Israel, America, and Elsewhere

You can’t know about everyone — everyone worth knowing about. (Every human being is worth knowing about, in a sense.) But you can know about a few. And I’m glad I know about young Itai.

https://twitter.com/yaelbt/status/1732153270938870080

• I’m glad I know about the Eisenkots, too. On such people does the survival of Israel depend.

• Cathy Young has tackled a grim, ghastly topic: “The Anti-Israel Left Hits a New Low with Rape Denialism.”

• From Alex Ryvchin, a moving, painful point:

• Good goin’, Fetterman:

• In America, as in other countries, Jewish-owned businesses have been harassed and threatened. In turn, Jewish-owned businesses have received support — extra support, extra love. Support and love are much better than harassment and threats. But, as I’ve noted before, the whole idea of knowing which businesses are “Jewish-owned” . . . well, I find it creepy, and un-American.

Suffer it to be so now, I suppose.

Let me relate one of my favorite anecdotes. There is so much in it, brief as it is. Walter Matthau and Robert Shaw met on the set of a movie (The Taking of Pelham One Two Three, made in 1974). Shaw said, “My wife thinks you’re the sexist Jewish actor there is.” Matthau replied, “How does she know I’m Jewish?” Shaw: “Because she’s antisemitic.”

As a rule, two groups know who Jews are: Jews and antisemites.

• This ought not to be. It ought not to be in America (or anywhere else, of course).

• From the chairman and CEO of Pfizer, a strong and moving statement, with photo:

• Let me give you a thought — a thought that came to me as I beheld the timidity, the cravenness, of some top university presidents, or presidents of top universities. When I was coming of age, a lot of people made fun of the university presidents of the recent past — the Old Establishment, with three-name names: Nicholas Murray Butler, Nathan Marsh Pusey, Robert Maynard Hutchins, et al.

Well, they look pretty damn good to me.

• This, incidentally, took place a block from where I live:

Who would rip down posters of hostages? Rotten people, that’s who — people supportive of monsters (i.e., the hostage-takers). Decent people have no choice except eternal vigilance. Granted, they could submit — but that’s a bad choice.

• You have probably seen this story: “White House interns demand a Middle East cease-fire in letter to Biden.” (Article here.) I liked very much the response of Brian Riedl:

(We have the equivalent in journalism, I can report to you.)

• The Old Right is still kickin’ — even if the Old Right calls itself the “New Right.” Here is a GOP congressman from Kentucky:

• For years, people such as Glenn Greenwald and Max Blumenthal were associated with the Left (or so it seemed to me). Of a sudden, they had fans on the right. The “horseshoe” is a honking American reality.

An article in Haaretz is headed “Masterclass in Manipulation: Exposing Max Blumenthal’s Lies About Israel and October 7.”

• You know what, Mr. Nidhal Siam? No. No.

• History moves (for the worse, yet, but for the better, too). This is a powerful gesture. Laudable.