It's worth unpacking *EXACTLY* how screwed up Beinart's perspective here is.

He is a proponent of a "one state solution" - the end of Israel as a Jewish state. 1
He was invited to give a talk in a lecture series typically sponsored by the local Jewish federation and other strong supporters of the 2 state solution. Without notice to those entities, VCU simply listed them as sponsors. Of a talk whose views they oppose. 2
Unsurprisingly, they reached out to VCU and said "we don't support this person's views and don't want to be associated with them. We won't be sponsoring his speech unless a contrary view is presented. Take us off the list." 3
Separately, many individual members of the Jewish community complained, because (a) the vast majority of us vehemently disagree with Beinart & (b) antizionist rhetoric often goes hand in hand with antisemitic action. 4
Beinart describes this as sinister "Jewish oligarchs" looking to suppress him.

Because apparently the Jewish community has an obligation to financially support and sponsor ideas it vigorously opposes and sees as actively harmful 5
Needless to say, this isn't a standard Beinart - or anyone else - applies to any other topic or entity. You'll never see him argue that Michael Bloomberg has to sponsor a speech by NRA President Carolyn Meadows, or that the Murdochs need to sponsor a Clinton speech 6
On every other issue, Peter - like the rest of us - realizes that private people have every right to decide which ideas they want to support (with finds or otherwise), and which they don't 7
Just not Jews when it comes to Israel, I guess. /end
*funds

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More from @AkivaMCohen

17 Mar
Thoughts on this Deshaun Watson news:

1) there are competing historical injustices betting evoked here - women's accusations betting dismissed out of hand, and women's accusations against Black men being accepted without question. Don't fall into either of those categories
2) If true, this would be VASTLY out of Watson's publicly known character. So what? Pretty sure almost none of you following me know him personally, and even if we did, too many people have secrets for that to mean anything beyond "it would be really disappointing if true"
3) none of us have any obligation at all to have an opinion on this, especially not until the details are known. Not one way or the other. If you're leaping to crucify him, what's wrong with you? To absolve him, same deal.
Read 7 tweets
11 Mar
Republican legislatures are passing doomed and unconstitutional "anti-censorship" legislation aimed at banning social media companies from prohibiting Nazis or advocates for lowering the age of consent to 7 from posting on their sites. Idaho is the latest

legislature.idaho.gov/wp-content/upl…
Republicans, to literal Nazis: "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help"
Republicans: such assholes we're afraid nobody will listen to us unless the government forces them to
Read 6 tweets
28 Feb
I'm sorry but this makes no sense. If anyone can watch the clip elsewhere then you don't own anything about the clip. You just own the rights to "that clip when bordered with a Top Shot graphic"

What's the value proposition here?

usatoday.com/story/sports/n…
And yes, anything anyone is willing to pay for has the value people are willing to pay for it. Gold isn't expensive for any reason other than "lots of people want it"
But that's the thing. There's a limited supply of gold and lots of people want access to it. Here, why are people expecting that lots of people will continue to want access to the Top Shot version of this highlight, or any other?
Read 4 tweets
25 Feb
And on this note, just going to share an idea on the societal/institutional treatment of women that we can see from the megillah, if we pay attention to the text. Particularly, around Ahashverosh, Vashti, and Esther... and Mordechai.

Basically, don't be Ahashverosh (good advice)
So here's the question: What was it that Vashti did that triggered what looks like an inexplicable overreaction from Ahashverosh, and completely wild advice about societal breakdown from his advisor (Memuchan/Haman, same guy btw)?
I mean, sure, she said no to the King, and that's not really a thing you get to do in a monarchical state. But why in the world does Memuchan suggest that if the king lets this go, it'll have trickle-down effects on every subordinate government official? How does that make sense?
Read 22 tweets
24 Feb
Some of this stuff is really noxious. But not all of it. The idea that state officials can't enter into consent decrees that change state law without consent from the legislature is, frankly, a good one.
That's separate and apart from the fact that the consent decrees that had Trump up in arms were obviously reasonable and would have been approved. The legislature, not governors, attorneys general, or secretaries of state, is the state body that has authority to write law
In the normal course, the legislature is the only state body that can amend the laws they pass.

That the state is being sued over the law shouldn't change that by conferring authority on non-legislative officials to rewrite the law in the form of a settlement agreement
Read 5 tweets
23 Feb
All, I am humbly asking you to please support this important charity, which protects Jewish women from abuse and helps them through it. If my election suit coverage made your days better, and you can give or signal boost, I'd very much appreciate it jgive.com/new/en/usd/don…
For those who don't know, in Jewish law, a religious divorce is accomplished by means of a "Get", which is a religious document that must be given by the husband (personally or through an agent) to the wife to have any validity
Without the Get, the parties are still religiously married, with all the consequences that entails.

This should not be an issue. In 99% of cases, it's not. Not giving a Get is abusive - it leaves the wife locked in, unable to move on - and most of us aren't abusers
Read 6 tweets

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