I do not tweet, but I sent out the following series of short messages in separate emails to a few colleagues which I decided to share with a wider audience.

The first note was in response to a fear of emerging antisemitism in the impeachment hearings given the large number of Jews involved.

1. Antisemitism and the Impeachment Hearings

1. Re Jews and antisemitism and the fact that “Shifty Schiff” as Trump dubbed Adam Schiff, and Daniel Goldman whom Trump is expected to insult next, the alleged Jewish conspiracy net will grow wider and deeper as the impeachment proceedings continue. After all, Lt. Col. Alex Vindman and Gordon Sondland, whom the Trumpers are preparing to throw under the bus, are both Jewish. Volodymyr Zelensky is Jewish. When the Supreme Court intervenes, it will be pointed out that one-third of the Supreme Court justices are Jewish – Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan. (Kagan was the first female to have a Bat Mitzvah in her modern orthodox synagogue.)
2. Since her parents fled communism and Nazi Germany, I have been told that rumours abound that Marie Yovanovitch is Jewish (Yanovitch is a common Ukrainian Jewish name), though I have no evidence that Marie Yovanovittch is. 
3. Further, the two indicted crooks working with Giuliani, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman. are both Jewish; one of them has already agreed to turn on Giuliani.   
4. When you marry antisemitism to misogyny – Trump referred to Yovanovitch as “that woman – you have a toxic mix for conspiracy theorists and believers in “the deep state.” Trump will find worse names for all the ones mentioned in the email that I received and those I have added. Further, after all, like Vindman, many have what Sean Duffy called, “an affinity for Ukraine.”  
5. This is far worse than the Nixon impeachment, given Trump’s crimes and the depth of his support among evangelicals who are currently mostly pro-Zionist and supporters of two routes to redemption.
6. It is even worse than the McCarthy period and the association of Jews with communism. We have to be prepared for much greater calumnies and the increase in the rise of right wing as well as left wing antisemitism. 

All the best.

• Looming Economic Disaster and Rising Antisemitism.

I forgot to mention how the coming economic dire straits we are entering as a result of trade wars and economic geo-politics, but even more profoundly the emerging currency war as China seeks to create an alternative government-backed digital currency to escape the dominance of the U.S. dollar and the U.S. efforts under Trump to use the dollar for political coercion  – the much bigger story behind the Trump bribery attempt on Zelensky. There is more to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckenberg’s warnings about non-U.S.-regulated digital currencies than just the technology of payments. We are entering an era in which the 2008 crash of Lehman Brothers will look like small potatoes  – and we can expect Jews and Israel to become ready targets and branded as the economic cosmopolitan and internationalist czars that brought about the great economic crash.

• Climate Change and Israel

One last item:

If I have not offered enough apocalyptic warnings re Jews and Israel, there is the greatest danger of all, climate change. For the first time ever, the report prepared by the Israel Climate Change Information Center provides details the effects of rising sea levels on Israel and which regions are at-risk of flooding, including exactly which streets will be inundated. These include those in Tel Aviv, Acre, Haifa, and Bat Yam. In total, 2.5 million people are in danger from rising sea levels. Flooding of rivers can endanger another 2.8 million. Beyond this, there is the spread of disease, water-born mosquitoes that multiply during floods, heat strokes, contamination of Israeli aquifers and damage to desalination plants. 

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

• Alex Vindman

A final, final note as the White House prepares to smear Vindman – you can see how much I am bothered by what I see as coming. 

In the impeachment hearings on Friday, the Republicans tabled the transcript of Trump’s April 21 phone call with Zelensky in which the two engaged in a repetitive session of mutual admiration, adoration and congratulations. However, the transcript contradicted the White House publicly released readout at the time that said that the conversation indicated “the unwavering support of the United States for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity” and Trump’s support for Zelensky’s “reforms that strengthen democracy, increase prosperity and root out corruption.”

But there is no mention of either topic in the transcript. The White House then blamed Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman for the discrepancy between the official readout in April and the transcript of the phone call tabled at the impeachment hearings on Friday. As the explanation for the discrepancies released later said, “It is standard operating procedure for the National Security Council to provide readouts of the president’s phone calls with foreign leaders.” This one was allegedly prepared by the NSC’s Ukraine expert, Alex Vindman. However, the official readout was based on talking points that the president did not follow. After the call, the White House staff did not update the readout to reflect what Trump actually said — and what he left out.

Yet Vindman will be painted as the treasonous fall guy.

Horror of horrors and a taste of what is coming.

• Gordon Sondland

A final, final, final note re throwing another Jew, Gordon Sondland, besides Michael Cohen, under the bus.

Sondland, a Trump sycophant and financial supporter, first tried to cover up for Trump in insisting that foreign aid was never linked to Trump’s demand that Zelensky launch investigations into the Bidens, and then his revision that there was a linkage for which he was responsible by perhaps presuming too much. It was he who had communicated a “quid pro quo,” not Trump. In light of other witness testimonies, Sondland now remembered those conversations as his memory was refreshed. But wait for the third revision this week in light of the Holmes testimony. Senator Lindsey O. Graham has already signalled the attack on Sondland of whom Trump said of this megadonor that, “I hardly knew the gentleman.” Graham has already declared that Sondland’s testimony is “full of crap.” “Why did [Sondland] change his testimony? Was there a connection between [Sondland] and Democratic operatives on the committee?”This is even before the second career civil servant in the embassy who also overheard Trump’s conversation with Sondland testifies. Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) echoed Senator Graham. Sondland didn’t mention this call in his initial testimony so he cannot be trusted. 

Does anyone think Trump or his sycophantic supporters can be trusted in anyway?

Howard

I will next turn to more interesting if far more distant and less relevant topics in parallel with my forthcoming five-part seminar series on Gentile Views of Jews in the Seventeenth Century. The first seminar on 20 November 2019 at 7:00 p.m. at Holy Blossom Temple will be on Galileo.