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Dear Richard,
Next week marks two years since the signing of the Abraham Accords—groundbreaking peace and normalization agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
These historic accords have ushered in a new era of cooperation in the Middle East, through diplomatic achievements, regional security partnerships, common efforts to counter Iran, billions of dollars in bilateral trade, and inspiring people-to-people ties. Read more about these remarkable achievements here.
The Abraham Accords are a shining example of what is possible when Israel is safe and American support is strong—which you help make possible through your support of AIPAC.
Peace can only happen when the U.S.-Israel relationship is rock-solid. Together, we will continue to work with our elected officials in Washington to strengthen the alliance, build upon these historic agreements, and keep Israel safe.
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Has SCOTUS identified the leaker? Stay tuned.
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My father was an ardent Zionist and one of his former partners called my attention to this Op Ed.+++
The Little Nation That Could
A train ticket in Israel printed in Hebrew? The father of Zionism thought it was impossible.
By Meir Soloveichik
Journal Editorial Report: The week's best and worst from Kyle Peterson, Allysia Finley, Mene Ukueberuwa and Dan Henninger. Images: AP/US Navy/AFP/Getty Images Composite: Mark Kelly
During a recent visit to Israel I availed myself of the new high-speed train that connects Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Above all, rail offered a cheaper and quicker trip than road. Yet traveling through tunnels in the sacred soil of the Holy Land, and across bridges spanning mountains, my practical decision also led to an experience unexpectedly filled with wonder.
Theodor Herzl, the father of modern Zionism, burst onto the scene with his 1896 pamphlet, “The Jewish State.” He argued that Jews around the world could unite and create a commonwealth. Herzl followed this with “The Old-New Land.” The novel describes a Jewish state restored: its cities connected by wondrous electric trains high in the air, with smaller ones offering transportation around Jerusalem. Today, as many have noted, that vision has been fulfilled, and the novel’s famous epigraph—usually translated as “If you will it, it is no dream”—has been vindicated.
Once I returned to New York, I cleaned out my pockets and found the train ticket from my trip. I was struck by the words stamped on it in Hebrew: rakevet yisrael, the train of Israel. Herzl had assumed that Hebrew, which had survived in Jewish learning and liturgy only, could never be resurrected as a spoken language. “Who amongst us has a sufficient acquaintance with Hebrew to ask for a railway ticket in that language?” he wrote in his landmark pamphlet. “Such a thing cannot be done.” That tiny ticket embodied the exceeding of Herzl’s already grand expectations.
Shortly after returning I spoke at the Tikvah Fund’s Jewish Leadership Conference, where Tikvah’s former chairman, Roger Hertog, was honored with its Herzl Prize. Inevitably, my reverie—inspired by a piece of paper bearing Hebrew letters—gave rise to thoughts on the importance of political leadership, as well as the miraculous nature of Jewish history.
Today it is standard political parlance to declare others on “the wrong side of history.” But history isn’t a train track that brings us inevitably to stop after stop. It is a journey influenced by leaders who proclaim a vision and a strategy for achieving it. In Steven Spielberg’s movie “Lincoln,” the 16th president reflects on a lesson he learned while working as a surveyor. A compass, Lincoln says, will “point you true north from where you’re standing, but it’s got no advice about the swamps and deserts and chasms that you’ll encounter along the way. If in pursuit of your destination you plunge ahead, heedless of obstacles, and achieve nothing more than to sink in a swamp, what’s the use of knowing true north?”
Others had written of Zionism before Herzl. But as Mr. Hertog once explained to me, Herzl understood that seeing “true north”—the goal that was a Jewish state—was not enough. Political institutions had to be built to achieve it. That’s why a Zionist congress in Basel, Switzerland—whose 125th anniversary was just marked—quickly followed the publication of his pamphlet. “At Basel I founded the Jewish State,” he wrote in 1897. “If I were to say this today, I would be greeted by universal laughter. In five years, perhaps, and certainly in 50, everyone will see it.”
