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

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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. I To send us a letter to the editor: [email protected] was taught by my father at a young We will edit letters for length and content. age that “those who bless Israel will To make a tax-deductible donation: [email protected] be blessed.” May America always be For advertising inquiries: [email protected] a blessing to Israel and be blessed For customer service: [email protected] for it. Thanks to Commentary for the special perspective it provides its readers. Commentary (ISSN 0010-2601) is published monthly (except for a combined July/ Don Bacon, August issue) by Commentary, Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization. Editorial and business offices: 561 Seventh Avenue, 16th Floor, New York, NY, 10018. Telephone: (212) 891-1400. Fax: (212) Brig. Gen. (Retired), 891-6700. Customer Service: [email protected] or (212) 891-1400. Congressman, Subscriptions: visit www.commentarymagazine.com/subscribe or call (212) 891-1400 for Second District of Nebraska current rates. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Subscribers will receive electronic announcements of forthcoming issues. Single copy: U.S. is $5.95; Canada is $7.00. All back issues are available in electronic form at commentarymagazine.com. 1 Postmaster: Send address changes to Commentary, P.O. Box 3000, Denville, NJ, 07834. Unsolicited manuscripts must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. To the Editor: Letters intended for publication may be edited. Indexed in Reader’s Guide, Book Review Digest, HE DEATH-CAMP ovens are and elsewhere. U.S. Newsstand Distribution by COMAG Marketing Group, 155 Village Blvd, Princeton, NJ, 08540. Printed in the USA. Commentary was established in 1945 by the T not ancient history, and, today, American Jewish Committee, which was the magazine’s publisher through 2006 and continues to support its role as an independent journal of thought and opinion. 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. the Mob,” May). I doubt it will be read by many progressives or considered by journalists currently Saudi Arabia employed at places like the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC, or similar outlets in To the Editor: for the Kingdom. Meanwhile, Saudi Europe. They avoid the entire dis- ONATHAN Schanzer’s great ar- Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan cussion of the betrayal of women by Jticle about the United States and al-Saud spoke several times with the left and instead engage in the Saudi Arabia is the work of someone Secretary of State Antony Blinken obscenity of labelling as Islamopho- who really understands what’s going during the course of the Gaza bic all criticism of Islamism. It’s far on (“Diplomatic Arson in the Mid- conflict. Blinken thanked Saudi easier to defend backward chauvin- dle East,” May). Perhaps the U.S. Arabia for playing a positive role ists and attack Israel—whose suc- doesn’t want Saudi Arabia to pros- in helping to broker a cease-fire. cessful record on women’s rights per economically for fear that other At the same time, however, trou- cannot even be compared with the countries in the region will follow bling reports suggest that Riyadh record of other Middle Eastern suit, especially now that MBS has is conducting diplomatic outreach countries. opened things up socially and eco- to the Islamic Republic of Iran, an Richard Sherwin nomically. apparent gesture in response to Herzliya, Israel Nasser Alhumaid the Biden administration’s efforts Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to reengage in the flawed 2015 Iran 1 nuclear deal. Saudi Arabia must 1 tread carefully here. Riyadh’s fail- To the Editor: ure to uphold its own principles EADING Brian Stewart’s arti- in countering the world’s most R cle, it’s interesting to consider Jonathan Schanzer writes: prolific state sponsor of terrorism that postmodern liberals say all N the weeks since this piece ap- could undermine its leadership cultures are equal. Thus, when con- I peared in the pages of Commen- across the region. Patience, tenac- fronted with the abuse of women so tary, Saudi Arabia has launched a ity, and adherence to the reforms prevalent in Muslim cultures, lib- grassroots effort in Washington already underway—not appease- eral disapproval falls, not on the op- and around the country to cul- ment—will ultimately guide Saudi pressive culture, but on those who’d tivate support for the Kingdom. Arabia out of the current crisis with condemn it. It is the latter group Saudi crown prince Mohammed Washington. that is accused of hate, intolerance, Bin Salman recently lambasted bigotry, xenophobia, Islamophobia, the hardline religious establish- and racism. Upholding the equality ment—the Wahhabi institutions 1 of all cultures requires tolerance and clerics—in his own country. and indulgence of atrocities. The continued marginalization of Jim Austin extremists is a very positive sign Crestline, California

6 Letters : July/August 2021

Columns_July-Aug_6.16B.indd 6 6/16/21 3:04 PM with regard to language. The appeal to abstractions seen in the use of phrases such as “structural Victim racism,” the now-trendy use of the word “bodies” rather than “people,” and ubiquitous claims about “white supremacy” weaken rather than in- Journalists form our national conversation. Their use is becoming more popular because they are effective tools for To the Editor: a minefield littered with emotional silencing debate, not because they HAT AN EXCELLENT ar- bombs waiting to be detonated. offer greater clarity or insight into W ticle from Christine Rosen Tobias Budke complex issues. Disagreements used (“Help! Help! We’re Being Op- Rheine, Germany to be the beginning of something—a pressed!” May). I am not myself in debate, a conversation, a vigorous media, but it might interest you 1 intellectual feud—but when one side to know that I can see the same deems the other irredeemably racist phenomenon at work here in Ger- or sexist or transphobic or impe- many. Criticism of any kind is often Christine Rosen writes: rialist, all opportunity for honest considered an attack, a violation APPRECIATE Tobias Budke’s let- discussion ceases. If one side views of a “safe space,” or an “upsetting Iter, although it is disheartening the other as evil or malign, how experience” that should come with to hear that America is now export- can compromise or persuasion a “trigger warning.” If you add to ing pernicious concepts such as the happen? And at a time of polar- this the inflammatory use of words expansion of “safe spaces” and the ized politics and declining faith in such as “attack” or “assault”—which elevation of emotional experience institutions, we need media that seem to cover everything nowadays, over factual knowledge in the pub- foster complicated conversations, from actual physical attacks to lic sphere. Mr. Budke also makes rather than merely regurgitating verbal insults—public discourse in an important observation—which the ideologically trendy argument the age of social media has become I think should serve as a warning— of the day.

Commentary 7

Columns_July-Aug_6.16.indd 7 6/16/21 12:17 PM TECH COMMENTARY The Lab-Leak-Theory Cover-Up

JAMES B. MEIGS

OMEDAY WE will stop talking about the lab stitute.) Many observers have compared the accident leak theory and maybe even admit its racist to the Chernobyl meltdown, another high-tech screw- ‘ Sroots. But alas, that day is not yet here,” a writer up compounded by government deceit. But, with a named Apoorva Mandavilli recently posted on Twitter. global death toll likely to approach 4 million, a Wuhan It would have been easy to scroll right past the com- lab leak, if it did in fact occur, would be perhaps 10,000 ment—Twitter is full of people ranting about COVID times deadlier than the Ukraine nuclear accident. and calling everyone racist—but for the writer’s Twit- For a science journalist, helping figure out the ter bio: “Reporter @nytimes on mainly #covid19.” Lat- true genesis of this catastrophe would be the opportu- er that day, the Times reporter took down her tweet, nity of a lifetime. And yet here was one of the New York saying it had been “badly phrased.” The day in question Times’ top pandemic reporters fretting that too many was May 26, 2021. The mounting evidence that the CO- people were interested in the question. In a way, you VID-19 coronavirus escaped from the Wuhan Institute can understand her frustration. Elite institutions and of Virology, rather than spontaneously emerging from media outlets had been trying to get people to “stop nature, had become the hottest topic in journalism talking about the lab leak theory” for over a year. From and potentially the most consequential science story their perspective, the issue was raised by the wrong in a generation. sort of people—including Arkansas Republican Sena- If researchers had manipulated the SARS-CoV-2 tor Tom Cotton and President Donald Trump—and virus to be more virulent, and then that virus had giving the story oxygen might mean lending credence escaped the lab, it would mean the pandemic was to conservative talking points. Moreover, focusing arguably the worst manmade disaster in history. (A on China’s sloppy research practices and possible slightly less creepy—but still horrifying—possibility: cover-up would distract the public from the media’s COVID-19 is caused by a naturally occurring virus that preferred COVID narratives: Trump’s incompetence, happened to leak while being studied at the Wuhan In- racial injustice, and red-state recklessness. Desperate to avoid those risks, media outlets, health organiza- James B. Meigs is the former editor of Popular Me- tions, government agencies, even the scientific com- chanics, among other magazines, and a co-host of the munity labored seemingly in concert to discount the How Do We Fix It podcast. lab-leak possibility and discredit anyone who raised it.

8 July/August 2021

Columns_July-Aug_6.16.indd 8 6/16/21 12:17 PM But, to the frustration of gatekeepers like Man- agenda. When Trump mentioned “the theory from the davilli, evidence that COVID-19 did originate at the lab,” last April, CNN’s John Harwood concluded that Wuhan Institute of Virology keeps getting stronger. the president was “looking for ways to deflect blame In recent months, there has been one bombshell for the performance of his administration.” In an in- disclosure after another. Even some scientists who terview on CBS, China’s ambassador to the U.S., Cui initially pooh-poohed the idea are now demanding an Tiankai, showed a surgical deftness in manipulating investigation. elite American opinion: He cagily warned that pursu- The dam is breaking. And with the surging flood- ing lab-leak questions “will fan up racial discrimina- waters, comes a stunning realization: Almost across tion, xenophobia.” the board, our elite institutions got the most important Our leading institutions took their cue, uni- question about COVID wrong. Worse, they worked versally declaring that the Wuhan theory wasn’t just furiously to discourage anyone else from getting it incorrect but dangerous and malicious. The World right. The leading scientific experts turned out to be Health Organization called the spread of the idea an spinning the truth. Our public-health officials put “infodemic” of misinformation. Social-media plat- their political agenda ahead of any scientific mandate. forms tweaked their algorithms to ensure that these And the press and social-media giants eagerly played dangerous notions wouldn’t infect the defenseless along, enforcing strict rules about which COVID topics population. When a New York Post opinion writer were acceptable and which had to be banished from raised the possibility of a lab leak, Facebook slapped the national conversation. a “False Information” alert on the piece and made it During the Trump years, we heard a lot of hand- impossible to share. Facebook also warned it would wringing about the public’s unwarranted “distrust” throttle the accounts of any users who persisted in of our society’s designated experts and leaders. But to spreading such wrongthink, ensuring that any dissent- be trusted, people and institutions have to be trust- ers from the approved COVID talking points would worthy. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed a profound fade into the social-media background. corruption at the heart of our expert class. The impact It almost worked. of that revelation will reverberate for years to come. For nearly a year, mainstream news outlets Interestingly, the idea that the virus might have barely mentioned the lab-leak hypothesis (except leaked from a lab wasn’t particularly controversial to ridicule it). The scientific community, too, largely in the early weeks of the pandemic. Initially, no one banished the topic. In February 2020, a group of 27 thought it was “racist” to note the coincidence that eminent virologists had published a statement in the a disease caused by a virus similar to ones found in influential medical journal the Lancet, soundly reject- Chinese bats just happened to emerge at the doorstep ing the idea that the virus might have emerged from a of the world’s top laboratory devoted to studying...Chi- lab rather than passing to humans from bats or some nese bat viruses. But once Senator Cotton brought up other animal. “We stand together to strongly condemn the possibility in a January 2020 Senate hearing, the conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does lab-leak notion had to be squelched. not have a natural origin,” the scientists wrote. One of Our country’s most esteemed media outlets the organizers of that letter was Peter Daszak, an epi- moved as one. First, they twisted Cotton’s question. He demiologist and president of the EcoHealth Alliance, had said we should investigate whether an accidental a group that helps distribute federal grant money to leak had occurred. But the Washington Post sug- researchers studying viruses. Not surprisingly, discus- gested that Cotton had called COVID-19 a deliberately sions about a potential lab leak tapered off dramati- released bioweapon. It was all downhill from there: cally. Working scientists’ careers depend on getting Politifact labelled that idea a “pants-on-fire” lie. The their papers published and winning research grants. Post accused the senator of “fanning the embers of a How many want to contradict the biggest names in conspiracy theory that has already been debunked their fields? Only later did it emerge that Daszak’s Eco- by experts.” Slate attributed the notion to “good old- Health Alliance had funneled some U.S. government fashioned racism.” research money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Overnight, the self-appointed fact-checkers all Daszak’s efforts to shut down debate on the question of agreed that the lab-leak question was “a lunatic con- that lab’s role in the disaster entailed a massive conflict spiracy theory,” as Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting of interest. put it last year. Of course, that meant anyone who Perhaps most disturbing was the response of raised the question couldn’t simply be searching the U.S. intelligence community. Two different teams for the truth—such a person had to have a political in the U.S. government—one working out of the State

Commentary 9

Columns_July-Aug_6.16.indd 9 6/16/21 12:17 PM Department, the other under the direction of the Na- tute’s risky research is thanks to these independent tional Security Council—were tasked with examining skeptics who challenged the institutional consensus. the origins of the outbreak. According to a blockbuster Some risked their careers to do so. investigation by Vanity Fair reporter Katherine Eban, One key group was an international assort- those researchers faced intense pushback from within ment of independent researchers—few of whom their own bureaucracies. Four former State Depart- were established virologists—that self-assembled on ment officials told Eban they had been repeatedly the Internet. The group called itself the Decentral- advised “not to open a ‘Pandora’s Box.’” ized Radical Autonomous Search Team Investigating In particular, they were urged not to reveal the COVID-19, or DRASTIC. The name made them sound role the U.S. government might have played in helping like a band of online gamers, but the group diligently fund the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s controversial uncovered a series of damning facts. Defenders of the “gain-of-function” projects. Gain-of-function research Wuhan Institute often describe the lab as a virtually involves manipulating potentially fail-safe Biosafety Level 4 facility. dangerous viruses to see if they The story of why the line But one DRASTIC researcher dis- might more easily infect human cells. covered that much of the work at Advocates, including Peter Daszak, of inquiry into COVID-19 the Wuhan lab was performed at say the process can help scientists survived is not an account lower levels—BSL-3 or even BSL-2, anticipate future outbreaks and pos- a degree of protection similar to sibly develop vaccines. Critics say, of leading scientists that in a dentist’s office. Another “It’s like looking for a gas leak with a and health organizations showed that SARS viruses had lighted match,” as Rutgers professor dutifully parsing the previously leaked from China’s top of chemistry and chemical biology research labs with alarming regu- Richard Ebright told Eban. Either evidence. Instead, it is larity. “The DRASTIC people are way, the possibility that U.S. research largely the story of little- doing better research than the U.S. grants might have helped finance government,” a State Department the creation of a super-virus was a known researchers— investigator told Vanity Fair. revelation some members of the in- many working outside Alina Chan, a young mo- telligence establishment were loath lecular biologist and postdoctoral to see exposed. the bounds of fellow at the Broad Institute of Despite the resistance, the State elite institutions— Harvard and MIT, was particularly Department team uncovered some who didn’t let the political fearless in challenging the prema- stunning intelligence supporting the ture consensus laid down by the leak hypothesis. In particular, re- implications of their elders in her field. She zeroed in searchers discovered that three WIV findings derail on the virus’s genetic structure. scientists studying coronaviruses had If the virus had gradually evolved fallen ill in November 2019 and had their efforts. to target humans, those changes gone to the hospital with COVID-like should have left traces in the ge- symptoms. The first confirmed cases of COVID-19 began nome. Instead, SARS-CoV-2 appeared “pre-adapted to erupting around Wuhan less than a month later. In the human transmission,” she wrote in May 2020. Other chaotic last days of the Trump administration, the State researchers confirmed that the virus contains a par- Department released a vague statement about its Wuhan ticular genomic sequence that doesn’t typically occur finding, but the news didn’t gain much traction at the naturally in this family of viruses but that is commonly time. Then the incoming Biden administration promptly inserted during gain-of-function research. By early disbanded the State Department’s Wuhan team. 2021, these sorts of revelations were building into a The whole investigation into COVID-19’s origins compelling argument that the virus emerged from the might have petered out at that moment. The story of Wuhan lab. Meanwhile, researchers trying to find the why the line of inquiry survived is not an account of natural “reservoir” of the virus—in bats or some other leading scientists and health organizations dutifully animal—were coming up shockingly empty. parsing the evidence. Instead, it is largely the story of Throughout the pandemic we’ve often heard ad- little-known researchers—many working outside the monitions to “follow the science.” Looking back we can bounds of elite institutions—who didn’t let the po- see that few scientists—and even fewer journalists—re- litical implications of their findings derail their efforts. ally did. 60 Minutes, which aired a skeptical report on Much of what we know today about the Wuhan Insti- the WHO’s milquetoast COVID-origin investigation,

10 July/August 2021

Columns_July-Aug_6.16.indd 10 6/16/21 12:17 PM was a rare exception. But most journalists who aggres- of the nation’s top virologists didn’t just dismiss the sively pursued the Wuhan story tended to work slight- lab-leak possibility, they appeared to be covering up ly outside the mainstream. In January 2021, Nicholson their own involvement with Wuhan gain-of-function Baker—a novelist, rather than an established science research. Journalists and social-media companies con- writer—published “The Lab-Leak Hypothesis” in New spired to suppress legitimate questions about a disease York magazine. In May, former New York Times sci- that was killing thousands of Americans each day. ence writer Nicholas Wade published a massively de- We may never get complete confirmation that tailed argument for the theory on the self-publishing the virus emerged from the Wuhan Institute; certainly, website Medium. Wade (who has faced criticism on the China will never allow an honest investigation. But the left for his writings on genetics and race) quoted Nobel idea that the virus resulted from scientific research— Prize–winning microbiologist David Baltimore saying and that some U.S. scientists then tried to hide their that a specific genetic modification at the virus’s “furin involvement—is already gaining acceptance with the cleavage site” was “the smoking gun for the origin of public. How will Americans react to this perceived the virus.” Two weeks later, Donald G. McNeil Jr.—who betrayal? Not well, I’m afraid. “We may very well see was humiliatingly forced out of the Times last year due the expert-worshiping values of modern liberalism go to his perceived violations of woke etiquette—posted up in a fireball of public anger,” writes Thomas Frank. on Medium a piece entitled “How I Learned to Stop The financial crisis of 2008 triggered widespread sus- Worrying and Love the Lab-Leak Theory.” picion of elite institutions and free markets, burning Notice the irony here: While two refugees from over political ground that eventually became fertile the New York Times were publishing deep, well-report- for both Bernie Sanders and Trump. If the public ed articles on an alternative outlet, the Times itself was concludes that COVID-19 was, in effect, an inside job, still mostly ignoring the Wuhan-lab story. And one of its the political fallout could last a generation. I don’t current pandemic specialists, Apoorva Mandavilli, was mean people will believe the virus was deliberately on Twitter urging everyone to “stop talking about the released—although far too many will embrace that lab leak.” Fortunately, people didn’t stop talking. The idea—but that they will see the disease as a product of lab-leak hypothesis had moved into the mainstream. an elite power structure that behaves recklessly and Scientists and journalists could finally discuss it with- evades responsibility. out fear of excommunication. Facing mounting pres- It would be tempting to cheer on a populist sure, the Biden administration reversed course on May uprising against elite expertise and institutions. But 26, announcing it had asked U.S. intelligence agencies that would be a tragic mistake. The vast majority of to investigate the “two likely scenarios” for the virus’s scientists, health-care institutions—even many public origin. But so much damage had already been done. officials—did vital heroic during the pandemic. Just When the pandemic hit last year, we were all look at those miraculous vaccines! Moreover, we can’t urged to fall in line and listen to the authorities. Sci- survive in a complex and dangerous world without ex- entists and bureaucrats were elevated to near-divine pertise. Replacing today’s expert class with conspiracy status. “Let us pray, now, for science,” Times tech col- theorists, anti-vax charlatans, and populist mounte- umnist Farhad Manjoo wrote last February. “Pray for banks might satisfy the public’s anger for a time. But reason, rigor and expertise…. Pray for the N.I.H. and it would only make our society more vulnerable—to the C.D.C. Pray for the W.H.O.” Now the public is wak- domestic unrest, pandemics, you name it. Can we re- ing up to the fact that, prayers notwithstanding, those form the institutions that failed us? Can they reform institutions largely failed us. The WHO kowtowed to themselves, perhaps to be more humble, more attuned China’s deceptions. Anthony Fauci trimmed his public to facts and less focused on power? I wish I could say statements to fit the prevailing political winds. Some I’m optimistic.q

Commentary 11

Columns_July-Aug_6.16.indd 11 6/16/21 12:17 PM WASHINGTON COMMENTARY Manchin Goes Rogue

