This is indeed a reminder that Israel NEEDS to exist, because without it, Jews are left at the mercy of the government of whatever other nation they might be in.
Yes, agreed! I'm disgusted when I see American politicians anti-Israel - and there are.
Side note - My parents, who are in their 70-80s, Italian Roman Catholics visited Israel for the first time 3 years ago. They LOVED the experience so much they still talk about it. I need to make a trip!
The American woke left has already made education anti-Semitic for any Jew who is to the right of Nancy Pelosi or supports Israel. This has been clearly apparent for over ten years to all of us who are activists for Jewish students on college campuses.
California has introduced a new ethnic studies program for grade schools that is not only anti-Israel but also anti-Jewish. I am on the boards of non-profits that fight this and we are losing. The anti Jewish indoctrination is now ubiquitous on social media and starting in pre-school.
The only political group that fights this with seriousness happens to be Trump's followers. All others are simply too timid to fight the woke tyrants.
Commonsense demonizes Trump, so even this platform lacks the conviction to fight the woke, anti-Semitic tyrants politically.
Do not be fooled by all the powerful people born Jewish like Soros, Zuckerberg, any World Economic Forum adherent and now most Jewish Democrat politicians. They are atheists who despise Israel. They are not Jews in any meaningful sense.
Fighting Israel is part of the woke agenda that is destroying our world.
I’ve never understood why Jews vote for Democrats in the USA. It’s like blacks voting for the Democratic Party yet the slaveholders were all Democrats as were the Jim Crowers. FDR bought the black vote during the depression and MLK, a life long Republican, was bribed with a promise that Democrats would vote for the Civil Rights Act, if he became a Democrat, not to mention that Democrat Joe Biden was buddies with KKKer Robert Byrd & in my view is still a closet racist.
You are not referring to those Trump supporters who marched in Charlottesville with tiki torches chanting "Jews will not replace us!"? Who would go as "good people" in the eyes of Donald Trump?
Bernd, perhaps naively I will assume for the moment you not one of those here only to disrupt rational conversation with woke slogans.
Of course, your slogan has been thoroughly debunked. It is understandable that you may live in a world where the woke narrative is ubiquitous. But rise above this dangerous narrative for a moment and read "The Case for Trump" by the brilliant Victor Davis Hansen.
If you do not know any Trump supporters try to meet one and discuss the world honestly.
Lastly, I know hundreds of Trump supporters and dozens of Jewish Trump supporters, as I am one. In America 90% of the anti-Semitism is coming from the left. The characterization of Trump supporters, with rare exceptions, is simply a lie.
As the authors here at Commonsense understand that the people described in so many of the essays, those good people abused and kicked out of so many woke institutions, are NOT what the woke institutions say they are, perhaps someday they will understand that Trump and his supporters are not what the woke say we are.
Never forget, perhaps the greatest advance to peace in the Middle East, the Abraham Accords, could only come because of Trump, who refused to give in to the "Muslim Street" or Iran, unlike every one of his predecessors.
(But if you are here to simply disrupt honest conversation, please ignore me going forward.)
I'm not fan of Trump, but most of the antisemitism in the US comes from the left. There are of course antisemites on the right, antisemites in the center, and even antisemitism among Jews. (If you've read Karl Marx, grandson of a rabbi, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more virulent Jew-hater.) I don't believe that the majority of Democrats are antisemites and I don't believe that voting for Democrats on the part of Jews is wrong, but I do believe that the heart of Jew-hatred in the US lies on the left. It is not just hatred of Israel, but attributing "white privilege" to Jews, or blaming Israel for American police violence on Israel. There are far too many "Palestinian advocates" who are far too comfortable with violence directed against American Jews, simply for being Jewish or for supporting Israel.
Just do not try to defect from the fact, that antisemites and white supremacists are part of the Trump-coalition.
We are not talking about antisemites amongst democrats, that's a different discussion, we can certainly have too.
We are talking about those Trump supporters who chanted "Jews will not replace us!" and Donald Trump who had seemingly difficulties to distance himself from this lot.
You're intentionally characterizing tens of millions of people by a tiny, fringe minority of a few hundred that doesn't represent them, and you know that. Also, Trump explicitly condemned those people, many times, on public record.
The word for your attitude is "bigotry" and it is not morally different from racism.
Also, Trump hatred is a pathology that will rot your mind.
No. Trump did not condemn those people. He infamously stated "There are good people on both sides", implying there is such thing as "good antisemites".
"And you had people — and I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists — because they should be condemned totally. But you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists."
His actual words were "condemned totally."
Bernd, stop listening to liars and propagandists who hate Trump. They are hateful, delusional bigots and choose to be so.
You must be living in that weird parallel universe where Donalds Trump never lost the election and is actually an honest man. How's the weather over there without global warming? Still eternal spring with no heat waves wildfires and epic floodings?
As a Jew, I have zero confidence that Christians will be safe either - or anyone with a moral compass. I don't think we should be dividing ourselves into groups here, but instead banding together.
Might be right there. Let me suggest two things for you look at. First is JPFO.org .20-30 years ago Aaron Zelman founded it based on the results of Germany’s Jews being disarmed. There are two major groups among Jews especially Americans: there are the “never forget” type and there are the “never again” group. The two groups are pretty different, as you might expect.
And following up on the latter group, I highly recommend the late, great John Ross’ novel, Unintended Consequences. Long book, but well worth reading.
I'm not positive I'm following you. Actually, I am in the 'never forget' group which explains why I was fasting and sitting on the floor last Sunday in recognition of the destruction of the Temple thousands of years ago. I find 'never again' to be incredibly arrogant and hubristic. But, I believe that when it comes to actions today, we need to be alert and aware of what is happening now instead of expecting dangers to appear from the same place and people as in the past.
I am aware of Mr. Zelman's group as well as that when the initial gun-control legislation was proposed, they studied how guns were outlawed in Nazi Germany.
I don’t mean to be either arrogant or hubristic, so apologies if I came across that way.
Never again means fighting back effectively when and if the time comes. It’s certainly valid to keep alive the memories of the Holocaust, but just remembering it won’t prevent a replay. I get the sense that many people believe it will: it was horrible, so who would want to have that happen again?
The question isn’t rhetorical. Virulent antisemites will tell you that if Hitler had done it right, there wouldn’t be a problem with all us pesky Jews now. We’d all be dead already. For them, remembering just points to flaws in the earlier Final Solution plans.
If things start to get hot here, I only have two options: aliyah or stay and fight. I doubt attackers will be persuaded by the logic of my arguments any more than nazis were in the 30s and 40s.
I didn't mean that you were arrogant or hubristic, but that I find the 'never again' claim to be so. Quite frankly, if God wants to punish us, we can't stop it. I agree with you that the focus on the Holocaust in terms of thinking that will make people behave better is futile.
I think that in America, Christians have been the canaries in the coal mine and Jews ignored it because we were too myopic to see others can be persecuted too. Now that the danger and hatred is reaching us (and many Jews and Christians were on the wrong side and still are) we need to recognize that this is a much broader problem.
Less than 1 generation. All indications are that the final generation of Western civilization (at least in the traditional heart of that civilization) is already adults today.
I've quoted Alasdair Macintyre here before, but I will do so again because he's right: "A crucial turning point in [the collapse of the Roman Empire] occurred when men and women of good will stopped shoring up the Roman imperium and ceased to identify the continuation of civility and moral community with the maintenance of that imperium. What they set themselves to achieve instead —often not recognizing fully what they were doing — was the construction of new forms of community within which the moral life could be sustained so that both morality and civility might survive the coming ages of barbarism and darkness. If my account of our moral condition is correct, one characterized by moral incoherence and unsettlable moral disputes in the modern world, we ought to conclude that for some time now we too have reached that turning point."
This train has been running for hundreds of years; there's no stopping it at this point, only teaching your children how to live as dhimmi in a new dark age. Does anyone really think we're going to vote our way out of this? Sure, the right candidates might buy us some time, but the young are the barbarians, who neither know nor care what they are destroying, and will outlive us.
So what local institutions to preserve Western cultural heritage are you building? We'd all better start asking that question.
My now-adult kids, despite being raised with centrist classical liberal philosophies, have been too heavily influenced by their Woke peers and teachers to recognize the threat, even when I point it out to them.
I'm sure I won't be around by the time they realize Mom wasn't wrong. But that's on them now. I can't do anything about it.
Rod Dreher picked up on Macintyre's idea, from After Virtue, which you cite above and wrote: The Benedict Option
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Already the most discussed and most important religious book of the decade." In this controversial bestseller, Rod Dreher calls on American Christians to prepare for the coming Dark Age by embracing an ancient Christian way of life. From the inside, American churches have been hollowed out by the departure of young people and by an insipid pseudo–Christianity. From the outside, they are beset by challenges to religious liberty in a rapidly secularizing culture. Keeping Hillary Clinton out of the White House may have bought a brief reprieve from the state’s assault, but it will not stop the West’s slide into decadence and dissolution. Rod Dreher argues that the way forward is actually the way back—all the way to St. Benedict of Nursia. This sixth-century monk, horrified by the moral chaos following Rome’s fall, retreated to the forest and created a new way of life for Christians. He built enduring communities based on principles of order, hospitality, stability, and prayer. His spiritual centers of hope were strongholds of light throughout the Dark Ages, and saved not just Christianity but Western civilization. Today, a new form of barbarism reigns. Many believers are blind to it, and their churches are too weak to resist. Politics offers little help in this spiritual crisis. What is needed is the Benedict Option, a strategy that draws on the authority of Scripture and the wisdom of the ancient church. The goal: to embrace exile from mainstream culture and construct a resilient counterculture. The Benedict Option is both manifesto and rallying cry for Christians who, if they are not to be conquered, must learn how to fight on culture war battlefields like none the West has seen for fifteen hundred years. It's for all mere Christians—Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox—who can read the signs of the times.
Given how the public (and private) schools have fully embraced Woke politics, BDS movements, gender fluidity, the destruction of family values, along with assumptions about everyone based on race, it won't be long before these axioms are as common in gov't and corporate circles. This "reverse McCarthyism" will never bode well for Jews, never has, never will.
The FBI very busy with President Trump they definitely don’t have time for left or the radicals in the Dem party they are consumed by Trump Derangement Syndrome
I am sorry, but some things in this article are simply not true.
For example
" echo of Russian antisemitism—Josef Stalin’s and then Leonid Brezhnev’s persecution of Jews—had not entirely receded."
Josef Stalin was not Russian but Georgian, Brezhnev was not Russian but Ukrainian.
Second - It masked Russia’s own, darker, fascistic impulses—which we are now seeing play out in Ukraine.
