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JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT. |
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WHAT’S DRIVING THE AMERICAN JEWISH CONVERSATION |
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Good morning. Today: Netanyahu apologizes for Oct. 7 (and keeps stalling about an investigation); backlash against minister’s comments appearing to condone mass starvation; and a starry new film about the birth of Saturday Night Live. |
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Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a campaign rally on Aug. 8. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images) |
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With 87 days left until the U.S. presidential election, here are three recent op-eds on a race evolving at lightning speed:
Opinion | Kamala Harris has the perfect response to anti-Israel hecklers. Harris’ striking response to protesters who interrupted a recent rally — “If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that” — showed that she understands something that President Joe Biden, in his aborted reelection run, failed to: Such protests may be nominally about atrocities in Gaza, but they’re functionally about what happens in the U.S. in November. “The constant disruptions and the unruly jeers are no great help to Palestinian civilians,” writes senior columnist Rob Eshman. “But they are a boon to Republicans.” Read his essay ➤
Plus:
Opinion | Jews are tired of being used as a political football. This election cycle has been peppered with allegations of antisemitism that seem to be more about scoring political points than about protecting Jews, writes deputy opinion editor Nora Berman. The result: A Jewish electorate that, far from feeling invigorated and cared for, is coming to dread the constant headlines about politicians professing to care deeply about our plight. “As we begin a new chapter in the presidential race, fewer than 90 days away from casting our ballots, is it possible to simply let Jews be people?” Read her essay ➤
Opinion | Responding to Walz pick, the right resorts to antisemitism-baiting. A recent example of the exhaustion-inducing phenomenon Nora identified: Republicans’ attempt to spin Harris’ passing over Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate as antisemitic. “If the Harris team had it in for Shapiro because he was Jewish, how did he make it to the final two candidates anyway?” wonders columnist Jay Michaelson. “Did they just discover this fact on Aug. 5?” Read his essay ➤ |
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A French sports fan displays her national pride. (Getty Images) |
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They’re celebrating the Olympics in Paris, but the war in the Middle East feels close at hand. Visiting Paris in the waning days of the Summer Olympics, Aviya Kushner recalls the pleasure of less fraught moments spent in the French capital, remembering “the delicious matzos made with orange liqueur that I bought here years ago when I studied at the Sorbonne.” But as fears of attacks related to the Israel-Hamas war have increased around Europe, expressions of Jewish identity in the city can feel actively dangerous — particularly if they involve any affiliation with Israel. “Each morning in my hotel, I carefully put anything with Hebrew on it — like contact-lens solution I had purchased in Israel — in my suitcase, and then zip it up,” Aviya writes. Read her essay ➤
Latest on the war… Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized for Oct. 7 in a new interview with Time, his first conversation with a major American outlet since the war began. And he repeated a line that he’s often deployed in the months since the Hamas attack, saying that an investigation into the Israeli government failures involved in the catastrophe should wait until the war is won and done.
The European Union and United Nations condemned remarks by Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, that seemed to suggest the mass starvation of Palestinians in Gaza “might be just and moral.”
The Biden administration joined with Egypt and Qatar in calling on Israel and Hamas to finalize a ceasefire deal according to terms Biden laid out in late May. Israel said negotiators would participate in further talks next week, while some Middle Eastern leaders expressed the hope that Iran would hold off on an anticipated retaliation against Israel over the assassination of Hamas’ political leader in return for progress on ceasefire talks.
The Israeli military embarked on its third offensive of the war in Khan Younis, ordering another mass evacuation of the Gazan city.
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Palestinian women walk past a graffiti of the Star of David under an inverted “red triangle.” (Hazem Bader/AFP via Getty Images) |
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Pro-Palestinian vandals are painting red inverted triangles on their targets. What does it mean? “Pro-Palestinian protesters have made liberal use of the inverted red triangle,” writes news editor Lauren Markoe: “They daubed it on the apartment building of a Columbia University leader Thursday, on a replica of the Liberty Bell in Washington, D.C., in July and on the home of the Jewish director of the Brooklyn Museum in June.“ Now, there’s controversy over whether the stateside popularization of the symbol — which terror groups in the Middle East have occasionally used to mark targets — should be considered threatening. Read the story ➤ |
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A still from the new film Legend of Destruction. (Courtesy of Legend of Destruction) |
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Zealotry is dividing Israel — and a groundbreaking film shows it’s not the first time. An astonishingly artistic new film about the onset of the First Jewish-Roman War feels notably contemporary in its portrayal of a Jewish society fracturing as a consequence of religious extremism, writes culture writer Mira Fox. That doesn’t mean zealotry should always be seen as a negative phenomenon, said director Gidi Dar, comparing it to “nuclear power”: “You can create a lot of light with it or destroy everything.” |
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READERS LIKE YOU SHAPE EVERY PART OF OUR WORK |
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Reporting on war, antisemitism and a high-stakes election takes resources. Help us expand our ability to bring you independent, unbiased news and analysis. |
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WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY |
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Fallout over Columbia University’s spring of protest continues. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) |
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👀 Three Columbia University deans who exchanged text messages that invoked antisemitic tropes during the spring semester’s campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war resigned. (New York Jewish Week)
⚖️ A federal lawsuit that accused MIT of enabling antisemitic activity on campus was dismissed; the same judge ruled that a separate, similar suit against Harvard can move forward. (Associated Press)
🥊 The White House criticized Missouri Rep. Cori Bush’s threat to AIPAC that she would “tear your kingdom down” following her primary loss earlier this week, with Biden’s press secretary saying, “The president has always been very clear, and very recently, after the assassination attempt of the last president, about lowering rhetoric.” (JTA)
✡️ Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled that an election for new chief rabbis must be announced by October; the previous chief rabbis’ terms ended on July 1, amid a stalemate over whether and how women might be represented in the election. (Times of Israel)
What else we’re reading ➤ “J.D. Vance used to be an atheist. What he believes now is telling” … “The radicalization of Israel’s military” … “Confessions of a Jewish summer camp nepo baby.” |
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The first trailer for Jason Reitman’s film Saturday Night, about the birth pangs of NBC’s iconic sketch show Saturday Night Live, is out and serving up a heaping dose of anxiety. The teaser features Gabriel LaBelle as show creator Lorne Michaels, trying to launch a counterculture program while network executives root for his failure and stage lights and scenery collapse around him. Complicating matters are a famously chaotic — and legendary — cast including an antic Gilda Radner (Ella Hunt), glamorous Laraine Newman (Emily Fairn), and guest Andy Kaufman (Succession’s Nicholas Braun, also doubling as Jim Henson) appearing with his Mighty Mouse record player. And, if my eyes don’t deceive me, that’s Paul Shaffer coaching announcer Don Pardo on how to pronounce “Aykroyd.” |
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Thanks to Benyamin Cohen and PJ Grisar for contributing to today’s newsletter, and to Beth Harpaz for editing it. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com. |
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