MATTHEW CONTINETTI

ISTORIANS will record that the great Demo- democracy is on fire,” he told CNN. cratic meltdown of 2021 began on Sunday, But these denunciations were just as ineffective HJune 6, when Senator Joe Manchin of West as previous attempts to bully Manchin by calling the Virginia wrote an op-ed for the Charleston Gazette- filibuster racist. By sunset on June 7, Democrats on Mail. In his piece, Manchin reiterated his support for Capitol Hill were conceding to reporters that the su- filibuster rules that require 60 senators to end debate permajority requirement was secure for now, that the and proceed to a final vote on most legislation. And For the People Act was dead in its current form, and he restated his opposition to the For the People Act, that the rest of President Biden’s agenda was—well, the constitutional monstrosity that House Democrats pretty much up in the air. passed on a party-line vote in March and that Chuck “Where possible, Mr. Biden will have to use ex- Schumer has promised to bring to the floor of the Sen- ecutive actions to achieve many of his goals, such as ate with dispatch. reimposing strict regulations on power plants, auto- The left was not pleased with Manchin. Jemele mobiles, and trucks to combat climate change,” wrote Hill of the Atlantic called him a “clown” and a “power- Jonathan Weisman and Katie Rogers of the New York hungry white dude” who was upholding “white su- Times. The president who had been touted as the new premacy.” New York magazine published a blog that at- FDR only a few months ago suddenly looked a lot like tempted to poke holes in what the headline called “Joe his former, less world-historical boss. In January 2015, Manchin’s Incoherent Case for Letting Republicans when the GOP assumed full control of Congress, Presi- Destroy Democracy.” The spokeswoman for Senator dent Obama was left with just a “pen and a phone” to Richard Durbin of Illinois deleted a Tweet that said, advance his agenda. It didn’t go far. Obama was a lame “I don’t think our founding fathers anticipated the duck. survival of this democratic experiment to rest in the Of course, as of this writing, Biden’s party still hands of a man who lives in a houseboat.” Freshman controls Congress. Barely. And because Democrats Democratic congressman Jamaal Bowman of New hold 50 seats in the Senate, they still can use the par- York said Manchin is the “new Mitch McConnell.” (He liamentary procedure known as reconciliation to pass meant this as an insult.) House whip James Clyburn tax and spending bills on a simple majority. For Vice likened Manchin to Emperor Nero. “What we have is President Kamala Harris to cast the tie-breaking vote, a modern-day fiddling around in the Senate, and this however, all 50 Democrats must stand united. That’s what happened, for example, during the roll call for Matthew Continetti is a resident fellow at the the $2 trillion American Rescue Plan, though in the American Enterprise Institute end Senator Dan Sullivan’s absence from the floor ren-

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Columns_July-Aug_6.16.indd 12 6/16/21 12:17 PM dered Harris’s presence unnecessary. tisan idealism that Reiner and Hill celebrated. It was Things get much more complicated, though, his rescue of a Democratic entitlement—his effectual with Biden’s $2 trillion American Jobs Plan. The White support, in this instance, for the progressive agenda. House would like to reach a deal with 10 Republicans, The press labeled McCain a “maverick,” a charm- but no one is really brimming with optimism that such ing “rogue,” when he embraced liberal positions on a compromise will happen. If it does not, then Biden campaign-finance reform and immigration. Not so will be back at square one. “Should Democrats and Manchin, who supposedly lives in “a make-believe Republicans fail to broker a deal,” wrote Mike DeBo- wonderland” where he experiences “hallucinations,” ac- nis and Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post, “the cording to Washington Post columnist Eugene Robin- White House will need every Democratic senator to son. Manchin is the “Senate’s Walter Mitty,” who suffers rally behind the infrastructure bill on a party-line vote, from “straight-up delusion,” wrote Robinson’s colleague making Manchin a pivotal figure capable of making or James Downie. “Joe Manchin is prepared to be remem- breaking a centerpiece of the Biden agenda.” bered by history as the senator who did little more than And so, midway through his 10th year in the hope as his country’s democracy unraveled,” wrote Senate, Joe Manchin finds himself the linchpin of a Steve Benen of MSNBC. wobbly Democratic majority. It was probably inevi- A former Obama aide named Dan Pfeiffer saved table that he would attain this position. No one better the worst insult of all for Manchin’s ally, Senator exemplifies the realignment of voters by educational Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. She’s a Democrat from attainment that has transformed American politics a purplish state who also supports the filibuster. In over the past several decades. Manchin is that rarest his Substack newsletter Pfeiffer wrote that Sinema is of creatures, a genuine political unicorn, who has “more Joe Lieberman than John McCain.” somehow managed to remain both a Democrat and an Now that’s harsh. elected official in a state that Donald Trump won by 43 On the progressive left there is nothing worse points in 2016 and 39 points in 2020. than finding oneself compared to Lieberman, the It hasn’t been easy. Manchin’s victory margins four-term Democratic senator from Connecticut and have seesawed ever since he won reelection as gover- former vice-presidential nominee. Unlike the other nor in 2008 by 44 points. He won a special election to Democrats who voted to authorize war against Sad- the Senate in 2010 by 11 points, was elected again in dam Hussein, Lieberman continued to support the 2012 by 24 points, and earned a full term in 2018 by intervention in Iraq even after it became unpopular. just 4 points. He represents a state filled to bursting For his troubles, he lost a 2006 Senate primary to Ned with the non-college-educated white voters who have Lamont (now Connecticut’s governor) but won the abandoned the Democratic Party in droves, but whose general election anyway as an Independent who con- support Democrats cannot afford to lose by too much, tinued to caucus with the Democrats. Lieberman stuck lest the donkey go the way of the dodo. by his principles and retired under his own volition in Naturally, blue-state liberals take Manchin for 2012. Only in an addled liberal imagination does this granted. They alternate between happiness when he seem like a tragic or ghastly fate. gives them a majority and ferocity when he acts like The real enemy of the progressives is neither a red-state Democrat. It’s a pattern Republicans are Manchin nor Sinema. It’s math. The country is far less familiar with. Consider the opprobrium hurled in Su- left-wing than the neighborhoods where woke journal- san Collins’s direction whenever she deviates from the ists and socialist Squad members reside. For decades, true course set by the Freedom Caucus. And recall the the two parties have been close to a stalemate. The presidential fury that greeted the late John McCain’s difference between Democratic or Republican control “thumbs down” on Obamacare repeal in the summer of the United States is often less than 100,000 votes. of 2017. What gives Joe Manchin his power is the brittleness of The McCain comparison is telling. Whenever the current Democratic majority. the Arizona senator broke from conservatives, the It’s something Democrats ought to keep in mind. commentariat lavished him with praise. “Senator Twenty years ago, in a fit of pique, Jim Jeffords of John McCain is a man of his word and a true hero,” Vermont switched parties and handed the Democrats Rob Reiner tweeted after McCain voted against repeal. control of the Senate. Four years ago, West Virginia “Compassion and heart wins the day.” Back then, Je- governor Jim Justice became a Republican less than mele Hill was a happy camper, reveling in the GOP’s a year into his first term. The next time Joe Manchin disappointment. It wasn’t McCain’s independence of goes rogue, liberals may pay a far higher price than the mind, commitment to legislative procedure, or bipar- For the People Act.q

Commentary 13

Columns_July-Aug_6.16.indd 13 6/16/21 12:17 PM MEDIA COMMENTARY How the Media Ignore Jew-Haters

CHRISTINE ROSEN

F YOU GOOGLE the term “anti-Semitism,” the his anti-Semitism. The post is an exercise in moral search engine returns a straightforward defini- preening, with Bobb telling Jews how he thinks they Ition: “Hostility to or prejudice against Jewish should feel: “If I were a Jew today, my sensibilities people.” By this definition, it is beyond doubt that the would be tormented. I would find it increasingly dif- statement “Jews have an insatiable appetite for war ficult to reconcile the long cycles of oppression that and killing” is anti-Semitic; replace “Jews” with any Jewish people have endured and the insatiable appe- other race or ethnic group and there would be no argu- tite for vengeful violence that Israel, my homeland, has ment about it. now acquired.” But while Google offers a clear definition online If these statements weren’t clear enough, Bobb of anti-Semitism, it is much more confused about the noted that he was writing them on the anniversary matter among its employees. How else to explain, as of Kristallnacht, and he drew a comparison between Alana Goodman of the Free Beacon first reported, that Israel’s defense of itself and the Nazis. Because noth- Kamau Bobb, Google’s head of Diversity, Equity, and ing says “inclusion” like telling Jews that the Holocaust Inclusion, continues to be employed at the company was merely a teachable moment. after saying in a 2007 blog post that Jews have an “in- Google didn’t see this as a teachable moment satiable appetite for war” and an “insensitivity to the for Google, that’s for sure. Bobb was not fired for his suffering [of] others.” remarks, despite the fact that, as head of diversity and The post was published on Bobb’s personal blog, the person who helps set inclusion policies for a global which he used as a platform for his views as recently technology behemoth, he should be held to a higher as April 2021 and on which he identified himself as a standard of behavior than his underlings. He was Google employee. Those facts suggest he felt certain merely reassigned, and, as the BBC reported, Google that there would be no professional risk either at the issued a boilerplate PR statement: “We unequivocally university where he was working when he wrote the condemn the past writings by a member of our diver- post or later at Google for saying that Jews should feel sity team that are causing deep offense and pain to “tormented” by their support of Israel. He was right. members of our Jewish community.” Google either didn’t bother to check his published According to the New York Post, Bobb also statements before hiring him, or it didn’t care. sent a private email to Jewish employees at Google The latter appears to be the case since the senti- apologizing for the hurt he caused, although not for ments Bobb expressed leave no room for doubt about his views about the Middle East, in which he showed he was allergic not only to honest self-evaluation but Christine Rosen is Commentary’s senior writer. also to proper capitalization. “What I wrote crudely

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Columns_July-Aug_6.16.indd 14 6/16/21 12:17 PM characterized the entire jewish community. what was Black Lives Matter movement. Yet Google has said intended as a critique of particular military action fed nothing about the recent spike in anti-Semitic vio- into antisemitic tropes and prejudice. i think we can lence, including brutal beatings of Jews on the streets all agree, there is no easy solution to this situation. but of American cities, despite the fact that Jews are the that’s beside the point. the way I expressed my views targets of hate crimes in the U.S. far more frequently on that conflict were hurtful.” than other racial or religious groups. This slap on the wrist and let-the-healing-begin Part of that has to do with the fact that Google’s approach by Google is in stark contrast to the one it workforce is progressive, particularly on matters took with engineer James Damore in 2017. Damore, related to Israel: According to The Verge, some mem- you will recall, committed the unforgivable sin of par- bers of the Jewish group at Google to whom Bobb ticipating in an internal company chat about diversity privately apologized claim that the group itself “was and hiring practices during which he suggested that not a safe space to express anti-Zionist beliefs,” and men and women might have different interests and ap- they formed their own anti-Israel splinter group. That titudes that might lead them to pursue different fields group demanded that Pichai make a public statement of study and professional careers. He also noted that condemning Israel’s response to the recent Hamas Google was an ideological echo chamber that nurtured terrorist attacks on Israel that would include “direct an unhealthy “shaming culture and the possibility of recognition of the harm done to Palestinians by Israeli being fired” for anyone expressing divergent views. military and gang violence.” Not surprisingly, no pres- How right he was. Damore was fired, and in a sure was placed on Pichai to condemn Hamas’s terror- letter to staff, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that he ism, which directly targeted Israeli civilians. The letter had been let go because “to suggest a group of our col- further demanded funding for Palestinian causes and leagues have traits that make them less biologically “termination of contracts with institutions that sup- suited to that work is offensive and not OK.” Damore port Israeli violations of Palestinian rights, such as the later sued Google (the case was dropped after Damore Israeli Defense Forces.” and Google came to an undisclosed agreement in Google’s inconsistent application of its own sup- 2020). But the Damore situation sparked a great deal posed principles of diversity and inclusion should be of mainstream-media coverage and hand-wringing more widely known, but the mainstream media long about white male privilege. ago accepted uncritically the notion that anything la- Participating in an internal company debate beled an effort at fostering diversity cannot and should where one raises questions about the overreach and not be questioned—unless the diversity is ideological. claims of diversity training will get you fired; but pub- Thus James Damore, a white man, is fair game for lishing slurs about Jews? That merits only reassign- dismissal by Google for criticizing diversity dogma, ment, which shows that Google’s devotion to diversity and his story is widely discussed; Kamau Bobb, a is predicated on whether or not the person speaking is black man, remains protected by his institution for his part of a protected progressive class—and whether or anti-Semitism, and his behavior is barely mentioned not the perceived target is viewed as deserving of pro- in the press. Which is why, as of this writing, the New gressive scorn. Perhaps, like the Catholic Church and York Times, the Washington Post, and most other its pedophile priests, Google deems itself a powerful mainstream-media outlets that avidly covered the Da- enough institution that it too can protect its archbish- more case have completely ignored the Kamau Bobb ops by reassigning rather than removing them, so long story. They employ their own Kamau Bobbs, and that as they are acolytes of the new woke religion. Heretics, is sufficient for them to cast a blind eye on the matter. on the other hand, will face the fire. Although appeals to “diversity” are ubiquitous This is consistent with the progressive left’s gen- in corporate America, there is little consensus among eral approach to diversity and justice questions, and its Americans about what, exactly, diversity means—and willingness to treat anti-Semites with benign neglect little incentive on the part of woke executives or the because Jews are seen as “white-adjacent” or not as mainstream media to find out. As the internal contra- high on the victimization totem pole as other groups. dictions of intersectionality continue to reveal them- It’s not as if companies like Google haven’t been enthu- selves, perhaps the media could spend less time on siastic supporters of other diversity initiatives. self-congratulatory reporting of its own “moral clarity” In the wake of George Floyd’s killing in 2020, on race and more actual reporting on the hypocrisies Google issued a lengthy statement outlining its com- embedded in our culture’s pursuit of those things that mitments to racial equity in hiring and promotion as Kamau Bobb’s former title claimed he represented: well as the money and support it had promised to the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.q

Commentary 15

Columns_July-Aug_6.16.indd 15 6/16/21 12:17 PM JEWISH COMMENTARY How Chancellor Kurz Redeemed Vienna

MEIR Y. SOLOVEICHIK

S HAMAS FIRED missile after missile into could Israeli amity with the Arab nations be achieved, Israel, the Internet was inundated with ce- Europe may be realizing that the Abraham Accords A lebrity condemnations of the Jewish state suggest another path. Europeans now understand, and misinformation from the media. Yet one pro-Israel Haddad further argues, that they too face a terrorist image strikingly stood out: a picture of the Israeli flag threat and “have increasingly associated Israel as a flying proudly from the central house of government in country facing similar challenges, the canary in the Vienna. This was done at the order of Austria’s chan- coalmine for European democracies.” cellor, Sebastian Kurz, who explained in a tweet that it Such a realignment would certainly be good was intended as a “sign of solidarity with Israel” while news, but at the same time, Sebastian Kurz stands out. it was under threat. “The terrorist attacks on Israel,” he While Israel reacted negatively when Kurz’s original co- further wrote, “are to be condemned by the strongest alition contained one historically anti-Semitic party, the possible terms! Together we stand by Israel’s side.” 34-year-old has emerged as a chancellor dedicated to For Benjamin Haddad, writing in Foreign Policy, not only fighting anti-Semitism but embracing Zionism. the raising of the Zionist flag heralded a possible re- One former leader of Vienna’s Jewish community told alignment between Europe and Israel. After decades the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that from his first visit to of insisting that only through the “peace process” Israel, Kurz “fell in love with the country.” In Austria, the JTA further reported, “Kurz’s pro-Israel policies offer Meir Y. Soloveichik is the rabbi of Congregation him few political dividends, but he adheres to them in Shearith Israel in New York City and the director of any case because of his convictions and values.” the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Given this, Kurz’s celebration of the Israeli flag Yeshiva University. in the Austrian capital bears a unique and profound

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Columns_July-Aug_6.16.indd 16 6/16/21 12:17 PM The Israeli flag flying proudly from the central house of government in Vienna.

poetry. For it can be said that it was Vienna where the Lueger’s anti-Semitic diatribes earned him the roots of Nazism can first be found; moreover, it was the adulation of the Austrian masses, among them a young unique anti-Semitism of Vienna that was part of what man by the name of Adolf Hitler who studied in Vienna inspired Zionism in the first place. By all accounts, it is during the mayor’s administration. Hitler would cite Austria’s history that drives Kurz’s pro-Israel posture Lueger as his role model and make special mention today, and we too must understand his country’s past if of Der Schone Karl in his own memoir, Mein Kampf: we are to appreciate the meaning of what he has done “I regard this man as the greatest German mayor of in the present. all time. If Dr. Karl Lueger had lived in Germany, he In 1895, Theodore Herzl, working as a journalist would have been ranked among the great minds of our in Paris, returned home to Vienna and found the city people.” Knowing this lends an extraordinarily eerie in the midst of a mayoral election that would be won perspective to Herzl’s own description in his diary of by the charismatic Karl Lueger, known to his admirers Karl Lueger on the hustings: as “Der Schone Karl.” Lueger would come to be seen as the man who would change Vienna, reconfigure it into Municipal elections in Vienna took place an embodiment of modernity, technology, and beauti- the day before Rosh Hashanah eve. The ful gardens, which is why he is celebrated to this day in anti-Semites won all the mandates. The mood the city’s Karl Lueger Square. among the Jews is desperate. The propaganda But Lueger would herald the coming 20th century against them has whipped up a lot of hatred in another, more ominous manner: He demagogically among the Christians…. On Election Day I was described the Jews as a cabal controlling Europe and in Leopoldstadt outside the polling place, to as the central threat facing European civilization. “The take a closer look at all the hate and anger…. influence of the masses,” Lueger inveighed in one speech, In front of the polling place a silent tense “is in the hands of the Jews, the greater part of the press crowd. Suddenly Dr. Lueger stepped out into is in their hands, by far the largest part of all capital and, the square. Wild cheers, women waving white in particular high finance, is in Jewish hands, and in this kerchiefs from the windows. The police held respect the Jews operate a terrorism that could hardly be the crowd back. Next to me, someone said, worse.” Austria’s goal, Lueger argued, must be “liberating with tender warmth but in a quiet voice: This Christian people from the hegemony of Jewry.” is our Führer.

Commentary 17

Columns_July-Aug_6.16.indd 17 6/16/21 12:17 PM “More actually than any declamations and out- what it meant to fly the Zionist flag in the city that bursts,” Herzl further reflected, “it was this phrase that taught Hitler the power of hate and the city that taught proved to me how deeply anti-Semitism is entrenched Herzl the importance of Jewish nationalism. In a in the hearts of these people.” It was at this moment speech to American Jews, Kurz argued that Austria’s that Herzl’s dream of a Jewish state was born. history “guides my political work today,” reminding It is often assumed that it was the Dreyfus affair him that “we have to be a strong partner of Israel.” By that inspired Herzl’s vision, but in flying the Israeli flag, Kurz commu- fact, as Rick Richman has noted, nicated that Vienna faces a choice: Herzl had originally assumed Drey- By flying the Israeli flag, to stand with the locus of living fus’s guilt, and he had dismissed Chancellor Sebastian Jewry, or to stand with Hamas, the French anti-Semitism as a mere heirs of the Nazis’ quest for geno- “salon for the castoffs.” In con- Kurz communicated that cide of the Jewish people. trast, Richman writes, “Vienna was Vienna faces a choice: And in the end, Kurz re- Herzl’s home, the capital of the minds his fellow leaders that this Hapsburg empire, the heart of Cen- to stand with the locus of is a choice faced by all of Eu- tral European high culture, where a living Jewry, or to stand rope. Writing from Paris, Mi- Jewish population nearly twice as with Hamas, the chel Gurfinkel recently reflected large as that of all of France resided.” how, throughout the continent, These Austrian Jews, who had given heirs of the Nazis’ quest ostentatious memorials to the Ho- so much to their country, “were be- for genocide of the locaust are erected, as Europe ing accused of polluting the culture mourns “its lost dead Jews of yes- they had for a century longed to join, Jewish people. And in the terday, whose murder it variously and not simply by a benighted clergy end, Kurz reminds his perpetrated, abetted, or (with ex- but by politicians and the populace fellow leaders that this is a ceptions) found it could put up at large, in a democratic election.” with.” Gurfinkel summarizes the Thus it can be said that, in choice faced by all European approach in a stark 1895, Vienna’s leader taught Hitler of Europe. sentence: “To the dead Jews of his insidious craft and also inspired yesterday, everything; to the living Herzl’s Zionist dream. Others had Jews of today, little and littler.” already written of a restored Jewish society, but Herzl But not, at least for one moment, in Vienna, became convinced that only as a genuinely political where a chancellor in the city stood side by side with movement could Zionism succeed. “What,” Herzl wrote the state that was born in the mind of a Viennese Jew immediately after Lueger’s election, “is a flag? A pole and hung Herzl’s flag from the edifice embodying and a piece of cloth? No Sir. A flag is greater than this. his administration. It is too soon to tell whether the With a flag people are led to where you want, even to realignment described by Haddad is to endure, but if the chosen land. For a flag, people live and die. It is the there is to be a better future in Euro–Israel relations, one thing people are willing to die for.” it will be because Sebastian Kurz has helped show We are now able to understand the meaning of the way.q

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Columns_July-Aug_6.16A.indd 18 6/16/21 1:44 PM No, Jews Aren’t White We’re our own thing, and whatever privilege we possess is conditional By Liel Leibovitz

ANY YEARS ago, I moved should know that he was black. With a spring in his from my native Israel to step, my rival got very close and stared at me menac- New York, and because I ingly. I looked at him dumbfounded, for a few long had no cash and no clue, moments, at a loss as to what was supposed to hap- I spent my days helping pen next. I’d been in fights before, and I knew that out at a friend’s hardware when someone was jonesing to start one, he usually store. Not really being pushed or shoved or threw a punch or did something the handy type, I cared less about the power tools to let the other fellow know the game was afoot. My on displayM and the customers who craved them and rival, however, was just standing there, glaring at me more about a certain young woman working the cash as I did at him. Confused, I said the first thing that register. This provoked the ire of a fellow worker, came to my mind. It was this: “Is that supposed to who felt slighted that this foreigner should prance scare me?” into his turf and so brazenly attempt to mate with My voice must’ve conveyed that I was genu- the females. And so, one day, in the break room, the inely curious, since I asked it without a touch of gentleman decided to mark his territory. bravado or mockery. And something softened in my To understand fully what happened next, you colleague’s face. “Well,” he said, looking a bit sheep- ish, “yeah.” Liel Leibovitz is editor-at-large for Tablet. “Does it usually work?” I asked.

Commentary 19

Leibovitz_July-Aug_6.14A.indd 19 6/16/21 12:21 PM In the bad Kabuki theater of U.S. race relations, real issues remain obscured stage right and left while heavily painted grotesqueries jump around and shout, eager for attention.