I disagree with what Russia is doing in Ukraine, but for god sake, Ukraine has literal Nazi units in it army, Azov battalion was using insignia of German SS. Stephan Bandera and his army, that committed numerus pogroms during WW2 is celebrated as heroes in Ukraine. Ukraine had to revoke Ambassador to Germany, because he was publicly praising Bander and his Army as great fighters (they literary did noting but kill Jews during WW2). He even has huge monument in Lviv https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Bandera_monument_in_Lviv
"World is not black and white, this is especially true for Eastern Europe."
.... hence Washington's admonition to stay out of Europe's wars. (But of course, if the Ukranians hold your own graft and corruption - and that of your son - over your head, and with it the promise of decades in prison - at least for him - you are more than willing to send Other People's Money to continue the buy-off, eh?)
I’m afraid the grifters include more than the Bidens. Ukraine has become the new money laundromat for DC politicians. Remember the photoshoot McConnell and fellow republican dimwits staged in Kiev to drum up support for the $40 billion aid package the senate rammed through without any hearings? Remember the preceding Pelosi House pilgrimage that included congenital liars like Adam Schiff waxing poetic about defending democracy? Nobody knows where the weapons we send them end up or whose pockets get lined with the billions in “aid” although I’m sure some of it will find its way into the campaign coffers of participating pols who care more about Ukraine’s border than ours.
The US has sent over $60 billion to Ukraine. The money and the weapons are not tracked or accounted for. Anyone so naive as to believe a lot of that is not being skimmed off and secreted away in Swiss bank accounts?
Makes you wonder why our Congress is so eager to continue to send money to Ukraine.
The best thing that could have happened for the Ukrainian people would have been to negotiate with Putin before their cities were leveled.
To negotiate with the autocrat who declares Ukraine doesn’t really exist and who now uses the Stalinist textbook for de-nationalization through murder and deportation. Now that would’ve have been a fruitful negotiation - do you want a bullet in the back of the head or a missiles in your apartment ?
You don’t seem to actually have read my comment. How do you negotiate anything with somebody who says you don’t have the right to exist and wants to physically eliminate you?
I did read your comment. I do believe a good negotiator could work out a solution. It has happened before. It may seem each side has an intractable position but a capable negotiator can find something on each side that matters more than anything else.
With a country that is not a pile of rubble. There are millions of Ukrainian refugees who will never be able to go home again. The disruption to the world food supply is going to create famine in poorer countries. Ukraine can't win; they can only prolong their own misery.
How bad can it be over there when all high powered US dignitaries go over there for photo ops and Zelensky and his wife to a spread in Vogue. VOGUE? Really?
I don't have all the facts and never will have them but the entire thing stinks to high heaven.
Because everything factual is reported by the "news" ? you have no idea what was and what wasn't attempted.
to anyone who laments Ukraine's "corruption" --- who cares if it's corrupt or not??? Putin is a despot who will continue to bomb cities and countries until someone stops him. If Ukrainians are willing to at least try, they already have a leg up on France circa 1941..
Thankfully I am subscribed to Rebel News. They have sent reporters over there to find out what is going on. Michael Yon has also done some excellent reporting.
I didn't understand his post. It was confusing to me. Where in his post does he mention the ever senile Biden? He says something about "your son" and 10 years in prison. He lost me.
Yes, excellent historical points raised. Anti-semitism is not just a "Russian" thing. And it was not just Ukraine, there are plenty of horrible stories of pogroms in the Baltic States after the Nazi's pushed out the communists.
And nobody from our MSM or politicians is calling this sh*t out. Poland our great "friend" is literary one of the most antisemitic countries in the world, they constantly try to steal or destroy any Jewish heritage
Currently is very popular to bash Russians, while closing eyes at ever-growing antisemitism in Nato members, because they hate Russians and that supposedly somehow makes their antisemitism ok.
Fair point - We are told everything is black and white: Ukraine is good and St. Zelensky is a hero and it's always been like that. Russia has always been our enemy. It's way more complicated and even within the past 10-15 years one can easily find major media stories about UKR nazis / massive govt corruption and "the 1980's called, they want their foreign policy back" when Russia was mentioned as an adversary.
My own family has horrific stories of 1880s Ukraine, such as Cossacks riding into Mom's great-grandfather's village, calling for the 10 most holy men of the village to come forward, then mowing them down, and similar atrocities. In our neat, modern, civilized era, it's hard to imagine these events could have happened, and it's possible the stories are exaggerated if not apocryphal. However, so many horrible pogroms did occur in Ukraine that it's hard to imagine a Jewish village escaping the wanton violence.
Up until recently, anti-Semitism was still a thing in Ukraine. In fact, I wonder whether one of the goals of the Ukraine ruler's clampdown on news media was to suppress any anti-Semitic statements, for the purposes of presenting a more angelic face to the West. It was only a few years ago, however, that a man at an economic conference in Kiev was quoted as saying, "I propose economic development for Ukraine, without Jews." (One wonders what Jews he had in mind, given that his parents or grandparents had efficiently shipped most of them off to death camps.)
Perhaps for these reasons, I seem to have a problem dredging up much sympathy for the Ukrainians. It seems to me they could have reached an accommodation with the Russians. Their leader Zelenskyy is a masterful showman, to be sure, with his heroic speeches and Vogue cover shoots, but would it not have been wiser, and less bloody, to just negotiate some kind of deal?
I have the same family history of murdered great-grandparents in a Ukrainian pogrom which is why I have “a plague on both your houses” attitude towards this conflict.
I also agree with the Israeli commenter who mentioned these Jews in Russia had decades to leave.
"would it not have been wiser, and less bloody, to just negotiate some kind of deal?"
Certainly it would. But you're assuming nobody tried.
I believe Zelensky made offers, and so did a number of other global players, from Biden to the Pope to European leaders. Putin either said "nyet" or made his terms so impossible--"Sure, give me the entire eastern half of your nation and all your ports"--that no sovereign nation could accept.
Valid points, but most experts like Melanie Phillips claim there is far more nazi admiration groupies in Russia than in the Ukraine in 2022, and the examples among Putin's mafia heads , the Wagner group etc are numerous.
There are neo-Nazis in Russia (and Germany, and UK, and USA, etc). That Wagner Group guy supposedly has an SS tattoo. But in Ukraine there are statues and memorials to Bandera, who definitely pledged allegiance to the Third Reich and who definitely massacred Jews and Poles and others.
The Azov Brigade, an effective unit of the Ukraine military, definitely uses Nazi symbols, even in the war right now Russians were showing off many prisoners they captured with with swastika tattoos.
I was so surprised to find out for example that Aloysius Stepinac (nazi collaborator and one of organizers of Rat Lines to south America) is declared as "saint" by Catholic church, and has numerous monuments in Croatia (another of our allies)
I have been taken aback by commenters who try to compare where most antisemites and nazis live: Russia, Ukraine or Eastern European countries. All of them have antisemitic history, that’s just European history going back centuries, maybe thousands of years. How is it relevant to the war Russia started and to the current Putin’s policies? It doesn’t matter who is a bigger nazi or antisemite; there is only one country that sent troops to cross the border of another sovereign state and commits war crimes. I am a former Jewish refugee from the Soviet Union, and it took me many years, the best years of my life, to get out. My ancestors lived behind the Pale of Settlement. Tens of them died during programs at the hands of Russians and Ukrainians before the 1917 revolution and at the hands of Germans and Ukrainians during the nazi occupation. I grew up in Russia and encountered antisemitism everywhere, including applying to college and getting a decent job. I hold no rosy image of either Russians or Ukrainians. But again, there is only one country that is an aggressor and presents a risk to the entire world. I am not surprised antisemites are raising heads there. From talking to Russians living in Russia, the country is back not even in the 70s but in the 30s - people lost all freedoms and are waiting for the iron curtain to close completely. The importance of alleged Ukrainian corruption should pale before the risk of the WWIII, and Putin has to be stopped IMHO.
"there is only one country that sent troops to cross the border of another sovereign state and commits war crimes"
"But again, there is only one country that is an aggressor and presents a risk to the entire world."
You should be careful with statement like this, in last 30 years our neocons have dragged us in numerus foreign wars on false pretenses (while doing that we racked billions of $ of debt that we will leave our children and dindt achive anything). Ask people in Asia, Africa and middle east who is danger to the world, you will get very different answer.
We need to understand that world is not black and white. but many shades of gray. Half of our European "allies" are extremally antisemitic and are getting anti Israel evermore, thanks to growth of immigration from middle east.
Also you say your family left Pale of Settlement, great no reason to lock back and keep meddling in that place.
As for Ukrainian corruption, honestly we have more than enough problems at home, no point on wasting billion of $$$ in money and weapons that will probably either end up on some off shore account of some Ukrainian oligarchs, or sold for profit to our enemies. In the end of the day, US taxpayer money should be used to help people in US.
You certainly have a useful and powerful firsthand perspective. I think what's going on here is a reaction to the lack of nuance and depth. Major news outlets were running stories about Ukraine pre-Feb 2022 regarding corruption, Nazis, anti-homosexuals, etc. Then, Russia invaded and *poof* Ukrainians are all holy warriors lead by St Zelensky. Our Democrats just approved $4.5Bil to run their government, pay their pensions, etc (separate from military aid). They have become a client state. We can no longer "call it like we see it." I want Russia to be defeated, but it doesn't mean I think Ukraine is a wonderful place. This is realpolitik.
I honestly don't understand people as "Just an observer" how seem not to understand amount of money that is being sent to black hole of corruption called Ukraine. And to be honest, last thing what we need is for more deficit spending of money that we have to borrow from Chinese. American money should be used to help people at home.
We left Europe for a reason, we dont need to waste anytime or money on it. The less we engage with it, we will be better of, especially our finances, whe have been footing their defense bill for last 70 years.
I am as suspicious of The Current Thing as anyone but in the case of Russia bombing peaceful cities... murdering women and children ... invading, torturing, killing CIVILIANS... Russia under Putin is a barbaric cult and must be stopped.
In short, I'm comfortable with the lack of nuance in this instance.
Most countries have neo-Nazi groups. The difference in Ukraine is that WWII-era Nazi collaborators are still celebrated as heroes, and an openly neo-Nazi paramilitary group was allowed to join up as an official battalion in their national guard several years ago. The rebel group that helped overthrow a duly-elected president of Ukraine back in 2014 was dominated by neo-Nazis (or rather, unreformed Nazis), and although that group doesn't have many seats in their parliament, they have a outsized government influence via unelected positions their leaders were appointed to after the (U.S.-assisted) coup.
There has been pushback on antisemitism in Ukraine in recent years, but as in most European countries, there is a deep-seated antisemitism that has been passed from parents to children for over a thousand years.
That's correct. You can also read the work of James Kirchik and Claire Berlinski about Putin's Russia. Putin loves to play the "good cop" with Russian and other ex-Soviet Jews. But the truth is, his regime has a variety of such figures in it, around it, and associated with it, like the Wagner group. Conversely, Ukraine, which has a serious history with antisemitism, has a government that, in the last generation, has taken some trouble to air the issues and removed antisemitic figures from official life. The number of such people in Ukraine is a few percent of the population, and, more importantly, they have little to no traction in institutions. And Ukraine has a Jewish president and defense minister.
