CommentaryDOUBLE ISSUE JULY/AUGUST 2021 Jews, Jew-Hatred, and the Jewish State The Liel Leibovitz Miseducation on the “White Jew” lie of America Bret Stephens on Bibi Robert Pondiscio Seth Mandel on the on race madness ADL’s craven leader Christine Rosen on unions Meir Y. Soloveichik on Vienna’s redemption Roger Bennett Commentary on a Liverpool Leftists Run boyhood Amok JULY/AUGUST Matthew Continetti on the maverick they hate $5.95 US : $7.00 CANADA 2021 Ronald Radosh : VOLUME on Ethel Rosenberg 152 NUMBER James Kirchick on Ben Rhodes 1 JULY/AUGUST 2021 COVER.indd 1 6/16/21 12:18 PM No charitable gift has a greater impact on the lives of Israelis. There are many ways to support Israel and its people, but none is more transformative than a gift to Magen David Adom, Israel’s paramedic and Red Cross service. 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All but $195 per person is tax-deductible as provided by law. the roast is a benefit to support commentar� inc. for inquiries please contact stephanie roberts at 212-891-6729 or by email: [email protected] dan senor, roast chairman SolveichickColumns_July-Aug_6.16.indd Roast Ad.indd 13 1 6/16/215/17/21 12:17 8:47 AMPM July/August 2021 Vol. 152 : No. 1 Articles Liel No, Jews Aren’t White 19 Leibovitz We’re our own thing, and whatever privilege we possess is conditional. Bret The Paradoxes of Benjamin Netanyahu 24 Stephens The fox who is also the hedgehog. Seth The Jews Who Are Complicit 30 Mandel in Jew-Hatred It’s a feature, not a bug, of the horrors of the past month. Roger An American Trapped in an 34 Bennett Englishman’s Body A memoir of a Jewish boyhood in Liverpool Robert How U.S. Schools Became 38 Pondiscio Obsessed with Race Critical race theory took over in two ways: first gradually, then suddenly. Christine Union Busted 46 Rosen The villains of the pandemic are the leaders of America’s teachers’ unions. Columns_July-Aug_6.16.indd 2 6/16/21 12:17 PM Politics & Ideas James Rhodes to Nowhere 54 Kirchick After the Fall, by Ben Rhodes Michael Brendan Sohrab Ahmari Story Hour 57 Dougherty The Unbroken Thread, by Sohrab Ahmari Eli The Spy Who 60 Lake Went Into the Cold A Drop of Treason, by Jonathan Stevenson Ronald Defining Espionage Down 62 Radosh Ethel Rosenberg, by Anne Sebba Terry The Man Who 65 Teachout (Re)made Sinatra The Riddle of Nelson. Rick Cain and Abelowicz 68 Marin Competing with Idiots, by Nick Davis Monthly Commentaries Editor’s Commentary John Podhoretz Reader Commentary Media Commentary on acidunt et poratint, quis sit late Reader Commentary 4 Letters Christine Rosen 14 on the May issue How the Media Ignore Jew-Haters Letters on acidunt et poratint, quis sit late Media Commentary Tech Commentary Jewish Commentary Christine Rosen 8 16 James B. Meigs Meir Y. Soloveichik on acidunt et poratint, quis sit late The Lab-Leak-Theory Cover-Up How Chancellor Kurz Redeemed Vienna Washington Commentary Hollywood Commentary 12 Matthew Continetti Rob Long 72 Manchin Goes Rogue The Game of Showbiz Crap(s) Columns_July-Aug_6.16.indd 3 6/16/21 12:17 PM READER COMMENTARY Countering China To the Editor: international order that reflects its tical about these things and insis- AL BRANDS wrote a very growing power and influence in tent that they are primarily unfair Hthought-provoking article that international affairs. In this way, it to everyone. As a result, we are be- lays out a clear picture of the rise can assert its interests and not be coming lazy and noncompetitive in of China, its strengths and weak- constantly leaned on to succumb to many fields. nesses, and the types of responses U.S. pressures in addressing global Thus, our graduate engineering needed for the U.S. to address the issues. schools, for example, are full of various challenges posed by Chi- Denis Simon, Chinese who learn from Ameri- na’s rise (“China’s Creative Chal- Senior Adviser to the cans and then go home to build a lenge—and the Threat to America,” President for China Affairs, better Chinese economy. My son May). The one place where the Duke University was in graduate school for engi- author seems to go too far, how- Durham, North Carolina neering a few years back and a Chi- ever, is in suggesting that China is nese graduate student asked him seeking hegemony. It seems that what he was doing there. He had what China wants is to find an 1 heard, after all, that Americans are equal place at the table where the too lazy to study engineering. global agenda is set and the rules To the Editor: Gary Rosen are made. Simply stated, Beijing HAT HAL BRANDS’S article Ft. Lauderdale, Florida no longer feels it must accept the W misses is that China encour- rules and norms as defined by the ages competition and capitalism, 1 U.S. China wants a more pluralistic whereas the U.S. has become skep- 4 July/August 2021 Columns_July-Aug_6.16.indd 4 6/16/21 12:17 PM The Jews of July/August 2021 Vol. 152 : No. 1 John Podhoretz, Editor Bergen- Abe Greenwald, Executive Editor Noah Rothman, Associate Editor Christine Rosen, Senior Writer Belsen � Bret Stephens, Contributing Editor Terry Teachout, Critic-at-Large To the Editor: � EIR Y. SOLOVEICHIK’S ar- Mticle brought me to tears Carol Moskot, Publisher (“The Nation of the Dry Bones,” Kejda Gjermani, Digital Publisher May). I shed tears of sadness read- Malkie Beck, Publishing Associate ing about the mom who survived � the Holocaust but who thanked Ilya Leyzerzon, Business Director God for “the great privilege” of Stephanie Roberts, Director of Operations being able to bury her own daugh- � ter. And I shed tears of joy reading about the bride clothed in a Brit- Board of Directors ish parachute. I am once again Michael J. Leffell, Chairman reminded why we need to support Daniel R. Benson, Paul J. Isaac, and defend the State of Israel. We Liz Lange, Jay P. Lefkowitz, have a moral obligation to protect Steven Price, Gary L. Rosenthal, the safe haven for Jews all over the world who face anti-Semitism and Michael W. Schwartz, Dan Senor persecution. And we have a practi- cal obligation to stand by the only democracy in the Middle East. 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Copyright © 2021 by Commentary, Inc.; all rights reserved under International and Pan American Copyright Conventions. Columns_July-Aug_6.16.indd 5 6/16/21 12:17 PM there are defenders and apologists dead who fell in the defense of the of them. These people wish to see Homeland, and the next day, after the destruction of Israel and the so much sorrow, we rejoice in our slaughter of its Jews for a whole independence on our Land. Ayaan litany of supposed crimes. Rafi Marom Fortunately, we Jews have a land Haifa, Israel and a means to defend ourselves. Hirsi Ali, It is well that Israel remembers 1 its Shoah dead, a week later, the Heroine To the Editor: HAT A LOVELY article by W Brian Stewart (“Ayaan Hirsi Changes in Ali vs.