WISHING YOU A HAIRY CHRISTMAS
AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL
The House of Representatives voted to expel Rep. George Santos, making him the sixth member of the House to be expelled and the first in over 20 years. Expulsion requires a two-thirds majority vote in the House. Santos has been stripped of his position as a member of Congress, and the House speaker will notify the governor of New York. The district Santos represented will be without a member until a replacement is elected, but his staff will continue to assist with constituent casework. Expulsion from the House is rare, with only five members ever being expelled. The Senate has expelled 15 members. Santos' congressional office and staff will be managed by the House clerk until a successor is elected. New York law allows for a special election within 70 to 80 days of the governor's proclamation. Santos could potentially run for office again in the future, even if expelled.
Here’s what happens next now that N.Y. Rep. George Santos is expelled from Congress https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/george-santos-expelled-house-what-happens-how-rcna127518
WILL GEORGE SANTOS "MAGA POSTER BOY" BE EXPELLED FROM CONGRESS
Kevin McCarthy Says He Felt Some In GOP Conference Needed “Medication,” Had Uneasy Feeling About George Santos Before 2022 Election https://deadline.com/2023/11/kevin-mccarthy-george-santos-donald-trump-dealbook-summit-1235642307/ via @Deadline
Opinion | How Hollywood Predicted George Santos - POLITICO https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/11/28/mag-kaplan-santos-screenplay-00128730
THE BETTER ANGELS OF PEACE
As I sit here pondering the history of the Holy Land, I can't help but come to the realization that it's all a load of BS. Yes, you heard me right. The history that we've been fed for years does little to change the situation we face today. The reality is that Israel exists and the Palestinian people deserve their own state. Both sides deserve security and peace, but what we've done since the creation of the state of Israel has never produced either.
It's time to face the facts. The belief that a "good guy" armed to the teeth will stop a "bad guy" armed to the teeth is nothing but a fallacy. It hasn't worked for anyone except for the arms dealers and war mongers. We need a different approach.
What if we put an end to the religious BS and created two states, guaranteed by the rest of the world? I know, I know, it sounds idealistic. But what's the alternative? Another 75 years of death and destruction in the Middle East?
Let's be real. The current situation isn't working. It's time to try something new. We need to put aside our differences and work towards a solution that benefits everyone involved. It won't be easy, but it's necessary.
We need to stop viewing the situation as a battle between good and evil. It's not that simple. Both sides have their own valid concerns and grievances. We need to listen to each other and work towards a solution that addresses those concerns.
It's time to end the cycle of violence and hatred. We need to start building bridges instead of walls. We need to work towards a future where both Israelis and Palestinians can live in peace and security.
I know it won't be easy, but it's time to try. Let's put aside our differences and work towards a brighter future for all those living in the Holy Land.
A Dangerous Conflation
An open letter from Jewish writers
A group of Jewish writers drafted this letter after seeing an old argument gain new power: the claim that critiquing Israel is antisemitic. Editors at a corporate-owned magazine were prepared to publish the letter, but their lawyers advised against it. The writers share this letter in solidarity with those who continue to speak out in support of Palestinian freedom. Add your name here.
A Dangerous Conflation | Online Only | n+1 https://www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/a-dangerous-conflation/#:~:text=We%20call%20for%20a%20ceasefire,repression%20of%20support%20for%20Palestine.
WE ARE JEWISH WRITERS, artists, and activists who wish to disavow the widespread narrative that any criticism of Israel is inherently antisemitic. Israel and its defenders have long used this rhetorical tactic to shield Israel from accountability, dignify the US’s multibillion-dollar investment in Israel’s military, obscure the deadly reality of occupation, and deny Palestinian sovereignty. Now, this insidious gagging of free speech is being used to justify Israel’s ongoing military bombardment of Gaza and to silence criticism from the international community.
We condemn the recent attacks on Israeli and Palestinian civilians and mourn such harrowing loss of life. In our grief, we are horrified to see the fight against antisemitism weaponized as a pretext for war crimes with stated genocidal intent.
Antisemitism is an excruciatingly painful part of our community’s past and present. Our families have escaped wars, harassment, pogroms, and concentration camps. We have studied the long histories of persecution and violence against Jews, and we take seriously the ongoing antisemitism that jeopardizes the safety of Jews around the world. This October just marked the five-year anniversary of the worst antisemitic attack ever committed in the United States: the eleven worshipers at Tree of Life – Or L’Simcha in Pittsburgh, who were murdered by a gunman who espoused conspiracy theories that blamed Jews for the arrival of Central American migrants, and in so doing, dehumanized both groups. We reject antisemitism in all its forms, including when it masquerades as criticism of Zionism or Israel’s policies. We also recognize that, as journalist Peter Beinart wrote in 2019, “Anti-Zionism is not inherently antisemitic—and claiming it is uses Jewish suffering to erase Palestinian experience.”
