Today it's all about Israel: Catastrophe & chaos. Carrots and sticks. What are Israeli antiquities doing in Mar-a-Lago? Two antidotes to world pain: amazing athletes and a superhero surgeon
Newsletter #143
ISRAEL
*Abyss! Catastrophe! “Most Severe Crisis.” What elicited those appalled responses was the seismic legislation passed today by the Knesset, the first step in the ultra-right wing coalition’s so-called “judicial overhaul.” The new law will hobble the Israeli Supreme Court’s ability to check and balance the power of the government. To understand the outsized significance of the change to the “reasonableness standard,” read the opinion of the Atlantic Council experts. And Yossi Alpher’s trenchant analysis.
* Israeli democracy started imploding for real today but Israelis responded with renewed fervor, speaking out, demonstrating, striking, organizing, marching and more. They’ve been out there in force since March.
*Gary Rosenblatt’s essay ”The Israel We Know Has Fallen.”supplies biblical and Judaic context for today’s events.
* Enough with the empty platitudes about “shared values.” A few weeks ago, Tom Friedman emphatically stated that it’s high time for the U.S. to recalibrate its relationship to Israel. Not only do we no longer mean the same thing when we talk about democracy, equality, or individual rights but America no longer supports the fiction that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank is temporary. To anyone following events in the region, this growing disaffection is not news. But for the Times’ senior foreign policy pundit to quantify it is newsworthy.
*Biden has steadfastly refused to invite Bibi to the White House, infuriating the Israeli P.M. but making a point about America’s displeasure with initiatives of Netayahu’s govt. A week ago —perhaps as a carrot to forestall today’s Knesset vote —the President relented “and agreed to get together at some as-yet-unspecified time and place in the United States this year. but he then felt compelled to issue two public statements making clear that he had not changed his mind about Mr. Netanyahu’s drive to limit the power of the courts even as the prime minister is on trial for corruption.” Bibi went ahead anyway. Now what?
*When the President recently said that outbreaks of violence in Israel were in part due to Netanyahu’s ultra-right government expanding Jewish settlements while rejecting Palestinian rights, Israel’s national security minister told Biden to butt out. Itamar Ben Gvir’s exact words were: “Israel is no longer another star in the American flag.” How dare he? The suggestion that the Jewish State has a place on the U.S. flag plays into the toxic antisemitic stereotype that Jews harbor dual loyalties and control American policy. And the implication that Israel has been a lackey of the U.S. is the height of historical revisionism since (despite defying U.S. policy and international law for decades) Israel has been the beneficiary of more American aid since WWII than any other country in the world. ($146 billion, to be exact.)
*If you find yourself nodding at Prof. Jonathan Zasloff’s “How to Cure Israel’s Settlement Addiction,” please forward the link to your Congress member and senators.
*Ancient Israeli artifacts found in Mar-a-Lago. First classified documents. Now antiquities belonging to another country. What else is stashed in [unmentionable]’s Palm Beach digs? He acts as if everything he ever touched belongs to him. Reminds me of Louis XIV who supposedly said, “L’etat c’est moi.” (French for “I am the State; the State is me.”)
DEPT. OF CURATIVE INSPIRATION
*For the ultimate in mind blowing consciousness-raising experiences, watch this TV commercial to the very end.
*You’ll LOVE this surgeon’s method of transporting his little patients into the operating room. Plaudits to Dr. Leandro Brandão for mitigating children’s trauma with such creativity and kindness.
Amazing amount of content Letty, bravo! Netanyahu is truly a connard, evil personified! I’ve been pushing in every political direction for many years to dump Israel from our concerns, be it militarily or monetarily. Until Palestine receives its own state! Without American support, Israel would be completely friendless, sans any support on this spinning stone, and the Middle-East problems and world, would become a better place!
I too stand in solidarity. with all oppressed people and reject all forms of racism and fascism!