Five best right-wing meltdowns over the Israel letter.
Correction: A previous version of this post said Norman Podhoretz started Commentary. The magazine was launched under the auspices of the American Jewish Committee, headed by Elliot Cohen.
Last week, dozens of members of Congress signed a letter criticizing Israel for killing the World Central Kitchen aid workers. That list of lawmakers, notably, included Nancy Pelosi, whose red line apparently is the prospect of not getting discount tapas at the celebrity chef’s kitchen. Oh I forgot, Joe Biden, too, used “the strongest language yet!” He too really likes the tapas at Chef Jose Andres’s restaurant, almost as much as mushy soup.
Everyone has made this point already, but I’ll make it again to serve as more evidence for the Hague: It’s unfathomable that after everything, it took the deaths of white people and a pissed celebrity chef—and Democratic party donor—for Congress to (at least rhetorically) take a stand. And in an eery echo of the Iraq war, which shows humanity doesn’t learn anything from history, the people who called for a ceasefire months ago were treated like ignorant traitors, Hamas lovers and anti-Semites—and now we’re told “the Serious People” are shifting gear. Sorry, just like in Iraq, the actually Serious People were the ones who called bullshit from the start, not the ones reconsidering their role after 33,000 deaths.
The college kids should have followed the rule I try to follow, which is that when people have VERY strong emotions about something, you don’t have to poke them if they’re coming from a just, understandable place, even when you think they’re wrong. It’s why I tried to bite my tongue when people were like “MUELLER TIME!!!” And the shock of October 7th is a lot more serious than Boomers yelling at cable about Drrumpf going to jail any minute now.
Anyway. There are understandable feelings of horror and shock that should have been universal. In contrast, there are the hissy fits of neocons as they sense their arrogant hold on the Mideast discourse glacially, but undeniably shift, especially among young people. Here are the funniest neocon meltdowns in response to Congress’s letter:
John Pohoretz
John Pohoretz runs Commentary, a magazine overseen by his father Norman Podhoretz for years (nepo baby!). He’s a conservative luminary, brandishing a type of “intellectual” conservatism that’s supposed to float above the prole screamers at Fox News. How’s he doing? In response to a Tweet pointing out that as an occupying power Israel is morally responsible to allow aid—unlike, say, Russia—he had this to say:
Oh, so they have killed a population that is growing. They have enslaved a population that has self rule in Gaza and from which they disengaged 19 years ago. They have tortured Gaza’s who have been living under a Hamas regime that rules by torture. You are a deranged and repulsive ignoramus.
I believe the ignoramus here is the guy who thinks that if kids keep getting born they just replace the dead ones.
John Podhoretz again (this whole list could just be John Podhoretz)
When Chef Jose Andres said the strike on the aid workers looked deliberate (it definitely looks deliberate—three different cars were struck in succession)—Podhoretz, who I hope has blood pressure medication, said:
“I know Andres is a saint and all, and hates Trump and stuff, but he can go fuck himself with this disgusting blood libel.”
Blood libel is the hateful, anti-Semitic myth that Jewish people ritually sacrifice Gentile children. Obviously it’s used as a metaphor for offensive, false lies. Nevertheless, you might not want to bring up dead children in this case.
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