If such a prescient man thought a Hebrew train ticket impossible, this is a reminder that the story of the Jews is a miraculous one, one that therefore never ceases to surprise. “The number of Jews in the world is smaller than a small statistical error in the Chinese census. Yet we remain bigger than our numbers,” the essayist Milton Himmelfarb reflected after Israel’s Six Day War. “Big things seem to happen around us and to us.”
The Jewish state’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, touched a deep truth when he supposedly quipped that “in Israel, in order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles.” And one can certainly see a miracle in the life of Herzl, who emerged out of Jewish assimilation in Austria, brought the Zionist Congress into being, and died soon after.
Sometimes all it takes is a slip of paper to remind one of the wonders of our age. As someone whose relatives were placed on trains to concentration camps, never to return, I know that it is no small thing today to be able to buy a ticket with Hebrew printed on it, board a train, and join my fellow Jews on a journey to Jerusalem.
Rabbi Soloveichik is director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University and rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York. This piece is adapted from a speech he gave on June 12 at the Jewish Leadership Conference in New York.
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South Carolina Democrats Seek To Oust Their Own Candidate from U.S. Senate Race.
It is the second time Mathews has been unknowingly recorded by Project Veritas this summer.
In South Carolina, a state representative running for the U.S. Senate is facing bipartisan calls to drop out of the race after audio recordings surfaced in which she allegedly says she has to treat her constituents “like s---.”
In an audio excerpt released by Project Veritas but not independently verified, Krystle Mathews, a Black woman, is recorded saying, “My district is heavily Republican and it’s heavily white,” and, “I’m no stranger to white people.”
“And let me tell you one thing,” the state representative says. “You ought to know who you’re dealing with, like — you’ve got to treat them like s---. That’s the only way they respect you.”
She explained, “I keep them right here, like under my thumb,” adding, “You have to, otherwise they get out of control — like kids.”
It is the second time Ms. Mathews has been unknowingly recorded this summer by Project Veritas, which leaked another audio snippet from the representative in June. The context of her statements could not be discerned from the edited takes released by the outlet.
“Then when you get in there, when we get enough of us in there, we can wreak havoc for real from the inside out,” she said. “Then we can flip some s--- from the inside out”
Ms. Mathews has defended herself, calling Project Veritas a “satirical MAGA-Powered news outlet” and publicly comparing the leak to similar tactics employed by the outlet in its attempts to accuse Congresswoman Ilhan Omar of voter fraud.
“Regardless of race, I love everyone,” Ms. Matthews said in a statement. “One thing you can learn from Project Veritas’s first audio attack on me, is, obviously, I have no biases toward a certain ethnic group.”
The recordings have sparked outrage from Democrats, who are now calling on Ms. Matthews to drop out of the race.
The Democratic gubernatorial nominee in the state, Joe Cunningham, told the Associated Press that there “there is absolutely no place in our political discourse” for her language, and that “the Democratic Party cannot and should not tolerate such behavior from our elected officials and candidates.”
The Democratic South Carolina state senate minority leader, Brad Hutto, suggested, “When candidates of either party start making irresponsible statements, beyond what party they’re from, they need to reevaluate their candidacy, and that’s what needs to happen here.”
Ms. Mathew’s primary opponent, who she defeated, Catherine Fleming Bruce, also told the AP that Ms. Mathew’s statements have “made it impossible for her to be that standard-bearer, representing our state’s diverse population.”
If Ms. Mathews were to drop out of the race, the incumbent, Senator Scott, would be the only remaining candidate.
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Power to the people and that includes parents:
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The Midterm Power of Parents
Amid a teacher strike, Washington’s Sen. Patty Murray is ahead by a mere 3 points.
By Kimberley A. Strassel
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten is many things, though some Republicans hope that this midterm she’s the gift that keeps on giving. Let’s see if the broader GOP realizes the continued huge potential to tap angry parents as a swing voter bloc in November elections—and blunt the left’s abortion message.
