isn't hiding its fascism anymore.
American politicians are facing Hobson's Choice where doing 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 is, in their minds, the least damaging thing to do... 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮! Obviously avoiding political suicide is more important to them than the destruction, starvation and death in Gaza. They should really be asked about that. 🤔
I accuse Tucker Carlson of being a very real mercenary of putin's asymmetrical psychological war against us.
Lander suppressed? What/who/how?
youtu.be/guAvkByoSZU?...
WHOSE FAULT IS THAT CHRIS?!
What does Brad Lander think about Israel actions in Gaza though?
This is a good point. Oof
People lack the ability to think for themselves. To know when they're being scammed. proof, we can look at the amount of money siphoned off Americans through scams.. "Oh here is the crypto you asked for.".. like wtf is wrong with people, TRUMP isn't the "good guy", only cares about himself not you.
Case in point: this week Tucker talks to the podcaster who thinks Hitler got a raw deal about how pedophiles love to flee to Israel - wink wink
this is why any jew who seriously tries to tell me i’m safer as a jew, simply because israel exists, and no jew is safe without israel…whew buddy the lies!! the audacity!! the lack of awareness!!
I honestly think that its the policy of the Netanyahu government to make life more dangerous for Jews outside of Israel to both encourage Jewish migration there and to justify their atrocities. Why else would he actively support so many explicitly antisemitic parties around the world?
No shit. That is what Netanyahu has always been about. That's why the end-times Christians have supported him.
You, as a Jew, are safer as long as Israel exists.* *As long as you live in Israel and the same people who let the Israelis do whatever they want to the Palestinians stay in power forever, something which will surely never change in the face of Israel openly committing crimes against humanity.
Hard to tell what you’re saying. Living in Israel seems like a pretty unsafe thing , regardless of who you are.
The point is that Israelis don't actually care about rising antisemitism because that's a problem for the diaspora to deal with, and it works out in their favor because an antisemitic world encourages Jewish immigration to Israel, and imbues those immigrants with the same victimhood mentality.
(If you think this is really dumb and short-sighted on the part of the Israelis, that's because it is! What, exactly, is supposed to happen when all the Jews live in Israel is never actually spelled out, nor how a world with widespread antisemitism is in Israel's long-term interests.)
Their answer to that is ‘we have nukes’
Nukes don't do much against a trade embargo or sanctions - and they also are useless against another nuclear power that has ICBMs on the other side of the world.
And, hey, maybe the remnants of Mossad might sneak a nuke into, say, New York or Washington, after the fundamentalist government of the Christian States of America nukes Israel, but the people in control of that theocracy - which the Israelis are helping bring into being - would *like* that.
And the people who let Israel do what it does aren’t just Americans. It’s people like al Sisi in Egypt or the King of Saudi Arabia
Sisi and - to a lesser extent - MBS both have the relationships with Israel that they have because of the US's long advocacy for and support of Israel. Cut that off, and a whole bunch of people will change their opinions very quickly.
The Khaleeji royal sheikhs & Arab Sunni military dictators find the Palestinian situations to be a nuisance. Perhaps with 1-1.5 or 2 exceptions, none of the rest want to see any democratic Arab countries, and certainly no successful ones; and definitely not a Palestinian one. They fear democracy.
You're absolutely right. They fear their own population more than almost everything. A free Palestine is a problem. They know their history and how Palestinians in the region have been for revolutions in those countries. The only acceptable free Palestine is a super repressive one.
It's infuriating and horrible. Btw, have these self-appointed champions of the Jewish people thought about the consequences of using antisemitism as a political cudgel against "leftists" and in service of Bibi's agenda?
I think it’s the point. Have you not heard about why they support Israel?
Zionism is equivalent to Fascism. The world learned too late.
Sorry, but these are just facts. The Diaspora has never supported Zionism by over 50% in all its history. Zionists hate them for it, too.
WHAT????how can that conversation even happen? But worries me more are the people listening to it!
I struggle with how little we actually learned! Defunding education and our weird uniqueness has left us uniquely dumb and cruel. The narrative is so pervasive around Jews=good, Muslims=bad that our very humanity is being eroded. It breaks my heart.
