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it's ok to be an antisemite

One of the most notorious attacks on the Israel people is the claim that most of them have dual citizenship with one foot out the door. The arab enemies of Israel rationalize this as a way of deligitimizing the jewish people's connection with Israel. But more problematic is leftists in the West, both Jewish and non Jewish, who maintain that native born Israelis are not truly committed to perserving the Jewish state. That the Jews can be driven out of Israel through wars of attrition. These people call Israel a settler project that can broken through internationally pressure like South Africa. For example the evil anti-Israel Irish Woman Clare Daly and her ilk fervently believe this. These people are all over youtube proclaiming the end of the Zionist state because of Israel's present difficuties. I think Professor Feldman speaks to this effectively.

Bret is very smart and articulate. Love listening to him

The culpable professors aren't just neglecting their duty to "complexify" .... they are often the ones encouraging extreme anti-Zionist and antisemitic (and anti-West) "thinking" - sometimes punishing those who don't comply.

The Palestinians don't want a state; they want it all minus the jews.

If I could ask a question, I'd ask Noah Feldman: What sort of Jewish education did you give your children? Without much Jewish education other than little remembered Hebrew School, my mother read Ethics of the Fathers in English and realized, Judaism is the most moral religion. And my mother decided to marry a Shomer Shabbat (Sabbath observant) man and keep an observant Jewish home. My father had a great deal of Jewish education, attended yeshiva, but my father grew up living with his grandparents. I never asked my father about his relationship with his grandfather and I sorely regret it. In the 1940s, however, most people grew up with religious parents or grandparents who were an influence. My mother's father was European and observant. Now that is not the case. We have intellectual parents, Harvard professors, who know so little it is very sad.

What an admission by this professor! That his children could just "walk away" from being Jewish without a backward glance! It means he gave no Jewish education to his children as is available today. When I attended Hebrew University as an American student 50 years ago, it was filled with American Jewish students who hadn't' any Jewish education other than the minimal Hebrew School. Now all is different; every city has a full time Jewish day school. That Noah Feldman didn't give his children such an education - it is an admission of neglect. Not everyone is spiritual as NF expects. But everyone can learn the mitzvot and study the Tanach - if that person has sufficient education.

If we chase away the Jewish community and at the same time have porous borders we will lose many of our most stable and functioning citizens to those who are seeking refuge.

Feculent Jew

Israel is dropping bombs defensively whereas Russia initiated an attack

Stephens collapses toward the end; Lapid? Bennett? Gallant? the first is an empty, little man who was flattered & duped by hochstein to surrender sovereign assets in exchange for NOTHING. Bennett knew it was wrong & went along with it. Gallant has been an inadequate war leader & has at various times encouraged blinken to think that he, Gallant, can fracture the govt in wartime so that Israel would accept defeat & the survival of hamas.

Stephens right on formulation: "yes to pln state like UAE; no to pln state like yemen." Stephens wrong on likelihood that egypt can be induced by debt relief to a more salutary modus vivendi w Israel; egypt has calculated the econ & other benefits of its recently revealed support for hamas. Stephens horribly wrong in supporting biden's 2020 presidential bid.

What an enlightening interview! Thanks for giving me some peace of mind that I am not insane when I think that the left and so called “ progressive “ has gone so off rail! 👏👏👍👍

Very interesting interview, however I do think that prof. Stephens confuses some of his own positions with the position of an Israeli and a Gazan citizen. For example, the so called hated of the Gazans towards Hamas, isn’t bared by the polls. If anything, according to the latest reports, the support for Hamas among the Palestinians has risen quite notably. Also, most of Israelis I talked to, do understand that returning the hostages and eliminating Hamas, most likely are contradictory aims. However, almost everyone I hod this discussion with, had a clear priority among the two. In my limited field of reference, most regarded the elimination of Hamas, as the more strategically important goal.

The answer given, or not given to the question of NYT’s problematic coverage of Israel was itself problematic. The NYT’s has a decades old history of hostility not only to Israel, but to Jews and authentic Judaism. His answer demonstrates that he is more concerned about his well paying, comfortable position and the accompanying prestige than he is speaking truth to power and confronting Times management. If he had real integrity he would follow in the footsteps of Bari Weiss and walk away from what has clearly become an antisemitic rag.