“Yes,” he said. F YOU WERE a completist or a pedant, you could “Is it because you’re black and you think I’m simply insist that viewing the world and its in- white and I’m afraid of you?” I habitants through the lens of race is a creepy My colleague was smiling now. “You know it.” 19th-century affectation that excited mainly the most “Weird,” I said, smiling widely, too. Then we feeble-minded of Germans and led to a good bit of both went out for pizza, and my new friend told me savagery. You could marshal Martin Luther King Jr. about growing up and watching white American kids, to your defense and say that you take the line about including some who were much bigger and stronger content of character over color of skin seriously. That than he, cower whenever he approached, convinced kind of talk is earnest, but it won’t get you very far with that he possessed both the intention and the ability to those for whom race alone—and not, say, poverty, or hurt them somehow and for whatever reason. lack of community, or a debilitating exposure to mind- This was my introduction to the bad Kabuki rotting digital platforms—shapes every thread of the theater of contemporary American race relations, in human experience. which real issues remain obscured stage right and left Next, you can try and argue that the category while heavily painted grotesqueries jump around and itself—“white”—is ridiculous. Go tell Giuseppe, for shout, eager for attention. example, that his granddaughter is now considered Which is not to say that systemic racism isn’t a member of the rarified white elite, even though he real, or that you don’t stand a much better chance of and his fellow immigrants were pelted with racial being senselessly harassed by the police if you’re black, insults, discriminated against, and murdered. We got or that centuries of discrimination haven’t take their Columbus Day, for example, after 11 Italian Americans toll, or that representation in the media doesn’t mat- were lynched in 1892, leading President Harrison to ter, or that health-care disparities aren’t frequently instate a daylong celebration he thought would never predicated on race and gender—or that any of the become a tradition. Or inform Paddy that while, back other arguments hurled at you as soon as the conver- in his day, the Irish were talked about, to quote one sation turns to race aren’t valid. But if you’d like to sickening periodic refrain, as “negroes turned inside understand everything that’s so inherently nuts about out,” his grandson may now rest assured on the top of the contemporary American conversation about race, the racial-grievance food chain. it only takes this one three-word sentence: Jews are And yet, even these objections, solemn as they white. may be, don’t begin to capture the weight of the You heard endless variations on this sentiment argument that Jews are somehow white. Take a mo- during Israel’s recent skirmish with Hamas, as a parade ment to acquaint yourself, even in passing, with our of lawmakers, intellectuals, and entertainers took to stiff-necked people, and it’s the following observa- social media to denounce the world’s sole Jewish state tion that is likely to register very near the top: We of perpetrating apartheid or of murdering black and stand out precisely because we don’t fit in. Is Juda- brown bodies. You hear it from radical Jewish advo- ism a religion? Sure. Are Jews a nation? Yes. Do we cates, who trill that Jews are “white passing” and there- share genetic traits? Offer us dairy and find out. Do fore “functionally white,” which means they should take we come in all shapes, sizes, and skin colors? Amen their place among the world’s most privileged, no mat- selah. This is why I, a ninth-generation Israeli whose ter what might’ve happened to their families between, ancestors arrived in Jerusalem from the backwaters say, 1939 and 1945. You hear it in colleges, where you of the Austrian Empire, can amble into the Slat al- can pay the equivalent of the median American salary Azama synagogue in Marrakesh, or the Beth Yaakov just to attend courses with titles like “Jews and Racial Synagogue in Geneva, or the Ohel Leah Synagogue Privilege.” You hear it wherever our bien pensants con- in Hong Kong, look around and see faces that vary gregate to show one another their virtues and pledge wildly, and yet rest assured that when services start allegiance to their new radical religion. we will all recite, in more or less the exact same fash- How to make sense of this? ion, the ancient words that Jews have spoken in daily

20 No, Jews Aren’t White : July/August 2021

Leibovitz_July-Aug_6.14A.indd 20 6/16/21 12:21 PM Jews don’t really fit comfortably into any of the categories that the Grand Ideologies of the ages have created to make sense of the glorious mess of human diversity.

prayer for millennia. erations. It’s why we alone have been singled out If this kind of image—black Jews and white for a specific kind of steady stream of suspicion and Jews, European Jews and African Jews, educated persecution throughout history, even here in America. wealthy Jews and barely literate poor Jews all under- It’s a torrent that hasn’t grown any weaker, no mat- standing one another perfectly because they belong ter how cheerful we wish to be. In 2019, for example, to the same strange family—strikes you as too flimsy, nearly two-thirds of all religious-based hate crimes in consider the criteria put forth by José Martínez Cobo, America targeted Jews, a 14 percent increase from the an anthropologist engaged by the United Nations to previous year…and rising. serve as special rapporteur on discrimination against Tragically—or comically, depending on your indigenous populations, as to what makes a people point of view—when members of our smart set are “indigenous.” asked to address this surge, they find it truly and ut- To fit the bill, he argued, peoples and nations terly baffling. For a particularly blunt and amusing should display one or more of the following: occupa- example of this genre, see a recent story published tion of ancestral lands; common ancestry; a shared by Vox, which scratched its headline while admitting culture or religion; and a shared language. By any that “violent anti-Semitism spiked in America during and all metrics at our disposal—archeology, history, the Israel-Hamas war. And we don’t know why.” This theology, even DNA tests—Jews, if anything, are the bafflement, as the writer Elad Lapidot noted in Tablet, indigenous people of the Land of Israel, from which is predicated precisely on our intellectuals’ inability they might have been exiled now and then but to which to come to terms with the simple idea that Jews are a they always return. people apart. Still, to the zealots who shout that Jews are white, If you define, as the liberal ethos does, all forms all that matters is the following steely argument: that of bigotry as rooted in the sin of essentialism—saying for the last few decades, American Jews have benefited that all blacks, for example, possess a certain quality, from the rewards that come with being among our soci- or that all Latinos exhibit certain behaviors—you hit ety’s most educated and best compensated few. a brick wall when dealing with Jews. Ours, alas, is not This is irrefutably true: About 4 in 10 Jews live the spirit of the Enlightenment. We’re not ones for in households making more than $100,000 per year, radical individuality or social contracts among free more than any other religious group in America, an and unfettered souls who care neither a feather nor a astonishing statistic when you consider that we consti- fig for family and tribe. Ours is the communal ethos of tute less than 2 percent of the population. the Hebrew Bible. It’s the story of Us, not of Me, and And yet this materialistic argument is rendered it’s possible and coherent precisely because it allows— futile, not only by the fact that it assumes the trappings encourages, mandates—us to display and cultivate of privilege have been bestowed on all Jews. They have shared traits. not; anywhere between 16 and 20 percent of Jewish Some Jews may have more melanin in their skin American households, according to a recent survey or fewer dollars in their bank accounts, some may by the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, earn dress in black and some drape themselves in the colors less than $30,000 a year. The argument of particular of the rainbow, but all belong to an extended family privilege is especially spurious because it ignores the that stayed a family because it insisted on the display unique nature of anti-Jewish bigotry, a highly resistant of collective behaviors. viral strain that feeds precisely on the difficult truth Essentialist? You betcha. that Jews don’t really fit comfortably into any of the Which leaves progressives, poor souls, in a pick- categories that the Grand Ideologies of the ages have le. To admit that there is something unique about Jews created to make sense of the glorious mess of human that does not conform to the dogmas of intersectional- diversity. ity and white privilege and the other semi-coherent Jews are just Jews, a difficult realization that mutterings at the core of their new and monstrous has driven haters to distraction throughout the gen- Woke Religion would be to introduce more doubt and

Commentary 21

Leibovitz_July-Aug_6.14A.indd 21 6/16/21 12:21 PM Young secular Jews who identify as white practice their Judaism as they do their aversion to gluten, privately and sporadically, as the mood suits them.

nuance than our secular Savonarolas can stomach. To lectuals who go against the simplistic narrative of race ease their tensions, to keep their faith alive, they resort as a monolith are discounted and hounded for failing to a simple pronouncement that flattens all difference to be black in the correct and approved manner, so are and erases all difficulty: Jews are white. Jews who share their plight dismissed as being whin- ers who fail to see the bigger picture of oppression and T’S NOT TOO difficult to understand what moves their shameful place in it. The “Jews are white” Jews, the non-Jews shouting this rot. The creative ge- then, acquiesce, and assure themselves that nothing I nius of Jew-hatred has always been its ability to bad will happen here because, well, nothing bad has imagine the Jew as the embodiment of whatever it is happened here yet to them. that polite society finds repulsive. That’s why Jews were A modicum of immersion in Jewish life would condemned as both nefarious bankers controlling all save these Jews from the maws of their own oblivious- the world’s money and shifty revolutionaries imperil- ness. But herein lies their second misfortune: Religion, ing all capital; as both sexless creeps and oversexed to them, has become not the communal pursuit of lechers coming for the women and the girls; as both study and practice, as it had been for Jews since at pathetically powerless and occultly powerful. Like least Moses, but one more lifestyle decision among something out of Harry Potter, the Jew takes the shape many. For the most part, the modern progressive Jew of whatever the Jew-hater fears and loathes most. And is Jewish the same way she’s vegan, say, or a socialist, or if you decide that there’s such a thing as “whites” and a fan of matcha lattes. Like nearly a third of American that they are uniquely responsible for all evils perpe- adults, she likely defines herself as spiritual but not trated on the innocent and downtrodden, well, the religious, ignoring the fact that religion emerged in Jews must be not only of them but nestled comfortably precisely the same way across cultures and continents at the top of the white-supremacist pyramid. precisely because humans realized that spiritual stir- Things get a bit hairier when it comes to Jews rings alone were meaningless unless tethered to the themselves repeating the “Jews are white” canard, ground by rituals that had to be performed together often in the form of a mea culpa. Why do this? Why with other people. would any Jew ignore so much evidence and common The young secular Jews who identify as white sense and repeat it? If you’re looking to begin and un- have none of that. As they are not likely to belong to a derstand this madness, consider the following three synagogue or a faith community, they practice their Ju- misfortunes. daism as they do their aversion to gluten, privately and First, those Jews who accept the mantle of white- sporadically, as the mood suits them. It’s much easier ness have, quite literally, lost track of time and space. than accepting the yoke of obligations—from holding Rather than humbly admit that the arc of history is space with other Jews you may not like to performing long and often bends toward anti-Semitism—as is the practices, like keeping kosher, you may not fully un- clear pattern that emerges when you study any period derstand—but it also offers far less protection against of history in any corner of planet earth—they conclude being swallowed by the tide of a hostile culture. quietly that because they themselves have experienced Which brings us to misfortune number three: no animosity in Silver Springs or Westchester or High- Being all too human, progressive Jews are eager to land Park, that animosity has never really existed. belong to something. And because their own parents To them, human history began in 1993, between the spent decades and hundreds of thousands of dollars swearing-in of Clinton and Bjork’s first LP. telling them that the greatest good is to be found in This stance is perfectly aligned with a culture the quad of an Ivy League school or the sparkling and a politics that praise radical individualism and boardroom of a Fortune 100 company or any of the personal experience over anything else. Not that other temples of the all-American meritocracy, they personally experiencing anti-Semitism, as nearly two- are happy to pay any price to fit in among the swells. thirds of Americans told pollsters they had this year, If you grew up in a household where Shabbat would change the picture much. Just as black intel- candles were rarely if ever lit and no one bothered

22 No, Jews Aren’t White : July/August 2021

Leibovitz_July-Aug_6.14A.indd 22 6/16/21 12:21 PM As some Jews continue to torment themselves by trying to fit in with a milieu that will never accept them, most young Jews are traveling in the exact opposite direction.

reading a page of Talmud, but where SAT scores were is true and nothing is permitted except for parroting obsessed over and Penn and Princeton stickers, coffee the articles of faith passed down by those who hold mugs, and sweatshirts ordered as soon as those thick power. Thankfully, as some Jews continue to torment admission envelopes arrived in the mail, you would themselves by trying to fit in with a milieu that will understandably pay any price to stay in the good never accept them for who they are, most young Jews graces of the priestly class that maintains these hal- are traveling in the exact opposite direction. According lowed institutions. So if the priests demand that you to the latest Pew Survey, released earlier this year, only identify as white and say a little prayer of repentance 3 percent of Jews 65 and older define themselves as for your sins, well, isn’t that a small price to pay for the observant, while among adults under 30, the number American dream? skyrockets to 17 percent. This means that many among That nothing good ever came to the Jews from the coming generation of American Jews have no use groveling, that we survived—indeed, thrived—pre- for obscene formulations like “Jews are white.” They cisely because we refused to compromise our beliefs, is have only one identity marker, the only one they ever lost on these lost souls. In their airless world, nothing had, the only one that matters: Jews are Jews.q

Commentary 23

Leibovitz_July-Aug_6.14A.indd 23 6/16/21 12:21 PM The Paradoxes of Benjamin Netanyahu The fox who is also the hedgehog By Bret Stephens

ONCE GOT an unexpected, unpleasant, and Netanyahu knew that I was one of the few editors altogether unforgettable phone call from in Israel who fully endorsed his controversial agenda of Benjamin Netanyahu. This was in 2004, tax cuts, privatization, deregulation, and budgetary dis- when Netanyahu was serving as finance min- cipline. He also knew that while the Post’s influence in ister in Ariel Sharon’s government and I was Israel was limited, the paper was widely read by many of editor of the Jerusalem Post. At the time, no- the foreign investors, policymakers, financial analysts, body thought of Israel as the dynamic “Start- and machers of the sort he was always keen to cultivate. up Nation” that it would later become, thanks largely But he wasn’t interested in talking about his to Netanyahu’sI policies. Instead, it was a country beset plans. Instead, he lit into me because one of the not just by waves of Palestinian suicide bombers but Post’s opinion columnists had mentioned a notorious also by the stultifying legacies of the country’s socialist 1993 episode in which Netanyahu had gone on TV to roots: high taxes, inefficient state-owned companies, confess an extramarital relationship while denounc- excessive welfare subsidies, a bloated public sector. ing a blackmail attempt. “My children can now read From an economic standpoint, Israel was more likely English, you know!” he said, eliding the fact that his to be compared to Argentina than, say, Switzerland. children could just as easily have learned of the affair on the Internet from sources in Hebrew. Bret Stephens is Commentary’s contributing It took me a few minutes to realize that the point editor and a columnist for the New York Times. of his tirade wasn’t to complain about unfair or inaccu-

24 July/August 2021

Stephens_July/Aug_6.16.indd 24 6/16/21 12:23 PM rate coverage. It was a rebuke for failing to provide com- they go far to explain how Netanyahu’s long reign as pliant coverage, as if the purpose of the Post was to prime minister came to an end—not because he was burnish his children’s image of their father. Unlike most defeated by his ideological opponents, or brought politicians, he wasn’t interested in cultivating me as a down by a legal case against him, or turned out of office friendly media voice. He wanted me as a patsy, and he following some policy fiasco. Rather, Netanyahu fell wasn’t subtle about letting me know it. because, through a combination of high-handedness and jealousy, he allowed too many of his onetime allies N ITSELF, this long-ago encounter with the once and ideological fellow-travelers to become perma- and future prime minister didn’t mean much—al- nently embittered ex-friends. Ithough Netanyahu’s habit of demanding obsequi- Naftali Bennett, the new prime minister, was ous reporting would come to haunt him after he had a Netanyahu protégé who served as his chief of staff returned to the prime minister’s chair. from 2006 to 2008 before an angry falling out. Gideon Yet the story helps explain the paradox of Ben- Sa’ar, the new justice minister, was brought into the jamin Netanyahu, in perhaps the most paradoxical Likud by Netanyahu but fell out with him once Ne- year of his long political career. To wit, how does a man of such ambition, talent, and undeniable Benjamin Netanyahu fell because he achievements manage so often allowed too many of his allies and to be so petty and self-defeating? And how can a prime minister ideological fellow-travelers to become whose recent triumphs include peace agreements with four Arab permanently embittered ex-friends. states, a series of spectacular blows to Iran’s nuclear program, and a world-beating tanyahu began to perceive him as a credible rival for COVID-19 vaccination effort lose to the strangest coali- party leadership. Benny Gantz, defense minister in the tion of political bedfellows ever assembled in Israeli—if new government and the last, whom Netanyahu had not Western—history? appointed as IDF chief of staff, was double-crossed In a word, it’s personal. and politically humiliated last year after he agreed to In 1998, during Netanyahu’s turbulent first term a power-sharing deal with Netanyahu—a deal Netan- as prime minister, his father, Benzion, gave a candid yahu had no intention of honoring (and, predictably, interview about his second son: “He doesn’t know how didn’t). Avigdor Lieberman, the new finance minister, to develop manners that captivate people by praise or was an ideological soulmate and right-hand man to grace,” he said, adding, “He doesn’t always succeed in Netanyahu who came to despise him after he autho- choosing the most suitable people.” About the nicest rized private investigations and an anonymous legal thing Benzion could say of his boy was, “He may well hit on his family (or so Lieberman claims). have been more suited as foreign minister than as head “By my code this is a sin for which there is no of state. But at this moment I don’t see anyone better.” forgiveness, even on Yom Kippur,” Lieberman said in One doesn’t have to play armchair psychoanalysis to March. “The thought that I will sit with Netanyahu is a observe: some father. fantasy with no chances.” In fact, Benjamin Netanyahu can also be engag- These four men command 28 Knesset seats be- ing and charming, at least when he’s in the public eye. tween them. Together with one or both of the ultra-Or- But there was more than a grain of truth to the father’s thodox parties, they would have easily given Netanyahu observations. When I first arrived in Israel as editor of and his 30-seat Likud party a robust, right-of-center the Post, I paid a visit to my predecessor as editor, David mandate in the last election—if only he could have won Bar-Illan, the pianist and polemicist who had gone to them over to his side. Yet when it came to the prime work for Netanyahu as his press spokesman before run- minister, the feud was personal. That they preferred to ning afoul—like so many who came before and after—of join forces with Yair Lapid’s centrist Yesh Atid, Mansour Netanyahu’s feared and unpopular wife, Sara. So trauma- Abbas’s Islamist Ra’am, and the left-wingers of Labor tized was David by the manner in which the Netanyahus and Meretz is a vivid demonstration that Netanyahu’s had treated him that, after suffering a crippling heart powers of personal repulsion have exceeded those of attack, he waved off Netanyahu from a sickbed visit. ideological attraction. To know “King Bibi” up close Stories like this are remarkably common among and personal is to also to understand why he’s king no those who have known Netanyahu over the years. And longer.

