Alex גדעון בן װעלװל's Threads

Nov 13 • 6 tweets • 2 min read

Basically every socialist country has indeed failed to end racism and many have committed extremely racist persecution of minorities. A short thread with a few examples.

https://twitter.com/bluntbolshevik/status/1988285083191832801

1) The USSR built an entire hierarchy of “titular” ethnicities and treated Jews, Crimean Tatars, Chechens, Volga Germans, and others as suspect populations. Deportations, internal passports, banned languages. That is systemic racism. Russia's invasion of Ukraine is rooted in this

Nov 6 • 11 tweets • 2 min read

I didn't think anyone was prepared to hear this during the election, but now that it's over I want to talk about this quote from Pirkei Avot that Brad Lander misquoted and misunderstood.

https://twitter.com/bradlander/status/1985799665527189806

1) What is Pirkei Avot? You could translate it as Ethics of the Fathers.

It's a selection of quotes and discussions from the Mishnah.

Usually Jewish texts are focused on the law. This one could be described as a distillation of Jewish philosophy.

Nov 5 • 20 tweets • 3 min read

Some sober thinking for New York Jews and those sympathetic to us on a Mamdani win, a thread. 1) Mamdani won in a historically high turnout election. He won 50.4% of that vote and 49.6% of votes cast were not for him.

He beat a sex pest he had already beaten in the Democratic primary and a crazy cat guy who knew he was not viable.

This dynamic is unlikely to repeat.

Oct 24 • 12 tweets • 3 min read

I keep seeing leftist comedians who have a Jewish parent out for Mamdani doing the "AsAJew" shtick to mock our concerns and be volunteer tokens for this man. A thread on why I have particular contempt for these people. 1) If the only time in your life being Jewish is relevant is to disparage other Jews and their concerns, you're not behaving as a member of our community. You are playing for someone else's team *at our expense.*

Oct 2 • 13 tweets • 3 min read

An old Soviet Jewish joke and then a take:

A long line forms outside the Гастроном (a Soviet state-run grocery store) because word spread that they’ll have meat

Hours pass. A Communist Party official steps out: Comrades, there will not be enough meat for all.

Jews, go home. The line shortens. Hours later the official returns:

“Comrades, do not believe the rumors. There is even less than we thought. Everyone who is not a party member or a pensioner may leave.”

Aug 18 • 13 tweets • 3 min read

The thing I would like for those who fixate on destroying Israel to understand is that this idea is corrosive. Not for Israel, but for the people who hold it. Incoming thread.

1) It is not feasible. You can invoke apartheid South Africa all you want to insult Israel. That regime came down with the collaboration of the whites. They had no memory of genocide. No memory of mass expulsion. No memory of forcible assimilation.

Aug 11 • 30 tweets • 5 min read

There is a fierce argument happening in Israel and across the Jewish world on whether to continue the war in Gaza or cut a deal to get the hostages home and end the war. I'd like to explain why I am in the end the war camp. Thread. 1) The war that Hamas started when they invaded Israel on 10/7 to rape, murder, and kidnap Israelis saw Israel develop two overarching war goals:

-Return the hostages
-Destroy Hamas as a political and military org

These two goals are in tension.

Aug 4 • 10 tweets • 2 min read

The interests and constraints preventing a conclusion of the war in Gaza, a thread. 1) Hamas still has hostages they kidnapped on 10/7.

Every day they remain captive, Hamas keeps leverage. It stalls ceasefire talks, splits Israel’s war cabinet and society, and keeps the war alive. The longer they hold them, the more volatile Israeli politics becomes.

Jul 29 • 16 tweets • 3 min read

Some thoughts on the French initiative to recognize a Palestinian state, the UK's threats to join, and the second order effects of this. 1) We see headlines along the lines of "France to recognize Palestine." Their diplomacy is actually more ambitious. They are lobbying for coordinated EU or international recognition, aiming to give diplomatic weight to the idea of a Palestinian state even as war continues in Gaza

Jul 29 • 12 tweets • 3 min read

I am tired of bad arguments and I am especially tired of Jon Stewart and Peter Beinart, two pet Jews for people who hate us.

Here's some actual arguments about what is happening in Gaza that are much harder to dismiss with semantic debates about antisemitism, a thread.

https://twitter.com/MarcoFoster_/status/1950203620512665894

1) Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007 when it violently took over.

It has received billions in aid meant for schools, hospitals, and basic infrastructure. Instead, Hamas built a vast underground tunnel network, stockpiled weapons, and turned Gaza into a launchpad for war.

