Look, I listen to The Daily, well, daily. And I think that @mikiebarb generally does a great job. But he and @Max_Fisher got Trump’s executive order on antisemitism very, very wrong this morning. Here is a THREAD explaining how...
@mikiebarb @Max_Fisher Their central question at the beginning of the episode is “why [do] some Jewish Americans fear that the logic behind [Trump’s EO] could provide a rationale that ultimately furthers antisemitism?” The answer, unfortunately, is that the Times’ reporters got the story wrong!
@mikiebarb @Max_Fisher I’m a proud subscriber to the Times (the paper AND the crossword app!), and I have tremendous respect for @maggieNYT and @peterbakernyt, but they just flat out misreported and misrepresented the EO last week, touching off a maelstrom among Jews who didn’t understand.
@mikiebarb @Max_Fisher @maggieNYT @peterbakernyt I saw literally hundreds of tweets last week (and there were probably thousands more) of American Jews and our allies who thought that Trump was declaring that Jews aren’t American. People really thought this was an attempt to put us in camps. That’s crazy!
@mikiebarb @Max_Fisher @maggieNYT @peterbakernyt All of that fear came from the Times’ poor reporting, which failed to highlight that the EO was a reiteration of Bush and Obama administration policies.
@mikiebarb @Max_Fisher @maggieNYT @peterbakernyt And omitted that the EO is actually a WEAKER version of the bipartisan Antisemitism Awareness Act, which got tied up in Congress but was driven by Jewish Democratic members of Congress like @MaxRose4NY, @ElaineLuriaVA, and @RepJoshG!
@mikiebarb @Max_Fisher @maggieNYT @peterbakernyt @MaxRose4NY @ElaineLuriaVA @RepJoshG The Daily also said that Jews, but not other religious minorities, are now protected under Title VI. But that’s also wrong! Again, in the Obama admin, schools were warned to look out for harassment based on “actual or perceived shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics.”
@mikiebarb @Max_Fisher @maggieNYT @peterbakernyt @MaxRose4NY @ElaineLuriaVA @RepJoshG The letter from the Obama administration explicitly mentioned Muslims and Sikhs, as well as Jews, are protected by that extension of Title Vi. Read it yourself here: www2.ed.gov/about/offices/…
@mikiebarb @Max_Fisher @maggieNYT @peterbakernyt @MaxRose4NY @ElaineLuriaVA @RepJoshG What this protection does not mean (and here, again, Fisher gets it wrong) is that “colleges and universities are now required to stop students from saying” certain antisemitic things, including some things that are antisemitic by way of being anti-Zionist.
@mikiebarb @Max_Fisher @maggieNYT @peterbakernyt @MaxRose4NY @ElaineLuriaVA @RepJoshG Why not? Because executive orders don’t trump the First Amendment! If a form of speech is protected by the First Amendment, it is still protected speech, even after the EO! No university is required to stop students from exercising their First Amendment rights!
@mikiebarb @Max_Fisher @maggieNYT @peterbakernyt @MaxRose4NY @ElaineLuriaVA @RepJoshG (This is so aggravating because some of us actually know what we’re talking about, and The Daily is busy spreading incorrect information. Ugh! If you want an actual expert to explain it to you: )
@mikiebarb @Max_Fisher @maggieNYT @peterbakernyt @MaxRose4NY @ElaineLuriaVA @RepJoshG A few final points to close:
Fisher describes BDS as an “activist movement...aimed at pressuring the Israeli government over its policies toward Palestinians.” The founder of BDS, Omar Barghouti, disagrees. For him, and other BDS leaders, it’s about ending Israel.
Fisher describes BDS as an “activist movement...aimed at pressuring the Israeli government over its policies toward Palestinians.” The founder of BDS, Omar Barghouti, disagrees. For him, and other BDS leaders, it’s about ending Israel.
@mikiebarb @Max_Fisher @maggieNYT @peterbakernyt @MaxRose4NY @ElaineLuriaVA @RepJoshG Why does the Times persistently dissemble on behalf of BDS? It’s not a nice, liberal movement. It’s a fringe cluster of radicals who believe that Jews do not deserve national self-determination. Let’s call a spade a spade.
@mikiebarb @Max_Fisher @maggieNYT @peterbakernyt @MaxRose4NY @ElaineLuriaVA @RepJoshG Emphasis on the word “fringe.” Fisher said: “There are some who consider BDS to be beyond the pale...but there is also a very large segment of the American Jewish community that is kind of cool toward Israel...” Then a woman’s voice expresses support for BDS.
@mikiebarb @Max_Fisher @maggieNYT @peterbakernyt @MaxRose4NY @ElaineLuriaVA @RepJoshG I don’t know who that woman is, but “some” vs. “a very large segment” is a very poor way of portraying the discourse around Israel in the American Jewish community. More than 90% of American Jews define themselves as “pro-Israel.”
@mikiebarb @Max_Fisher @maggieNYT @peterbakernyt @MaxRose4NY @ElaineLuriaVA @RepJoshG Only 3% of American Jews say that they are “generally not pro-Israel.” And yet, Fisher allows his audience to believe that the “very large segment” of American Jews who have “cooled” toward Israel are in favor of BDS. Ludicrous!
@mikiebarb @Max_Fisher @maggieNYT @peterbakernyt @MaxRose4NY @ElaineLuriaVA @RepJoshG One last point before I get out of your timelines. Fisher says of extending Title VI protections to American Jews “I mean, this is the Civil Rights Act” with a note of incredulity in his voice, as though we Jews don’t deserve protections.
@mikiebarb @Max_Fisher @maggieNYT @peterbakernyt @MaxRose4NY @ElaineLuriaVA @RepJoshG I met this week with a student who told me how she was assaulted on her New York City campus while her a cappella group sang Israel’s national anthem as a celebration of Israel’s Independence Day by a student who hated Israel.
@mikiebarb @Max_Fisher @maggieNYT @peterbakernyt @MaxRose4NY @ElaineLuriaVA @RepJoshG As he charged on stage and grabbed the mic from her, he sliced her hand open. He was arrested by the NYPD and later released. He remains enrolled at NYU. He will graduate in the fall. She, a drama student, told me she no longer feels comfortable on stage.
@mikiebarb @Max_Fisher @maggieNYT @peterbakernyt @MaxRose4NY @ElaineLuriaVA @RepJoshG Indeed, “this is the Civil Rights Act,” and it is high time that America’s colleges and universities follow long-established government policy and use that Act to protect Jewish students.
/end
/end
@mikiebarb @Max_Fisher @maggieNYT @peterbakernyt @MaxRose4NY @ElaineLuriaVA @RepJoshG Oh, and just by the way, it's silly to call Bob Kraft a "big Republican donor," as Fisher does. He has been giving primarily to Democrats for decades (ask @SenMarkey about "big Republican donor" Bob Kraft), and donates to Trump because of their personal friendship.
That friendship was cemented when Trump came to visit Kraft while he was sitting shivah. You can quibble with Kraft's decision to donate to Trump if you'd like, but that doesn't make it appropriate to define him as a "big Republican donor."
The link above to an interview with AJC's chief legal officer Marc Stern isn't working. Take a few minutes and listen to it here: soundcloud.com/peopleofthepod…