Commentary 25

Stephens_July/Aug_6.16.indd 25 6/16/21 12:23 PM ET IF WE are to judge Netanyahu by his faults ministration has predictably reversed this policy but is alone, it would be impossible to account for the unlikely to reverse course on the embassy or the Heights. Y fact that he is the most dominant figure in Is- This achievement, for Israel, is permanent. raeli politics since David Ben-Gurion. To his inveterate Security: Despite three traumatic wars with critics, that’s merely a function of his ability to win elec- Hamas in Gaza and the harrowing “knife intifada” of tions, which they attribute to his being a silver-tongued 2015, Israelis have enjoyed greater security during Ne- fearmonger who appeals to Israel’s racist side—in ef- tanyahu’s time in office than they had in the 10 years of fect, a Donald Trump–like figure with a better brain. terror and retreat between his first and second terms. The caricature sells Netanyahu and his vot- The regional picture for Israel also seems to be relatively ers short. It also fails to comprehend the scale of his better, at least when it comes to the Sunni Arab states. achievements in his second, 12-year tenure in office. And Netanyahu never made any irreversible concessions Let’s list a few. to the Palestinians, even in the face of eight years of heavy Diplomacy: The crown jewels in Netanyahu’s dip- Obama-administration pressure to do so. lomatic legacy are the Abraham Accords, which effective- The reason for the relative calm has much to do ly represent the end of the Arab–Israeli conflict (even if with what Israeli generals call “the war between the subsidiary conflicts, above all with Palestinians, remain). wars,” but which might also be described as the Netan- The accords did not happen by accident. They are the yahu Doctrine. After being dissuaded in 2010 from a result of Arab admiration for Israel’s economic success; full-scale strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, Netanyahu respect among Arab leaders for Netanyahu’s willingness settled for a strategy of applying low-grade but continu- to denounce the Iran nuclear pact (and, by implication, ous military pressure on Israel’s enemies in ways that Barack Obama) in the U.S. Congress; and some canny seldom invite open retaliation or create international deal-making that involved a threat to annex much of the controversy. In 2019, the IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot West Bank, which was then used as a bargaining chip for told me, with respect to Syria, that Israel had “struck diplomatic recognition. thousands of targets without claiming responsibility or But the Accords are not Netanyahu’s only diplo- asking for credit.” Jerusalem has also been instrumental matic victories. He renewed or strengthened Israel’s old in helping Cairo deal with an Islamist insurgency in Si- ties with African countries—Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda, nai, in ways that go all but unnoticed in the West but have Chad, Nigeria—that are battleground states in the fight helped solidify its security ties in the Arab world. against Islamist terror. He developed strong personal Then there is Iran, where Israel has conducted the most extraordinary and long-term covert-ops campaign in modern his- The crown jewels in Netanyahu’s tory. The Mossad’s 2018 acquisi- diplomatic legacy are the Abraham tion of Iran’s entire nuclear archive caused the U.S. to pull out of the Iran Accords, which effectively represent nuclear deal, and further attacks on nuclear installations and scientists the end of the Arab–Israeli conflict. continue to set back the Islamic Republic’s nuclear timetable. When bonds with Narendra Modi of India and Shinzo Abe of Iran’s largest naval ship sank in early June, on the same Japan. He maintained a functional relationship with day that a major fire broke out at a large oil refinery serv- Vladimir Putin, which is a vital Israeli interest whatever ing Tehran, it was difficult to imagine that pure coinci- one thinks of the Russian dictator. He forged strategic dence was at play. ties with Greece, historically one of the more anti-Israel Economy: Netanyahu was Israel’s first prime countries in Europe. minister to have a serious grasp of economics and an ap- And, of course, he cultivated Trump. Many Ameri- preciation for business. Netanyahu also understood that can Jews consider this a scandal, as if Netanyahu would there was no good reason Israel couldn’t be a wealthy have done better by sneering at the American president country—and that such wealth was a benefit to Israel’s in the manner of, say, Canada’s Justin Trudeau. But overall well-being, not a stain on its moral virtue. the payoff for Israelis of Netanyahu’s courtship of the When Netanyahu returned to the prime minis- 45th president was spectacular: an American Embassy ter’s office in 2009, Israel’s gross domestic product (in in Jerusalem, U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty current prices) stood at $207 billion. Ten years later, on the Golan Heights, a severe downgrading of U.S. just before the pandemic, it had nearly doubled in size, relations with the Palestinian leadership. The Biden ad- to about $400 billion. By comparison, the U.K. econo-

26 The Paradoxes of Benjamin Netanyahu : July/August 2021

Stephens_July/Aug_6.16.indd 26 6/16/21 12:23 PM my grew by just 17 percent over the same time period. Finally, Arab states are growing tired of the Pal- The average monthly wage in Israel is now nearly 50 estinian cause, at least in its maximalist versions, and percent higher than it was in 2009. Israel is no longer are prepared to put the issue on ice in pursuit of the the country where, as the old saying had it, you could goals they share with the Jewish state. The fact that one make a small fortune if you arrived with a large one. barely heard a peep of protest from Cairo, Riyadh, Abu As in any country, there are arguments to be Dhabi, or other Arab capitals during the last round of made about the nature of wealth inequality and dis- fighting in Gaza suggests there is much to that belief. tribution, not least along class, ethnic, and religious lines. What should be inarguable is that wealth gives ITTLE OF THIS goes noticed outside of Is- Israel strategic advantages it didn’t previously enjoy. rael, thanks mainly to shoddy media cover- As one New York Times writer recently pointed out, Lage, monomaniacal obsession with Palestinian 40 years ago, U.S. aid to Israel amounted to 10 percent grievances, and what can only be described as a kind of of its economy, while today, at nearly $4 billion a year, Bibi Derangement Syndrome among his critics, many it’s closer to 1 percent. Wealth diminishes dependency. It also makes Israel a more attractive Netanyahu clearly understood that destination to Jews who no lon- Israel can neither separate politically ger feel entirely secure in their diasporic homes, or who may from the Palestinians safely nor coexist simply be seeking opportunity. Palestinians: Most of Ne- with them indefinitely. tanyahu’s predecessors as prime minister had gotten the Palestinian issue wrong—some of them left-leaning American Jews. (Some of these by imagining that Palestinians didn’t, or shouldn’t, ex- critics are fond of insisting that their problems with ist as a separate people; others by believing they were Israel are all about their disdain for Netanyahu. Don’t the most important, if not the only, thing that mattered. hold your breath waiting for them to moderate their Both approaches had proved disastrous. views under the new coalition.) Netanyahu understood that Israel can neither Yet Netanyahu lasted as long as he did in his job separate politically from the Palestinians safely nor because he was, in many ways, very good at it. After the coexist with them indefinitely. The right approach was utopian follies of the peace processers in the 1990s, the one of long-term tactical management, not grandiose trauma of the second intifada at the start of the century, peace plans and “final-status” solutions. and Ehud Olmert’s incompetent handling of the 2006 Undergirding that view is the belief that time is, Lebanon War, it’s easy to see the appeal (as one of his in fact, on Israel’s side, for at least three reasons. First, campaign ads had it) of the “Bibisitter”—the safe pair the demographic picture is hardly as bleak for Jews as of hands who’ll make sure the kids sleep well at night. is often suggested (an idea that has ample empirical But, again, this isn’t quite the whole story. basis, at least if Israeli Jews maintain their robust birth The usual rap on Netanyahu is that he’s a re- rate while Arab birth rates continue to decline). The morseless ideologue whose only goal is “Greater Isra- Cassandras of the left have been warning for decades el” and who will do whatever it takes to get it, whether of a ticking demographic time bomb, but, much like it’s through sly prevarication or open demagogy. An al- the notorious clock of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scien- ternative view, most often held by Netanyahu’s conser- tists, the hands never seem to reach midnight. vative critics, is that he either lacks the courage of his Second, the ideological picture also isn’t as dire convictions, or just believes in little beyond himself. for Israel as widely believed—squeamish liberals, “How is he better than Rabin or Peres?” the campus BDS campaigns, and rising anti-Semitism in former Likud Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir railed Europe and the U.S. notwithstanding—because much against Netanyahu after Israel withdrew from parts of the world is moving in a more nationalist direction. of the West Bank after the 1998 Wye River agreement That gives Israel new friends in the world, whether during Bibi’s first go as prime minister. “He has a de- they are evangelical Christians in the U.S. or Hindu sire for power for its own sake.” Several years later, as nationalists in India (as well as some unsavory figures a member of Ariel Sharon’s government, Netanyahu like Hungary’s Viktor Orban). The abiding threat of claimed to oppose Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Islamism also helps Israel, insofar as Israel is broadly Gaza, but kept voting in favor of its implementa- seen, and widely admired, for its success in fighting it. tion. “After supporting disengagement four times” in

Commentary 27

Stephens_July/Aug_6.16.indd 27 6/16/21 12:23 PM cabinet and Knesset votes, Sharon said of his finance firmly ensconced in power in Damascus while Hezbol- minister, “Bibi ran away.” Naftali Bennett’s own break lah maintains its firm grip in Lebanon. with Netanyahu became definite after the latter’s 2009 In these respects, the strategic picture has not speech at Bar-Ilan University, in which he accepted the decisively changed on Netanyahu’s watch, and Prime principle of a Palestinian state. Minister Bennett will face almost exactly the same “We go along with this vision that is impractical, unenviable choices Netanyahu did in the early days and then, we are surprised why the world is angry with of his tenure. There are circumstances in which buy- us for not fulfilling that vision,” Bennett told me in a ing time amounts to a form of progress, but history 2015 interview. “You can’t say ‘I support a Palestinian hasn’t yet provided a verdict as to whether this was state’ and then not execute according to that. I think one of them. people appreciate honesty.” There have also been hidden costs to this style of That last point strikes me as unfair: It’s perfectly leadership. The essence of good policy—containment consistent to accept the idea of a Palestinian state in comes to mind—is that it establishes conditions in principle—the principle being that it should model which less-than-superb leaders can be entrusted with itself on Costa Rica or the U.A.E.—while rejecting it in its execution. Under Netanyahu, by contrast, the man practice—the current reality being that it has more in and the policy effectively became one and the same. common with Lebanon or Yemen as an unstable ter- “Bibi-ism” isn’t really a set of principles or concepts rorist entrepot that has no interest in meeting even that his successors can apply or adapt. It’s the view that minimal Israeli demands for peace and security. Ask- one man, and one man only, has the wisdom, experi- ing the lion to lie down with the lamb is a beautiful ence, and instincts to run the country. wish and a terrible policy. The result has been an extraordinary personal- But the deeper criticism is that Netanyahu’s ization of Israeli politics. At least a quarter of Israe- tenure amounts to little more than a holding action, a lis—starting with Netanyahu himself—seem to believe bravura performance in kicking cans down the road. that après Bibi, le déluge. That has encouraged Netan- When I interviewed Netanyahu in 2009, just as he yahu and his allies to vilify their political opponents in was about to return to office and Operation Cast Lead ways that are both hysterical and potentially danger- was winding down, he was quick to criticize the out- ous. Early in June, Likud lawmaker May Golan com- come. “Notwithstanding the blows to Hamas, it’s still in pared Bennett and Sa’ar to “suicide bombers,” while Gaza, it’s still ruling Gaza,” he said. Netanyahu’s “opti- Aryeh Deri, leader of the Shas party, warned that Ben- nett would “destroy Shabbat.” Netanyahu’s political op- Under Netanyahu, the man and the po- ponents, by contrast, have come licy effectively became one and the same. to believe that Bibi is “le déluge” and have been intent to do just ‘Bibi-ism’ isn’t really a set of principles or about anything to destroy him. Among the many paradoxes of concepts that his successors can adapt. the last few years of Israeli poli- tics is that the legal cases that mal outcome,” he claimed, would be regime change for have been ginned up against the prime minister (and the Strip, but “the minimal outcome would have been to which, at least by my reading, mainly suggest aggres- seal Gaza” from being able to acquire lethal munitions. sive or sleazy political behavior, not criminal offenses) Yet 12 years and three wars later, not much has changed, did more to encourage him to cling to his office by except that Hamas has gained greater international nearly any means necessary than they did to give him legitimacy while Israelis have grown used to spending an opportunity for a graceful exit. time in their safe rooms periodically. That’s what happens when the essence of one’s Something similar might be said of Netanyahu’s political program is to stay in power as long as pos- approach to Tehran. Dazzling as Israel’s intelligence sible, whether out of a belief in one’s own indispens- and diplomatic coups have been, Iran is now enrich- ability or a need for legal self-preservation (or, in ing uranium to unprecedented levels of purity even as Netanyahu’s case, both). Democracies do best when the Biden administration maneuvers to re-enter the parties stand for ideas, not personalities, and when nuclear deal. That goes also in the north, where thou- political opponents aren’t viewed as mortal enemies. sands of Israeli air strikes have blunted Iran’s power They also do better when leaders observe some moral without altering the fact that Bashar al-Assad remains boundaries, like not bidding for the support of the

28 The Paradoxes of Benjamin Netanyahu : July/August 2021

Stephens_July/Aug_6.16.indd 28 6/16/21 12:23 PM Kahanist party or not seeking a pardon for a soldier equally false. There is no plausible Palestinian state who murdered a Palestinian terrorist after he’d been that can satisfy Israeli security requirements and Pal- neutralized. But that wasn’t Bibi’s way. estinian desires. There is also no map of Israel that can simply swallow the Palestinians without risking being N HIS OFTEN cited (if seldom read) essay “The swallowed by them in turn. Hedgehog and the Fox,” Isaiah Berlin begins with What there is, then, is a muddled reality that Ithe ancient distinction between the fox, which must deeply disappoint idealists of every stripe. But “knows many things,” and the hedgehog, “which knows it’s also a reality that beats every conceivable alter- one big thing.” At the Jerusalem Post, a colleague once native. Netanyahu understands this, even if it’s not made the point to me, during the 2002 Likud leader- something he would say out loud. The criticism that he ship contest between Ariel Sharon and Netanyahu, that does nothing but kick cans down the road ignores the the former was the hedgehog while the latter was the fact that, when it comes to Israel’s major strategic chal- fox. It was another way of saying that Bibi was clever lenges, at least for now, that’s the only thing an Israeli but Arik was wise. In that race, the hedgehog won. The paradox of Benjamin Netanyahu This is one way of looking at Netanyahu. To nearly all of his is that a man who rose to power on the bitter critics, on either side of the ideological spectrum, he is noth- strength of a certain vision of Israel held ing but an arch-maneuverer, on to power at the expense of that vision. although they don’t all agree on what he is maneuvering toward. The left sees him as a dedicated ideologue who oc- prime minister can do. The question is how far the can casionally feigns pragmatism. For the right, it’s the gets kicked, and how much power and flexibility Israel opposite: He’s a self-serving pragmatist who pretends can gain—militarily, economically, demographically, to have an ideology. In a public career spanning nearly and so on—before it needs to kick it again. As Michael 40 years, it’s easy to find evidence for both views. The Oren, the historian and former Israeli ambassador to Bar-Ilan speech that so offended Naftali Bennett is the U.S., has pointed out to me, Israel’s entire history is supposed to prove the first; the unwillingness to retake one long “war of attrition” or “war between the wars.” Gaza supposedly demonstrates the second. Still, it’s a war that Israel can fight for the long term Yet the point of Berlin’s essay tends to be missed. while its people continue to flourish. In real life, as opposed to parable or literary criticism, The paradox of Benjamin Netanyahu is that a there are at least a few people who are both hedgehog man who rose to power on the strength of a certain and fox, men who “looked for a harmonious universe, vision of Israel held on to power at the expense of that but everywhere found war and disorder.” Berlin’s great vision. It’s that a man who did much to strengthen example of this type was Leo Tolstoy, whose “sense of Israel’s position in the world through the bullish- reality was until the end too devastating to be com- ness of his personality also did much to damage to patible with any moral ideal which he was able to Israel’s politics through the same bullishness. It’s that construct out of the fragments into which his intellect a man whose thoughts, ambitions, and actions always shivered in the world.” seemed to have the broadest sweep could become the Netanyahu is hardly Tolstoy. Still, he’s a man agent of his own political undoing thanks to a succes- of formidable ambition and talent who entered the sion of small grievances and petty power plays. political fray looking for the harmonious universe in There’s no reason to search for definitive an- which a Jewish state—recognized, whole, and secure— swers anytime soon. The coalition that succeeds Ne- could take its rightful place among the nations. What tanyahu is fractious and thin, held together by little he found instead was that there was no straight way to more than its loathing for a singular man. Nobody get there, and perhaps no way at all, given the impla- knows this better than Netanyahu himself, which is cability of many of its enemies and the faithlessness why the thought that must surely run through his of some of its friends. The two great “solutions” are head, rightly, is, “I’ll be back.”q

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Stephens_July/Aug_6.16.indd 29 6/16/21 12:23 PM The Jews Who Are Complicit in Jew-Hatred It’s a feature, not a bug, of the horrors of the past month By Seth Mandel

HEN the New York “No one is wearing MAGA hats.” Times finally report- If there’s one organization whose responsibil- ed on the plague of ity it is to prepare not just the Jewish community but nationwide street vio- the wider United States public and its government for lence against Jews emerging anti-Semitic threats, it’s the ADL. Instead, in the spring of 2021, the head of the ADL has been spreading a cynical left- more than a week af- wing myth about anti-Semitism while threats to the ter the attacks began in the wake of Hamas using rockets Jewish community fester. to W strike Israel, the tone it took was less one of outrage And it’s even worse than it looks, because while than of bewilderment. “Until the latest surge,” read a there’s long been a willful blindness toward anti-Sem- May 26 story, “anti-Semitic violence in recent years was itism from the left, the ADL and other partisan groups largely considered a right-wing phenomenon, driven by aren’t the ones experiencing this blindness. They’re a white supremacist movement emboldened by rhetoric the blinders. from former President Donald J. Trump, who often trafficked in stereotypes.” This was nonsense: The most HE ADL TRACKS various kinds of anti-Israel common street violence against Jews took place in New extremism when Israel is at war. It issued a list York and New Jersey, and it had nothing at all to do with T during the latest flare-up with Hamas on May Trump or “right-wing” politics. Par for the course for the 20 titled “Prominent Voices Demonize Israel Regarding Gray Lady, perhaps, but far more concerning was where the Conflict.” Demonizing rhetoric, the ADL warned, the reporters seemed to be getting the misinformation. can “enable an environment whereby hateful actions “This is why Jews feel so terrified in this moment,” Anti- against Jews and supporters of Israel are accepted more Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told the freely, and where anti-Jewish tropes may be normal- paper. “For four years it seemed to be stimulated from ized.” One category the list featured was of those “Ac- the political right, with devastating consequences.” At cusing Israel of ‘Attacking al-Aqsa,’” a hoary libel falsely the scenes of Jew-hunting that began in May, during the claiming that Jews want to destroy the central Mosque war between Israel and Hamas, Greenblatt lamented, in Jerusalem. It has been used to incite anti-Jewish ri- ots for a century. What was notable here was one name Seth Mandel is executive editor of the Washington missing from the list, and arguably the worst offender. Examiner magazine. On May 12, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-

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Mandel_July-Aug_6.15B.indd 30 6/16/21 12:25 PM Cortez had castigated President Joe Biden on Twitter for “systems of oppression here in the United States for expressing Israel’s right to defend itself while not- and globally,” as Representative Ayanna Pressley of ing what supposedly was to blame for the violence: Massachusetts put it. Everyone in the world, according “the expulsions of Palestinians and the attacks on Al to these diatribes, had something to fear from Jerusa- Aqsa.” Her name and her statement were missing from lem. Ocasio-Cortez, whose family is from Puerto Rico, the ADL’s list of slanders and slanderers. The Jerusa- talked about the U.S. naval exercises held on the Puerto lem Post’s Lahav Harkov asked Greenblatt why. Rican island of Vieques for decades until the Navy left He answered: “We’ve been speaking out pretty in 2003. The Navy stands accused of testing bombs and regularly, calling out individuals and examples of these other weapons using napalm, depleted uranium, and crazed—the things I’m talking about right now.” Agent Orange, sickening the local population. Ocasio- “Any members of Congress, lately?” Harkov re- Cortez offered a bizarre conspiratorial accusation: sponded. “When I saw those [Israeli] airstrikes that are sup- “I’ll have to go back and look,” Greenblatt said. ported with U.S. funds, I could not help but wonder if He didn’t have to go back and look. It’s likely that our communities were practice for this.” the omission was at his explicit direction. He came to Pressley equated crowd dispersal conducted by the ADL after serving in the Obama administration. Israeli police at a riot on the Temple Mount to “students His fellow ex-Obama official, Halie Soifer, who served protesting to end poverty and oppression in the streets as a national-security adviser to Kamala Harris before of Bogota [being] shot dead,” white supremacists she became vice president, took over the flagship Dem- storming the U.S. Capitol, and “police brutality and ocratic Jewish organization, the Jewish Democratic state-sanctioned violence” against black Americans. Council of America. The JDCA’s executive committee Missouri Representative Cori Bush made a point is loaded up with current or former presidents and ex- of referring to the holy city as “Jerusalem, Palestine,” ecutives of such mainstream Jewish groups as AIPAC, and suggested that the U.S. was following an Israeli the Jewish Federations, and the American-Jewish playbook when it “brutalized” black protesters. Joint Distribution Committee. After pressure built to Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar, who has respond to AOC’s tweet and the others like it, Soifer in the past accused American Jews of disloyalty and wrote: “Proud to be a Democrat in this moment when shared anti-Semitic content on social media, insisted leaders recognize there is no binary choice to be made that the source of the conflict was Jewish settlers up- between Israel’s security & right to self-defense, and rooting Palestinian Arabs and taking nearly all their Palestinian rights & safety. We can do both at the same land—in 1948, in the “Nakba.” time, while rejecting the forced false dichotomy & nar- Rashida Tlaib, the Michigan-born congress- rative of divide.” Thus did Soifer give a seal of approval woman of Palestinian descent who has also relent- to the effort to dress up hateful anti-Zionism as merely lessly targeted Jews during her few years in the House, legitimate criticism of Israel’s government. spoke that day, but she had laid the groundwork for it As Harkov noted, “the ADL’s voice hasn’t been at an anti-Israel protest two days earlier. “What they heard on some of these members of Congress who are doing to the Palestinians is what they are doing have been calling Israel an apartheid state, who have to our black brothers and sisters here,” Tlaib told the claimed that Israel has raided al Aqsa, who have also crowd May 11. As she left the stage, the crowd chanted, said that Israel is killing too many children, implying “Long live Palestine, down down Israel.” that it’s intentional.” Indeed, Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet was In the days and weeks that followed, even after just the opening salvo. A day later, on May 13, came a an Israel–Hamas cease-fire was in place, Jews in Amer- chilling session of the House of Representatives, with ica were physically attacked with abandon—diners at dark echoes of Jewish history. restaurants in Los Angeles and Manhattan, Jews on Several Democratic members of the House took the streets of New York, families in Florida attending turns standing next to blown-up photos of bloodied synagogue services. The ADL saw a 75 percent uptick Palestinian children and gave fiery speeches denounc- in reported incidents. In one typical attack, a group ing Zionist perfidy—the sorts of words and charges of men reportedly drove around Brooklyn assaulting that, since the age of the czars, have been followed by Jews in the open while yelling, “Free Palestine!” the spilling of Jewish blood. This time was no different, When called out for their silence, progressive except it wasn’t a Russian backwater or a Munich beer Democratic lawmakers condemned “anti-Semitism hall. It was on the floor of the United States Congress. and Islamophobia” as one, knowing that their audience One by one, these members of Congress, Demo- would interpret any specific denunciation of anti-Sem- crats all, sought to make the Jewish state the stand-in itism as a statement in support of Israel. That’s what

