Waldo JaquithThere's a group chat that includes Michael Dell, Howard Schultz, Bill Ackman, Daniel Loeb, and nearly 100 other powerful kajillionaires whose names are less well-known. They used it to advocate for arresting protesters at Columbia University and to fund-raise for New York City mayor Eric Adams. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/05/16/business-leaders-chat-group-eric-adams-columbia-protesters/
I hope they named the chat "Skull and Bones” or “Illuminati" or something.
Coach Pāṇini ®
Chris Zubak-Skees
Michal Migurski 🍉@waldoj normal democracy stuff
@migurski Very cool very healthy stuff
Idan Gazit
andy grossI don't think most people -- Jews especially -- who are involved in the demonstrations against genocide are unconcerned about threats of violence against Jews.
My primary motivation is serving justice. But trying to preserve for my son the social empathy for Jews that I was blessed to grow up in is also a big part of my motivation.
It's never too late to join us, my brother. If you want safety us, build safety for all. That's all that has ever worked. #freegaza #bringthemhomenow
@andrewrgross @waldoj @migurski To call warfare "genocide" is to be racist. Warfare is tragic. Death is tragic. Not all tragedy is genocide. Calling it such is accepting a racist lie whose purpose it is to delegitimize and dehumanize Jews. It is legitimate to defend the nation from an enemy who makes no secret of their desire to commit ACTUAL genocide.
You are entitled to hold those racist opinions. But I do not accept them, nor do I forgive them. There is one just path here, and it has been available to Palestine this entire time: the return of the hostages and the surrender of Hamas.
@andrewrgross @waldoj @migurski If the jews who are standing shoulder to shoulder with the people saying "river to the sea" and spraypainting slogans equating the star of david to the swastika cannot see what they are supporting, I pity them too. But I don't forgive them — they are adults and they could condemn the tide of lies and racism from their peers.
Demonstrations for peace are a legitimate thing. The mob violence is not within the same area code as a demonstration for peace. They are literally calling for more violence. And they normalize others to join in. It does not take very much critical thinking to observe this. And it does not require sacrificing a measure of my empathy for Gazans or my humanity to state it.
I'm going to repeat what I said:
If we want to combat antisemtism, we can only do so from the starting principle that all humans have worth.
I grew up in perhaps the best era to be Jewish of any I know of, and I don't want my son to lose out on that. Jews who call out hatred, Jews who reject the us-versus-them myth... we're not fools, we're trying to rouse the rest of you from your slumber:
Calling all criticism of Israel antisemitism is dulling our sharpest weapon when we need it most, and defending unspeakable crimes against humanity is throwing away our shield when we need it most.
To repeat:
It is never too late to join us. If you want safety for Jews: build safety for EVERYONE. That is all that has ever worked. #freegaza #bringthemhomenow
@andrewrgross @waldoj @migurski This canard of "all criticism of Israel is antisemitism" is not an effective one to use with me, especially since I've actually demonstrated in Israel as an Israeli and not only in the most recent judicial overhaul demonstrations.
To call Israel's just prosecution of Hamas "a genocide" is not merely factually incorrect. It is propaganda. It is not mere criticism of the government because all messages have both a sender and a recipient. And the recipients are not interpreting it as "that shitbag Netanyahu has made some bad choices." They are very loudly and clearly interpreting it as "Jews are evil", "Israel is evil", and giving themselves license — especially on the back of such criticisms from Jews — to call for the death of every Israeli as the cost of the inherent Israeli evil.
It is not an "unspeakable crime against humanity" to wage war on those who demonstrate, in blood and misery, their resolve to murder us.
@andrewrgross @waldoj @migurski Or perhaps you have some revolutionary idea about how to wage warfare in dense urban settings with fewer civilian casualties? Magical munitions that only harm the bad guys?
If not, then you're merely holding Israel up to a higher standard than literally every other nation in the history of warfare — fact.
You want to fight for peace? Cool. Peace will not be had so long as anyone believes that there's a future without Israel. Are you using your voice to shout down those who are, in coded language or the more explicit "burn Tel Aviv to the ground," calling for the end of Israel as their solution to this conflict?
You can have compassion and a functional bullshit detector. Right now, your speech shows that you have plenty of the former, and none of the latter.
@andrewrgross @waldoj @migurski In any case, no, I will not join you in your fantastical quest — not because I do not share your aims or your values. It is because I think your methods are achieving the opposite of what we both want: an end to bloodshed, and both nations enjoying security and an imperfect measure of justice.
Peace will not happen so long as people believe there's a possible future without Israel. You want peace, start putting energy towards denormalizing those who hold that up as a viable option.
Reading over my comments, I had one more thought to share, and after that you can have any final word you want.
I get that I sound naive. I get that my idealism is a luxury that the people living in Israel-Palestine don't get. I know that I sound infuriatingly detached.
