Don't Let Democrats Whitewash What They Did on Gaza Once Trump Is in Office (Director's Cut)

During the last Trump presidency, the same people—then former Obama officials—suggested they had learned their lesson from Yemen. No open letters this time

Edited by Zeteo

HELLO, FRIEND. Before paid subscribers get access to my latest Zeteo column, a couple quick things. I'm writing this in Brooklyn while firefighters battle a brush fire that broke out late yesterday in Prospect Park. The blaze ignited during a 70-degree evening in early November during an extended stretch where we haven't had any rain—perfect conditions for such a fire. When my younger kid woke me up at 3:30 a.m., I could smell the fire indoors. I have that smell in my nose right now as I type this. A haven within the borough is burning and it is very hard not to see that as a Sign. 

Another Sign: Now that Trump has won, Benjamin Netanyahu is appointing a West Bank settlement leader to be Israeli ambassador to Washington. Annexation is very likely to be on the agenda. In 2020, the new ambassador, Yechiel Leiter, wrote an op-ed addressed to an "American Christian friend," presumed to be frightened of the Black Lives Matter protests arising after the police murder of George Floyd. It concluded: "helping to secure Israel's future in Judea, Samaria, and the Jordan Valley [i.e., the West Bank] may actually be the key to a rebirth of American confidence and domestic tranquility as well." After all, Leiter contended, "the roots of the American founding are in the Promised Land." 

Finally, one last bit of local business. Hell Gate's Esther Wang interviewed Andy Kim, a "progressive, economic populist" Queens assemblymember who survived the substantial rightward shift in this week's election. Kim tells Wang about what his constituents want and don't get from the Democratic Party:

It's not just about more policing. It's about them feeling economically unsafe. There's no upward mobility. Just two weeks ago, we had a focus group of new immigrants, a room with 20 people, and when we surveyed them, they're all talking about affordability.

… the Asian Americans in my district, even when technically they might not be part of the middle class, they feel like they moved here for the promise of a meritocratic system, that at least I get a fair shot at joining the middle class. And if you take that away from me, then what am I supposed to do when I don't have anything else to do here? That's the feeling that I'm getting from my constituents.

And that is in my nostrils alongside the acrid smoke of a climate-enabled Prospect Park fire. 

Finally finally, a reminder: I'm writing IRON MAN for Marvel Comics! Tell a comic store near you that you want to add it to your "pull list"—an ongoing subscription where the store reserves each issue for you—and I'll send you FREE STUFF! Just email some kind of receipt to foreverwars.bullpen@gmail.com! (Overseas postage rates may apply.)