Commentary 31

Mandel_July-Aug_6.15B.indd 31 6/16/21 12:25 PM happened at Rutgers University, the school with the Now. The Jewish establishment was trying to hold the largest Jewish undergraduate population in the coun- line on support for the Jewish state even as progressive try. Its provost and chancellor put out a statement de- politicians were helping foment a rebellion against crying anti-Semitism and then were bullied into apolo- these very basic Jewish values. The Squad entered a gizing for it by a pro-Palestinian group on campus that similar alliance with Jewish Voice for Peace, which claimed the statement was insensitive to Palestinians. had pushed one of the anti-Zionist conspiracy theories Throughout this whole affair, not a single con- that reportedly motivated the perpetrators of the 2019 gressional Democrat would criticize any of his col- shooting at a Jewish shop in Jersey City. leagues by name. That includes Chuck Schumer, now Nothing has changed. In May 2021, IfNotNow the Senate majority leader (whose former top aide is used the occasion of the outbreak of anti-Jewish street also on the executive committee of the National Jew- violence to launch an invitation to a seminar on “Zion- ish Democratic Council), who couldn’t be roused from ism and Apartheid.” Jewish Democrats in Congress his cowardly torpor even when explosive devices were who made general statements against anti-Semitism thrown at Jews in his own city. were accused by Jewish Voice for Peace of “using anti- The closest anyone came was Representative Semitism as a political weapon to shield the Israeli Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey. He and three other government from accountability.” Jewish Democrats wrote a public letter to their leader- Last year, Sean Cooper of Tablet exposed how the ship referencing the types of hateful comments made Jewish organization Bend the Arc deliberately turned by their progressive colleagues—without naming the group’s work away from the Jewish community and them—in an attempt to get support from Democratic toward various liberal and Democratic Party causes, Party leadership. The bid failed. House Speaker Nancy shaping the activism of its member synagogues along Pelosi stuck with the purveyors of anti-Semitism in the way. Rabbi David Saperstein, who for years led her caucus and threw the Jewish Democrats under the the Reform movement’s political arm, was listed as a bus. Neither the ADL nor the JDCA uttered a peep. Bend the Arc board member and served as President As usual, one exceptional voice in all this was Obama’s religious-freedom ambassador. During the re- that of the American Jewish Committee, whose young cent spate of violence, Bend the Arc’s political arm took leadership director, Seffi Kogen, noted inNewsweek the time to oppose police protection at synagogues on that “while anti-Zionist gangs beat up Jews in her city, racial grounds, while also blaming the increase in anti- Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was providing a quasi- Semitism during the conflict on “white nationalists.” intellectual basis for their actions.” But for a large part Perhaps the most consequential of the progres- of the organized Jewish community, the outburst of sive left’s alliances has been with Bernie Sanders, violence was met with inexcusable surprise. the senator from Vermont and former presidential As I wrote in these pages in March 2020, after candidate who arguably has achieved more political watching mainstream Jewish organizations and po- success and visibility than any American Jewish politi- litical figures bash President Donald Trump’s peace cian other than near-miss vice-presidential candidate proposal because they deemed it too biased in favor of Joseph Lieberman. Sanders is a mentor and trailblazer Israel’s security: “What’s happening here is more than for young progressives in Congress, and he made a a skirmish over a peace plan, or a distressing glimpse point of putting the Squad and other anti-Israel activ- into the way American Jewry’s leaders privilege their ists in visible roles on his 2020 presidential campaign. partisan leanings over the fact that their leadership His moves have scrambled the Jewish community’s re- roles in American society are due to their Judaism sponse to Sanders’s politics and those of his protégés. and not their Democratic Party membership. What That is a feature, not a bug, of this alliance, as far as we are seeing is the way American Jewish leaders fail Sanders and the Squad see it. to take seriously the rising tide of anti-Semitism that “What does it look like when a national Jewish masquerades as ‘anti-Zionism’—and even the way pro- community understands what’s at stake?” I asked here gressive groups enable it.”* last year. My answer then was the united front the UK Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib, I explained, elevated Jewish community put up to oppose Jeremy Corbyn, the leftist Jewish groups such as IfNotNow to new promi- since-deposed Labour leader who had turned his party nence by using them to shield the Squad from accusa- into a thoroughly anti-Semitic organization that ha- tions of anti-Semitism. With their endorsements, in rassed the Jews in its ranks and incited London’s streets turn, IfNotNow and the New Israel Fund launched a against its Jewish community. Nearly nine of out ten UK frontal assault on the Jewish Federations because the latter wouldn’t accept a donation earmarked for IfNot- * “The Rot Inside American Jewish Organizations,” March 2020

32 The Jews Who Are Complicit in Jew-Hatred : July/August 2021

Mandel_July-Aug_6.15B.indd 32 6/16/21 12:25 PM Jews agreed that Corbyn was an anti-Semite, and before ousted the pro-Israel stalwart Eliot Engel in a 2020 the election that finally sealed Corbyn’s doom, the coun- primary and who represents a New York district with try’s chief rabbi was moved to speak out against him. a large Jewish contingent, likewise suggested that the Sanders and Corbyn were mutual admirers. Oc- complaints from his colleagues were due to Omar’s be- asio-Cortez backed Corbyn in his election. The warn- ing a Muslim black woman. Omar herself complained ings that Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez were openly mod- of the “constant harassment and silencing” by her eling the future of their party on Corbyn’s Labour went Jewish colleagues and the “Islamophobic tropes” they ignored or dismissed. The events of May have made the supposedly used. Democratic Party’s Corbynization indisputable. It was an astonishingly vile and aggressive co- Events in early June then gave the dwindling ordinated attack against the Jewish group. The ADL band of Democratic anti-Corbynistas one more bite was silent. JDCA was silent. The Democratic Party at the apple. On June 7, Omar tweeted a summary of a sided with the Squad. The Jewish community had been question she had for Secretary of State Antony Blinken: abandoned to the rise of the dominant left-of-center “We must have the same level of accountability and ideology according to which Jews are part of a white justice for all victims of crimes against humanity. We power structure of which Israel is a prime example. have seen unthinkable atrocities committed by the U.S., Corbyn’s attempt to separate the Jews from Hamas, Israel, Afghanistan, and the Taliban. I asked @ the Jewish state in the UK failed miserably. But the SecBlinken where people are supposed to go for justice.” Squad’s efforts to do the same here are not failing. And The comparison of the U.S. and Israel to Hamas it’s not just in the halls of Congress. The New Yorker’s and the Taliban seemed a typically gratuitous demon- Helen Rosner suggested it would be a good tactic not stration of Omar’s untouchable status. Twelve Jewish to beat up Jews, as part of an overall strategy to under- Democrats wrote a letter finally naming her while mine Israel’s legitimacy. (This after the New Yorker’s refraining from calling her an anti-Semite. union put out a statement of solidarity with the Pales- The response to the letter revealed the depress- tinians that included the phrase “from the river to the ing reality at the core of American Jewish life: the sea.”) Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times wrote a complete abandonment of the Jews by their own sup- column with a headline so instantly infamous that the posed watchdogs and the merger of those groups into Times eventually and quietly changed it: “Attacks on semiofficial arms of the very political party now en- Jews Over Israel Are a Gift to the Right.” abling their torment. Greenblatt merely retweeted one Meanwhile, the comedian Sarah Silverman of the signatories’ tweets of the letter, adding his own objected to attacks on Jews in Los Angeles not on comment: “Well said.” His me-tooing of the statement the grounds that they were evil acts of anti-Semitic added insult to injury: Not only were the congressmen violence but rather because “WE ARE NOT ISRAEL.” given no cover by the ADL, but once they ventured into For his part, Kenneth Roth, the obsessively anti-Israel the breach they were given no reinforcement by it. The executive director of Human Rights Watch, declared, following morning, the JDCA tweeted: “Jewish Dems “It is WRONG to equate the Jewish people with the will be meeting with Rep. Omar during our Week of apartheid and deadly bombardment of Prime Minister Action to discuss her recent comments on Israel, as Netanyahu’s government.” well as other priorities of Jewish Dems in Minnesota. Throwing fellow Jews to the wolves is abomi- There is no equivalence between Israel and terror- nable moral behavior. Delicately excising the name and ist organizations such as Hamas.” The organization words of a chic Democratic politician from a list of anti- sounded more annoyed at having to say something Semitic statements to protect her—or to protect the or- than outraged by what Omar had said. ganization you run from her wrath—constitutes an act The final blow came from Pelosi, who told CNN of complicity in the violence that ensued in whatever days later: “We did not rebuke her. We thanked—ac- small measure from her remarks. And the man who knowledged that she made a clarification… Congress- was thus complicit—Jonathan Greenblatt—had the woman Omar is a valued member of our caucus.” nerve to act surprised. The anti-Semitic street violence What happened in between the release of the in America is “literally happening from coast to coast, letter and Pelosi’s public declaration of Omar’s righ- and spreading like wildfire,” Greenblatt told the Times. teousness was instructive: The Squad went nuclear. “The sheer audacity of these attacks feels very different.” Ocasio-Cortez accused her Jewish colleagues of “tar- It feels different because it feels so familiar. And geting” Omar and putting her in “danger.” Cori Bush if the American Jewish community is to survive, it said her Jewish colleagues were motivated by “anti- must start acting like it. And we must start by cleaning Blackness and Islamophobia.” Jamaal Bowman, who our own corrupted house.q

Commentary 33

Mandel_July-Aug_6.15B.indd 33 6/16/21 12:25 PM An American Trapped in an Englishman’s Body A memoir of a Jewish boyhood in Liverpool By Roger Bennett

NE OF THE earliest beliefs I still appeared like an upgrade in comparison. When you cling to in life is that I was born live somewhere like Liverpool, you ask yourself a an American trapped in an Eng- simple, yet powerful question on an almost daily basis: lishman’s body. That is the kind How on earth did I land here? of story you manufacture about There are fewer than 3,000 Jews in Liverpool. A yourself when you grow up in a gaggle of doctors, accountants, and lawyers with the place like Liverpool in the 1980s. occasional dentist thrown into the mix for variety. Ev- Back then, the city was apocalyptic. A rotting, dilapi- ery family has some variation of a similar explanation dated carcassO in grim decline. When I first watched to the above question. The tale generally begins with a Mad Max, I thought the wasteland Mel Gibson braved great-grandparent fleeing whatever inhospitable, frig- id, rotting-potato-stenched Eastern European shtetl Roger Bennett is the co-host of the Men in Blazers they had tried to pass off as home, hotfooting it onto the television show, podcast, and digital-content network. steerage level of an ocean liner. Chased right up to the His previous books include Bar Mitzvah Disco, co- gangplank, in almost every telling, by a rabid band of authored by Nick Kroll. This piece is taken from his Cossacks with murder on their mind. When that vessel new memoir, Reborn in the USA: An Englishman’s stopped briefly to refuel along the way, their ancestors Love Letter to His Chosen Home. Copyright © 2021 by had been among the simpler-minded, dimmer ones In Loving Memory of the Recent Past 2 Inc. From Dey who glimpsed the one tall building on the Liverpool Street Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. skyline and believed they were staring right at New Reprinted by permission. York City, their intended destination. Fatally mistaken,

34 July/August 2021

Bennett_July-Aug_6.15C.indd 34 6/16/21 12:26 PM they disembarked and were left to eke out pennies in its moldy terraced housing, drab chip shops, and cheap the English North West, rather than undoubtedly make booze houses that a handful of Jews had accidentally their fortunes in that promised land filled with bounty marooned themselves. A land with a low-grade fear and possibility, the United States of America. hanging over it. A place as dispiriting as the sunless sky The myth was certainly true for my family. My and the all-pervasive dampness you could not shake no great-grandfather was a kosher butcher from Berdy- matter how many layers of clothing you put on. Cer- chiv, a textile town in northern Ukraine. His escape tainly, the most infertile ground to sow escape-fueled plan was rational: to flee to Chicago, Illinois. A city that romantic dreams of freedom, acceptance, and success. made sense for a meat man, as it was the self-professed “Hog Cap- ital of the World.” Liverpool—not There is perhaps no greater sign that we so much. A paucity of clients were still a family in search of acceptance made it hard to earn a living as a kosher-meat wholesaler. Impro- than my parents anointing us children visation was necessary, which ultimately meant also servicing with the least Jewish names possible. the need for halal beef among the growing Muslim population scattered across the The Jews stayed put because they were ex- gloomy declining mill towns of the north of England. hausted and relieved and, after escaping the Russian Back then, Liverpool was a place large on lore, bloodlands, had pretty low standards. Any place offer- low on quality of life. In the high-rolling days of the ing more than immediate death and destruction was British Empire, it had indeed been one of the world’s an upgrade. And because adaptation is in the DNA of great port cities. In the 18th century the waterfront the Jewish people, they always attempt to make sense became a hub of the slave trade, as Liverpool-based of the world around them. vessels stole one and a half million Africans across the I often wondered what early encounters between Atlantic in unimaginably cruel conditions, while the these bewildered Yiddish speakers and local Liver- textiles, coal, guns, and steel once produced in vast pudlians must have been like. One group with their quantities across the industrial north were dispatched spigot of broken Yiddish-inflected English, sounding in the opposite direction to pay for them. The banks like a constant moaning complaint; the other, snorting of the River Mersey became weighed down by ware- words angrily out of their nasal passages in local dialect houses, commercial power, and mercantile wealth. Yet called “Scouse” that’s so baffling, it’s as if the sentences the Second World War laid waste to Britain’s industrial have somehow been recorded and then replayed back- might, and the establishment of Europe instead of the ward. One way or another, the new arrivals worked out United States as our primary trading partner stripped how to raise their synagogues, open their delis, and Liverpool of its geographical raison d’être almost over- break ground on their cemeteries, striking out to pursue night. The docks fell silent. The city spiraled into de- the best Britain could offer its accidental citizens—the cline, beset by the degrading forces of unemployment, security of grinding their way to middle-class comfort. poverty, and crime, like a British Baltimore without That vaunted middle-class status had been at- the steamed crabs upside. tained by the time I came into the world at Broadgreen Thanks largely to the vicarious prestige cast on Hospital in 1970. My older brother, Nigel, was already the city by the Beatles and its two powerhouse football two years old. I was given the birth name Roger. There teams, Liverpool remained well known around the is perhaps no greater sign that we were still a family globe despite the general decay of the surroundings, in search of acceptance than my parents anointing us a reality accentuated by the fact that few towns boast with the least Jewish names possible. Their unspoken more raconteurs, romantics, and deluded self-aggran- hope was to help us fit in by choosing what they per- dizers per square mile. To this day Liverpool remains ceived to be the English-est, most Christian identities. defiantly proud, a city often quite literally drunk on Yet they were either too eager, oblivious, or willing to its own sense of self. Yet no amount of romantic truth- overlook that my name was also a synonym for anal stretching could bring back the hemorrhaging jobs or sex (as in “Sir Roderick Wigbert Stourton loved to quell the sense that when you stood still on a street roger his butler”), and perhaps for that reason had corner, you could witness the industrial carcass of a long faded out of fashion by the time I was of school- town actually rotting away before your eyes. ing age. Thus, I was always the only, lonely Roger in It was amid this sodden wasteland of a city with a classroom sea of Waynes, Garys, and Jeremys, or as

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Bennett_July-Aug_6.15C.indd 35 6/16/21 12:26 PM Liverpudlian naming conventions dictated, “Wazzas,” “Jerries,” during the Siege of El Alamein, an experience “Gazzas,” and “Jezzas.” he generally preferred to keep to himself. Alas, my name was the least of my challenges. But by far his favorite topic of conversation was As a Liverpudlian middle-class Jew, I was already an the United States of America. Or rather, recounting outsider in a working-class, heavily Catholic city that random memories born of his frequent pilgrimages did not cope well with even a whiff of the other. For the to the American shores. This was the destination my first 10 years of my life, my best friend was my grand- grandfather had repeatedly traveled to for vacations father Samuel Polak, who lived right across the road since the 1950s, an intrepid decision back in an era from us with my grandmother Rita in the house they when British vacationers rarely ventured far from had raised my mum in. Almost every night, I would home. The way he described it, he had felt compelled run over the moment I finished my schoolwork, and to journey to those gold-paved streets his father had spend the evening being doted on in a house that per- once dreamed of moving to, like a sockeye salmon petually smelled of chicken soup, honey cake, and the programmed by nature to swim upstream and spawn. peculiar odor emitted by heavy velvet curtains. These adventures started way before transatlan- My grandfather continued the family meat line, tic flight was a regular facet of travel life. Alongside but grudgingly. I learned not to blame him after accept- the couch, on a small matching side table on which ing an invitation to experience his job for a day. At the he placed his most vital lounging items—a packet of abattoir where he plied his trade, I watched him wan- Senior Service cigarettes, a family-sized slab of Cad- der into a pen of defeated cattle and insert his fist into bury’s Fruit & Nut chocolate, and a brick-sized, primi- one unfortunate cow’s anus after another. My grand- tive television remote control—was a black-and-white father’s arm would thrust deep into the animal, disap- photograph of him bound for New York City, standing pearing right up to the armpit, a feat that somehow em- proudly beside a plucky propeller plane, refueling in powered him to assess the ultimate quality of the meat. some remote snow-filled airfield in Goose Bay, Labra- With a grimace, he would slowly retrieve his limb, and dor, or Gander, Newfoundland, clad in the same trilby murmur “Good anus” or sometimes “bad cow, that” to hat and three-piece suit he wore to the slaughterhouse. a silent, melancholy note-taking assistant before mov- The instant the topic turned to America, the chess ing on to the next. My grandfather was an intellectually game was forgotten. My grandfather would sit back, cig- curious, quiet, dapper man. The whole ordeal seemed arette in hand, and the tales flowed as if he had entered to make him suffer more than it did the cows. a fever dream. Fragments of memory from expeditions to Florida, New York, California, and all points in between would The instant the topic turned to America, tumble out of his mouth. “Did my grandfather would sit back, cigarette you know in Vegas, they serve you breakfast while you play in hand, and the tales flowed as if he had the slot machines?” he would say with an undiminished sense entered a fever dream. of astonishment. Or “In Times Square, there are diners where At home, with slippers on, reclining on a throne- they refill your coffee cups the second you have finished like mahogany and leather couch in his living room, them.” Or “Miami is a land filledwith Jews, and the res- my grandfather was altogether more content. We taurants grill steaks that are bigger than the plate that would play game after game of chess. Evenly matched, carries them.” There were stories of plenty, of service, the two of us were a great pair. I was hungry for com- of perceived luxury and wonder from a land that still pany. He was eager to talk about the things that really seemed as magical, distant, and exotic to me from the interested him. With a pot of tea and an endless sup- perspective of 1970s Liverpool as it had to my Cossack- ply of chocolate-covered digestives to dunk into our fleeing ancestors at the turn of the century. cups between us, we would engage in serious man talk Indeed, as he spoke, many of those relatives about the important things in life: war movies, history would stare down at us from their vantage point books, and Everton Football Club. My nightly goal was in heavy-framed sepia-tinged photographs on the to relax my grandfather sufficiently so I could coax walls around the room: Formal turn-of-the-century him into telling me the stories of his life as an infantry- portraits of sickly-looking groups gazing austerely at man during the war. Startling tales about shooting at, a Ukrainian photographer, or headshots of terrified- or being shot at, by Germans, whom he referred to as looking uniformed teenage boys who had been forcibly

36 An American Trapped in an Englishman’s Body : July/August 2021

Bennett_July-Aug_6.15C.indd 36 6/16/21 12:26 PM conscripted into the Russian army. Scattered between fixture on his fireplace, my grandfather would eventu- these heirlooms, though, was an arsenal of tourist trin- ally drag himself back to the sanctuary of his couch kets. Once his stories had picked up a sufficient head with heavy legs. After taking out his false front teeth of steam, my grandfather would incorporate them into and placing them on his side table, he would chew the telling as visual aids with a dramatic flourish. meditatively on a packet of nougats in silence until he With eyes frantically scanning the room he dozed off, head tilted to the left, with mouth ajar. would locate a tin tray, proclaiming “Golden Nugget I would gaze at him across the chessboard with Casino, Vegas,” and stab his cigarette toward it while its game unfinished and wonder what he could be beginning a tale about a spec- tacular evening spent watching Sammy Davis Jr. in concert. The To my grandfather, his countless objects pottery ashtray with “Virginia from America were no mere tchotch- Is for Lovers” glazed into the rim could trigger a rumination kes. He afforded them the reverence about either a walk across Civil War battlefields, or a particu- bestowed upon Stone Age relics. larly unforgettable “kosher” hot dog he had procured from the snack bar. To my grand- dreaming about in those moments. father, these and countless other objects in his collec- With our evening clearly over, it was time to tion were no mere tchotchkes. Their importance lay head home. I would locate my grandmother baking in the sense memory they triggered, and he afforded somewhere in her kitchen, kiss her goodbye, and skip them the reverence archaeologists bestow upon Stone across Menlove Avenue, a once grand, yet still well- Age relics. trafficked road that separated my home from theirs. Pride of place was reserved for a miniature Statue The central divide was pockmarked by oily puddles of Liberty replica made of die-cast metal, which sat on filled with orphaned crisp packets and crushed, empty the mantel above the fireplace alongside a similar souve- beer cans. I trooped through them, most often in a nir of the Empire State Building. My grandfather treated light drizzling rain. it with the pride I imagine explorer Francisco Pizarro Once back home, I would quickly pop my head afforded to the first potato he had sailed back from the into the living room, where my family would inevitably Americas to present to the Spanish court in 1532. Such be glued to the television. I preferred to charge upstairs was its power that even though my grandpa carried into my room and voluntarily put myself to bed. After some girth—an adorable potbelly stomach honed over hauling a giant volume from my bookshelf, I would lie many hours spent watching television on the couch— under the covers, alone with my copy of Alistair Cooke’s one look at Lady Liberty would compel him to spring up America, a grand, hardback tome that my grandfather to his feet so we could marvel upon her together. After had gifted me for my seventh birthday. The book traced sweeping it off the mantel into his meaty hand, Grandpa the arc of America’s history from founding to present would shunt his spectacles back onto his forehead, day. I mostly loved it because it was identical to the one squint his eyes, and read the inscription on the base in a my grandfather kept by his own bed. unique English accent that combined inflections of both Under the warm glow of my bedside light, I Yiddish and Scouse. “Give me your tired, your poor, your would flip through the pages, ignoring the words huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” he’d slowly and feasting on the color plates. While staring at a intone. “The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.” stock photograph of an empty highway in the middle We would then stand together in a reverent silence. A of Utah, I’d hear my grandfather’s voice from nights grandparent, a grandson, and a cheap tourist souvenir, when we had savored the book together. “Look at that contemplative until my grandfather would inevitably road,” he’d marvel. “Now, that’s a road.” The image whisper, “We should have lived there.” titled “Bison in Montana” would remind me of him Because of those shared moments, I loved that gasping “That’s a big unit,” a comment that automati- statue and worked to bless it with the kind of covetous cally conjured images of him ill-advisedly attempting gaze that let a grandparent know a grandchild wanted to drive his arm up the bison’s anus. Quickly turning to it for himself, an unspoken request to which my grand- “Farmland in Kansas,” I could hear his voice filled with father ultimately relented. But back when it was still a longing. “Have you ever seen such wheat, Rog?”q

Commentary 37

Bennett_July-Aug_6.15C.indd 37 6/16/21 12:26 PM How U.S. Schools Became Obsessed with Race Critical race theory took over in two ways: first gradually, then suddenly By Robert Pondiscio

E HAVE BEEN inundat- fornia (home of Apple) forced to discuss their racial ed of late with alarming and sexual identities and rank themselves according stories about the radi- to their “power and privilege.” We read about a New cal transformation of York City principal asking parents to determine which schooling in the wake of eight “white identities” best describes them—from of George Floyd’s death “white supremacist” to “white abolitionist”—and seek- last summer and the ing their commitment to “dismantling whiteness and rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. To mention not allowing whiteness to reassert itself.” And we’ve just a few:W We hear of third-graders in Cupertino, Cali- seen reports of an Arizona state education depart- ment’s “equity toolkit” titled “They’re not too young to Robert Pondiscio is a senior fellow at the Ameri- talk about race!” which recommends that white par- can Enterprise Institute and the author of How the ents “can and should begin addressing issues of race Other Half Learns (Avery, 2019). and racism early, even before their children can speak.”