In Washington state, five-term Democratic Sen. Patty Murray may finally have a race on her hands—with a poll this week showing her leading Republican Tiffany Smiley by only 3 points. Education is very much on voters’ minds, especially after Seattle schoolteachers voted this week to go on strike, leaving 50,000 kids and their parents in the lurch. The dispute is over a new contract, though many parents see it as the latest in a series of rolling closures.
Ms. Murray did nothing to diffuse the frustration during a train wreck of a Sunday CNN interview, in which she refused to criticize school shutdowns. “Was it a mistake to keep children home from school so long during the pandemic?” she was asked. Ms. Murray excused the “local school officials” and “our scientific experts,” who she said were trying “to protect their children” from a pandemic “that was killing millions of Americans” (the official U.S. death toll is slightly over one million).
Ms. Smiley responded by highlighting the steep learning losses and releasing her own reform plan, which would expand school choice for low-income families, provide curriculum transparency, and reroute some U.S. Education Department dollars to higher teacher pay. The broader Smiley message is that educators need to get back to teaching “the basics” rather than “divisive” topics—a sentiment that polls show resonates loudly with parents across the political spectrum.
The question: Where’s the rest of the party? Republican Glenn Youngkin proved the power of furious parents a year ago, when he channeled anger over Covid school policies into an unexpected Virginia gubernatorial win. And Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis re-highlighted the potency of that voting bloc this year, turning a fight over sexual ideology in the classroom and school choice into a GOP advantage. Mr. DeSantis only a few weeks ago used continued parental anger—and his endorsements—to help flip control of several large school boards that had put unions ahead of kids.
Here and there, candidates are taking an education stand. In Kansas, Republican gubernatorial nominee Derek Schmidt is hammering Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly for school shutdowns. Florida Republicans are gleefully highlighting Democrat Charlie Crist’s decision to pick a teachers union boss as his gubernatorial running mate. The Republican National Committee released a video hitting Democrats for “woke ideology” in classrooms and school vaccine mandates, but it’s not getting much play.
The GOP is rightly focused on the economy, but it will need more to keep suburban and swing voters on its side in the face of Democratic scaremongering over abortion and Joe Biden speeches about “semifascist” Republicans. Education is the powerful rejoinder, a reminder that conservative candidates are the ones who have all along been on the side of parents and common sense.
Democrats want to close this disgraceful school chapter, but parents aren’t nearly so willing to move on. They didn’t require last week’s official news that national testing scores have dropped to their lowest level in decades; they’ve been living that education horror. And still are. Philadelphia schools again mandated kids show up in masks, in contravention of science and parental preference. Newark, N.J., schools, ditto. The District of Columbia is attempting to bar unvaccinated kids from in-person learning, and school districts around the country have mismanaged their $190 billion federal Covid-relief windfall. Ms. Weingarten’s lame attempt to blame Republicans is the latest insult.
Pew polling from August shows that education is a top issue for nearly 60% of registered voters, coming in ahead of abortion, energy and immigration. Numerous polls show Democrats have erased their huge and longstanding advantage, with more voters now trusting Republicans than Democrats to handle education.
More striking is the voter passion education inspires. A spring Harris poll of more than 5,000 parents of school-age children found that 82% said they’d be willing to cross party lines for a candidate whose education platform aligned with their own views. That included significant numbers of minority parents, who also expressed a growing interest in school choice.
The enthusiasm and turnout potential aren’t merely theoretical. The past year has featured a stream of elections in which parents marched to the polls to flip school-board control, recall members and demand a voice in their kids’ education.
Any Republican who isn’t making criticism of failed Covid education decisions—and promises of school choice and parental involvement—a lead message is committing an election foul. American parents remain primed for a sea change in education, and the GOP dare not miss its moment.
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The flip side of failed green policies is black for bankruptcy
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The Coming Global Crisis of Climate Policy
As central banks obsess over far-off dangers, a tsunami of energy-price bankruptcies approaches.
