โI cannot be asked to choose between being a liberal and being a Zionist.โ
Actress, author and neuroscientist Mayim Bialik (@missmayim) rejects the false binary facing so many liberal Jews today.
Supporting Israel is not a betrayal of progressive values.
It is a belief in Jewish self-determination, dignity and survival.
And the obsessive hostility directed at Israel should make us all ask: why?
Mayim Bialik in conversation with @JonahPlatt on the @BeingJewishPod podcast.
People still don't get how close Democrats came to a complete, unmitigated disaster. If the worst had come to pass for the party, Democrats who publicly minimized Lyndsey Fifield's allegations in the NYT would have been partially responsible.
The GOP had a plan. They had Oppo on Platner--including assault allegations--and they planned to drop this Oppo in September, after the entire party latched themselves to the guy. Platner was gonna be their ace-in-the-hole.
I want to be clear about something: The Oppo the GOP has is *different* than what was vetted by the press. Lyndsey Fifield and Jenny Racicot were not giving their info to Republicans; they were giving their info to journalists. I wouldn't be surprised if the GOP had gotten wind of their allegations, but, importantly, the GOP was *also* in possession of *other* info. Men like Platner are pathological in their behavior. This means they have multiple victims.
Meanwhile, Platner's team was seeking to kill stories and intimidate everyone in Maine who spoke out. There are also allegations of pay-offs out there. (Perhaps @jaketapper can look into this if he hasn't already).
Folks who knew about all of the above were desperate to get allegations out in the press BEFORE the June 9th primary. This includes myself.
Fifield was not politically motivated. She just wanted the truth to be known. Her allegations came out on June 4th. The NYT bungled the story in various ways, but the underlying allegations of domestic violence were serious. Tapper, to his credit, contacted Fifield immediately, perhaps noticing surface-level flaws in the reporting. (There were oddities).
Many Democrats did not take the allegations seriously. Worse, some, like Senator Whitehouse, actively derided Fifield, calling the allegations "unserious." Fifield was relentlessly bullied online.
After this, I heard from many people: "Women are scared in Maine." Again, the Platner team was running an intimidation ring. Maine is a "small" place in terms of population. A very hard environment to come forward in, particularly when up against a man like Platner.
It is frankly astonishing, given all of the above, that Jenny Racicot came forward at all. Also remarkable that Lyndsey Fifefield persevered. Very brave women who took great personal risk *regardless of politics* to get the truth out. Here, again, we owe a debt of gratitude to Reckoning Action. Likely to @jaketapper as well.
Politico published Racicot's allegations on July 6th, one week before the withdrawal deadline. The week prior, NBC news published a process story on Reckoning Action representing "multiple women" in Maine. Platner's team fought to bury/delay these stories. People were terrified the stories were going to get killed.
This is what I want people to understand: There is a possible world in which Racicot's story either did not come out or was delayed until after July 13th. In *that* world, the GOP gets a lot more power over the outcome. Platner's team could kill stories in the press. They don't have that power over the GOP.
If this had happened, there would have been multiple responsible parties, including Platner, Katz, the NYT, and, yes, Democrats like Whitehouse who created a permission structure to doubt and abuse Ms. Fifield. A permission structure that added to other victims' hesitancy vis ร vis coming forward.
When you hear about violence against women, you take it seriously. Failure to take it seriously almost led Democrats to total disaster. And, even though total disaster was mitigated, we're still in a weaker position than we would have been if we'd taken Fifield seriously in early June. That's a month of damage control we lost.
There are also more important considerations than politics. Ms. Fifield was publicly mistreated as a domestic violence victim, including by members of my own party. Domestic violence itself was minimized as "relationship toxicity." This undoubtably had downstream effects, not just on the victims in this particular story, but also on victims everywhere.
Ms. Fifield acted with principle in this case. She didn't give her story to the GOP in an attempt to strategically bring down Democrats. She gave her story to journalists because she wanted the truth to come out.
Ms. Fifield is owed an apology--not further smears from people in power.
Finally, again, I want folks to think of *everyone* who played a role in obstructing the truth, as well as how these actions could have easily exploded in the Democratic party's face. If you follow the truth and act with principle, you will *always* find yourself in a better place than if you do otherwise.
@CoreyWriting is showing us how much he thinks Jews have dual loyalty and only care about a foreign country or some sort of international jewry.
Keep advertising that you dont actually give a shit about jews, but want to use our identity as a cudgel.
#NotInMyName
I think it's pretty clear that there's just going to be a substantial exodus of Jews from the Democratic Party at some point. The negative polarization around Israel is way too strong at this point.