38 July/August 2021

Pondiscio_July-Aug_6.14A.indd 38 6/16/21 12:27 PM University schools of education have long seen themselves as an instrument for remaking society along lines more congenial to social-justice activists.

The daily drumbeat suggests there has been a over textbook content, which came about because of violent leftward lurch in public education in the past the sheer size of the state’s student population, has fad- year, but is it really something new? Critical race theo- ed thanks to technology-driven changes in the publish- ry and “anti-racism” came to dominate K–12 education ing market. But now it has once again become a K–12 in two ways: gradually, then suddenly. bellwether owing to the adoption by the state’s board From the nation’s founding through the mid- of education in March of a controversial ethnic-studies 19th century, education theorists from Benjamin Rush curriculum. For now, that curriculum is voluntary, to Horace Mann hewed to the notion that a republic but not for long. A law that would have required every cannot long remain ignorant and free—hence the need student in the state to take and pass a one-semester for free and universal public education. From these ethnic-studies course in order to graduate was vetoed founding ideals of citizen-making, Americans drifted by Governor Gavin Newsom last year, but it has been over time to see education as serving chiefly private reintroduced and is widely expected to pass. Many dis- purposes, even if it also advances the commonweal. tricts are moving forward anyway. Ethnic studies will We expect schools to help our children get along with be a graduation requirement in Los Angeles schools others and prepare academically for college and ca- starting with the 2023–24 school year. Fresno, the reer, and to otherwise shepherd them toward a fruitful state’s third-largest district, will require two semesters adult life. But as a profession, education has a long of ethnic studies starting this fall. history of seeing schools as agencies to promote what- California’s “model curriculum” was met with ever was on the mind of “progressive” reformers of the intense debate and criticism when the initial draft was era—from abolition, temperance, and turning immi- released in 2019. The state’s department of education grants into assimilated English-speaking citizens over received over 21,000 comments on the document, a century ago, to promoting bilingualism and raising most criticizing it as one-sided or prejudiced. Jewish awareness of climate change more recently. As the groups insisted the curriculum didn’t accurately re- education-reform veteran Chester E. Finn Jr. observes, flect the American Jewish experience, and contained “schools have long seemed like a swell place for adult anti-Semitic lessons and ideas, including references to causes to try to enlist kids.” Israeli oppression of Palestinians. Since then, activists, Education’s present focus is identifying and cor- advocates, and angry Twitter mobs have waged war recting racial inequity. It would be a mistake, however, over subsequent drafts, arguing over which groups to assume that the current racialized view of Ameri- and people deserved greater representation, and can K–12 education and its outcomes is the exclusive which offensive or misleading portrayals should be project of classroom radicals and doctrinaire race and massaged or removed. gender-studies theorists. A generation of teachers, ad- But these battles, however earnestly fought, ministrators, and policymakers has been trained, en- betray a fundamental misunderstanding about what couraged, and even required by law to view their work gets taught, and how difficult it is to keep inaccurate through the lens of racial disparity. The “woke” revolu- and even pernicious ideas out of American classrooms. tion roiling our schools, with its Manichean view of Curricula are not handed down to teachers on stone oppressors vs. oppressed, is an overnight development tablets. Indeed, they are seldom, perhaps never, taught that has been decades in the making. “Wokeness” on as written. What gets in front of students in most college campuses seeped into teacher training decades American classrooms is largely up to teacher discre- ago, while university schools of education have long tion, making it nearly impossible to control—or even seen themselves as an instrument for remaking society monitor—the content of children’s education or the along lines more congenial to social justice activists. ideals and values being valorized by their teachers. If the many factions battling over California’s model cur- ET’S START with California. Over the past two riculum did so believing the fight would determine the decades, its test scores, which once led the na- shape that ethnic studies will take in classrooms, they L tion, have flagged. Its long-standing dominion were almost certainly mistaken.

Commentary 39

Pondiscio_July-Aug_6.14A.indd 39 6/16/21 12:27 PM Teachers, either individually or in grade-level or subject- matter ‘teams,’ decide for themselves what gets put in front of children—with little if any oversight.

Nearly every teacher in America—99 percent of acrimonious debate, and the 1619 Project’s dour view elementary teachers, 96 percent of secondary-school of American history, one might expect school boards, teachers—draws upon “materials I developed and/or districts, and schools to exercise care and caution be- selected myself” in teaching English language arts, ac- fore formally adopting it for classroom use. And this cording to a RAND Corporation study. Google and Pin- appears to be so. A vanishingly small number of school terest are the two most common sources of curricular districts has expressly authorized it for use in their materials cited by teachers. Nearly three out of four so- schools, including Chicago, Buffalo, and Newark, New cial-studies teachers in a separate RAND report agreed Jersey. However, the website for the Pulitzer Center, with the statement “Textbooks are becoming less and which partnered with the Times to produce a free and less important in my classroom.” Materials that teach- downloadable 1619 Project curriculum for K–12 class- ers “found, modified, or created from scratch” make up rooms, says it’s in use in all 50 states. There is no reason the majority of what gets taught. Only one in four sec- to suspect that the Pulitzer Center is exaggerating its ondary-school social-studies teachers cited resources claim to have “connected 4,500 classrooms…with the “provided by my school or district” as composing the work of Nikole Hannah-Jones and her collaborators.” majority of what they use in class on a given day. It’s a telltale glimpse of how controversial materials Moreover, all this curriculum curation, cre- find their way into American classrooms. Teachers are ation, customization, and tinkering is not regarded doing what teachers do: searching, sampling, looking as a flaw, but a feature of classroom practice. Teachers for lessons and readings on a given day to engage stu- are trained to “differentiate instruction,” adapting or dents, differentiate instruction, or launch a classroom supplementing the curriculum to make it more engag- discussion. It is impossible to know with any confi- ing, accessible, or challenging based on the needs of in- dence the conditions under which selections from the dividual students. Academic standards like Common 1619 Project are being introduced or discussed, what Core mostly dictate the “skills” students are expected other readings are also assigned, or if any opposing to demonstrate; they are largely silent on the specific points of view are offered. The classroom is a black content kids should learn. These practices and habits box. Teachers, either individually or in grade-level or weigh heavily on the use of controversial curricula, subject-matter “teams,” decide for themselves what whether officially “adopted” or not. Outsiders assume gets read, discussed, and put in front of children—with far more top-down control over classroom content little if any oversight. than actually exists. Compare California’s ethic-studies “model cur- A good example of the “choose your own adven- riculum” with a more familiar example: the Advanced ture” nature of curricula and instruction is the New Placement, or AP, program. It is commonly assumed York Times’ hotly debated 1619 Project, a conscious that the course content of an AP class is the same, re- bid to “reframe” the conception of America from a gardless of where it is taught or by whom. However, the democratic republic founded in 1776 to a “slavoc- College Board (which administers the AP test) issues racy” that began with the arrival of the first Africans only curriculum “frameworks.” There are no manda- in 1619. It put forth several widely discredited ideas tory sequences of lessons, texts, and assignments. The as fact, including that the American Revolution was standardized end-of-course AP exam creates an incen- fought primarily to preserve slavery, and the claim of tive to follow the framework so that students can earn provocateur Nikole Hannah-Jones that “for the most college credit with a passing score. No such normalizing part…black Americans fought back alone” against pressure would exist in California. There is no reason to racism. The Wall Street Journal quoted Civil War his- expect any two ethnic-studies classes offered anywhere torian James McPherson, who criticized the project’s in the state—or any state—to be the same or even simi- “implicit position that there have never been any good lar. Without the restraining effect of a single final exam, white people, thereby ignoring white radicals and even it will fall entirely to the attitudes, beliefs, and discern- liberals who have supported racial equality.” ment of individual teachers—and in some cases their Given these charged assertions, intense and whims and prejudices—to fulfill ethnic-studies require-

40 How U.S. Schools Became Obsessed with Race : July/August 2021

Pondiscio_July-Aug_6.14A.indd 40 6/16/21 12:27 PM Established limits on teacher speech have not inhibited many educators who view moral grandstanding as not a problem in teaching, but rather the point.

ments, with no clear and reliable visibility for parents, because she criticized the impending Iraq war in ways taxpayers, and other “stakeholders.” that upset students and parents. “The First Amend- California’s effort is the most far-reaching ethnic- ment does not entitle primary and secondary teachers, studies initiative, but it’s not unique. When he was Con- when conducting the education of captive audiences, necticut’s education commissioner, Miguel Cardona— to cover topics, or advocate viewpoints, that depart now Joe Biden’s secretary of education—oversaw the from the curriculum adopted by the school system,” a creation of America’s first state-mandated ethnic-stud- three-judge federal appeals panel said unanimously. ies course, which Max Eden of the American Enterprise Such decisions should, at least in theory, inhibit teach- Institute derided as “an intellectually shoddy exercise ers from introducing controversial material without in ideological indoctrination.” Cardona’s Department proper vetting or from being overtly opinionated on of Education cannot impose an ethnic-studies man- sensitive subjects. date on the states, but Eden speculates that Cardona It is no defense for teachers to claim, as they “could advocate for it from the bully pulpit of his Cab- often do, that they are expressing their personal views inet-level position and use other levers at his disposal, in solidarity with students. During the Brett Kavana- most notably the Education Department’s Office for ugh hearings, a California math teacher earned tens Civil Rights, to advance critical race ideology in K–12 of thousands of Twitter “likes” and retweets when schools.” In many instances, he would be preaching to he asked with anguish what he was supposed to say the choir: At least eight other states, including Texas, to his students if Kavanaugh was confirmed. Some Virginia, Vermont, and Oregon already require schools wondered why a math teacher would feel compelled to to offer some form of ethnic studies as an elective, with raise the subject at all. Joshua Dunn, a political-science more on the way. professor at the University of Colorado-Colorado The immense variability of the quality and con- Springs, describes such displays as an unacceptable tent of schooling between and within states, districts, form of “moral grandstanding” by teachers. But the and schools, even across the hall in the same school, is well-established limits on teacher speech and conduct an unintended consequence of how America organizes have not inhibited a significant number of educators and runs public education—and one that contributes who are inclined to view moral grandstanding as not a to the challenge of influencing (or even knowing) what problem in teaching, but rather the point. gets taught. Other nations’ school systems tend to be Heather Levine, an English teacher in Lawrence, more pluralistic than those in the U.S., with all manner Massachusetts, ignited a social-media firestorm last of schools, even private and parochial schools, eligible year when she tweeted that she was “Very proud to say for government support. But unlike many other coun- we got the Odyssey removed from the curriculum this tries, the U.S. lacks a national curriculum. The words year!” She is part of a movement called #DisruptTexts, “school” and “education” do not even appear in the which describes itself as “a crowdsourced, grassroots U.S. Constitution. The result is 13,000 American school effort by teachers for teachers to challenge the tradi- districts, each under state and local control. tional canon” and to “aid and develop teachers com- But the crazy-quilt variability of public educa- mitted to anti-racist/anti-bias teaching pedagogy and tion is in one significant way still quite surprising. practices.” When a writer with the Wall Street Journal The tradition of “academic freedom” that protects contacted her about it, Levine huffed that she found classroom speech and course content in higher edu- her inquiry “invasive.” When the piece criticizing cation generally doesn’t apply to K–12 public-school #DisruptTexts appeared, she took to Twitter again to teachers. Courts have repeatedly affirmed that local complain that she had been named and her tweet had school boards wield nearly complete power to set cur- been quoted “without my knowledge or consent”—sug- ricula. In the eyes of the law, public-school teachers gesting the degree to which she assumed complete are considered “hired speech.” In 2007, for example, control with no public scrutiny, even of words she the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal of a for- wrote online for all the world to see. The decision to mer Indiana teacher who claimed to have lost her job drop Homer, she explained, was simply a choice made

Commentary 41

Pondiscio_July-Aug_6.14A.indd 41 6/16/21 12:27 PM When I received my own master’s degree in elementary education 20 years ago, I was judged in part on how well my work demonstrated a ‘commitment to social justice.’

by her school’s ninth grade team. “It was not a blanket pected of teachers who can become “agents of change.” school or district-wide decision and any teacher, in- In the early 20th century, George S. Counts, the intel- cluding myself, would still be more than welcome to lectual forefather of critical pedagogy and among the teach from the text,” Levine wrote. most prominent education thinkers of his time, was It would obviously be impractical for school proposing that teachers and schools “dare to build a boards to weigh in on every instructional decision new social order.” made in the schools they oversee. But given the weight This social reordering and change agentry is not of court decisions and divisive debates over curricula, the exclusive hobby horse of the progressive left. The simple prudence would seem to suggest a minimal activist conception of the teaching profession actually level of professional awareness that potentially con- dovetailed with the agenda of the education-reform troversial instructional decisions might require some movement, beloved by many conservatives, which was level of approval or authorization from a school at the peak of its power, prestige, and moral authority administrator or district supervisor. Levine’s what’s- in the first decade of this century. Union-free charter the-big-deal explanation was intended to reassure. schools staffed by earnest and hard-charging Teach But it raises more questions than it answers. Where For America corps members who were determined do teachers get the idea that they have the right—even to attack and reverse the “soft bigotry of low expecta- the duty—to “disrupt texts,” challenge the canon, or tions” made media darlings of high-performing char- engage in vocal “allyship” with their students? ter schools like KIPP and Success Academy. Movies such as Waiting for Superman helped build bipartisan E SHOULD not assume that all, or even support for the reform agenda of charter schools, most, of America’s nearly 4 million classroom standardized testing, and teacher accountability. The W teachers are closet activists or social-jus- 2002 federal No Child Left Behind Act explicitly made tice warriors determined to indoctrinate impression- “closing the achievement gap…especially the achieve- able children in the woke catechism of the radical left. ment gaps between minority and non-minority stu- They are merely doing what they have been trained, dents” a matter of national urgency. encouraged, and habituated to do at every stage of Writing in National Review in 2015, the Ameri- their careers, starting in ed school. can Enterprise Institute’s Rick Hess described the bi- University schools of education enjoy a near- partisan détente that allowed the reform agenda to set monopoly on teacher training and credentialing in the tone for public education for most of this century: the U.S. By the time the American Educational Re- “Conservatives embraced education as the founda- search Association issued its comprehensive review tion of an opportunity society and a path to eventu- of teacher education in 2005, it reported that “over ally shrinking the welfare state. Liberals approached the last decade or so conceptualizing teaching and schooling as a way to address poverty.” To forge this teacher education in terms of social justice has been consensus, “conservative reformers made several key the central animating idea for education scholars and concessions,” Hess wrote. “They accepted a massive practitioners who connect their work to larger critical increase in federal authority, an expansion of race- movements. Advocates of a social justice agenda want conscious accountability systems, and a prohibition teachers to be professional educators as well as activ- on talk of parental responsibility and the virtues of ists committed to diminishing the inequities of Ameri- the traditional family.” Liberal reformers gave up less can society.” Remember: That report came out 16 years ground. “They mostly toned down their demands for ago. So if critical race theory is new to you, it means new public programs and took care not to accuse their you haven’t set foot in a college of education in the past conservative allies of bigotry,” Hess observed. 30 years. When I received my own master’s degree in In sum, professional education emphasizing elementary education 20 years ago, my portfolio was social-justice imperatives and more than two decades judged in part on how well my work demonstrated of public policy aimed at gap-closing had racialized a “commitment to social justice” as a disposition ex- K–12 education long before “critical race theory” be-

42 How U.S. Schools Became Obsessed with Race : July/August 2021

Pondiscio_July-Aug_6.14A.indd 42 6/16/21 12:27 PM The tortured logic of ‘whiteness’ as the theory that explains all ills in education threatens to erase, at a stroke, decades of efforts on behalf of minority children.

came a buzz phrase and a political football. If you are practice, and reform efforts has rested on precisely the under age 40 and work in an American school—public, opposite assumption: that there is nothing wrong with private, or charter—you likely have no professional black test takers. The presence of measurable dispari- memory of a time when ending racial inequity was not ties in student achievement has been broadly viewed the primary focus of your field. The anodyne language by generations of education reformers as evidence of of “anti-racism” (who isn’t opposed to racism?) merely systematic failure: of teachers, schools, and districts. lands as the latest effort in a decades-long effort to im- These are adult failures all. The children are blameless. prove education outcomes for students of color, among Denying the existence of such gaps or casting the least likely to have received a rich and rigorous even the discussion of them as racist has proved to be education, or to have been launched from their K–12 too much even for some progressives. Writing in the public school on a path to equal opportunity, upward Washington Post, Matthew Yglesias noted: “The fact mobility, and fair and equal treatment in civil society. remains that if African American children continue to Teachers cannot have failed to learn that among their be less likely to learn to read and write and do math profession’s most solemn obligations is to close the than White children, and less likely to graduate from achievement gap. Until recently, that has meant some high school, then this will contribute to other unequal combination of higher standards, testing, improved outcomes down the road,” including the ability to teacher quality, rich and rigorous curricula, or en- organize politically and effectively navigate the world hanced school choice for low-income families, among beyond school. “Stigmatizing the use of test scores and other favored programs and policies. grades to measure learning undermines policymakers’ Ibram X. Kendi, the leading figure in the “anti- ability to make the case for reforms to promote equity,” racism” movement, is not interested in closing the Yglesias concluded, including “combating racially bi- achievement gap. Neither is he concerned with raising ased low expectations among teachers.” achievement among black and brown students—at Alas, high expectations for black and brown least by any measure known to social science. “Stan- children are now an object of suspicion. In 2019, New dardized tests have become the most effective racist York City Department of Education leaders attended weapon ever devised to objectively degrade Black a workshop where they were told that values such as minds and legally exclude their bodies,” insists the hard work, individualism, objectivity, and “worship of author of How to Be an Antiracist. Neither is it merely the written word” were hallmarks of “white supremacy the tests that are racist; no, it’s the achievement gap culture.” Under Cindy Marten, Biden’s pick for deputy itself. “To believe in the existence of any sort of racial education secretary, San Diego’s effort to become “an hierarchy is actually to believe in a racist idea,” Kendi antiracist school district” prohibits teachers from fac- writes. “The achievement gap between the races–with toring into students’ grades their classroom behavior Whites and Asians at the top and Blacks and Latinos and whether or not they turned in assignments. The at the bottom–is a racial hierarchy. And this popular pernicious effects of this line of thought were uninten- racial hierarchy has been constructed by our religious tionally revealed by a white high-school student who faith in standardized testing.” told a local TV station that inequities are so strong that Even by the standards of testing critics, who are it’s “not fair of us to put forth policies that only cater to legion, this is a remarkable assertion. Forget our long the students that are able to meet these requirements.” obsession with gap-closing and teaching for social If veteran educators have responded with dis- justice. The mere belief in the existence of an achieve- may, even horror, at the tortured logic of “whiteness” ment gap is transmuted into racism. “Our faith in as the theory that explains all ills in education, it’s standardized tests causes us to believe that the racial because it threatens to erase, at a stroke, decades of ef- gap in test scores means something is wrong with the forts on behalf of minority children. The most improb- Black test takers–and not the tests,” Kendi writes. But able triumph of the anti-racist orthodoxy promoted by this is poor scholarship at best, and at worst a delib- Kendi and his acolytes has been in schools that until erate falsehood. The vast weight of education policy, now have been proof points of its emptiness. If any

Commentary 43

Pondiscio_July-Aug_6.14A.indd 43 6/16/21 12:27 PM This grim orthodoxy has been gaining ground in American K–12 education for two generations, and the challenge of dislodging it from schools should not be underestimated.