But I want to be clear that I don't think I'm the one with simple views afraid to confront a painful reality. I think it's the inverse.
There's a mental exercise I find helpful for distinguishing hard truths from simple lies we tell ourselves: ask if you were to turn off logic and do what felt good in the moment -- to listen to your primal brain -- what you would do.
That is usually the easy path, and the opposite is the hard one.
So lets all ask: is fighting with unreserved fury the hard work we must do? Or is that the misguided temptation we must resist?
Is holding back the tears of pain and rage and finding the power to negotiate a path forward weakness? Or the hard, necessary work?
Today IS the day after.
@andrewrgross @waldoj @migurski The fact that you believe we are living in the day after, really, says it all.
October seventh was not The Day. It was A day. Like many other days. And in the days following that one day of darkness, when I could not stop sobbing uncontrollably at the deaths of so many innocents to such naked evil and brutality, I thought I would not ever feel sadder.
But I look around at the overwhelming, unignorable tides of Jew hatred, — and worse, the fact that it has somehow become mainstreamed and normalized — and I realize that I am sadder still. The dead will not return. But I have lived to see my children inherit a worse world than the one I grew up in. One where peace was an aspiration and racists were ashamed to openly display their antisemitism.
Now they scrawl swastikas on my daughter's desk at school, here in California. Her peers chant "river to the sea" as if it is not a horrific call to the murder of millions. I thought I could not feel more sad. I was wrong.
@andrewrgross @waldoj @migurski It was my childhood that was the dream. This day after was the reality all along. Progressives were just as bad as the fascists — all along. It doesn't matter how many social and economic policies I share with the left.
There is no safety while the world remains silent about this tumor of hatred that has metastasized throughout society. But maybe I grew up fooling myself that there was safety at all.
Ponygirl@idan @andrewrgross @waldoj @migurski Antisemitism was mainstreamed and normalized in America before 10/7, by the right, including psychos like Kanye West and the Proud Boys. The tens of thousands of college protestors are not among them. They see the indiscriminate killing and they want it to stop. Period. Like the Vietnam college protests 50 years ago, these protests will be validated in the future.
@andrewrgross @waldoj @migurski I do not tolerate stances that functionally boil down to racism, not against others, and not against Jews. I do not keep an open mind to that, or stances that functionally amount to it.
You, and every other Jew who is not Israeli, are stuck in a difficult place. You are held to account for the actions — or mere existence — of a nation of which you might not feel a part of. You might not even have the historical context to be able to sift through the noise and understand the perspectives; this rabbithole is quite bottomless, and many discussions die in the depths of "and before that…"
You — rarely — admit that you lack context, and do not pretend to speak from an authoritative place about Israel. On that: bravo.
You tightly couple your empathy to the parts that are, functionally, tropes of hate. I don't understand why. You can have empathy without surrendering your ethics.
I share your empathy for others and your wish for a brighter future that includes peace and prosperity.
Misuse Case@andrewrgross @idan @waldoj @migurski Yeah, for sure people like Idan are not doing any favors to me (an American Jew) by cheerfully abusing the term “antisemitism” into meaninglessness.
@MisuseCase @andrewrgross @waldoj @migurski you think there's anything cheerful or insincere about my very real lived experience? Or perhaps you feel I'm uninformed? Or are you just uncomfortable with hard truths.
@MisuseCase @andrewrgross @waldoj @migurski for.*whom* (my grammarian surfaces)
Hard truths for you, and your racist ostriching.
@idan @andrewrgross @waldoj @migurski Yeah, that’s what I thought. They’re “hard” for me, harder for Palestinians, but conveniently easy for you.
@MisuseCase @andrewrgross @waldoj @migurski effectively you choose to dehumanize Jews and Israelis, reducing the value of our lives so you can make statements like that, racist
Avi Rappoport (avirr)@waldoj @migurski @andrewrgross @idan When a thousand Israelis die, it’s a tragedy and could be considered an attempted genocide. When tens of thousands of Palestinians die, it’s a tragedy and a more effective attempt at genocide. Peace.
Andrew Laurence@waldoj This is the group for whom Trump’s tax giveaway was designed.
HTPC NZ@waldoj this is why I don't understand why people think Biden's mega donors want him to win, they don't. They can fund the campaign, pretend to look good of being on the team "do no evil" and get more money right back from Trump tax cuts with no consequences to themselves... Bonus they will get their wish to have protests outlawed and have more corrupt judges appointed etc. I hear you say there will be no more elections, does it matter to them when politicians are in their pocket?
Just Darby@waldoj - no more kind bars
Sensible Crone
Heliograph@waldoj feudalism at its finest 😳 we're so going backwards 😬
@waldoj "Therefore, they did." -Finished it!!
This is Hell
Doreen32128 ready to rumble!@waldoj Interesting!