Excellent

Great interview with a sensible and grounded person

There is so much here that indeed gives language to what many of us are feeling. Excellent interview. Thanks for your voice at this challenging time Bret. I was in Israel and the West Bank last month and came away inspired by the peoples who still want to heal into something better. As to potential Palestinian leaders: check out the people who are involved with Roots/Shorashim. Several true Mandelas there.

@Minimmal Re “One point… Israel-Palestinian conflict…Hamas” Even if true - which you cite no evidence for - are you justifying the 10/7 Hamas slaughter of 1,200 innocent civilians because of past alleged misbehavior by Jews against Hamas ancestors? If not, what’s your point? I find it curious you have nothing positive to say about Israel or Jews on a video produced by a Jewish organization (Hillel) for the benefit of Jewish/Israeli students at Harvard who’ve been subjected to harassment, intimidation and antisemitism.

As the late William Buckley Jr. once said, he'd rather be governed by the first five hundred people in the phone book than the Harvard faculty.

Muhammad was a "perfect" man? A killer, a plunderer, a pedophile? I would hardly put Muhammad on a list with Jesus or Buddha.

The NYT is a radical Zionist publication. Should be registered foreign agent They have promoted the Ukraine war with lies and are responsible for the deaths of over 500000 Ukrainians.

Bret, make up your mind. If we live in the democratic society you espouse, is there some reason you can't say anything else about the NYT than it's the most wonderful newspaper in the world (heaven help the world!) ? They aren't going to fire you the way NPR fired that reporter. I've followed you from the Journal (which is to me a far better paper) to the Times as I watched the Times lose its way. There was too much double talk in your responses to the host and the questions from the audience. I just don't know what to make of you lately. And that is based on a number of podcasts I've heard you on since 10/07.

Pan Arab police force is a terrible idea- 1. Do you expect this force to maintain control using physically against extremist Palestinians? That’s a big ask that’s likely cause more problems that help. I don’t see any sensible Arab country agreeing to this. 2. When security threats are identified and the Arab forces don’t want to immediately act on them, how will isreal respond ? I don’t see them risking another Oct 7th. This will do far more damage to diplomatic and security relationships with these countries than anything positive that could come from it.

This is the condensed thinking of Zionism.

To paraphrase Jefferson with my additions: REBELLION to (Zionist) TYRANNY is OBEDIENCE to (ALLAH) GOD. Israel, the last neo-colonial power, is increasingly isolated in the world community, especially in the UN, the Security Council, Nato, the ICC and ICJ---witness the many UN General Assembly votes opposite the USA and Israel and a few island nations, et al. The rest of the world community and its many Pro-Palestinian protests around the globe--even the call for statehood by Brazil, Spain, Ireland, and Norway, et al.--express the virulent condemnation and OVERWHELMING opposition to the horrors of what is going on in GAZA. Americans themselves are sick and tired of being dragged into every one of Israel's endless squabbles with its neighbors! They are NEVER grateful to us--even insulting to many presidents (Bibi denouncing Obama's Iran policy in the House was outrageous to most of us and an excess of chutzpah!) Israeli news should be on page 23--not on the front page every day! They're West Asians; we're North Americans. We have so little in common. TMI for ALL of US!

Bret gets it wrong---again! There is FAR MORE anti-Islamism in Zionist-dominated Israel than there is anti-Semitism in Christian-led America.(That's my experience while on a kibbutz for a summer in 1980 and on another trip in 1976, too.) The problem is irate youth taking the genocidal crimes of Zionist Israel out on innocent mainly secular Jews in America--many of whom support JVP and all the other groups I support--while I listen to Chomsky, Finkelstein, Amy Goodman, et al. Long Live Palestine and BDS, an American birthright that can NEVER be taken away by any legislature. End Apartheid in GAZA.

Bret is marginally better than the glib Ross Douthat.

Bret is intelligent,articulate and worried and rightly so. His kind of speech is becoming more rare and will never hold off the mob.