I am sorry but part for Ukraine is simply not true, I have posted several links about all new monuments to nazi collaborators that have shown in Ukraine in last 3 years.
Furthermore, 3 weeks ago Ukraine had to change their ambassador to Germany, because he was constantly celebrateing Stephan Bandera and his cronies, who literally didn't do anything but kill jews during WW2
My only complaint with the article is its use of “far right” as its label of them. The nazi’s never were “conservative.” The Socialist/Communists and the fascist Nazis were related forms of evil leveraging identity politics to sow chaos and then take control. Because only the Nazi atrocities have the popular imagination the left, e.g. Antifa, uses the label to smear any apposing group.
Technically you are correct here -- Josef Stalin was not Russian but Georgian -- however he was always representing Russian point of view so consider him as he did himself Honorable Russian. At that level ethnicity did not matter Koganovich technically was Jewish. Whenever it would become an issue as it did all of a sudden with Molotov's wife Mrs. Polina Zhemchuzhina, it was very publicly punished.
"Brezhnev was not Russian but Ukrainian." This one is not correct! He was ethnically Russian though came from the Ukraine city of Dnepropetrovsk.
One needs to grow up in Russia (former USSR) to understand all the nuances.
Stalin and Brezhnev were dictators of Russia. That made them an "echo of Russian antisemitism" as surely as if they had been born in Red Square.
Russian Jew-hunting wasn't a mask, it was part and parcel of the "darker, fascistic impulses" you correctly point out.
Finally, the Azov battalion. It was largely shorn of its Nazis and then reassigned to the Ukrainian military. It fights Russians with great glee, not because it's furthering the cause of Adolf, but to further the destruction of the Russian monster trying to devour Ukraine. Bandera should lose his exalted status for the reason you pointed out---all he did was murder Jews---but he has nothing to do with today's wars.
Stalin and Brezhnev were dictators of Soviet Union, that had 15 republics and one of them was Russia, Ukraine was also one of the members of USSR.
Thus Stalin and Brezhnev were as much Dictators of Ukraine as of Russia and other members of USSR.
I am sorry but Azov battalion is using insignia of one of most notorious SS divisons on the eastern front that was involved in numerous mass killings of civilians.
Also your claim of "Azov fighting Russian monster" are will nothing but discusting, because same thing was being told about SS divisons who were also killing Jews, Russians and other non Arian races.
Russia may technically not be communist, but it sure isn't a liberal democracy. I'd say "czar with iron fist," which is what it's really been for centuries, just called different things in different eras.
You can call us a "liberal democracy" but we're not as different as you might think. There are no "good guys". Just bad and worse.
And we're actually a constitutional republic with elements of democracy. And that's a good thing, there's a reason the founders didn't create a democracy.
Words have meanings. He didn't say "authoritarian" he said "communist". My point stands.
The lesson, my friends, is that cozying up to any autocrat is a perilous balancing act - where you're always just a misstep away from catastrophe. The notion of Jewish prosperity under Putin was a Potemkin village - an illusion that could be snatched away in a second. As it has been. How many times has this lesson been taught but still unlearned?
Now we have our own autocrats in charge in DC, where the Biden crime syndicate prospers and is protected by their Stasi-like FBI and their sniveling little Beria wannabe, Merrick Garland. A nation governed by the rule of law with a Bill of Rights and equal protection ensured is a nation safe for everyone. We forget this at our peril.
New leadership may pretend they're different from past leadership, but when there's a history of your government screwing you over, you really can't afford to let down your guard.
No indeed. Those who belong to groups that have been persecuted with the U.S. government's blessing and/or instigation in the past are very well aware that safety is not guaranteed, even in the "Land of the Free." Human nature is not something to trust in.
Which is why our Constitution is so sacred and enduring. It was written with a deep understanding of human nature and the protections needed to ensure the survival of the Republic. Those who shriek about a "living constitution" are fools.
Precisely. Even our Constitution has, at times, been unable to restrain evil men in government from acting contrary to its precepts. If we tear up the Constitution in favor of mob-rule democracy, unpopular minorities will have no legal protection from our own government.
I'm actually playing with them to see if they'll bite. I know the law. I know the Constitution. I believe in liberty and the United States of America. Causus bellus?
I think we are creeping ever nearer. The Democrats are extremely fortunate that conservatives, on the whole, have a great deal more restraint than Leftists. Nor am I convinced that what happened yesterday is the spark that will light the power keg. But at some point I expect that will happen.
Someone last night had a great explanation - the Dems know they're toast in the midterms so they no longer care what the electorate think. They're just out to settle scores. Which is fine with me. Lefties talk big but can't or won't fight. There are a lot of scores to be settled and when conservatives finally blow it won't be pretty.
The FBI is doing plenty on its own to propel us to resistance. How about bullying parents who want know what their children are being forced to learn? Or lying to FISA judges on applications and falsifying evidence? Arresting people charged with minor crimes with massive SWAT raids when all that was needed was a request to show up at an FBI office. How about hiding evidence about the criminal activities of the President's son? Failing to investigate the clear criminality shown on the H. Biden laptop? These are not the lawful activities of an American law enforcement agency. They are the stuff of the Stasi or the FSB (or KGB). Do you support these outrages? Well, do you?
Don't you think turning the US into a banana republic is a call to action? Or a casus belli (thanks for the correction - I'm studying several live languages).
Usually a casus belli has the connotation of a pretext rather than a solid reason but to answer your question no, I don’t think what they’re doing is a reason to go to war - war is a terrible thing and I’m not at the place yet where I think it justifies the costs, especially as a civil war - my feeling is that the moderate middle is actually doing a decent job of holding off the extremes, more on the left than the right at the moment- if the witnesses such as milley are telling the truth trump wanted an actual military coup - that’s way more urgent to me than whatever the left is doing with DGSH
Bad timing. With our security state politicized and out of control we need deeper dives on the problems in America. Raiding a former Presidents house? Unbelievable. We have serious problems right here, let’s investigate and shine a light on those.
Understood but the corruption and weaponization of our security state against domestic political enemies is a relatively new phenomenon which has been inadequately addressed. This is a real problem for our country.
Agree. Of course this article was scheduled to drop, but it should have been pulled. The raid on Mar a Lago is just too significant and chilling to offer an article about Jews is Russia.
Appreciate the up to the minute news on the FBI raid and await the discovery of why the raid took place. Investigative journalism if done correctly does take more than five minutes to explain what has occurred, motives, etc. Await a thoughtful fact based report from Common Sense, because all what we have now is hype, drama, and a lot of stereotypes of stormtrooper DOJ and evil Trump which is the cheapest and quickest of journalism/propaganda.
The link between this article and the FBI raid is the media reporting that manipulates the emotions around an event or image that leads the reader away from the facts to sensationalism that encourages the reader to evaluate every Russian Jew as corrupt as Roman Abramovich or Trump as ______ (chose the channel and he becomes a martyr or criminal). To get the facts, to have a deeper dive is surly worth the wait!
Precisely! Remember what happened when we got an article here on the J6 commission testimony, and the author was gushing about it changing their mind? Within hours, the testimony had been more or less debunked by other sources in the know.
I would much rather have a carefully researched essay on the subject than a panic piece. I can get panic pieces elsewhere.
Good point but certainly there has been evidence of the politicization of the security state prior to this. For me the power of the administrative state and the weaponization of the security state(and it’s amazing power) are very important stories that have been under explicated.
I mean no offense, and Russia's Jews are tremendously important, but instead of Russia, we had better be focusing on what is happening - here - to OUR country, under our very noses. The Stasi just raided a former president's home, based on trumped-up (excuse the pun) pretenses of "investigation," pretenses themselves based on years of fruitless attempts to find a crime - any crime - to hang around the president's neck. Never mind that dump-truck loads of real crimes by the higher (highest!) members of the Stasi's party have gone un-"investigated" and ignored 24/7 for years. They are part and parcel of the very Swamp tasked with holding them to account.
We are on the verge of losing this republic, and while the plight of Russian Jewry is tremendously important, if our Nation is lost to the totalitarian Left, there won't be anybody left to defend the Jews or anyone else.
It's an excellent article ...thank you for publishing it. The common theme between the treatment of Jews in Russia and the treatment of President Trump by the current obamabiden thugs in the White House is that we can never trust people in positions of power. We are a constitutional republic because of that theme. The problem comes when we allow the massive violation of constitutional rights that has been going on since 2021 and when we allow the weaponization of government departments on a partisan basis against the people.
We need to support institutions not just people...as a Jew I have learned that a long time ago. President Trump is now basically the Jew in the political world being seen and used by the corrupt media as a target and scapegoat for all their complaints.
Very interesting. And the ending paragraphs seem to be a call to American Jews who have forsaken Israel.
If American Jews are predominantly with the democrat party, can the democrats be fascists even though they walk and talk and act like fascists? I guess it’s none so blind as those who cannot see.
Shumer is a Jew. The Democrat party is anti-sematic and has always been so. Joe Kennedy, JFK's father was a rabid Jew hater and a supporter of Hitler's final solution. That had to rub off on his sainted sons JFK and RFK.
"Nobel Prizes have been awarded to over 900 individuals, of whom at least 20% were Jews."
"As of 2021, thirteen Nobel Prize laureates have been Muslims,"
The estimated world Jewish population is 14.8 million.
The estimated world population of Muslims is 1.9 billion.
The left loves Islam but hates Judaism. I have never seen a picture of a Jew in a suicide vest.
I have never understood the blind loyalty of the Jews to the Democrat Party. Many liberals and the college liberal elitists hate Israel.
Maybe if there is a leftist on this BBS, they can explain this hatred to me and if there is a Jew on this BBS, they can explain to me why the vast majority of Jews vote Democrat.
The communists have never treated the Jews well yet modern communism was founded by two Jews, Marx and Engels. It seems to me some Jews are drawn to communism like a moth to a flame.
Bernie Sanders is and always has been a hard-core communist who apparently has never read a modern history book. To be a communist and a Jew, first, you have to eschew your birthright.
Converts are the biggest fanatics. Marx cursed the Jews as did and Rosa Luxemburg. And the Democrat Party is sprinting towards communism as fast as it can. Surely one of the most powerful men in the US Chuck Shumer can see this and yet does nothing.
It's true what they say, "A capitalist will sell the rope to his own hanging."
“The totalitarian mind cannot stand the tension—and can kill people who seem to stand in the way of the dictator’s march toward love or equality or justice; the democratic mind—and the traditional Jewish mind—delights in working out the dilemmas, without fully embracing or rejecting either pole.” Thanks so much for this!
I attended a progressive Christian theology school, which seemed to suffer from Evangelophobia (not liking what some believe and do politically) but were always calling out others for potential Islamophobia (not liking what some Muslims believe and do politically). Go figure.
