The Republican primary campaign
Sure, fine, I guess, why not
We’re back!
Housekeeping notes:
This past Monday, paid subscribers got November’s ET Ask Home, a monthly questionnaire.
For those of you who are new, the regular newsletter (i.e. what you are reading right now) is divided into three sections, which are a roundup of news, my views on a subject, and some stuff about Jews. This week (and I guess all weeks, but especially right now), some of the individual links in the section on Jewish news could be in straight news, and the reverse is true, too. I tried to use my best judgment and I hope it makes sense.
Also for paid subscribers: I’m thinking about what paid-only features to offer next year, in 2024. If you have any opinions on this—if you like the monthly questionnaire but not the reading list, for example, or if you think I should keep both, or if you’d rather something entirely new—please do feel free to let me know either in the comments or via email.
And anyone else should feel free to email (polite, constructive) feedback, too.
And now onto news, views, and Jews.
THE NEWS
For the New Republic, I wrote about how liberal US Jewish groups are navigating this moment.
I went on the American Prestige podcast to talk about American Jews’ views on Israel historically and presently.
I went back on 1A last Friday.
Also at the New Republic, Hussein Ibish writes, “Hamas’s cynicism is so profound that it’s no exaggeration to call it an intentional human sacrifice of thousands of Palestinians in a desperate bid to increase the organization’s decades-long quest for dominance of the national movement.”
This was a good look at rightwing media personalities fighting over Israel and what it means.
If you’re interested in freedom of information and/or Central Europe, you should read this piece.
I enjoyed this review of Priscilla, which I saw this past weekend and liked.
This dispatch from the protests in Washington, DC this past weekend is worth reading.
Law students love Lina Khan!
This is a great piece on what this week’s elections mean for the anti-abortion movement.
Sadly, the pandas have left our fair city.
MY VIEWS ON…
…the Republican primary!
I’ve had a hard time with this section of this newsletter for the last month. If there’s something that I have to say that’s relevant to the state of the country or the world, I try to write it for a publication that has a wider reach (though of course no more prestige!) than this newsletter does. And if there’s something that’s not relevant, why am I writing about it? Who cares what I think of the movie Priscilla?
Last night, however, inspiration struck in the unlikeliest of forms for inspiration: the Republican primary debate.
I was going to write about Nikki Haley telling Vivek Ramaswamy, “you’re just SCUM” on the Republican primary debate stage last night. But then I thought about it some more and, really, what is there to say about this fight between two people who will almost certainly not be president?
What is there to say about any of these candidates? “He’s a weird guy who probably won’t win?”
That’s the central issue in this primary, right? None of these people is going to be president, probably. I mean, maybe? But probably not! Probably the candidate will be the person not participating in these debates who is facing four criminal cases, i.e. Donald Trump. Maybe Vivek Ramaswamy will evolve to have some position of power in American life, or maybe he’ll just be a guy about whom we were all forced to know for a little while, but he will probably not be president. And yet in these debates, we must pretend that he very well could be. We have learned about these people and their untenable and/or immoral policies for the sake of this charade.
I guess at least we, a grateful nation, got to meet Tim Scott’s girlfriend, Mindy Noce, an interior decorator from the Charleston area whom he described as “great.” Good for her.
AND SOME STUFF ABOUT JEWS
If you read one thing from this newsletter this week, I hope it will be this Washington Post piece about Yonatan, son of Vivian Silver, a peace activist taken hostage by Hamas.
“ We must not allow him to stay in power as if it were divine decree.” A Haaretz editorial this week called for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s departure.
A swastika was found at the scene of a Jewish woman’s stabbing in France.
I thought Adam Serwer on why anti-Zionism is not necessarily antisemitism was pretty masterful.
Putting this story about an Israeli diplomat pressuring Bard College to drop a course on Israel and apartheid here because every player in this drama is Jewish.
This Vox piece on why silencing dissent is actually quite bad for Israel was compelling.
Laura E. Adkins interviewed Haggai Linik, the author of the book she found on the ground while at Kibbutz Be’eri.
I thought this was a really lovely piece on the importance of waiting for information on what could be antisemitic attacks and also on finding solidarity.
That’s it for now. Hope to see you back here soon.
-ET
"Republican Elephant - 3D Icon" by DonkeyHotey is licensed under CC BY 2.0.