Jul 15 • 12 tweets • 3 min read

I don't really believe this matters in the NYC mayoral race, but I do want to talk about the intifada, since most of my Jewish American peers have only been encountering this term for the last two years. For some background for those unfamiliar with me, I am a Soviet born Jew. After the fall of the Soviet Union most of my extended family fled to Israel. Growing up in the 90s and 2000s I would spend my summers in Israel with my cousins.

Jul 9 • 12 tweets • 3 min read

Very often the conversation about antisemitism on this website is about abstractions and tweets and public statements. I want to talk about a recent incident to ground this in real world stakes and flesh out some of my thinking.

Specifically an attempt at a pogrom back in April

Leftists, in response to a perceived grievance against far-right Zionists, sought to incite a mob against the non-Zionist Hasidic community in Crown Heights. They used wildly overheated language like the below to whip up a mob.

Jul 8 • 19 tweets • 3 min read

Something I see a lot of online is Jewish leftists who romanticize the Bund's socialist ethos and anti-Zionism while missing key points of what the Bund was actually about. Quick thread. 1) The Bund was mainly a political movement in and for Eastern Europe. The debates of today, in different geographies, languages, and circumstances do not neatly map on to the politics of that era.

Jul 7 • 7 tweets • 1 min read

My issue with Mamdani’s Columbia application isn’t what it means for the mayoral race.

It’s how high social capital people game systems meant to help the marginalized, crowding out those who don’t know how to play these games. The language of meritocracy makes college applications appear fair.

Everyone “applied.” Everyone had a “chance.” But that hides how some kids had private SAT and essay coaches, family friends on the board, etc... while the poor naively apply thinking it's on a fair footing.

Jul 1 • 12 tweets • 3 min read

I get the anger, but I don't believe this is the right read of what motivates a specific subset of Jews to support the far left. They are not self-hating and they are not embarrassed to be Jews.

Thread.

https://twitter.com/ELuttwak/status/1939830872443596963

1) The average American Jew isn’t raised with deep Jewish literacy. I should know, I was raised the same way.

Most go through public school or secular private school. Holocaust education, bnei mitzvah, and *maybe* a trip to Israel. That’s the foundation and it’s thin.

Jun 26 • 4 tweets • 1 min read

Really into this thing a stream of the left is doing. Israel's conduct doesn't meet the definition of genocide? Let's change the definition.

American Jews tell us our conduct against them in the name of Palestine is antisemitic? Let's change the definition of antisemitism.

https://twitter.com/AJCCEO/status/1938004278083522803

Can’t dunk? Redefine dunking to include layups.

Can’t cook? Redefine “cooking” as anyone who’s seen a stove.

Jun 25 • 10 tweets • 2 min read

I am seeing in public and private a lot of despair and panic from Jews about Mamdani winning the primary. I'd like to offer some advice to calm folks down and effectively respond to the challenges facing us. Thread. 1) This is a common cognitive bias in politics. When you see your opponents win, there is a tendency to see all of their power and all of your helplessness.

We are not helpless. There are more Jews in New York than any city on Earth. We have electoral muscle to throw around.

Jun 25 • 11 tweets • 2 min read

Mamdani appears to be in the lead. I don't know what the final result will be, but I want to note a few things 1) Candidate quality and energy matters. Mamdani may be an extremist, but that"s not how he packaged himself on social media and that"s not how he was presented by one fawning publication after another.

Jun 24 • 13 tweets • 3 min read

CNN is reporting that intelligence produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Pentagon’s intelligence arm, claiming that the strikes did not destroy the core components of Iran's nuclear program and likely only set it back by months.

I'm skeptical. Thread. 1) This is a single agency perspective. America has 18 intelligence agencies, each with their own methods, biases and cultures. This is not an intelligence community-wide assessment.

This limits perspective and may reflect DIA-specific biases rather than a consensus view.

Jun 24 • 16 tweets • 3 min read

People like this have too much confidence and not enough humility to actually consider that we are not "brainwashed" and have real concerns. I will try to lay it out.

1) Jack Schlossberg to my knowledge is not actively involved in any Jewish community here in New York. When he walks down the street he is just another white guy. I am willing to guess he does not have any close friends who have been targeted for harassment and violence.

Jun 24 • 12 tweets • 2 min read

A ceasefire is good, but the long-term struggle with Iran will continue until their foreign policy changes.

Israel and the U.S. have likely set its nuclear program back by years, maybe decades. Iran’s “ring of fire” has been degraded, and Middle East geopolitics has changed. I find in many situations that when assessing if something is good or bad, other people come at it with "it could have been so much better" and are upset. I come at most things with "it could have been so much worse" and feel more grateful.

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