I had planned to post today an article on the problems of Jews in Russia, but I decided to postpone it. The raid on Mar a Lago is an unprecedented event in America and an insult to our democracy. It shocks me, and I intend to get all the facts and present them to my readers. Right or left, this is not acceptable.
Why should she postpone today's article without something to replace it with? We got no article yesterday. I think you're expecting far too much if you are expecting Bari to write RIGHT NOW about what concerns you most at this moment. This is an essay blog, not a 24-hour news channel.
I'll take either one. Either one will fire the DOJ and aim a blowtorch at the entire Washington establishment, with the backing of a freshly elected America-First Congress.
I’m praying for both President Trump’s safety and that he wins 2024 these bad actors will stop at nothing. They can see his popularity and it’s goes with all races in America the Dems like chickens without heads
For much of that time, he was under investigation by Mueller and unable to fire the DOJ heirarchy without triggering an impeachment. Which they did anyway.
Okay - and if Bari were to write exactly that - but then publish an article that would perhaps question the FBI's tactics and motives but were to also show light on the evidence presented to a judge that convinced him (or her) to enable the seizure to take place, that a law is thought to have been broken, classified documents not returned to the Archives as demanded, US law as written in 1978 - would you accept the article at least as being evenhanded?
Or would you condemn it for not following the narrative you already believe?
I expect 100% honesty on this site. What I pay for.
In the past Bari and Nellie have exposed their bias against Trump. It’s almost genetic. But I am OK factoring that in.
A trove of classified documents in MAL does not warrant the action taken. It is an outrage and a new low for America. As I posted already, I believe this is about planting incriminating documents.
I have been a fan of Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt's writings for a long time and I accept that she has a personal attachment to this story. However, I am much more concerned about America ceasing to be a free and democrat republic based on a Constitution. The politicization of the IRS, the Justice Dep't, the Capitol police and more parts of government is extremely scary. This is not the time to focus on foreign countries or stratifying us into groups: women, men, Christians, Jews, atheists, rich, poor, heterosexual or homosexual. Every person with a moral compass is in danger if America continues down the path she is on. We Jews, like many people, often keep our eyes on the rear-view mirror (remember the Maginot Line?). Putin and Russia aren't the danger today as much as what is going on in America is.
On a the basis of actual fear of violence on a regular basis, Jews are probably still safer in Moscow than they are in many parts of Paris or London.
Not to beat last week's dead horse, but among European countries, Jews appear to be safest in Budapest. (That's what happens when you don't allow massive numbers of Syrian Muslim immigrants into your country... you get less antisemitism than your neighbors who open their doors.)
Don't fret too much, Susan. All we need is an external enemy. Russia might do the trick, China is more likely. Or maybe some incredible natural disaster. But in the end, we're all Americans and whether we are red, blue and everything in between, we'll pull together.
And in your fears of our 'free and democrat republic' ceasing to exist - well, we're still free to write this. Right? Trump is free to exult in his indignation and incite his followers. Right?
We are still the country enjoying the most freedom on earth..
I hope you're right, Lee, but I seem to remember that after Sept 11, the kumbaya moment lasted only a few months, and we were a lot less philosophically divided then.
I was in graduate school at the time, and there were people in my department saying that we DESERVED 9/11 on 9/12. The kumbaya didn't even last a day. Within a few months, people were regularly "horrified" (in their own words) to see "so many" U.S. flags.
My best friend's aunt--a pacifist lesbian--thought that we should just surrender to the Islamists instead of trying to resist them. (She was sure that she would be safe--and able to form happy lesbian relationships--in an Arab conqueror's harem.)
I do not believe there is any incident in the world that could bring the Left back from the hatred of America they are currently devoted to. A takeover by China would reveal millions of quislings, including many within our own government.
This may tick off some folks here, but I've read through this entire article, and it sounds like pretty typical political repression of those seen to be aiding an enemy. While I'm sure there are some who are using that as a cloak simply because they hate Jews, there's not a lot of evidence of that in this article.
One of the things I've learned is to change the races of a story and see what I think of it. If there was a private agency in America that was coordinating the migration of American blacks to Liberia, and Liberia started actively supporting China against the US, and the US response was to raid the agency and charge its directors with violating the Foreign Registration Act... would you think that was racism? Or is it political repression?
Please understand, I'm not arguing that it's a good thing in either case. But it doesn't sound like religious or ethnic persecution (which is what antisemitism means, at least to me) but a basic political disagreement. Vladimir Putin is trying to hurt political opponents and dissenters. The fact that some of those dissenters are Jewish doesn't mean Putin hates Jews; it means Putin hates dissent. I certainly could be wrong in this assessment, but this article features a lot of "we fear it might get bad", but not much evidence that it actually is turning bad for Russian Jews -- because they're Jewish. It's appears to be turning bad for Russian dissenters of all stripes, but that's not antisemitic. That's typical authoritarian politics.
Israel is not a country. It is a “settler colony”. My Woke Masters have decreed it, so it must be so.
As I’ve told my Jewish friends, for decades, how does an ideology that guts the Rule of Law by creating a hierarchy of rights based on victimhood, and the victimhood is based on disparities in outcomes, not entrap a group that dramatically outperforms?
The Squad etc aren’t necessarily antisemitic as much as they are just consistent with their dangerous ideology. The ideology just disproportionately impacts successful groups, like Jews, Asians etc.
What Tom's basically saying is, why the hell are American Jews voting for Democrats, especially the kind of extreme left wingers who would see Israel destroyed or absorbed into some kind of Arab state?
well, its better to be safe then sorry, if things really fall apart in Russia even if state sponsored anti-semitism doesn't fully take hold, there will be plenty of non state actors looking who will happily exploit hatred of Jews for their own benefit. And not for nothing this is one of the primary reasons Israel must always exists, as a harbor.
I absolutely love Israel and Jewish people and totally respect all that they have gone through.
I would like to simply point out that the America that saved the Jews in 1945 is now punishing its own 'dissidents'(patriots) in our own Gulag's(D.C.).
For the first time in history an American president - the one who finally moved our embassy to Jerusalem - has been raided by the Stasi(FBI).
The American UniParty is no different than Putin; at least Putin is rightly protecting his nation against the globalists. No, I am not saying Puting is a good man in any way.
Without America there is no Israel. Let the focus be on America right now.
As a point of comparison, Israel, exalted by you and everyone here - has been investigating Netanyahu for years and has even charged him for bribery etc..
No citizen is above the law, even a leader. Netanyahu may end up being innocent. Trump may not even be charged. But in a democracy, everyone should be held accountable equally if a law is believed to be broken.
Not one person on Epstein's client list has been charged. We can no longer pretend that no one is above the law when it is abundantly obvious that some people ARE, in fact, above the law.
Western civilization would be a very bland stew without the contributions of the Jewish people. The "slippery slope" that Jews face in Russia is taking shape here and in Europe as well; the persecutions and intolerance of the past have been largely ignored or forgotten and none of us will be richer for that selective amnesia.
Yes but it's just so much easier to focus blame on the villainous Putin than to criticize the Democrat Party which coddles the progressive left and its nascent anti-Semitism.
This is indeed a reminder that Israel NEEDS to exist, because without it, Jews are left at the mercy of the government of whatever other nation they might be in.
Yes, agreed! I'm disgusted when I see American politicians anti-Israel - and there are.
Side note - My parents, who are in their 70-80s, Italian Roman Catholics visited Israel for the first time 3 years ago. They LOVED the experience so much they still talk about it. I need to make a trip!
The American woke left has already made education anti-Semitic for any Jew who is to the right of Nancy Pelosi or supports Israel. This has been clearly apparent for over ten years to all of us who are activists for Jewish students on college campuses.
California has introduced a new ethnic studies program for grade schools that is not only anti-Israel but also anti-Jewish. I am on the boards of non-profits that fight this and we are losing. The anti Jewish indoctrination is now ubiquitous on social media and starting in pre-school.
The only political group that fights this with seriousness happens to be Trump's followers. All others are simply too timid to fight the woke tyrants.
Commonsense demonizes Trump, so even this platform lacks the conviction to fight the woke, anti-Semitic tyrants politically.
Do not be fooled by all the powerful people born Jewish like Soros, Zuckerberg, any World Economic Forum adherent and now most Jewish Democrat politicians. They are atheists who despise Israel. They are not Jews in any meaningful sense.
Fighting Israel is part of the woke agenda that is destroying our world.
I’ve never understood why Jews vote for Democrats in the USA. It’s like blacks voting for the Democratic Party yet the slaveholders were all Democrats as were the Jim Crowers. FDR bought the black vote during the depression and MLK, a life long Republican, was bribed with a promise that Democrats would vote for the Civil Rights Act, if he became a Democrat, not to mention that Democrat Joe Biden was buddies with KKKer Robert Byrd & in my view is still a closet racist.
I agree, well said.
You are not referring to those Trump supporters who marched in Charlottesville with tiki torches chanting "Jews will not replace us!"? Who would go as "good people" in the eyes of Donald Trump?
Be careful who You consider Your friends....
Bernd, perhaps naively I will assume for the moment you not one of those here only to disrupt rational conversation with woke slogans.
Of course, your slogan has been thoroughly debunked. It is understandable that you may live in a world where the woke narrative is ubiquitous. But rise above this dangerous narrative for a moment and read "The Case for Trump" by the brilliant Victor Davis Hansen.
If you do not know any Trump supporters try to meet one and discuss the world honestly.
Lastly, I know hundreds of Trump supporters and dozens of Jewish Trump supporters, as I am one. In America 90% of the anti-Semitism is coming from the left. The characterization of Trump supporters, with rare exceptions, is simply a lie.
As the authors here at Commonsense understand that the people described in so many of the essays, those good people abused and kicked out of so many woke institutions, are NOT what the woke institutions say they are, perhaps someday they will understand that Trump and his supporters are not what the woke say we are.
Never forget, perhaps the greatest advance to peace in the Middle East, the Abraham Accords, could only come because of Trump, who refused to give in to the "Muslim Street" or Iran, unlike every one of his predecessors.
(But if you are here to simply disrupt honest conversation, please ignore me going forward.)
I'm not fan of Trump, but most of the antisemitism in the US comes from the left. There are of course antisemites on the right, antisemites in the center, and even antisemitism among Jews. (If you've read Karl Marx, grandson of a rabbi, you'd be hard-pressed to find a more virulent Jew-hater.) I don't believe that the majority of Democrats are antisemites and I don't believe that voting for Democrats on the part of Jews is wrong, but I do believe that the heart of Jew-hatred in the US lies on the left. It is not just hatred of Israel, but attributing "white privilege" to Jews, or blaming Israel for American police violence on Israel. There are far too many "Palestinian advocates" who are far too comfortable with violence directed against American Jews, simply for being Jewish or for supporting Israel.
Just do not try to defect from the fact, that antisemites and white supremacists are part of the Trump-coalition.