institutions in American education have earned the To be clear, there is nothing inherently wrong right in the past 30 years to claim the title as genuinely with ethnic studies, “culturally responsive pedagogy,” “anti-racist,” it’s the networks of high-performing ur- or even critical race theory in public schools. No rea- ban charter-school networks such as KIPP, Achieve- sonable objection should be made or accepted to the ment First, Uncommon Schools, and others. KIPP, earnest desire for black and brown students—Ameri- which runs nearly 250 schools in 20 states, has had can children—to see their histories and cultures woven unparalleled success in ushering low-income black firmly into their education. Nor should any excuse and brown students to and through college, but last be made to elide our country’s painful history of rac- summer, co-founder David Levin issued a public apol- ism and injustices, or to confront places where there ogy for building KIPP on “white supremacy and anti- remains room for progress. What schools cannot do Blackness.” The network announced it was retiring while maintaining public support and legitimacy is its trademark “Work Hard. Be Nice” slogan because, to abide any kind of racial essentialism or insist that Levin said, it “supports the illusion of meritocracy… children are required to combat “whiteness.” Schools ignores the significant effort required to dismantle should not seek to impose an ideology that distills all systemic racism,” and places a value on “being compli- of history and every human endeavor to a struggle ant and submissive.” This was a stunning repudiation between oppressors and the oppressed. of the core values that have made KIPP a magnet for But this grim orthodoxy has been gaining ground parents of color desperate for an alternative to chaotic in American K–12 education for two generations, and and disorderly neighborhood schools where low ex- the challenge of dislodging it from schools should not pectations, for staff and students alike, have been the be underestimated. While some states like California rule for generations. weigh ethnic-studies mandates, others, like Florida, The founder of one urban charter network told Georgia, Arkansas, and New Hampshire, are debating me recently of his struggle to reconcile the desires of measures “banning” schools altogether from teaching low-income black and brown parents “who are bought critical race theory and curricula like the 1619 Proj- into the American Dream, hard work, education, ect. “There is no room in our classrooms for things character building, and rigor” with pressure from a like critical race theory,” said Florida Governor Ron vocal group of privileged and progressive teachers DeSantis. “Teaching kids to hate their country and to who bridle against his schools’ traditional curricu- hate each other is not worth one red cent of taxpayer lum and high academic expectations. “However, I re- money.” Although well-intentioned and reflecting the ally don’t know any other way to improve students’ discomfort many parents feel with regard to what their future lives other than a rigorous education,” he said. children are being taught, such measures erode free- dom of expression and would be exceedingly difficult UBLIC EDUCATION succeeds or fails at one to enforce. It is simply not possible to ban a perspective principal task: A school either imparts the from schools, particularly one that has been embraced P knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to for so long by so many educators. smooth the transition to a responsible and satisfying The picture that emerges, finally, is of an educa- adult life, or it does not. In concert with other institu- tion system drifting into conflict with the ambitions tions (families, churches, the military, et al.), an Ameri- of parents for their children and the public purpose can school can consciously inspire children to play a of preparing America’s children for productive adult- part in building a more perfect union. Or it can say, in hood and engaged citizenship. However well-intended effect, don’t bother. Hardened into orthodoxy, critical their motivations might be, individual teachers cannot race theory insists on the latter. When it demands a assume for themselves powers and privileges that are place of privilege in our schools, it undermines the not theirs to assume. In How to Be an Antiracist, Kendi very purpose of public education. It is the opposite of writes, “If discrimination is creating equity, then it is welcoming children into the civic sphere; it preaches antiracist.” Taken seriously, this is a direct encourage- resistance to it and even its destruction. ment for schools to treat children differently based

44 How U.S. Schools Became Obsessed with Race : July/August 2021

Pondiscio_July-Aug_6.14A.indd 44 6/16/21 12:27 PM As long as public education runs on tax dollars and public goodwill, the anti-racist ‘equity’ agenda and the broader impulse toward ‘equality’ will continue to be in tension.

on their race. Elsewhere he states the remedy to his agenda and the broader impulse toward “equality” unusually expansive definition of racism even more will continue to be in tension with each other. School- directly: “The only remedy to past discrimination is choice adherents see in all this an argument for school present discrimination. The only remedy to present choice, but as Bari Weiss has documented, elite private discrimination is future discrimination.” schools have drunk even more deeply of anti-racism It is unlikely that ordinary Americans, if they pedagogy and curricula than have public and charter follow this idea where it leads—schools making a schools. virtue of treating children differently based on race Ultimately, something has to give. The cost of alone—will abide sending their children to consciously public education is socialized in America; you pay “anti-racist” schools. The immense disparities in talent school taxes regardless of whether or not you have and skill of the nation’s massive corps of teachers and children in public school or have children at all. If our the fad-driven nature of education make it inevitable schools encourage a belief that the United States is a that there will continue to be bizarre applications of fundamentally racist country, and that every institu- its tenets, such as teaching children chants to Aztec tion is designed to maintain white supremacy and gods, teachers calling students not “boys and girls” but cannot be reformed, then it inevitably sets schools on “social-justice warriors,” or professional-development a collision course with the society that supports them. sessions aimed at getting teachers to reckon with the Whether it’s a conscious institutional attempt to be effects of their “whiteness.” Adherents may complain “anti-racist” or merely that an intellectual monocul- that such incidents are a distraction or examples of ture has taken root among educators, the effect will be poor implementation of a subtle and nuanced suite akin to an organism devouring its host. No sane nation of ideas. But as long as public education runs on tax will long tolerate an institution whose purpose is to set dollars and public goodwill, the anti-racist “equity” its children against itself at public expense.q

Commentary 45

Pondiscio_July-Aug_6.14A.indd 45 6/16/21 12:27 PM Union Busted The villains of the pandemic are the leaders of America’s teachers’ unions By Christine Rosen

RESIDENT JOE BIDEN likes to talk reopen and that safe reopening does not suggest that about “inflection points” in American teachers need to be vaccinated.” She added that “vac- history, usually when he’s describ- cinations of teachers is not a prerequisite for safely ing his sweeping, progressive policy reopening schools.” agenda and his sense of his admin- This was overwhelmingly welcome news for istration’s importance as the nation the millions of schoolchildren who had not set foot in recovers from a global pandemic. a classroom since the previous spring—and it had a But true inflection points are usually visible only in bipartisan tinge because it echoed the policy approach retrospect, P and one in particular might prove to have of red-state governors such as Florida’s Ron DeSantis, a more lasting and negative impact on his legacy than who had safely reopened schools in the fall. he realizes. It didn’t last. Within hours, the Biden administra- It happened in early February 2021, when Ro- tion was publicly undermining its own health official. chelle Walensky, Biden’s new director of the Centers White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that when for Disease Control (CDC), told the press that “there Walensky discussed school reopenings, she had been is increasing data to suggest that schools can safely speaking in her “personal capacity,” not her official role— a patently ridiculous claim given that Walensky made the Christine Rosen is Commentary’s senior writer. remarks during a White House COVID briefing.

46 July/August 2021

Rosen_July-Aug_6.14C.indd 46 6/16/21 12:28 PM Why the backpedaling? Simple: Saying it was with the results. In a February 12 press release, Wein- safe to go back to school had angered one of the garten praised the new guidance: “Today, the CDC met Biden administration’s most committed and powerful fear of the pandemic with facts and evidence. For the constituencies: the teachers’ unions. At the time, the first time since the start of this pandemic, we have a American Federation of Teachers—an umbrella group rigorous road map, based on science, that our mem- that constitutes the second-largest such union in the bers can use to fight for a safe reopening.” country and one with no scientific or public-health Weingarten cited “successful reopening strate- expertise as part of its remit—was involved in shaping gies in New York City, Boston and Washington, D.C.” CDC recommendations for schools. Calls and emails as well as the “$1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan” and meetings between the AFT’s president, Randi We- for “creating a culture of trust and collaboration with ingarten, and her staff with representatives from the educators and parents.” At the time, these supposedly White House and Walensky her- self reveal just how influential the unions were when it came to Stakeholders aren’t afraid to exercise policymaking at the CDC. Those their power. When the story broke about communications were undis- closed at the time. teachers’ union influence over the CDC, The New York Post broke the story in early May, using Randi Weingarten was unrepentant. Freedom of Information Act re- quests that compelled the release of government “successful reopening strategies” had done little to emails. “In at least two instances,” the Post noted, help the majority of public-school students in those language ‘suggestions’ offered by the union were ad- same cities; most students were still being denied in- opted nearly verbatim into the final text of the CDC person schooling. document.” Union officials demanded the inclusion As an example of scientifically grounded, rea- of language that would limit the ability of schools to sonable public-health policy, the CDC’s February reopen fully. Here was a sentence offered by the AFT: guidelines were an abject failure. Their adoption by “In the event of high community-transmission results many districts unnecessarily prolonged the closure of from a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, a new update of many schools. But they represented a triumph of what these guidelines may be necessary.” A nearly verbatim Reason’s Matt Welch has called the new “stakeholder version of that sentence appeared on page 22 of the science”—in which authoritative institutions make du- final CDC guidance. bious decisions based on political pressure and then The AFT also wanted the guidance to allow for see themselves used as the authority for the dubious teachers “who have documented high-risk conditions assumptions behind the politically motivated action. or who are at increased risk for … COVID-19” as well as The stakeholders aren’t afraid to exercise their “staff who have a household member” at risk to contin- power. When the story broke about union influence ue to work remotely, and so the final guidance included over the CDC, Weingarten was unrepentant, com- that as well. A February 11 letter further demanded that plaining on Twitter that the Post was “trying to make the CDC include specific, union-approved language everyday advocacy look nefarious” and insisting, “This about mitigation strategies and expressed concern article describes basic advocacy. It’s not mysterious or about “the absence of a closure threshold” for schools. clandestine. It’s routine.” Additional documents and emails obtained She’s right. Teachers’ union meddling in crucial through a FOIA request by parents in Virginia reveal public-health decision-making was instantly a feature, an unctuous Walensky emailing AFT leaders February not a bug, of the Biden administration. Weingarten is 3 to “extend my gratitude for the language you have particularly cozy with the Bidens, and there are pic- provided us below.” Walensky assured union leaders, tures of her hugging the president (when he was on “I wanted to be certain you knew it was being worked the campaign trail) and exchanging friendly messages into (with just a few small tweaks) the school opening on social media. According to Bloomberg News, on guidance. We have also included the executive sum- Biden’s first full day in office, January 21, First Lady Jill mary you suggested. Please know we are listening and Biden “hosted the leaders of the country’s major teach- working hard to ensure your confidence and partner- ers’ unions” at the White House. In May, Jill Biden ship in this endeavor.” tweeted thanks to Weingarten “for your leadership The CDC’s “partner” must have been pleased and friendship!”

Commentary 47

Rosen_July-Aug_6.14C.indd 47 6/16/21 12:28 PM Walensky’s spokesperson at the CDC defended dards and goalposts in the legislation for student the institution’s amenability to union lobbying: “As performance. Similarly, President Obama’s Race to part of long-standing best practices, CDC has tradi- the Top initiative in 2009 introduced Common Core tionally engaged with organizations and groups that standards and teacher-evaluation procedures opposed are impacted by guidance and recommendations is- by the unions. sued by the agency.” But in recent years, unions have taken a more And yet there was one group, arguably the one confrontational and politically activist stance. Teacher most “impacted” by the CDC guidance, who was never strikes in Oklahoma, West Virginia, and Kentucky welcomed into this discussion (nor would they have in 2018 included significant demands for pay raises, known about it had reporters and a few frustrated par- which the teachers won. Extensive collective-bargain- ents not made FOIA requests): the parents of public- ing rights have given unions more control over their school children. workplace conditions, and with each victory, union bosses realized they need not be merely one part of the NDERSTANDING the power and the hubris Democratic Party machine. Rather, they saw a path of today’s teachers’ unions requires revisiting to becoming the dominating forces in that machine, Uthe story of how teachers came to be viewed particularly in deep-blue cites where Democrats effec- (and came to view themselves) as a heroic profession tively exercised one-party rule. deserving of more resources and more respect. Today, two national teachers’ unions—the AFT In 1983, President Ronald Reagan’s education and the National Education Association (NEA)—along department issued a famous report called “A Nation with state, regional, and local teachers’ unions (and at Risk” that painted a bleak portrait of American principals’ unions) form the largest and most powerful schools. “The educational foundations of our society bloc of Democratic Party activists. The National Edu- are presently being eroded by a rising tide of medioc- cation Association is the nation’s largest public-sector rity that threatens our very future as a nation and as a union, with 3 million members, but it is Weingarten, people,” the report argued. The sense of crisis spurred the head of the 1.7-million-member AFT, who enjoys calls for better funding for schools, education reform, the most public visibility. and efforts to improve the quality of teachers. Unions have solidified their alliance with Demo- At the time the report was issued, the AFT had cratic politicians, whose election coffers they fill with more than 600,000 members. In the ensuing decades, donations and whose campaigns they help to staff. unions capitalized on public concern about the edu- As EducationNext notes: “Since 1990, the AFT and cational crisis to argue that teachers were underpaid the NEA have regularly been among the top 10 con- tributors to federal electoral campaigns. They have forged With each victory, union bosses saw an alliance with the Democratic a path to becoming the dominating Party, which receives the vast majority of their hard-money forces in the Democratic Party machine, campaign contributions as well as in-kind contributions for particularly in deep-blue cites. get-out-the-vote operations.” In 2020, the AFT spent more than and overworked. At the local and state level, unions $20 million on political donations, according to the made perennial demands on schools to hire more Center for Responsive Politics. All of it went to Liberal teachers and to provide them with the protections of or Democratic candidates or organizations. tenure—while strenuously resisting reforms such as charter schools and school vouchers that might have HEN PANDEMIC lockdowns began in undermined their power. March 2020 and schools closed as part of But when it came to policymaking, unions W the effort to save lives, most Americans did not play a key role at the federal level, and their gave their local officials the benefit of the doubt about demands and objections were often ignored. The No the wisdom of doing so. Fear and anxiety were under- Child Left Behind Act proposed by George W. Bush’s standably widespread, and the science about the risks administration in 2001 was embraced by liberal hero of transmission in school settings was still uncertain. Ted Kennedy and many Democrats even though the But as spring and summer wore on, some school major teachers’ unions did not approve of the stan- officials, citing the changing evidence that COVID

48 Union Busted : July/August 2021

Rosen_July-Aug_6.14C.indd 48 6/16/21 12:28 PM infections were rarely fatal for the young and that In Los Angeles, the second-largest school district schools could safely be reopened with proper mitiga- in the nation with more than half a million students, tion strategies, made plans to reopen in the fall. One students have spent the entire 2020–2021 school year study of schools in North Carolina by researchers at in virtual learning. Meanwhile, the union there has Duke University, published in Pediatrics, found a very spent its time issuing a range of demands that must low rate of in-school transmission of COVID. Many be met if they are to return to their jobs, including pediatrics and public-health experts published evi- Medicare for All, defunding the police, and a ban on dence that schools were safe, and urged reopening, es- charter schools. “Normal wasn’t working for us before. pecially as evidence mounted of the costs to children We can’t go back,” the union declared. of distance learning. Private and parochial schools across the country were determined to Led by their unions, most public-school reopen in person. teachers refused to return to classrooms But America’s public ed- ucators, led by their unions, even as they praised themselves for being believed that any risk was too great. The majority of public- brave ‘essential workers.’ school teachers refused to re- turn to classrooms even as they praised themselves for In March 2021, when California Governor being brave “essential workers,” as Weingarten called Newsom urged teachers to return to classrooms, 91 them at the union’s annual convention last summer. In percent of Los Angeles teachers’ union members voted fact, as a study of COVID deaths in the American Jour- to refuse to return to in-person teaching, citing safety nal of Industrial Medicine found, education, training, concerns. “UTLA members have voted overwhelm- and library workers are among the lowest-risk work- ingly to resist a premature and unsafe physical return ers. Health-care workers faced 10 times the COVID to school sites,” a spokesperson said. According to the mortality risk of teachers. Wall Street Journal, the union also called the state’s In the fall, as private and parochial schools re- efforts to reopen schools “a recipe for propagating opened for in-person school, the nation’s public-school structural racism.” students were left with subpar virtual-learning op- The Chicago Teachers Union, which also delayed tions and a lot of empty promises. The public schools and obstructed a return to in-person learning, had that did manage to reopen had one thing in common, time to create and circulate a dance video on social me- however: They were in areas with weaker unions. As dia featuring high-stepping teachers. This happened Corey DeAngelis of the Reason Foundation found, even as a report by ABC7 Chicago in March found that the “relationship between unionization and reopen- in many high schools in the city, almost half of stu- ing decisions remains substantively and statistically dents have never bothered to show up for their remote significant even after controlling for school district classes, a common problem in cities where unions size and coronavirus deaths and cases per capita in dominate—and where high schools have been closed the county during the month of July.” The “Return to for more than a year. Learn” school-reopening tracker of the American En- Even after teachers were given priority for vac- terprise Institute found that “districts in counties that cination in many states—ahead of cancer patients and voted for Joe Biden have three times the percentage of other at-risk individuals—they still refused to return to fully remote districts compared to counties that voted the classroom and continued to talk about COVID risks for Donald Trump.” in apocalyptic terms. Seattle fifth-grade teacher Dani- School districts that attempted to reopen regard- elle Woods told a local radio station that “the vaccine less of union opposition met considerable resistance. In is not a silver bullet. The vaccine is going to reduce risk Fairfax County, Virginia, for example, teachers staged but it’s not going to go to zero.” In Cleveland, union pres- protests (and later an illegal “sick-out”) when local of- ident Shari Obrenski told local news outlets, “Having a ficials announced that students with disabilities could vaccination, and a first dose of a vaccination, doesn’t return to in-person learning. Unionized teachers went keep you from getting COVID. My vaccination does to the parking lots of schools where students with dis- not help my students. My students are still at risk for abilities were returning to school and protested those COVID.” In Chicago, Stacy Davis Gates, vice president of kids—the most vulnerable children—and their parents the Chicago Teachers Union, said, “Our members took a in an effort to keep schools closed. vote to keep learning remotely to avoid disaster.”

Commentary 49

Rosen_July-Aug_6.14C.indd 49 6/16/21 12:28 PM In other words, at every point, when scientific But as an analysis by Mike Antonucci at the evidence demonstrated that schools were safe to re- 74Million, an education-policy publication, found: open, the unions balked at returning to work. When “After 11 months of school closures, we have a treasure the CDC announced in the spring that it was going to trove of evidence of how they reacted to many and var- change the six-feet distancing rule in schools to three ied reopening plans. Even among the districts where feet, which would allow for more students to return to schools eventually reopened, AFT unions offered more in-person learning, the AFT’s Weingarten was apoplec- resistance than cooperation.” In other words: “Wein- tic. “They are compromising the one enduring public garten’s claim is the exact opposite of reality.” The reality is that across Recently, unions launched a public- the nation, in school districts where unions wield power, the relations campaign peddling the lie that same strategy was relentlessly pursued: Keep schools closed. teachers’ unions had been advocates for In Miami, Antonucci notes, the school reopening all along. teachers’ union sued the state to stop the “reckless and unsafe re- opening of schools.” Their presi- health missive that we’ve gotten from the beginning dent claimed, “Lives are going to be lost.” Likewise, the of this pandemic in order to squeeze more kids into president of the Broward Teachers Union asked, “What schools,” she told reporters. In a letter to Walensky, will you do when the deaths start happening?” Unions Weingarten insisted, “We are not convinced that the also sued to prevent school reopenings in Boston, and evidence supports changing physical distancing re- in cities such as Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., quirements at this time.” they organized “mental health” day mini-strikes and In late May, as COVID cases and deaths declined urged teachers not to return to the classroom. precipitously, union leaders were still claiming that Unionized teachers urged parents to refuse schools were unsafe. As the Boston Globe reported, to return to in-person learning for the sake of…the “the head of Massachusetts’ largest teachers union Fri- teachers. “We sit endless hours, helping your chil- day called it ‘premature’ for the state to end all corona- dren, and the community, every day, all day. We give virus-related protocols in schools this fall.” Previewing up everything. And now you’re asking us to risk our what will no doubt be the union’s summer narrative, lives? That’s too much,” the Baltimore teachers’ union she claimed officials “continually have failed to give president said. proper deference to local situations, lower vaccination In Northern Virginia, unions staged a protest rates in communities of color, and the reluctance of featuring child-sized coffins; similar events in other parents there to send their children back to school full school districts featured teachers dressed as death, time in the fall.” complete with scythes and signs reading, “I can’t wait Recently, however, with vaccinations of eli- to meet my kids.” Teachers in Washington, D.C., piled gible people rising to more than half of the American fake body bags in front of the mayor’s office to protest populace and the implicit end of the pandemic upon plans for reopening. us, unions have shifted strategies. They launched a Weingarten even told a reporter for the Jewish public-relations campaign peddling the lie that teach- Telegraphic Agency that Jewish parents who wanted ers’ unions had been advocates for school reopening all schools to reopen and were upset about union intran- along. Weingarten was the subject of flattering profiles sigence were “part of the ownership class” who “want in the New York Times and the New Yorker about her to take that ladder of opportunity away from those supposed determination to ensure schools returned to who do not have it.” This is a confounding statement normal, and she published an essay in the Atlantic that coming from the person who leads a predominantly was little more than a glorified press release. The title of white union of middle-class workers whose success the piece, I kid you not, was: “Schools Must Open This in preventing the reopening of public schools has dis- Fall. In Person. Five Days a Week. The American Federa- proportionately harmed nonwhite and disadvantaged tion of Teachers, which I lead, is committed to making children. this happen.” This is the same person who, months ear- Truth to tell, these unions don’t have much re- lier, threatened nationwide teacher strikes and claimed spect for parents. When Weingarten tweeted praise that “nothing is off the table” when it comes to schools for Biden’s bloated infrastructure plan in April, she trying to plan for a Fall 2020 reopening. noted, “115% of mothers with young children left their

