Neal Cohen

Calmer than you are, or at least trying to be.

[J Street @jstreetdotorg]

A historic and important moment 👇

[Yuval Abraham יובל אברהם @yuval_abraham]

A right-wing Israeli mob came to my family’s home yesterday to search for me, threatening close family members who fled to another town in the middle of the night. I am still getting death threats and had to cancel my flight home. This happened after Israeli media and German politicians absurdly labeled my Berlinale award speech - where I called for equality between Israelis and Palestinians, a ceasefire and an end to apartheid - as ‘antisemitic’. The appalling misuse of this word by Germans, not only to silence Palestinian critics of Israel, but also to silence Israelis like me who support a ceasefire that will end the killing in Gaza and allow the release of the Israeli hostages - empties the word antisemitism of meaning and thus endangers Jews all over the world. As my grandmother was born in a concentration camp in Libya and most of my grandfather’s family was murdered by Germans in the holocaust, I find it particularly outraging that German politicians in 2024 have the audacity to weaponize this term against me in a way that endangered my family. But above all else, this behavior puts Palestinian co-director Basel Adra’s life in danger, who lives under a military occupation surrounded by violent settlements in Masafer Yatta. He is in far greater danger than I am. I’m happy our award winning film, No Other Land, is sparking an important international debate on this issue - and I hope that millions of people watch it when it comes out this year. Sparking a conversation is why we made it. You can have harsh criticism of what me and Basel said on stage without demonizing us. If this is what you’re doing with your guilt for the holocaust - I don’t want your guilt.

[George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 @gtconway3d]

“Ich bin ein Berliner.”
—John F. Kennedy,
June 26, 1963

“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”
—Ronald Reagan,
June 12, 1987

“I would encourage [the Russians] to do whatever the hell they want.”
—Donald Trump,
April 10, 2024

[Neal Cohen @Nealissimo]

Locker room talk

[Neal Cohen @Nealissimo]

Downtown Takoma Park peacefulness at 6 am @capitalweather

[T'ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights @truahrabbis]

Starvation, mass displacement, rampant disease.

That is Gaza right now.

During the Vietnam War, R' Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote: "Our own integrity as human beings is decaying in the agony & merciless killing done in our name."

If we turn away, we risk losing our own humanity.

[Daniel Seidemann @DanielSeidemann]

Photojournalist Mustafa Harouf was threateded with live fire and was brutality beaten by Police in East Jerualem. He's been hospitalized w/ serious injuries, their severity not yet clear.

There is no individual with a greater impact on today's East Jerualem than Ben Gvir.

[Rep. Nadler @RepJerryNadler]

The @HouseGOP is attempting to weaponize Jewish lives for political gain. The explosion of antisemitism worldwide deserves a bipartisan, all of government approach.

[Prem Thakker @prem_thakker]

Rep. Nadler: "The resolution states that all anti-Zionism is antisemitism. That's intellectually disingenuous or factually wrong…The authors if they were at all familiar with Jewish history & culture should know about Jewish anti-Zionism that was + is expressly not antisemitic."

[Ami Dar @AmiDar]

When I light your candle with mine, I've lost nothing—I still have my light. This is clear to most people. I wish it was just as clear that when we empathize with the pain of others, whoever they may be, we also lose nothing. Empathy doesn't have to be a zero-sum game.

[Barak Ravid @BarakRavid]

🚨BREAKING: Biden says the U.S. is prepared to impose sanctions on Israeli settlers who are involved in attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank.
🚨Why it matters: This is a big deal. It's the 1st time the U.S. is publicly considering individual sanctions against settlers

[Sen. Bernie Sanders @SenSanders]

The Netanyahu government, or hopefully a new Israeli government, must understand that not one penny will be coming to Israel from the U.S. unless there is a fundamental change in their military and political positions. Read my statement:

[IfNotNow🔥✡️ @IfNotNowOrg]

Such a violent, tragic understanding of our history and culture.

Fiddler on the Roof ends as Jews are driven from their homes, forced to leave behind everything they knew.

The lesson is that ethnic cleansing is bad, not that we need be powerful enough to be on the winning side.

[Ami Dar @AmiDar]

A week later, this still holds: Terror is always wrong. Revenge is not a strategy. A child is a child is a child. Release all the hostages now. End the occupation. Without a vision for a shared future, this does not end. Our blood is the same color, and our tears taste the same.

[Mary Louise Kelly @NPRKelly]

Right before our encounter with IDF soldiers in the West Bank, when a Palestinian farmer tried to show us his land. Listen: https://t.co/PgFFVs7Klg
📷 @AymanOghanna

[Israel Policy Forum @IsraelPolicy4m]

Just as Palestinian leaders need to confront extremism in their society, Israel needs to show that embracing coexistence serves Palestinians' interests. In #IsraelPolicyExchange, @xlederman reflects on Israel’s role in strengthening Hamas. https://t.co/po6ssXvsQx

[Israel Policy Forum @IsraelPolicy4m]

As Israel considers the next steps for Gaza, it must learn from its historic mistakes to empower and legitimize actors in the Palestinian arena who favor diplomacy over violence, which requires actively advancing a two-state horizon and being prepared to do so through dialogue.

[Ami Dar @AmiDar]

Sorry for the anger, but a month into this I am so sick—like nauseous sick—of people justifying or denying what Hamas did on October 7th *and* people justifying or denying what Israel has been doing in Gaza since then. Both are real and both are wrong. Deal with the facts.

[Hadar Susskind @HadarSusskind]

Here's a good rule to remember. Not every statement, or every action, or every tweet, encompasses everything. Mourning the loss of Israeli lives doesn't mean you don't care about Palestinians. Trying to stop the deaths of more Palestinian doesn't mean you don't care about Israel.