We are not talking about antisemites amongst democrats, that's a different discussion, we can certainly have too.
We are talking about those Trump supporters who chanted "Jews will not replace us!" and Donald Trump who had seemingly difficulties to distance himself from this lot.
Yeah. right. "Antisemitism amongst jews". Have You got any idea how ridiculous that sounds?
If you're going to cite the WaPo fanfiction version of what happened with the Charlottesville debacle, at least give them proper credit.
You're intentionally characterizing tens of millions of people by a tiny, fringe minority of a few hundred that doesn't represent them, and you know that. Also, Trump explicitly condemned those people, many times, on public record.
The word for your attitude is "bigotry" and it is not morally different from racism.
Also, Trump hatred is a pathology that will rot your mind.
No. Trump did not condemn those people. He infamously stated "There are good people on both sides", implying there is such thing as "good antisemites".
Here is his literal quote:
"And you had people — and I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists — because they should be condemned totally. But you had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists."
His actual words were "condemned totally."
Bernd, stop listening to liars and propagandists who hate Trump. They are hateful, delusional bigots and choose to be so.
Debunked.
You must be living in that weird parallel universe where Donalds Trump never lost the election and is actually an honest man. How's the weather over there without global warming? Still eternal spring with no heat waves wildfires and epic floodings?
I visited Israel this past spring. It has something for everyone. Really an amazing place.
You do don’t delay it’s an earth shattering experiencing a miracle country!!
Spent a week there in 2016
Best eggs I’ve ever had
Not sure what they feed them but I’d go back just for the eggs
I have zero confidence that Jews in the USA, Canada, or UK will be safe in the future unless they, as individuals, bow down to the totalitarian Left.
As a Jew, I have zero confidence that Christians will be safe either - or anyone with a moral compass. I don't think we should be dividing ourselves into groups here, but instead banding together.
Safely in numbers. Yes.
People of good will must ALL unite against the left which is eating everything like a senseless monster, even some of their own.
Good call!
Might be right there. Let me suggest two things for you look at. First is JPFO.org .20-30 years ago Aaron Zelman founded it based on the results of Germany’s Jews being disarmed. There are two major groups among Jews especially Americans: there are the “never forget” type and there are the “never again” group. The two groups are pretty different, as you might expect.
And following up on the latter group, I highly recommend the late, great John Ross’ novel, Unintended Consequences. Long book, but well worth reading.
I'm not positive I'm following you. Actually, I am in the 'never forget' group which explains why I was fasting and sitting on the floor last Sunday in recognition of the destruction of the Temple thousands of years ago. I find 'never again' to be incredibly arrogant and hubristic. But, I believe that when it comes to actions today, we need to be alert and aware of what is happening now instead of expecting dangers to appear from the same place and people as in the past.
I am aware of Mr. Zelman's group as well as that when the initial gun-control legislation was proposed, they studied how guns were outlawed in Nazi Germany.
I don’t mean to be either arrogant or hubristic, so apologies if I came across that way.
Never again means fighting back effectively when and if the time comes. It’s certainly valid to keep alive the memories of the Holocaust, but just remembering it won’t prevent a replay. I get the sense that many people believe it will: it was horrible, so who would want to have that happen again?
The question isn’t rhetorical. Virulent antisemites will tell you that if Hitler had done it right, there wouldn’t be a problem with all us pesky Jews now. We’d all be dead already. For them, remembering just points to flaws in the earlier Final Solution plans.
If things start to get hot here, I only have two options: aliyah or stay and fight. I doubt attackers will be persuaded by the logic of my arguments any more than nazis were in the 30s and 40s.
Aliyah, I agree.
I didn't mean that you were arrogant or hubristic, but that I find the 'never again' claim to be so. Quite frankly, if God wants to punish us, we can't stop it. I agree with you that the focus on the Holocaust in terms of thinking that will make people behave better is futile.
I think that in America, Christians have been the canaries in the coal mine and Jews ignored it because we were too myopic to see others can be persecuted too. Now that the danger and hatred is reaching us (and many Jews and Christians were on the wrong side and still are) we need to recognize that this is a much broader problem.
Not just the totalitarian left, but also a theocratic and nativist right. Messy and frustrating democracy is the only way forward.
Less than 1 generation. All indications are that the final generation of Western civilization (at least in the traditional heart of that civilization) is already adults today.
I've quoted Alasdair Macintyre here before, but I will do so again because he's right: "A crucial turning point in [the collapse of the Roman Empire] occurred when men and women of good will stopped shoring up the Roman imperium and ceased to identify the continuation of civility and moral community with the maintenance of that imperium. What they set themselves to achieve instead —often not recognizing fully what they were doing — was the construction of new forms of community within which the moral life could be sustained so that both morality and civility might survive the coming ages of barbarism and darkness. If my account of our moral condition is correct, one characterized by moral incoherence and unsettlable moral disputes in the modern world, we ought to conclude that for some time now we too have reached that turning point."
This train has been running for hundreds of years; there's no stopping it at this point, only teaching your children how to live as dhimmi in a new dark age. Does anyone really think we're going to vote our way out of this? Sure, the right candidates might buy us some time, but the young are the barbarians, who neither know nor care what they are destroying, and will outlive us.
So what local institutions to preserve Western cultural heritage are you building? We'd all better start asking that question.
My now-adult kids, despite being raised with centrist classical liberal philosophies, have been too heavily influenced by their Woke peers and teachers to recognize the threat, even when I point it out to them.
I'm sure I won't be around by the time they realize Mom wasn't wrong. But that's on them now. I can't do anything about it.
Rod Dreher picked up on Macintyre's idea, from After Virtue, which you cite above and wrote: The Benedict Option
A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Already the most discussed and most important religious book of the decade." In this controversial bestseller, Rod Dreher calls on American Christians to prepare for the coming Dark Age by embracing an ancient Christian way of life. From the inside, American churches have been hollowed out by the departure of young people and by an insipid pseudo–Christianity. From the outside, they are beset by challenges to religious liberty in a rapidly secularizing culture. Keeping Hillary Clinton out of the White House may have bought a brief reprieve from the state’s assault, but it will not stop the West’s slide into decadence and dissolution. Rod Dreher argues that the way forward is actually the way back—all the way to St. Benedict of Nursia. This sixth-century monk, horrified by the moral chaos following Rome’s fall, retreated to the forest and created a new way of life for Christians. He built enduring communities based on principles of order, hospitality, stability, and prayer. His spiritual centers of hope were strongholds of light throughout the Dark Ages, and saved not just Christianity but Western civilization. Today, a new form of barbarism reigns. Many believers are blind to it, and their churches are too weak to resist. Politics offers little help in this spiritual crisis. What is needed is the Benedict Option, a strategy that draws on the authority of Scripture and the wisdom of the ancient church. The goal: to embrace exile from mainstream culture and construct a resilient counterculture. The Benedict Option is both manifesto and rallying cry for Christians who, if they are not to be conquered, must learn how to fight on culture war battlefields like none the West has seen for fifteen hundred years. It's for all mere Christians—Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox—who can read the signs of the times.
I'm not sure. It all depends on how quickly the totalitarian Left manages to completely take over these nations.
Given how the public (and private) schools have fully embraced Woke politics, BDS movements, gender fluidity, the destruction of family values, along with assumptions about everyone based on race, it won't be long before these axioms are as common in gov't and corporate circles. This "reverse McCarthyism" will never bode well for Jews, never has, never will.
The FBI very busy with President Trump they definitely don’t have time for left or the radicals in the Dem party they are consumed by Trump Derangement Syndrome
Far right groups? Like libertarians? Nazism & Communism are far left groups...
I am sorry, but some things in this article are simply not true.
For example
" echo of Russian antisemitism—Josef Stalin’s and then Leonid Brezhnev’s persecution of Jews—had not entirely receded."
Josef Stalin was not Russian but Georgian, Brezhnev was not Russian but Ukrainian.
Second - It masked Russia’s own, darker, fascistic impulses—which we are now seeing play out in Ukraine.
I disagree with what Russia is doing in Ukraine, but for god sake, Ukraine has literal Nazi units in it army, Azov battalion was using insignia of German SS. Stephan Bandera and his army, that committed numerus pogroms during WW2 is celebrated as heroes in Ukraine. Ukraine had to revoke Ambassador to Germany, because he was publicly praising Bander and his Army as great fighters (they literary did noting but kill Jews during WW2). He even has huge monument in Lviv https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Bandera_monument_in_Lviv
https://forward.com/news/462916/nazi-collaborator-monuments-in-ukraine/
World is not black and white, this is especially true for Eastern Europe.
"World is not black and white, this is especially true for Eastern Europe."
.... hence Washington's admonition to stay out of Europe's wars. (But of course, if the Ukranians hold your own graft and corruption - and that of your son - over your head, and with it the promise of decades in prison - at least for him - you are more than willing to send Other People's Money to continue the buy-off, eh?)
I’m afraid the grifters include more than the Bidens. Ukraine has become the new money laundromat for DC politicians. Remember the photoshoot McConnell and fellow republican dimwits staged in Kiev to drum up support for the $40 billion aid package the senate rammed through without any hearings? Remember the preceding Pelosi House pilgrimage that included congenital liars like Adam Schiff waxing poetic about defending democracy? Nobody knows where the weapons we send them end up or whose pockets get lined with the billions in “aid” although I’m sure some of it will find its way into the campaign coffers of participating pols who care more about Ukraine’s border than ours.
Liz and Dick Cheney come to mind
The US has sent over $60 billion to Ukraine. The money and the weapons are not tracked or accounted for. Anyone so naive as to believe a lot of that is not being skimmed off and secreted away in Swiss bank accounts?
Makes you wonder why our Congress is so eager to continue to send money to Ukraine.
The best thing that could have happened for the Ukrainian people would have been to negotiate with Putin before their cities were leveled.
To negotiate with the autocrat who declares Ukraine doesn’t really exist and who now uses the Stalinist textbook for de-nationalization through murder and deportation. Now that would’ve have been a fruitful negotiation - do you want a bullet in the back of the head or a missiles in your apartment ?
If the US backed off and said, "No more money; negotiate a cease fire." It would happen.
You don’t seem to actually have read my comment. How do you negotiate anything with somebody who says you don’t have the right to exist and wants to physically eliminate you?
I did read your comment. I do believe a good negotiator could work out a solution. It has happened before. It may seem each side has an intractable position but a capable negotiator can find something on each side that matters more than anything else.
No - to live to fight another day.
With a country that is not a pile of rubble. There are millions of Ukrainian refugees who will never be able to go home again. The disruption to the world food supply is going to create famine in poorer countries. Ukraine can't win; they can only prolong their own misery.
How bad can it be over there when all high powered US dignitaries go over there for photo ops and Zelensky and his wife to a spread in Vogue. VOGUE? Really?
I don't have all the facts and never will have them but the entire thing stinks to high heaven.
