Greetings from sunny southern California, folks!
I’m visiting my family out here to celebrate my niece’s bat mitzvah this weekend, which gave my mother the opportunity to tell Waj he’s handsome and that she’s a big fan. So that was fun for everyone involved! She’s ready to join the Jewish grandmother contingent of Waj’s ever-growing fan club.
Waj and I kicked off our conversation by discussing the anti-democratic push by Trump, Israel’s far right, and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu himself to secure a pardon for Netanyahu — who is still on trial for bribery, fraud, and break of public trust. In Haaretz, Dahlia Scheindlin wrote about the latest developments in that effort. As we noted, Trump and Netanyahu work closely with other right-wing leaders (including Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Argentina’s Javier Milei) to support each others’ authoritarian projects at home and foreign policies abroad.
As the disastrous US-Israeli war against Iran closes out its first month, we discussed the rising threats against Jewish Americans and increasing Islamophobia against Muslim Americans. The safety of Diaspora Jewry is not a significant concern for Netanyahu, whose most reliable supporters in the US are Christian Zionists. Many Jewish Americans oppose Netanyahu and Trump’s war against Iran — though we lack reliable polling that would enable us to determine the extent of support/opposition. I noted a poll by the Jewish People Policy Institute that surveyed “connected Jews” — a curated group of respondents who are “more engaged in Jewish communal life and more attentive to Israel and Jewish issues than the broader public.” In Jewish Currents, Jonathan Nathan-Kazis underscores the unrepresentative “right-leaning, pro-Israel bias” of the sample.
We spoke about the growing backlash against AIPAC and the danger that more Americans will be seduced by far-right antisemitic figures like Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, and Candace Owens, as Democratic leadership maintains ties to AIPAC. As I recently discussed with former Congresswoman Marie Newman, AIPAC suffered serious setbacks in the Illinois Democratic primaries, where millions in spending through shell PACs couldn’t stop the victory of Daniel Biss and a strong second-place finish by Kat Abughazaleh in Illinois’ ninth congressional district. Top 2028 Democratic contenders are taking notice and pledging not to accept money from AIPAC.
As we closed, Waj asked me how the US should reset its relationship with Israel. To begin, US foreign policy toward Israel must be consistent with US and international law — including laws regulating arms transfers, such as the Leahy Law, the Foreign Assistance Act, and the Arms Export Control Act. (For those interested in diving deeper, you can check out this primer on domestic and international law relating to arms transfers, published by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.) In addition, future US policy on Israel-Palestine must be oriented toward achieving justice, equality, and peace for both Palestinians and Israelis — in accordance with United Nations resolutions and domestic and international legal obligations. The Democrats’ days of paying lip service to a two-state solution for Israel-Palestine, while issuing black checks that support right-wing Israeli governments in entrenching the Occupation must end.
I’d love to hear what you think!
Next Up on The Debrief
Monday, March 30, at 1pm Eastern:
I’m delighted to announced that Aaron David Miller — one of the premier experts on US policy in the Middle East — will join me to discuss where Trump and Netanyahu’s war against Iran is going and how it can be brought to an end. A senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Aaron served at the State Department for a quarter-century (from 1978 to 2003). During that time, he helped formulate US policy on the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli peace process, most recently as the senior advisor for Arab-Israeli negotiations. Aaron is a frequent commentator on CNN, NPR and the BBC and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations as well as a past resident scholar at the Georgetown Center for Strategic and International Studies. Between 2003 and 2006, Aaron served as president of Seeds of Peace, a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering young leaders from regions of conflict with the leadership skills required to advance reconciliation and coexistence. Miller is a co-chair of the New Israel Fund’s International Council. He has written five books, including The End of Greatness: Why America Can’t Have (and Doesn’t Want) Another Great President.
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I hope to see you on Monday for the discussion with Aaron David Miller!
Warm regards,
Debra