Tucker Carlson is actually the stereotype-invoking Israel critic that professional pro-Israel pundits like to say all left-wing pro-Palestinian types are.
Wonder why no girl has came forward about trump by now, we know has done bad things including pedophile acts, just doesn't make since. Got to be some out there, that would love to pay him back. He's such a scum
Would you, if you were in their shoes? After what happened to Epstein? I imagine his victims are simply too scared to speak up.
Can’t say “genocide” in America. Can’t say “concentration camps” in America. Can’t say “fascist” in America. Because: If you say genocide the fascists put you in concentration camps.
BUT BUT,THEY ARE ALL. PRO-LIFE!!!
Ugh
True! But almost all of journalism and MSNBC would rather air 24 hours of shows about Epstein rather than ONE hour about Afghans or Gaza. Your producers are guilty as hell on this count Chris. They just repeat everything already said that day. WATCH YOUR STATION ONE DAY THEN BREAK FROM THE PACK!
Or, and hear me out here, you leave people like me who were formerly supportive of Israel to conclude that any further support is an immoral act. And that the only acceptable action by the United States is to place the Big Red One between the IDF and the Palestinian children who are still alive.
This is my personal OPINION. Israeli gov't and Netanyahu in particular along with the IDF leaders have decided to emulate the final solution of the Nazis in regards to Gaza and Palestinians.
Dems baby! Fighting their left flank harder than their right opposition party since 2016
And then you have the US Government actively targeting and kidnapping people who dare speak out against the greatest crime against humanity of the 21st century.
It speaks volumes! I hear only faint outcry from Jewish peeps. One report said a jewish group wrote the list ICE worked from on campuses. It certainly explains the dirth of Jewish people who said anything about other students attacked on campuses. Recall Muslim attacks? Blacks? Indians? Mexican?
The fuck are you talking about? Jewish academics are some of the main people being targeted as “antisemites” for speaking out about this stuff.
^ This. As I wrote upthread, my own Jewish relatives are terrified to do or say anything, in part because conservative Dem party leaders are pro-Netanyahu, too (even if most of the party isn't). They could speak out about Trump disappearing people for opposing Bibi, but they won't.
I argued last year that Netanyahu's ulterior motive in Gaza wasn't even to destroy Gazans (as viciously as he does so), but to create a continuous, ongoing crisis with which to help the American right—and I still think this is accurate. bsky.app/profile/love...
^ @charlesgaba.com (curious if you agree!)
We should talk! I was Obama for Doctors and I also assisted with Hilliary care opinions. The working truth is very different than stats suggest! We forget the CARE in healthcare and focus almost solely on the financing of care. DANGEROUS!
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Interesting. I was just beginning to think Kushner made it financially an 'offer he could not refuse' to destroy Gaza and sell it to Trump and his "jews will not replace us" folk. Or maybe that was just a perk. But hating takes people a long way sometimes so maybe he just hates. IDK
As far as selling Gaza to Trump *and* groypers—I doubt Kushner feels he owes anything to the latter. He strikes me as too dense to grasp either the reality or the seriousness of young Republicans' antisemitism. Ten years ago, while G*mergate had pushed a core of extremists to very real bigotry, >
most Gen Z racism/sexism was largely a performative joke inspired by South Park and similar. But some casual observers, like this NeoGAF user as early as March 2017 (link), correctly saw a future in which bad actors would push a much larger chunk of young men into more serious hatred. >
After a seeming false start with Charlottesville, the gr*ypers eight years later have more or less succeeded. The trend is still eminently fightable, but there just aren't enough *nonbigoted* young men with major platforms fighting it (and now, in Trump II, captured media is blocked from assisting).
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My cousin's Jewish cousins support Trump.... go figure!
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I know a lot of Jewish people who feel like they’re being targeted from both sides, from people on the left for not siding against the Israeli government loudly enough, and from the hard-right ultranationalist folk for being “Hamas sympathisers”.
Ouch! I got a close friend who that happened to. So many of our colleagues who we studied with and trained with and worked with are from so many different countries that perspectives are vastly different. EVERY ISSUE we can get trapped like that. Too awful!
Bot. Hey, folks---clue in. Rebecca Motley is a bot. Please.
True dat..