I agree. It reeks. I also think the food thing is critical.and maybe the reason for it all. Imperialists have long used famine to.their advantage.
"The best thing that could have happened for the Ukrainian people would have been to negotiate with Putin before their cities were leveled."
Why do you assume that approach wasn't tried--and rejected by Putin?
I'm an avid news reader and at no time in the past year have I seen anything to suggest negotiations were attempted.
Because everything factual is reported by the "news" ? you have no idea what was and what wasn't attempted.
to anyone who laments Ukraine's "corruption" --- who cares if it's corrupt or not??? Putin is a despot who will continue to bomb cities and countries until someone stops him. If Ukrainians are willing to at least try, they already have a leg up on France circa 1941..
Thankfully I am subscribed to Rebel News. They have sent reporters over there to find out what is going on. Michael Yon has also done some excellent reporting.
LOTS of treasure going to Ukraine while disavowing involvement.
What?
Come on man! Biden and Hunter. Crooks, corrupt and eminently bribeable.
I didn't understand his post. It was confusing to me. Where in his post does he mention the ever senile Biden? He says something about "your son" and 10 years in prison. He lost me.
Not paying attention are we? It is quite obvious to those that do who they were referring too.
Thank you, Steven, for your kind words.
Thanks Barb. I guess you were confused too.
Yes, excellent historical points raised. Anti-semitism is not just a "Russian" thing. And it was not just Ukraine, there are plenty of horrible stories of pogroms in the Baltic States after the Nazi's pushed out the communists.
This is so true, many of our "allies" in Eastern Europe are extremally antisemitic, for example Latvia, they have yearly march of SS volunteers
https://eng.lsm.lv/article/culture/history/march-16-procession-takes-place-in-riga.a448133/
And nobody from our MSM or politicians is calling this sh*t out. Poland our great "friend" is literary one of the most antisemitic countries in the world, they constantly try to steal or destroy any Jewish heritage
https://www.jpost.com/international/polands-president-signs-bill-to-limit-ww2-property-restitution-claims-676711
Currently is very popular to bash Russians, while closing eyes at ever-growing antisemitism in Nato members, because they hate Russians and that supposedly somehow makes their antisemitism ok.
Heck, Jewish people may still be safer in Moscow than many parts of Paris.
Fair point - We are told everything is black and white: Ukraine is good and St. Zelensky is a hero and it's always been like that. Russia has always been our enemy. It's way more complicated and even within the past 10-15 years one can easily find major media stories about UKR nazis / massive govt corruption and "the 1980's called, they want their foreign policy back" when Russia was mentioned as an adversary.
My own family has horrific stories of 1880s Ukraine, such as Cossacks riding into Mom's great-grandfather's village, calling for the 10 most holy men of the village to come forward, then mowing them down, and similar atrocities. In our neat, modern, civilized era, it's hard to imagine these events could have happened, and it's possible the stories are exaggerated if not apocryphal. However, so many horrible pogroms did occur in Ukraine that it's hard to imagine a Jewish village escaping the wanton violence.
Up until recently, anti-Semitism was still a thing in Ukraine. In fact, I wonder whether one of the goals of the Ukraine ruler's clampdown on news media was to suppress any anti-Semitic statements, for the purposes of presenting a more angelic face to the West. It was only a few years ago, however, that a man at an economic conference in Kiev was quoted as saying, "I propose economic development for Ukraine, without Jews." (One wonders what Jews he had in mind, given that his parents or grandparents had efficiently shipped most of them off to death camps.)
Perhaps for these reasons, I seem to have a problem dredging up much sympathy for the Ukrainians. It seems to me they could have reached an accommodation with the Russians. Their leader Zelenskyy is a masterful showman, to be sure, with his heroic speeches and Vogue cover shoots, but would it not have been wiser, and less bloody, to just negotiate some kind of deal?
I have the same family history of murdered great-grandparents in a Ukrainian pogrom which is why I have “a plague on both your houses” attitude towards this conflict.
I also agree with the Israeli commenter who mentioned these Jews in Russia had decades to leave.
"would it not have been wiser, and less bloody, to just negotiate some kind of deal?"
Certainly it would. But you're assuming nobody tried.
I believe Zelensky made offers, and so did a number of other global players, from Biden to the Pope to European leaders. Putin either said "nyet" or made his terms so impossible--"Sure, give me the entire eastern half of your nation and all your ports"--that no sovereign nation could accept.
Valid points, but most experts like Melanie Phillips claim there is far more nazi admiration groupies in Russia than in the Ukraine in 2022, and the examples among Putin's mafia heads , the Wagner group etc are numerous.
There are neo-Nazis in Russia (and Germany, and UK, and USA, etc). That Wagner Group guy supposedly has an SS tattoo. But in Ukraine there are statues and memorials to Bandera, who definitely pledged allegiance to the Third Reich and who definitely massacred Jews and Poles and others.
The Azov Brigade, an effective unit of the Ukraine military, definitely uses Nazi symbols, even in the war right now Russians were showing off many prisoners they captured with with swastika tattoos.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepan_Bandera_monument_in_Lviv#:~:text=The%20Stepan%20Bandera%20monument%20in,main%20city%20of%20Western%20Ukraine.
I was so surprised to find out for example that Aloysius Stepinac (nazi collaborator and one of organizers of Rat Lines to south America) is declared as "saint" by Catholic church, and has numerous monuments in Croatia (another of our allies)
https://www.wiesenthal.com/about/news/simon-wiesenthal-center-72.html
But surprise surprise, he has school named after him in State of New York
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archbishop_Stepinac_High_School
Thanks for this.
I have been taken aback by commenters who try to compare where most antisemites and nazis live: Russia, Ukraine or Eastern European countries. All of them have antisemitic history, that’s just European history going back centuries, maybe thousands of years. How is it relevant to the war Russia started and to the current Putin’s policies? It doesn’t matter who is a bigger nazi or antisemite; there is only one country that sent troops to cross the border of another sovereign state and commits war crimes. I am a former Jewish refugee from the Soviet Union, and it took me many years, the best years of my life, to get out. My ancestors lived behind the Pale of Settlement. Tens of them died during programs at the hands of Russians and Ukrainians before the 1917 revolution and at the hands of Germans and Ukrainians during the nazi occupation. I grew up in Russia and encountered antisemitism everywhere, including applying to college and getting a decent job. I hold no rosy image of either Russians or Ukrainians. But again, there is only one country that is an aggressor and presents a risk to the entire world. I am not surprised antisemites are raising heads there. From talking to Russians living in Russia, the country is back not even in the 70s but in the 30s - people lost all freedoms and are waiting for the iron curtain to close completely. The importance of alleged Ukrainian corruption should pale before the risk of the WWIII, and Putin has to be stopped IMHO.
"there is only one country that sent troops to cross the border of another sovereign state and commits war crimes"
"But again, there is only one country that is an aggressor and presents a risk to the entire world."
You should be careful with statement like this, in last 30 years our neocons have dragged us in numerus foreign wars on false pretenses (while doing that we racked billions of $ of debt that we will leave our children and dindt achive anything). Ask people in Asia, Africa and middle east who is danger to the world, you will get very different answer.
We need to understand that world is not black and white. but many shades of gray. Half of our European "allies" are extremally antisemitic and are getting anti Israel evermore, thanks to growth of immigration from middle east.
Also you say your family left Pale of Settlement, great no reason to lock back and keep meddling in that place.
As for Ukrainian corruption, honestly we have more than enough problems at home, no point on wasting billion of $$$ in money and weapons that will probably either end up on some off shore account of some Ukrainian oligarchs, or sold for profit to our enemies. In the end of the day, US taxpayer money should be used to help people in US.
You certainly have a useful and powerful firsthand perspective. I think what's going on here is a reaction to the lack of nuance and depth. Major news outlets were running stories about Ukraine pre-Feb 2022 regarding corruption, Nazis, anti-homosexuals, etc. Then, Russia invaded and *poof* Ukrainians are all holy warriors lead by St Zelensky. Our Democrats just approved $4.5Bil to run their government, pay their pensions, etc (separate from military aid). They have become a client state. We can no longer "call it like we see it." I want Russia to be defeated, but it doesn't mean I think Ukraine is a wonderful place. This is realpolitik.
I honestly don't understand people as "Just an observer" how seem not to understand amount of money that is being sent to black hole of corruption called Ukraine. And to be honest, last thing what we need is for more deficit spending of money that we have to borrow from Chinese. American money should be used to help people at home.
We left Europe for a reason, we dont need to waste anytime or money on it. The less we engage with it, we will be better of, especially our finances, whe have been footing their defense bill for last 70 years.
What do you mean “we left Europe”? We are a part of NATO.
I am with you every step! Except that I grew up in Ukraine :)
I am as suspicious of The Current Thing as anyone but in the case of Russia bombing peaceful cities... murdering women and children ... invading, torturing, killing CIVILIANS... Russia under Putin is a barbaric cult and must be stopped.
In short, I'm comfortable with the lack of nuance in this instance.
Most countries have neo-Nazi groups. The difference in Ukraine is that WWII-era Nazi collaborators are still celebrated as heroes, and an openly neo-Nazi paramilitary group was allowed to join up as an official battalion in their national guard several years ago. The rebel group that helped overthrow a duly-elected president of Ukraine back in 2014 was dominated by neo-Nazis (or rather, unreformed Nazis), and although that group doesn't have many seats in their parliament, they have a outsized government influence via unelected positions their leaders were appointed to after the (U.S.-assisted) coup.
There has been pushback on antisemitism in Ukraine in recent years, but as in most European countries, there is a deep-seated antisemitism that has been passed from parents to children for over a thousand years.
Melanie Phillips is not expert on the topic, but opinion journalist.
Ukraine is teaming with nazis, another great example is namig of football stadiums, for example
https://www.holocaustchild.org/2021/03/israeli-envoy-in-ukraine-slams-naming-of-soccer-stadium-in-honor-of-nazi-ally-roman-shukhevych/
What did this man do? Well you can read here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Shukhevych
Again, in which MSM in west did we get to read about this?
Also of you want to who else has monuments in Ukraine
https://forward.com/news/462916/nazi-collaborator-monuments-in-ukraine/
That's correct. You can also read the work of James Kirchik and Claire Berlinski about Putin's Russia. Putin loves to play the "good cop" with Russian and other ex-Soviet Jews. But the truth is, his regime has a variety of such figures in it, around it, and associated with it, like the Wagner group. Conversely, Ukraine, which has a serious history with antisemitism, has a government that, in the last generation, has taken some trouble to air the issues and removed antisemitic figures from official life. The number of such people in Ukraine is a few percent of the population, and, more importantly, they have little to no traction in institutions. And Ukraine has a Jewish president and defense minister.
BTW, I wish I could say the same about the US.
I am sorry but part for Ukraine is simply not true, I have posted several links about all new monuments to nazi collaborators that have shown in Ukraine in last 3 years.
