So true, Peter, so true. Unconditional support for Israel does not align with traditional jewish values especially when it comes down to the issues that directly affect New Yorkers.
Thank heavens for Peter and his eminently sensible and honest take on this (and every other issue I've heard him address.) This Jew (and former Israeli) is very happy that Mandani has won this round and I wish him total success!
In the 1930s and 1940s, the Jewish establishment in California made a deal with the devil. Famously concerned with social justice, they made a pact with the Dies committee (the first iteration of HUAC): they would remain silent in the face of demonization and eventual internment of Japanese Americans in exchange for Dies’ promise not to come after them. It didn’t work out well for anybody, and should serve as a cautionary tale here.
I wish the fight for Palestinian rights was broadened to emphasize this is about human rights and freedom. Certainly there is a dire need to focus on Palestinians. Credit goes to progressives for leading the fight. It should involve Palestinian flags and other symbols. But such symbols also tend to tribalize and seeing this as just a progressive cause presents a barrier for non-progressives. A difficult balance act. More emphasis on the shared values of human dignity and freedom would help continue to build support. Human rights and freedom are shared by many across the political spectrum and the doors need to be opened to them.
Like you, Linda, Gaza is on my mind every day. We go about our comfortable days, while Gazans, including children, scramble for a tin pan of some kind of food, hoping that they will not be shot while waiting in the anxious crowd.
And I wish the fight for human rights and freedom were broadened to emphasize that Palestinians are also human. This is analogous to the "Black Lives Matter" vs "All Lives Matter" argument. Yes, of course all lives matter. But the reason it's important to emphasize that Black lives matter is that so many people have spent so much time and energy and money behaving as though Black lives do not matter. And focusing on symbols and viewing human rights as "just a progressive cause" says a lot more about the viewer than about the cause. The doors are already open.
Sorry, didn't mean to imply it was "just a progressive cause". It's a cause everyone should embrace.. Yes the door is open - maybe find a way to invite more people in (?) (hard to discuss this in short comment)
What Did I Do For MY Democracy? The Answer Rests With YOU
We as citizens have an obligation to speak out against the federal government
Expect and insist free and fair elections
DO NOT become cynical about elections
Phone calls matter to legislators
Yard signs matter
Everybody has a townsquare where we can make our voices heard So Engage Don’t shy away from difficult conversations Let them know how you feel about people disappearing off the streets is not OK Taking away medical care from our unfortunate citizens for tax breaks for the uberwealthy
Thank you for having the courage to speak the truth and provide some perspective. It is so disheartening to see the self-appointed - and very loud - Jewish "establishment" behaving and treating other human beings in a manner so completely antithetical to the Jewish values I and many other progressives hold dear. Bigotry is not a Jewish value. The response to having been on the receiving end of ethnic/religious dehumanization should not be to inflict it on someone else. And making "what's (ostensibly) good for Israel" the single voting issue in a US election is not only bad for the US and bad for Jews everywhere; it's also short-sighted and counterproductive if the goal is anything but permanent war in Israel/Palestine.
It’s getting harder to be PEP - progressive except Palestine. This is a very good thing in my opinion, painful though it may be for nice liberal Jews in the US.
Well said, Mamdani will be a new template for Democrats, speak what is right. Support Israel, but don't let Israeli leaders (not the public) run over us. We should have the guts to do what is right for America.
Mamdani's victory exposed the rottenness of the Cuomo/Adams Democratic Party (though they did a pretty good job of that themselves), but his ideas are uniformly awful. Rent control, as any economist can tell you, is going to shrink the housing supply. Rent control favors the haves, not the have-nots. Government grocery stores, if they ever exist, will be guaranteed pork barrels, and almost guaranteed to be crime-ridden havens for shoplifters as well. You don't want to hassle the homeless, do you? Matt Yglesias' recent post, "The stationary bandits of New York City", explains how New York "works". Mamdani will simply add another layer of stationary bandits. And, I'm sorry, "global jihad" means "Hamas round the world". I know Mamdani isn't a terrorist, but he is afraid to criticize them. Democrats will have to learn both that "Schumerism" is dead, and that Mamdanism is just as bad. Time for a "middle way"!
I'm 75 and I am VERY much in the Mamdani camp, even if I live in Los Angeles. I define myself as a left liberal, so it's not just younger people.
Thank you Peter! You stand for the truth and for the amazing Zohran’s WIN! I have many Jewish friends who
are also happy and excited to see Zohran WIN. It makes me wish I could
live in NYC again!
Onward.
Linda
Your posts are always so uplifting based on reality
You speak for me, Peter. Thanks for this!
So true, Peter, so true. Unconditional support for Israel does not align with traditional jewish values especially when it comes down to the issues that directly affect New Yorkers.