By Joseph C. Sternberg
Let’s come right out and say it: Anyone who still thinks climate change is a greater threat than climate policy to financial stability deserves to be exiled to a peat-burning yurt in the wilderness.
Lest you’ve forgotten, the world’s central banks and other regulators are in the middle of a major push to introduce various forms of climate stress testing into their oversight. The Federal Reserve, Bank of England and European Central Bank, among others, want to know how global temperature variations a century hence might weigh on Citi’s or Barclays’ or Deutsche Bank’s capital and risk weightings today. The fad is for quantifying, with preposterous faux-precision, the costs of reinsuring flood risks, or fire, or the depressed corporate profits of a dystopian hotter future.
Well, if you seek “climate risk” to financial stability, look around you. It has arrived, although in exactly the opposite manner to what our current crop of eco-financiers predicted. Europe’s plight tells a tale that could become all too familiar in the U.S. soon.
The U.K. may be facing a wave of business bankruptcies exceeding anything witnessed during the post-2008 panic and recession. Some 100,000 firms could be forced into insolvency in coming months, bankruptcy consultancy Red Flag Alert warned this week. These are otherwise healthy firms with at least £1 million in annual revenue. Business failures on this scale would dwarf the roughly 65,000 firms of any size that went under from 2008-10.
The culprit is energy prices, which the consultancy believes could account directly for around one-quarter of the possible insolvencies. These prices are rising for British businesses in intervals of several hundred percent at a time and sometimes with steep deposit requirements from utilities that fear precisely a wave of bankruptcies.
Matters are probably worse in Germany, the eurozone’s largest economy. Some 73% of small and medium-sized enterprises in one survey reported feeling heavy pressure from energy prices, and 10% of those say they believe they face “existential” threats to their businesses over the next six months. And that poll, from the small-business association BMD, is the optimistic one. A separate survey published this week by the BDI, a major industry association, found 34% of respondents describing energy prices as an “existential challenge.” Business failures will ripple up and down supply chains and quickly into the banks.
European governments aren’t blind to the energy-price threat—an awareness that, perversely, creates a threat of its own. The only politically viable solution for this winter will be subsidies on a monumental scale. Hundreds of billions of dollars for households and businesses (and utilities) across the Continent already have been announced, and desperate capitals won’t stop there. This will require substantial borrowing on top of the fisc-wrecking bond issuance during the pandemic.
All of this adds up to an extraordinary threat to financial stability. Banks and other financial firms inevitably will find themselves right at the edge of the water if or when a tsunami of energy-price bankruptcies washes ashore. Meanwhile, they’ll be called on to mediate extraordinary levels of new government borrowing—on top of the additional borrowing governments normally do during recessions to finance social-welfare assistance. All of this while interest rates start rising after resting for more than a decade on (or below) the floor.
Does anyone know what exactly any of this will mean for the financial system? Of course not. No one has seriously bothered to “stress test” catastrophic increases in energy prices, even though the Bank of England claims to have modeled the economic impact of allowing global temperatures to rise by 3.3 degrees Celsius over the next few decades. By the way, the BOE also predicted the economic impact of the transition to a net-zero-CO2-emissions future would be modest.
Politicians are happy to blame Vladimir Putin and his Ukraine invasion for the current energy disaster. But what transformed that one-off shift in the relative price for energy into a global disaster was two decades of green-energy policy beforehand. In Europe, that includes a fixation on renewables incapable of powering industrial economies absent battery technologies that don’t exist, a refusal to tap domestic fossil-fuel reserves such as shale gas, and a deep and irrational hostility to nuclear power in many parts of the Continent.
This has created an energy system of dangerous rigidity and inefficiency incapable of adapting to a blow such as Russia’s partial exit from the European gas market. It’s almost inevitable that the imminent result will be a recession in Europe. We can only hope that it won’t also trigger a global financial crisis.
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