Furthermore, 3 weeks ago Ukraine had to change their ambassador to Germany, because he was constantly celebrateing Stephan Bandera and his cronies, who literally didn't do anything but kill jews during WW2
Here is a good article on the history and very limited political power of the Azov “battalion”... it both is and is not what it seems. https://unherd.com/2022/06/the-truth-about-ukraines-nazi-militias/
My only complaint with the article is its use of “far right” as its label of them. The nazi’s never were “conservative.” The Socialist/Communists and the fascist Nazis were related forms of evil leveraging identity politics to sow chaos and then take control. Because only the Nazi atrocities have the popular imagination the left, e.g. Antifa, uses the label to smear any apposing group.
Technically you are correct here -- Josef Stalin was not Russian but Georgian -- however he was always representing Russian point of view so consider him as he did himself Honorable Russian. At that level ethnicity did not matter Koganovich technically was Jewish. Whenever it would become an issue as it did all of a sudden with Molotov's wife Mrs. Polina Zhemchuzhina, it was very publicly punished.
"Brezhnev was not Russian but Ukrainian." This one is not correct! He was ethnically Russian though came from the Ukraine city of Dnepropetrovsk.
One needs to grow up in Russia (former USSR) to understand all the nuances.
Stalin and Brezhnev were dictators of Russia. That made them an "echo of Russian antisemitism" as surely as if they had been born in Red Square.
Russian Jew-hunting wasn't a mask, it was part and parcel of the "darker, fascistic impulses" you correctly point out.
Finally, the Azov battalion. It was largely shorn of its Nazis and then reassigned to the Ukrainian military. It fights Russians with great glee, not because it's furthering the cause of Adolf, but to further the destruction of the Russian monster trying to devour Ukraine. Bandera should lose his exalted status for the reason you pointed out---all he did was murder Jews---but he has nothing to do with today's wars.
Stalin and Brezhnev were dictators of Soviet Union, that had 15 republics and one of them was Russia, Ukraine was also one of the members of USSR.
Thus Stalin and Brezhnev were as much Dictators of Ukraine as of Russia and other members of USSR.
I am sorry but Azov battalion is using insignia of one of most notorious SS divisons on the eastern front that was involved in numerous mass killings of civilians.
Also your claim of "Azov fighting Russian monster" are will nothing but discusting, because same thing was being told about SS divisons who were also killing Jews, Russians and other non Arian races.
Stalin and Brezhnev were communists. As is Putin. Stop justifying communist aggression.
What are you talking about? Russia hasn’t been communist for over 30 years.
Russia may technically not be communist, but it sure isn't a liberal democracy. I'd say "czar with iron fist," which is what it's really been for centuries, just called different things in different eras.
You can call us a "liberal democracy" but we're not as different as you might think. There are no "good guys". Just bad and worse.
And we're actually a constitutional republic with elements of democracy. And that's a good thing, there's a reason the founders didn't create a democracy.
Words have meanings. He didn't say "authoritarian" he said "communist". My point stands.
The lesson, my friends, is that cozying up to any autocrat is a perilous balancing act - where you're always just a misstep away from catastrophe. The notion of Jewish prosperity under Putin was a Potemkin village - an illusion that could be snatched away in a second. As it has been. How many times has this lesson been taught but still unlearned?
Now we have our own autocrats in charge in DC, where the Biden crime syndicate prospers and is protected by their Stasi-like FBI and their sniveling little Beria wannabe, Merrick Garland. A nation governed by the rule of law with a Bill of Rights and equal protection ensured is a nation safe for everyone. We forget this at our peril.
It may be cliché to say it, but: Trust no one.
New leadership may pretend they're different from past leadership, but when there's a history of your government screwing you over, you really can't afford to let down your guard.
I suspect you're not limiting that advice to just foreign actors.....
No indeed. Those who belong to groups that have been persecuted with the U.S. government's blessing and/or instigation in the past are very well aware that safety is not guaranteed, even in the "Land of the Free." Human nature is not something to trust in.
Which is why our Constitution is so sacred and enduring. It was written with a deep understanding of human nature and the protections needed to ensure the survival of the Republic. Those who shriek about a "living constitution" are fools.
Precisely. Even our Constitution has, at times, been unable to restrain evil men in government from acting contrary to its precepts. If we tear up the Constitution in favor of mob-rule democracy, unpopular minorities will have no legal protection from our own government.
I would say, "Don't put your eggs in someone else's basket."
You don't think it is practical for individuals and even groups to prepare for the possibility that their government will turn on them?
and here comes Your FBI...shush
I'm actually playing with them to see if they'll bite. I know the law. I know the Constitution. I believe in liberty and the United States of America. Causus bellus?
I think we are creeping ever nearer. The Democrats are extremely fortunate that conservatives, on the whole, have a great deal more restraint than Leftists. Nor am I convinced that what happened yesterday is the spark that will light the power keg. But at some point I expect that will happen.
Someone last night had a great explanation - the Dems know they're toast in the midterms so they no longer care what the electorate think. They're just out to settle scores. Which is fine with me. Lefties talk big but can't or won't fight. There are a lot of scores to be settled and when conservatives finally blow it won't be pretty.
Just waiting for the spark to ignite the keg
But they don’t Bruce so I think we should all sleep with one eye open
If you’re going to use Latin: casus belli. Not sure how it’s relevant in this context - you want to use the FBI to provoke a war?
The FBI is doing plenty on its own to propel us to resistance. How about bullying parents who want know what their children are being forced to learn? Or lying to FISA judges on applications and falsifying evidence? Arresting people charged with minor crimes with massive SWAT raids when all that was needed was a request to show up at an FBI office. How about hiding evidence about the criminal activities of the President's son? Failing to investigate the clear criminality shown on the H. Biden laptop? These are not the lawful activities of an American law enforcement agency. They are the stuff of the Stasi or the FSB (or KGB). Do you support these outrages? Well, do you?
Oh I see - the FBI raided Trump’s house? Didn’t know about this story - the FBI’s action is a casus belli for you.
Don't you think turning the US into a banana republic is a call to action? Or a casus belli (thanks for the correction - I'm studying several live languages).
That's cool ... I have enough trouble with English some days ...
Usually a casus belli has the connotation of a pretext rather than a solid reason but to answer your question no, I don’t think what they’re doing is a reason to go to war - war is a terrible thing and I’m not at the place yet where I think it justifies the costs, especially as a civil war - my feeling is that the moderate middle is actually doing a decent job of holding off the extremes, more on the left than the right at the moment- if the witnesses such as milley are telling the truth trump wanted an actual military coup - that’s way more urgent to me than whatever the left is doing with DGSH
Yes, those lessons are unlearned for sure.
It’s very sad to see the same mistakes made over and over.
Bad timing. With our security state politicized and out of control we need deeper dives on the problems in America. Raiding a former Presidents house? Unbelievable. We have serious problems right here, let’s investigate and shine a light on those.
This essay was almost certainly in the pipeline before Bari even heard about that.
Understood but the corruption and weaponization of our security state against domestic political enemies is a relatively new phenomenon which has been inadequately addressed. This is a real problem for our country.
I don't doubt that Bari will have an essay about it soon. But it is thoughtless to react as if she should have had it already this morning.
You raise a real issue, which deserves investigating for sure.
Agree. Of course this article was scheduled to drop, but it should have been pulled. The raid on Mar a Lago is just too significant and chilling to offer an article about Jews is Russia.
The raid happened late yesterday. I would not expect commentary on it here that quickly.
Nor would I want overnight commentary on such an important subject. Society suffers from way too much Instant Punditry now.
Appreciate the up to the minute news on the FBI raid and await the discovery of why the raid took place. Investigative journalism if done correctly does take more than five minutes to explain what has occurred, motives, etc. Await a thoughtful fact based report from Common Sense, because all what we have now is hype, drama, and a lot of stereotypes of stormtrooper DOJ and evil Trump which is the cheapest and quickest of journalism/propaganda.
The link between this article and the FBI raid is the media reporting that manipulates the emotions around an event or image that leads the reader away from the facts to sensationalism that encourages the reader to evaluate every Russian Jew as corrupt as Roman Abramovich or Trump as ______ (chose the channel and he becomes a martyr or criminal). To get the facts, to have a deeper dive is surly worth the wait!
Precisely! Remember what happened when we got an article here on the J6 commission testimony, and the author was gushing about it changing their mind? Within hours, the testimony had been more or less debunked by other sources in the know.
I would much rather have a carefully researched essay on the subject than a panic piece. I can get panic pieces elsewhere.
Good point but certainly there has been evidence of the politicization of the security state prior to this. For me the power of the administrative state and the weaponization of the security state(and it’s amazing power) are very important stories that have been under explicated.
Which channel has President Trump become a martyr on? Please share - whatever I go onto only demonize or delegitimatizes him.
I mean no offense, and Russia's Jews are tremendously important, but instead of Russia, we had better be focusing on what is happening - here - to OUR country, under our very noses. The Stasi just raided a former president's home, based on trumped-up (excuse the pun) pretenses of "investigation," pretenses themselves based on years of fruitless attempts to find a crime - any crime - to hang around the president's neck. Never mind that dump-truck loads of real crimes by the higher (highest!) members of the Stasi's party have gone un-"investigated" and ignored 24/7 for years. They are part and parcel of the very Swamp tasked with holding them to account.
We are on the verge of losing this republic, and while the plight of Russian Jewry is tremendously important, if our Nation is lost to the totalitarian Left, there won't be anybody left to defend the Jews or anyone else.
The Jews have Israel, and it is fortunate that they do.
Yes America is at stake and you right if we allow this to go on we are heading towards a catastrophe God forbid!
It's an excellent article ...thank you for publishing it. The common theme between the treatment of Jews in Russia and the treatment of President Trump by the current obamabiden thugs in the White House is that we can never trust people in positions of power. We are a constitutional republic because of that theme. The problem comes when we allow the massive violation of constitutional rights that has been going on since 2021 and when we allow the weaponization of government departments on a partisan basis against the people.
We need to support institutions not just people...as a Jew I have learned that a long time ago. President Trump is now basically the Jew in the political world being seen and used by the corrupt media as a target and scapegoat for all their complaints.
Very interesting. And the ending paragraphs seem to be a call to American Jews who have forsaken Israel.
If American Jews are predominantly with the democrat party, can the democrats be fascists even though they walk and talk and act like fascists? I guess it’s none so blind as those who cannot see.
Is the Democrat Party Schumer or the Squad? And if Schumer increasingly channels the anti-Semitic Squad, does it even matter?
Shumer is a Jew. The Democrat party is anti-sematic and has always been so. Joe Kennedy, JFK's father was a rabid Jew hater and a supporter of Hitler's final solution. That had to rub off on his sainted sons JFK and RFK.
"Nobel Prizes have been awarded to over 900 individuals, of whom at least 20% were Jews."
"As of 2021, thirteen Nobel Prize laureates have been Muslims,"
The estimated world Jewish population is 14.8 million.