Thank you for a brilliant interview. I've gained great insights from it, especially the part that "Zionism in 1948 was about Jews wanting to govern themselves, and not to be governed by others, but by the same token, not to govern over others who did not want to be governed by them, that is the Jews..." Just brilliant! 👌🏼💪🏼✌🏼

He should register as a foreign agent.

‘Biden doesnt seem to have a concept of victory…’ that is a very accurate diagnosis of the problem with current US foreign policy

Making an analogy between the Israel/Hamas war and the Russia/Ukraine war is seriously sloppy thinking. The only similarity is state sovereignty was violated by an aggressor. The nature of the aggressor and the attacked are different as well as the surrounding geostrategic environment.

Queers for Hamas actually makes sense politically. Without Hamas, the US Empire wouldn’t have a good frontier right now. And without a frontier, the behavioral sink would become too destabilizing, and the government would push a homophobic agenda, like Stalin in the 30s.

Hertzel witnessed the Dreyfus affair during the big French behavioral sink, Kahan witnessed what happened on the West Coast during the 60s and started Kahanism. Jews should certainly adjust their policies based on feedback from the current moment. Feedback and growth and change are important for any institution to survive, Judaism included.

Very valuable presentation. Thank you, Harvard Hillel, for this marvelous series!

I have always admired Bret Stephens, but this conversation is a huge disappointment. It’s reasonable and nice, but not more than that. No new insights or analysis, maybe a concern about a penumbra of not vocal anti-Israel faculty and students surrounding protests has not been emphasized enough. Bret has a mild case of Trump derangement syndrome and Netanyahu derangememt syndrome, plus what appears like strict, possibly legal, constrains about contradicting the party line of NYT, which made it a colorless and boring conversation. Absence of interesting questions and follow-up from the host didn’t help either. Again, just an intellectually meek and timid conversation. Compare with Niall Ferguson recent talks

small correction, Israel is fighting more than two - three fronts. Israel is fighting seven fronts, all support by iran: gaza, lebanon, syria, iraq, yaman, and iran itself

What a joy to listen to such an intelligent, informed view on the current issues; a breath of fresh air.

What an eloquent bedbug

A recent mews video of a Stanford or Yale (?) Professor saying he arrived at the University but discovered his entry card to emter. Campus had been dosactivated , he was only told when he attemped to pass the gate by security guards that „For security reasons he is not allowed to enter Campus for his safety”. He attemped to give a speech how this is wrong and rings historic Antisemic University Bans and Quotas enforced on Jewish People in the early-mid XX century in America and Europe. His words are barely heard over the protestors booing and mocking the professor. Not allowing Jewish professors, staff, and students from working and attenting classes at Universities „for security reasons” is wrong on multiple and antisemitic. Imagine any other minority being banned from enterimg American campuses „so as not to cause unrest among protestors”.

Cry me a river. What a paranoid cult.

Are you kidding me?

17:01 Brett should manage Israeli PR. He is 100% correct on this. It seems to be a universal truth that authoritarian regimes are better at messaging. Is it a necessary truth?

I liked Bret's articles in WSJ. I cann't stand NYT. It is so much marxist and antisemitic, so it reminds me papers of my youth: "Izvestiya" and "Pravda". ("News" and "Truth").

I dunno... get ready to compete with and deal with the sociopathic children heading our way as they flee, when Cyprus says get lost, when everywhere says go home? I dunno, coping with the death of sentimentalized racism as an acceptable social force in academia? It is good to have a hobby, anyway.

I don´t think the alternative meal has to specifically be kosher, a vegetarian option would do perfectly well, if that´s available it should be counted. On the issue of Israel vs Palestine, I think many people are too tetchy about any criticism of Israel and link it to antisemitism far too quickly. One point I would make is that the Israelis funded the ancestors of Hamas to undermine Arab nationalism. The thing is, offence taking and shutting down conversations is a huge issue and pro-Israel groups are some of the worst for it. If you just point out facts, they start screaming and yelling "anti-semite".

Jfk

Tired of the jew haters

Looks like you want to be treated as a privileged group rather than a true equality. You're not the chosen people and you will never be.