Thank heavens for Peter and his eminently sensible and honest take on this (and every other issue I've heard him address.) This Jew (and former Israeli) is very happy that Mandani has won this round and I wish him total success!
In the 1930s and 1940s, the Jewish establishment in California made a deal with the devil. Famously concerned with social justice, they made a pact with the Dies committee (the first iteration of HUAC): they would remain silent in the face of demonization and eventual internment of Japanese Americans in exchange for Dies’ promise not to come after them. It didn’t work out well for anybody, and should serve as a cautionary tale here.
A large portion of the American Jewish community is like a a person who just broke up with a violent ex, who has now gone a crime spree.
Like with any breakup, there are friends who say he's not so bad, but really as Nora Barrows-Friedman says, "Lots of Jews have to find new friends."
I wish the fight for Palestinian rights was broadened to emphasize this is about human rights and freedom. Certainly there is a dire need to focus on Palestinians. Credit goes to progressives for leading the fight. It should involve Palestinian flags and other symbols. But such symbols also tend to tribalize and seeing this as just a progressive cause presents a barrier for non-progressives. A difficult balance act. More emphasis on the shared values of human dignity and freedom would help continue to build support. Human rights and freedom are shared by many across the political spectrum and the doors need to be opened to them.
Thank you. Gaza is on my mind every day. And Peter’s consistent posts re Gaza and his interviews with Palestinians is what initially brought me
to his posts.
Linda
Like you, Linda, Gaza is on my mind every day. We go about our comfortable days, while Gazans, including children, scramble for a tin pan of some kind of food, hoping that they will not be shot while waiting in the anxious crowd.
And I wish the fight for human rights and freedom were broadened to emphasize that Palestinians are also human. This is analogous to the "Black Lives Matter" vs "All Lives Matter" argument. Yes, of course all lives matter. But the reason it's important to emphasize that Black lives matter is that so many people have spent so much time and energy and money behaving as though Black lives do not matter. And focusing on symbols and viewing human rights as "just a progressive cause" says a lot more about the viewer than about the cause. The doors are already open.
Sorry, didn't mean to imply it was "just a progressive cause". It's a cause everyone should embrace.. Yes the door is open - maybe find a way to invite more people in (?) (hard to discuss this in short comment)
What Did I Do For MY Democracy? The Answer Rests With YOU
We as citizens have an obligation to speak out against the federal government
Expect and insist free and fair elections
DO NOT become cynical about elections
Phone calls matter to legislators
Yard signs matter
Everybody has a townsquare where we can make our voices heard So Engage Don’t shy away from difficult conversations Let them know how you feel about people disappearing off the streets is not OK Taking away medical care from our unfortunate citizens for tax breaks for the uberwealthy
Show up to Protest
Join democracydocket.com Totally worth every penny
I wish...but the truth is we have Hakeem Jeffries and Schumer and the leadership vacuum in the Democratic Party.
Yup
I keep sending them Peter's videos. 😊
Thank you for having the courage to speak the truth and provide some perspective. It is so disheartening to see the self-appointed - and very loud - Jewish "establishment" behaving and treating other human beings in a manner so completely antithetical to the Jewish values I and many other progressives hold dear. Bigotry is not a Jewish value. The response to having been on the receiving end of ethnic/religious dehumanization should not be to inflict it on someone else. And making "what's (ostensibly) good for Israel" the single voting issue in a US election is not only bad for the US and bad for Jews everywhere; it's also short-sighted and counterproductive if the goal is anything but permanent war in Israel/Palestine.
It’s getting harder to be PEP - progressive except Palestine. This is a very good thing in my opinion, painful though it may be for nice liberal Jews in the US.
Well said, Mamdani will be a new template for Democrats, speak what is right. Support Israel, but don't let Israeli leaders (not the public) run over us. We should have the guts to do what is right for America.
Mamdani's victory exposed the rottenness of the Cuomo/Adams Democratic Party (though they did a pretty good job of that themselves), but his ideas are uniformly awful. Rent control, as any economist can tell you, is going to shrink the housing supply. Rent control favors the haves, not the have-nots. Government grocery stores, if they ever exist, will be guaranteed pork barrels, and almost guaranteed to be crime-ridden havens for shoplifters as well. You don't want to hassle the homeless, do you? Matt Yglesias' recent post, "The stationary bandits of New York City", explains how New York "works". Mamdani will simply add another layer of stationary bandits. And, I'm sorry, "global jihad" means "Hamas round the world". I know Mamdani isn't a terrorist, but he is afraid to criticize them. Democrats will have to learn both that "Schumerism" is dead, and that Mamdanism is just as bad. Time for a "middle way"!
Thank you.