The estimated world population of Muslims is 1.9 billion.
The left loves Islam but hates Judaism. I have never seen a picture of a Jew in a suicide vest.
I have never understood the blind loyalty of the Jews to the Democrat Party. Many liberals and the college liberal elitists hate Israel.
Maybe if there is a leftist on this BBS, they can explain this hatred to me and if there is a Jew on this BBS, they can explain to me why the vast majority of Jews vote Democrat.
This is the best explanation I’ve seen to date.
It’s a lot to read, but hits on the issue you raise.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-un-jews-natan-sharansky
The communists have never treated the Jews well yet modern communism was founded by two Jews, Marx and Engels. It seems to me some Jews are drawn to communism like a moth to a flame.
Bernie Sanders is and always has been a hard-core communist who apparently has never read a modern history book. To be a communist and a Jew, first, you have to eschew your birthright.
Converts are the biggest fanatics. Marx cursed the Jews as did and Rosa Luxemburg. And the Democrat Party is sprinting towards communism as fast as it can. Surely one of the most powerful men in the US Chuck Shumer can see this and yet does nothing.
It's true what they say, "A capitalist will sell the rope to his own hanging."
Go figure.
Friedrich Engels was German, not a Jew. His father was a wealthy German capitalist. His money supported Marx to a large extent. You are stereotyping.
Not a stereotype an error. In a philosophy class 60 years ago the prof said Engels was a Jew so please don't stereotype me.
“The totalitarian mind cannot stand the tension—and can kill people who seem to stand in the way of the dictator’s march toward love or equality or justice; the democratic mind—and the traditional Jewish mind—delights in working out the dilemmas, without fully embracing or rejecting either pole.” Thanks so much for this!
I attended a progressive Christian theology school, which seemed to suffer from Evangelophobia (not liking what some believe and do politically) but were always calling out others for potential Islamophobia (not liking what some Muslims believe and do politically). Go figure.
Lone...how about Jesus, in his vest?
Since posters "like to cover a wide range"
Jesus, in his vest???
Lones...the story, suicide by police, since that is what He was Here for...or not???
Hammer, nail, head.
The raid on Trump's Florida address is simply insane. It is one step closer to bringing this country into a civil war.
God I so hope you are wrong. I am for the first time the sanest one of the people I know, and many of them are Right On The Edge.
The FBI invaded Mar a Lago to PLANT DOCUMENTS. I would bet $1000 on it.
NC...all they do is place a paper inside what ever they took, a love letter to his girlfriend...
How Donald planned for inflation...what a joke.
Looks like a cover for the Circus...fluster.
I wonder, how much that raid cost, no wonder we are so inflated, mellifluous beneath the rocks...infection.
Here is what Bari could have written—
Dear Readers,
I had planned to post today an article on the problems of Jews in Russia, but I decided to postpone it. The raid on Mar a Lago is an unprecedented event in America and an insult to our democracy. It shocks me, and I intend to get all the facts and present them to my readers. Right or left, this is not acceptable.
Why should she postpone today's article without something to replace it with? We got no article yesterday. I think you're expecting far too much if you are expecting Bari to write RIGHT NOW about what concerns you most at this moment. This is an essay blog, not a 24-hour news channel.
Because normally I would be interested in Jews in Russia, but not today.
Today I fear for my country. Even more than ever.
I really hope it backfires on the Democrats
I was thinking it would be best for Trump to step aside and for DeSantis to run, but now?! I will vote for Trump and pray he wins and fires the DOJ.
I'll take either one. Either one will fire the DOJ and aim a blowtorch at the entire Washington establishment, with the backing of a freshly elected America-First Congress.
I’m praying for both President Trump’s safety and that he wins 2024 these bad actors will stop at nothing. They can see his popularity and it’s goes with all races in America the Dems like chickens without heads
Nc...Bingo!
Trump is the only R that could *possibly* lose to Biden. Why take that chance?
Trump had four years to purge the FBI of Democrat activists, and he failed to do it.
For much of that time, he was under investigation by Mueller and unable to fire the DOJ heirarchy without triggering an impeachment. Which they did anyway.
It’s a miracle he accomplished what he did which was a fortune for us.
yeh...iffin he was a dictator...so good point, Frog
I agree with everything that has happen from 2015 till today, the deep state has put such fear into all of us. They are capable of anything.
Okay - and if Bari were to write exactly that - but then publish an article that would perhaps question the FBI's tactics and motives but were to also show light on the evidence presented to a judge that convinced him (or her) to enable the seizure to take place, that a law is thought to have been broken, classified documents not returned to the Archives as demanded, US law as written in 1978 - would you accept the article at least as being evenhanded?
Or would you condemn it for not following the narrative you already believe?
I expect 100% honesty on this site. What I pay for.
In the past Bari and Nellie have exposed their bias against Trump. It’s almost genetic. But I am OK factoring that in.
A trove of classified documents in MAL does not warrant the action taken. It is an outrage and a new low for America. As I posted already, I believe this is about planting incriminating documents.
Today I just can’t care about Jews in Russia.
I respect your opinion. It’s unfortunate that a judge saw evidence suggesting otherwise.
I have been a fan of Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt's writings for a long time and I accept that she has a personal attachment to this story. However, I am much more concerned about America ceasing to be a free and democrat republic based on a Constitution. The politicization of the IRS, the Justice Dep't, the Capitol police and more parts of government is extremely scary. This is not the time to focus on foreign countries or stratifying us into groups: women, men, Christians, Jews, atheists, rich, poor, heterosexual or homosexual. Every person with a moral compass is in danger if America continues down the path she is on. We Jews, like many people, often keep our eyes on the rear-view mirror (remember the Maginot Line?). Putin and Russia aren't the danger today as much as what is going on in America is.
On a the basis of actual fear of violence on a regular basis, Jews are probably still safer in Moscow than they are in many parts of Paris or London.
Not to beat last week's dead horse, but among European countries, Jews appear to be safest in Budapest. (That's what happens when you don't allow massive numbers of Syrian Muslim immigrants into your country... you get less antisemitism than your neighbors who open their doors.)
Don't fret too much, Susan. All we need is an external enemy. Russia might do the trick, China is more likely. Or maybe some incredible natural disaster. But in the end, we're all Americans and whether we are red, blue and everything in between, we'll pull together.
And in your fears of our 'free and democrat republic' ceasing to exist - well, we're still free to write this. Right? Trump is free to exult in his indignation and incite his followers. Right?
We are still the country enjoying the most freedom on earth..
Keep that in mind.
I hope you're right, Lee, but I seem to remember that after Sept 11, the kumbaya moment lasted only a few months, and we were a lot less philosophically divided then.
I was in graduate school at the time, and there were people in my department saying that we DESERVED 9/11 on 9/12. The kumbaya didn't even last a day. Within a few months, people were regularly "horrified" (in their own words) to see "so many" U.S. flags.
My best friend's aunt--a pacifist lesbian--thought that we should just surrender to the Islamists instead of trying to resist them. (She was sure that she would be safe--and able to form happy lesbian relationships--in an Arab conqueror's harem.)
I do not believe there is any incident in the world that could bring the Left back from the hatred of America they are currently devoted to. A takeover by China would reveal millions of quislings, including many within our own government.
The FBI's unprecedented raid on Donald Trump's home comes to mind.
This may tick off some folks here, but I've read through this entire article, and it sounds like pretty typical political repression of those seen to be aiding an enemy. While I'm sure there are some who are using that as a cloak simply because they hate Jews, there's not a lot of evidence of that in this article.
One of the things I've learned is to change the races of a story and see what I think of it. If there was a private agency in America that was coordinating the migration of American blacks to Liberia, and Liberia started actively supporting China against the US, and the US response was to raid the agency and charge its directors with violating the Foreign Registration Act... would you think that was racism? Or is it political repression?
Please understand, I'm not arguing that it's a good thing in either case. But it doesn't sound like religious or ethnic persecution (which is what antisemitism means, at least to me) but a basic political disagreement. Vladimir Putin is trying to hurt political opponents and dissenters. The fact that some of those dissenters are Jewish doesn't mean Putin hates Jews; it means Putin hates dissent. I certainly could be wrong in this assessment, but this article features a lot of "we fear it might get bad", but not much evidence that it actually is turning bad for Russian Jews -- because they're Jewish. It's appears to be turning bad for Russian dissenters of all stripes, but that's not antisemitic. That's typical authoritarian politics.
Israel is not a country. It is a “settler colony”. My Woke Masters have decreed it, so it must be so.
As I’ve told my Jewish friends, for decades, how does an ideology that guts the Rule of Law by creating a hierarchy of rights based on victimhood, and the victimhood is based on disparities in outcomes, not entrap a group that dramatically outperforms?
The Squad etc aren’t necessarily antisemitic as much as they are just consistent with their dangerous ideology. The ideology just disproportionately impacts successful groups, like Jews, Asians etc.
No, they’re Jew haters.
What Tom's basically saying is, why the hell are American Jews voting for Democrats, especially the kind of extreme left wingers who would see Israel destroyed or absorbed into some kind of Arab state?
well, its better to be safe then sorry, if things really fall apart in Russia even if state sponsored anti-semitism doesn't fully take hold, there will be plenty of non state actors looking who will happily exploit hatred of Jews for their own benefit. And not for nothing this is one of the primary reasons Israel must always exists, as a harbor.
I absolutely love Israel and Jewish people and totally respect all that they have gone through.
I would like to simply point out that the America that saved the Jews in 1945 is now punishing its own 'dissidents'(patriots) in our own Gulag's(D.C.).
For the first time in history an American president - the one who finally moved our embassy to Jerusalem - has been raided by the Stasi(FBI).
The American UniParty is no different than Putin; at least Putin is rightly protecting his nation against the globalists. No, I am not saying Puting is a good man in any way.
Without America there is no Israel. Let the focus be on America right now.
As a point of comparison, Israel, exalted by you and everyone here - has been investigating Netanyahu for years and has even charged him for bribery etc..
No citizen is above the law, even a leader. Netanyahu may end up being innocent. Trump may not even be charged. But in a democracy, everyone should be held accountable equally if a law is believed to be broken.
So let's focus on America - and relax.
Not one person on Epstein's client list has been charged. We can no longer pretend that no one is above the law when it is abundantly obvious that some people ARE, in fact, above the law.
Western civilization would be a very bland stew without the contributions of the Jewish people. The "slippery slope" that Jews face in Russia is taking shape here and in Europe as well; the persecutions and intolerance of the past have been largely ignored or forgotten and none of us will be richer for that selective amnesia.
Yes but it's just so much easier to focus blame on the villainous Putin than to criticize the Democrat Party which coddles the progressive left and its nascent anti-Semitism.
That is true, but I don't think Bari would be at all hesitant to criticize the Democrats on that point, and several others as well, I suspect.
Very informative. I find a variety of perspectives to be helpful.