We find this rhetorical tactic antithetical to Jewish values, which teach us to repair the world, question authority, and champion the oppressed over the oppressor. It is precisely because of the painful history of antisemitism and lessons of Jewish texts that we advocate for the dignity and sovereignty of the Palestinian people. We refuse the false choice between Jewish safety and Palestinian freedom; between Jewish identity and ending the oppression of Palestinians. In fact, we believe the rights of Jews and Palestinians go hand-in-hand. The safety of each people depends on the other’s. We are certainly not the first to say so, and we admire those who have modeled this line of thinking in the wake of so much violence.
We understand how antisemitism and criticism of Israel or Zionism have been conflated. For years, dozens of countries have upheld the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism. Most of its eleven examples of antisemitism regard comments on the state of Israel, with some open to interpretation enough that they limit the scope of acceptable critique. What’s more, the Anti-Defamation League classifies Anti-Zionism as antisemitism, despite the misgivings of many of its own experts. These definitions have scaffolded the Israeli government’s deepening relationships with far-right, antisemitic political forces, from Hungary to Poland to the United States and beyond—endangering Jews in diaspora. To counter these sweeping definitions, a group of scholars of antisemitism published the Jerusalem Declaration in 2020, offering more specific guidelines for identifying antisemitism and distinguishing it from criticism and debate around Israel and Zionism.
Accusations of antisemitism at the slightest objection to Israeli policy have long allowed Israel to uphold a regime that human rights groups, scholars, legal analysts, and Palestinian and Israeli organizations have called apartheid. These accusations continue to cast a chilling effect across our politics. This has meant political suppression in Gaza and the West Bank, where the Israeli government conflates the very existence of Palestinian people with Jew hatred the world over. In propaganda aimed internally at its own citizens and externally toward the West, the Israeli government asserts that Palestinian grievance is not about land, mobility, rights, or freedom, but instead, antisemitism. In the last weeks, Israeli leaders have continued to instrumentalize the history of Jewish trauma to dehumanize Palestinians. Meanwhile, Israelis are arrested or suspended from their jobs for social media posts defending Gaza. Israeli journalists fear consequences for criticizing their government.
Characterizing all critiques of Israel as antisemitic also conflates Israel and all Jewish people in the popular imagination. In the last two weeks, we’ve seen Democrats and Republicans alike gate-keep Jewish identity on the basis of support for Israel. A vague letter signed by dozens of public figures and published on October 23 parroted President Biden’s positioning of himself as an advocate for Jewish people based on his support for Israel. When the 92NY postponed an event with author Viet Thanh Nguyen, who had recently signed a letter calling for an end to Israel’s attacks on Gaza, its statement began by forefronting its identity as “a Jewish institution.” As others have observed, tools to historicize the October 7 attacks are seen as a repudiation of Jewish suffering rather than necessary to understand and end such violence.
The idea that all criticism of Israel is antisemitic extends a view of Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims as inherently suspect; agents of antisemitism until they explicitly say otherwise. Since October 7, Palestinian journalists have faced unprecedented suppression. A Palestinian citizen of Israel was fired from his job at an Israeli hospital for a Facebook post from 2022 that quoted the first pillar of Islam. European leaders have banned pro-Palestine protests and criminalized displays of the Palestinian flag. In London, a hospital recently took down artwork by children from Gaza after a pro-Israel group claimed it made Jewish patients feel “vulnerable, harassed and victimized.” Somehow, even artwork by Palestinian children was accompanied by a hallucination of violence.
US leaders have welcomed this chance to further conflate Jewish safety with unquestioning, unwavering military funding for Israel with no intention of making peace. On October 13, the US State Department circulated an internal memo urging officials not to use the language of “de-escalation/ceasefire,” “end to violence/bloodshed,” or “restoring calm.” On October 25, Biden doubted the Palestinian death toll and called it the “price” of Israel’s war. Such cruel logic will continue to foster both antisemitism and Islamophobia. The Department of Homeland Security is preparing for an expected rise in hate crimes against both Jews and Muslims—it has already begun.
For each of us, Jewish identity is not a weapon to wield in a fight for statist power but a fount of generational wisdom that says justice, justice, you shall pursue. Tzedek, tzedek, tirdof. We object to the exploitation of our pain and the silencing of our allies.
We call for a ceasefire in Gaza, a solution for the safe return of the hostages in Gaza and Palestinian prisoners in Israel, and an end to Israel’s ongoing occupation. We also call on governments and civil society in the United States and across the West to stand up against the repression of support for Palestine.
And we refuse to allow such urgent, necessary demands to be suppressed in our names. When we say never again, we mean it.