50 Union Busted : July/August 2021

Rosen_July-Aug_6.14C.indd 50 6/16/21 12:28 PM jobs in 2020 because of childcare responsibilities” (the teaching virtually in the fall. Weingarten still engages actual percentage was 11.5 percent). Left unmentioned in fear-mongering, claiming that any change in the by Weingarten is the fact that most of those women guidance that relaxes such restrictions “portends a had to shoulder those responsibilities because schools potential surge of the virus.” And she recently told remained closed. Equally tone-deaf was Vice President the Nation that vaccines shouldn’t be mandatory for Kamala Harris, who literally cackled as she told an teachers: “Teachers should have the right to decide audience in March, “More parents are seeing the value whether they want the vaccine or not.” So much for of educators when they had to bring their kids and say following the science. we’re not paying them nearly enough!” There is an unspoken social compact that work- NE OF THE REASONS the collusion between ing parents have with the public-school system—par- the Biden administration and the unions is so ticularly working parents who can’t afford either Oharmful—and an inflection point in the story private school alternatives. Their kids are in school all of our country’s response to the pandemic—is that day; the adults go to work. This compact has been de- school policymaking, both by convention and law, is stroyed by the unions’ behavior during the pandemic. largely a local affair. The federal Department of Educa- As for the kids? Despite the fact that Weingarten tion can create plenty of mischief, and has, but the real claims in her Twitter bio that she is “fighting 4 kids,” power rests with local school boards (or, in some cities, a more accurate description would be that she uses with the mayor). children as rhetorical shields for efforts by the union to That balance of power understandably changed gain power for teachers—a strategy she’s clearly intent during the pandemic. Federal policies regarding on pursing into the fall. health and safety were treated as gospel, not guid- Weingarten told MSNBC recently, “In the fall we ance, by many schools. But when teachers’ unions put have to first and foremost create a safe and welcoming pressure on federal public-health officials to alter the environment.” In New York City, a United Federation guidelines to suit the unions’ goals—not to reflect the of Teachers action group called MORE-UFT is inten- needs of children or the realities of the pandemic—it sifying the fear-mongering they engaged in this past undermined that balance of power. In that sense, the school year. In a statement issued in late May, the unions effectively circumvented the way our school group wrote, “The Mayor’s office and DOE leaders have system is meant to function in our democracy, by tak- made it clear that they intend to fill the schools with as ing power out of the hands of the people whose kids many bodies as they can squeeze in, safety concerns or attend their local public school and placing it firmly in no.” They also insisted: “We also know that, contrary to the hands of a special-interest group whose sole aim is repeated claims otherwise, schools contribute to com- to get more benefits for its members. munity spread of Covid-19.” In states and school districts with powerful This is a lie. In late May, a group of physicians, unions, the threat of strikes is unmatched by any epidemiologists, and infectious-disease specialists equivalent power on the side of school officials (or wrote in the Washington Post, “As covid-19 cases continue to fall and vaccines demonstrate Teachers’ unions put pressure on federal vigor against even the most public-health officials to alter the guide- concerning variants, it’s time to evaluate which pandemic re- lines to suit the unions’ goals—not to strictions are worth keeping in place.” Their first recommenda- reflect the realities of the pandemic. tion? “Children should return to their normal lives this summer and in the upcoming parents). Thanks to collective-bargaining agreements school year, without masks and regardless of their negotiated by many unions, school officials are often vaccination status. Overall, the risk to children is too legally barred from firing teachers. While Biden’s CDC low to justify the remaining restrictions they face.” was rewriting its guidance for schools, it didn’t get Despite such clear scientific evidence, in recent input from other stakeholders—parent groups, for media appearances Weingarten has continued to de- example. Instead, it got input (and directives) from mand masking, social-distancing requirements, caps one of its biggest donors, whose main policy goal was on class sizes, and the necessity of allowing teach- keeping schools closed because teachers didn’t want ers who don’t want to teach in-person the option of to go back.

Commentary 51

Rosen_July-Aug_6.14C.indd 51 6/16/21 12:28 PM The end result of this union power grab is that analysis, these elections had an average of 2.9 candi- many parents—often the most engaged and the most dates per seat. No seat went unopposed.” There have able to afford to do so—are voting with their feet to also been a significant number of school board recall leave the public-school system. efforts across the country. As Saundra Davis, a par- Cities such as San Francisco have already seen ent in the Fairfax County school system, warned the significant enrollment declines. In early June, the county school board during a recent meeting, “you school system reported that thousands of parents had have triggered a bipartisan tidal wave of parental fled the city’s school system, prompting even the lib- pushback.” eral San Francisco Chronicle to editorialize, “The miss- Parents have filed lawsuits (and in some cases, ing thousands represent lost faith and lasting damage won) over continued school closures across the country to public education institutions and unions that took and have organized across social media. Randi Wein- advantage of an emergency to shirk their responsibil- garten went on television in May to complain about ity to the state’s children.” these conflicts: “Teachers are tired; they are exhausted. In New York City, public-school enrollment num- We have to find a way to repair and nourish them as bers reveal a significant drop; as far back as January, well as families in terms of attracting and retaining our Chalkbeat reported, “New York City’s traditional pub- teaching force…. It’s not time to do the blame game.” lic schools lost more students this year than the previ- But parents are increasingly happy to assign blame ous 14 years combined.” Similar declines in enrollment where blame is due: on unions and the craven public are evident in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Chicago, officials who caved to their demands. and Philadelphia—all places where teachers’ unions They have spent a year bearing witness to union succeeded in keeping public schools closed far longer hypocrisy, such as the Chicago teachers’ union official than scientific evidence clearly showed was necessary. who argued that it was unsafe for teachers to return to Declining enrollment numbers mean less money the classroom while posting images of herself poolside for public schools since school budgets are based on (and mask-less) in Puerto Rico on vacation, and the the number of students enrolled at any given schools— president of the Berkeley, California, teachers’ union which translates to decreased demand for teachers. who has resisted reopening public schools but whose The unions’ behavior has also had the unintend- daughter has enjoyed full-time in-person education at ed consequence of raising the political consciousness a private school. of many parents. Their experience battling unions The narrative of teachers as heroes who are and school boards during the past year has led them underpaid and undervalued and overworked is no to see themselves as an interest group that needs to longer viable except as a groveling talking point for organize to protect their children’s right to an educa- politicians looking for support. Parents of school-age tion. Parents in California who were advocating for the children have seen the reality. With the encourage- reopening of their schools recently formed a nonprofit ment of their unions, far too many teachers overval- organization that aims to recruit school-board candi- ued themselves and underdelivered this year. They dates. Parents in Fairfax County, Virginia, have also have no meaningful competition for their services, and, as the year revealed, far too many of them have no Parents are increasingly happy to assign meaningful commitment to act- blame where blame is due: on teachers’ ing like professionals. Whatever mild dislike of teachers’ unions unions and the craven public officials many Americans harbored, until recently their worst perceived who caved to their demands. sin was their support of incom- petent teachers, perhaps with a organized a bipartisan group called the Fairfax County sprinkling of corruption. Today, they are viewed by an Parents Association, for the purpose of “empowering increasing number of Americans (across the political parents to advocate on behalf of their children.” spectrum) as actively harmful. As the Christian Science Monitor reported, while In Charter Schools and Their Enemies, Thomas in most years many school-board officials run unop- Sowell diagnosed the problem succinctly: “Much posed, “this year, almost two dozen of the country’s lofty rhetoric has been deployed by teachers unions largest school districts in five states have already had in their public relations campaigns to promote their school-board elections, and according to a Monitor own interests, as if they were promoting the interests

52 Union Busted : July/August 2021

Rosen_July-Aug_6.14C.indd 52 6/16/21 12:28 PM of schoolchildren. But the late Albert Shanker, head of a year contributed to the decline they now claim they the United Federation of Teachers, was honest enough can treat with their “renaissance”? to state the plain fact: ‘When schoolchildren start pay- The purpose of the school system is to educate ing union dues, that’s when I’ll start representing the children, to serve children, to meet the needs of the na- interests of schoolchildren’.” tion’s children. Its purpose is not full employment for Weingarten’s messaging now is “Return. Recov- teachers, or administrators, or bureaucrats, or union er. Reimagine,” and she’s been going around the coun- bosses. A true renaissance in public education would try calling for a “renaissance” in public education—a require breaking the back of the unions that have done renaissance that, coincidentally, would pour more so much damage to that purpose. The scientifically in- money into her already bulging coffers. Why should we coherent, partisan, and morally reprehensible strategy reward the people whose refusal to work for more than they pursued should not be forgotten, nor forgiven.q

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Rosen_July-Aug_6.14C.indd 53 6/16/21 12:28 PM Politics & Ideas Rhodes to Nowhere

After the Fall: Being American a life beyond the maddening vicis- ing Communist Party, who point at in the World We’ve Made situdes of politics, Rhodes aban- a deer and tell you it’s a horse. By Ben Rhodes dons such an irresponsible notion If you experienced the world Random House, 384 pages when he realizes that, but for him, like this, if you had convinced the deluge: “Perhaps this was how yourself that every single person Reviewed by James Kirchick fascists got away with it through who questioned your perspective history.” The Supreme Court’s deci- on a wide variety of highly conten- OW comforting it sion in Citizens United v. Federal tious issues was either arguing must be to see the Election Commission, along with in bad faith or willfully malign, world as does Ben Republican congressional redis- it would take a superhuman ca- Rhodes: Everyone tricting efforts and schemes “re- pacity not to be consumed by the who disagrees with quiring certain forms of identifica- “visceral, dumfounded anger” that Hhim is either a fascist, an idiot, or tion to register” to vote, come appears to be the overriding factor both. According to Barack Obama’s straight from Hungarian autocrat in Rhodes’s life. “Rage” is the word deputy national-security adviser Viktor Orban’s nationalist play- Rhodes uses most often to describe for strategic communications, the book of “Us versus Them politics.” his feelings. It was “rage” that presidency of Donald Trump As for the unfortunate souls who inspired Rhodes to get involved amounted to “an American experi- find themselves opposing Rhodes in politics, and rage that “kept me ment with fascism.” Contemplating in various legislative battles or ide- going day after day when all my ological debates, he describes deal- other sources of motivation had James Kirchick, a visiting ing with such people as akin to de- dissipated or run up against the fellow at the Brookings Institution, bating those who insist that “two limits of an uncooperative world.” is the author of The End of Europe: plus two equals five” or, to cite a Rage in response to “the daily reali- Dictators, Demagogues, and the parable offered by a Chinese dissi- ties of Trump’s America” has “eaten Coming Dark Age. dent regarding that country’s rul- away” at Rhodes over the past four

54 Politics & Ideas : July/August 2021

Politics&Ideas_July-Aug_6.15E.indd 54 6/16/21 12:30 PM years. In the early weeks of the pan- about the policies of the adminis- shock victory, he wrote an email demic, Rhodes felt an “unutterable tration he served. In his chapters to his boss stating that “history rage”—though not so unutterable on Russia, for instance, Rhodes doesn’t move in a straight line, it as to prevent him from describing manages to avoid any mention of zigs and zags,” which Obama, ac- it, incessantly, in his new book, Af- the “reset” policy that was prelude cording to Rhodes, repeatedly told ter the Fall: Being American in the to President Vladimir Putin’s an- people reminded him of Ralph World We’ve Made. nexation of the Crimean peninsula Ellison. (Presumably this insight Five years ago, in a widely-read and ongoing invasion of Ukraine. struck our usually voluble narra- profile of Rhodes written by David Conspicuously absent from the tor after the moment during Elec- Samuels for the New York Times “international community of un- tion Night when being asked for Magazine, Obama’s United Na- derdogs” Rhodes interviews are his reaction rendered him speech- tions ambassador Samantha Power any Syrians, whom Obama aban- less for a full 30 seconds, a scene remarked that the character from doned to the tender mercies of captured in the 2017 documentary literature Rhodes most reminded Bashar al-Assad after refusing to The Final Year.) her of was Holden Caulfield. In enforce his own red line against Oddly for a man who prides After the Fall, Rhodes makes every the dictator’s use of chemical himself on being such a nu- effort to live up to that reputation weapons against his own people. anced thinker, Rhodes is thor- as an angry young man, petulantly Rhodes makes up for this elision oughly Manichean in his outlook. scorning his many critics as pho- with a chapter that essentially ar- “From Trianon to the Tea Party” nies. And he adds a geopolitical gues the case for the Middle East’s is the subtitle he chooses for a dimension to the composite, writ- “axis of Resistance” (comprising chapter likening Hungary’s ethnic ing with the self-righteousness of Iran and its proxies) and bashes nationalists (still obsessed with a college freshman heavily under America’s traditional Sunni Arab a century-old treaty dismember- the influence of Edward Said. allies, who along with Israel op- ing the Hungarian empire) to Dumbstruck by Trump’s election, posed the administration’s ill-fated the American anti-tax movement. our narrator traipses around the nuclear deal with Tehran. The 2019 British general election, world in an effort to find himself The most unintentionally valu- Rhodes writes, “swept the pro- as much as the answers to how able parts of After the Fall are its Brexit conservatives into power, such a travesty could have hap- anecdotes. Less than a year after amplifying the nationalist trend pened. In Myanmar, Rhodes stares Obama accepted a humiliating that Orban represented,” a state- at a giant Buddha statue, while in Russian offer to “remove” Syria’s ment that manages to a) conflate Cuba, he reflects before the future chemical weapons, the president two very different phenomena, b) gravesite of Raul Castro. He floats attended a summit of world lead- omit the role played by the abomi- from airport business lounge to ers in France commemorating the nable Labour Party leader Jeremy airport business lounge, address- 70th anniversary of the D-Day Corbyn, and c) misconstrue the ing hedge-fund managers and in- invasion. Following the awkward fact that the UK Conservatives vestment bankers like a younger, performance of an interpretative have been in power since 2010. angrier Bill Murray in Lost in dance routine reenacting the Sec- While characterizing Republicans Translation. What really interests ond World War, Obama marvels to as “fascists,” Rhodes takes um- Rhodes, however, are the insights Rhodes at what Putin must have brage at their labeling Democrats he gathers from democratic activ- thought: “Man, the West has got- “socialists.” One of the only times ists in Hungary, Russia, and China, ten soft.” The 44th president’s re- Rhodes attempts to empathize three former Communist countries markable lack of self-awareness is with a political adversary is in a facing the same toxic blend of matched only by that of his aman- brief disquisition on Israeli Prime nationalism and authoritarianism uensis, who apparently thinks Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. that Rhodes claims America con- it boosts his standing as a word- Herewith, Rhodes attempting to fronted under the reign of Donald smith to let the world know that be charitable, “try[ing] to see it J. Trump. he is the man responsible for coin- from Netanyahu’s perspective”: If Rhodes encountered a single ing the phrase, uttered by Obama individual during these travels during the 2008 election, “We Given the way the Jews have who disagreed with him, he leaves are the ones we’ve been waiting been treated over the years, if no record of it. The same goes for for.” Elsewhere, Rhodes informs Israel doesn’t act like all the criticism from his interlocutors us that, on the night of Trump’s other bad actors around the

Commentary 55

Politics&Ideas_July-Aug_6.15E.indd 55 6/16/21 12:30 PM world, the Jews will be screwed surely an implicit rebuke to Robert statement he wrote condemning again. So, the thinking goes, we Kagan’s 2012 The World America the murder of another Russian have to be corrupt, be national- Made. Precisely when the Obama liberal, Boris Nemtsov, Rhodes gets ist, make deals with unpleasant administration was retreating misty-eyed thinking about “the people, take the Palestinians’ abroad, that slim volume offered idea that if the world’s most pow- land, attack and discredit op- a timely reminder of how America erful government sounds the same ponents with lies or exaggera- created the postwar liberal inter- notes again and again, year after tions, because that’s what’s re- national order and made a vigor- year, the continuous melody would quired to defend a people who ous case for the country to sustain let people struggling for their have suffered. it. According to Rhodes, however, rights feel less alone, so that the arc the “world we’ve made” is not the of history might bend in a different This, from a man who constantly one of unprecedented peace and direction.” He asks, “Wasn’t that, ridicules the political tactics of prosperity depicted by Kagan, but in a way, how the Cold War had other people as nothing more than rather a hellscape tarnished by reached its peaceful end?” a cynical game of “Us versus Them.” environmental degradation, Or- Not really, no. “War,” a 13-year-old Rhodes wrote wellian tech companies, maimed If Rhodes is befuddled as to portentously in his diary on the eve and murdered civilians, a Middle how America won the first Cold of Operation Desert Storm, “War is East in flames, and triple-ampu- War, he is much more clear-eyed upon us.” The prose in After the Fall tee veterans returning home from about the imperatives of the next is all downhill from that bar mitzvah pointless wars. one. “The Cold War that needs to year. Like his former boss, Rhodes “We are a country that killed be won now is at home, a battle fancies himself a writer, an aspi- hundreds of thousands of people between people who live in the ration in the pursuit of which he through our own unique blend of reality of the world as it is,” the su- obtained an MFA in creative writ- incompetence and irrationality,” percilious title of his White House ing. After the Fall is peppered with Rhodes writes, and that’s just his memoir, “and people who are the unimaginative flourishes and description of America’s response choosing to live in a false reality pseudo-sophisticated musings of a to the coronavirus. In his em- comprised of their basest griev- failed novelist. Obsessively track- bittered recitation of the stan- ances—and seeking to impose it ing his social-media feed, he is “like dard left-wing litany of American on the rest of us.” This contemptu- an addict being given tiny doses crimes and transgressions, Rhodes ous (and clunky) declaration on of an opioid by some giant unseen sounds an awful lot like Bernie behalf of the reality-based com- beast,” which might qualify as the Sanders, with whose fundamental munity precedes a final chapter most overused simile of the past appraisal, Rhodes reveals, Obama on the tumultuous events of 2020, decade. A dingy Dupont Circle bar essentially agreed. “The occasional in which Rhodes finds himself represents to Rhodes “a grand ex- hawkish language on terrorism” at a loss when his daughter asks periment in self-determination still that appeared in the speeches why the National Guard has been unfolding.” Moving to Los Angeles Rhodes wrote for Obama, along deployed a block from their house after the conclusion of the Obama with “the critiques of capitalism in the aftermath of George Floyd’s administration “was a disorienting that had to be carefully worded death. That would indeed be a transition—sitting in cars, doing to avoid charges of socialism,” difficult question to answer for a away with seasons, living in a place were “compromises to political partisan of the side whose spokes- where the conversation rarely re- reality.” Rhodes echoes Obama and people insist that they inhabit volves around what’s happening former Secretary of State John “objective reality” while simulta- in the world and you’ve removed Kerry in his stupefaction at Putin’s neously asserting that the riots yourself from Washington’s revolv- “nineteenth-century style of an- that erupted across the country ing door waiting room for future nexation of a neighbor’s territory,” last summer were a right-wing fic- government service.” Disorienting, a strange observation considering tion, Donald Trump was a Russian perhaps, but not nearly so much as how much territory had been an- agent, and the possible genesis reading that sentence. nexed in the 20th. China’s gulag of COVID-19 in a Chinese labora- archipelago for Uighur Muslims, tory was a racist lie. The sheer HE SUBTITLE of After the Rhodes writes, is simply a turbo- hypocrisy of Them is more than Fall: Being American in charged version of Guantanamo sufficient to elicit a very utterable T the World We’ve Made is Bay. Reflecting on the presidential rage within Us.q

56 Politics & Ideas : July/August 2021

Politics&Ideas_July-Aug_6.15E.indd 56 6/16/21 12:30 PM by Water, Ahmari was hanging a portrait of St. John Paul II above his desk at a leading journal of Jewish Sohrab Ahmari conservatism, this very magazine in your hands. In The Unbroken Thread, the Story Hour new place Ahmari now occupies is existential: He has become the father of two. And it is fatherly con- The Unbroken Thread: kin. In some ways, The Unbroken cern that effected his most recent Discovering the Wisdom of Thread is Ahmari’s sequel to his transformation into a public con- Tradition in an Age of Chaos 2018 memoir of immigration and troversialist. Living in the center By Sohrab Ahmari conversion, From Fire, by Water. of Manhattan, Ahmari came across Convergent Books, 320 pages That book traced Ahmari’s life jour- an example of the kind of cultural ney across the world and a series of formation that some of the up- Reviewed by worldviews—a life story that exists wardly mobile, educated urbanites Michael Brendan Dougherty in a paradoxical tension with the in America are providing to their message of The Unbroken Thread. children: an ad for Drag Queen ANY OF those Throughout his memoir, a Story Hour at a library in California. who have come change of location or profession This kind of event has been popping to know Sohrab leads almost immediately to a shift up across America. You know what Ahmari over the in worldview, in which Ahmari al- it is just from the name itself: A past few years ways places himself in conflict with cross-dressing man vamps around M from his populist turn toward Don- his surroundings. From Fire, by at the public library, reading a chil- ald Trump and his assaults on the Water begins with a childhood in dren’s book while also telling, to establishment conservative move- revolutionary Iran. Ahmari found the parents mostly, the kind of stale ment—a turn he took after working it backward and censorious. He double-entendre jokes that are a for Commentary and upon join- sought out even the slightest hint normal feature of a drag show. ing the New York Post as its op-ed of liberation from his native theoc- Drag Queen Story Hour is, I editor—have done so in the course racy. Memorably, he smells libera- think, staged not for the edifica- of the day-to-day controversies on tion in the suitcases his grandpar- tion of the young, but for the ele- social media in which he has be- ents brought back from their trips vation of the cross-dresser or the come a peculiarly acerbic presence. beyond Iran. Just a whiff of a de- transgendered performers. Their Those Ahmari fans will surely be partment store called Ahmari away behavior isn’t just the sort of thing surprised by his new book, The Un- from the scent of stale rosewater that makes for a bawdy lark at broken Thread, a triumph of intel- and sand at home. He yearned for a nightclub; no, it’s educational, lectual hagiography that leads the the adventure and freshness he saw even uplifting. By making an audi- reader confidently into deep waters. portrayed in movies like Star Wars. ence for you of our children, we’ve Its chapters are structured Then in adolescence he found proved we accept you. Look how around the life stories, intellec- himself transplanted to Utah. open-minded we are. tual journeys, and spiritual trials There he becomes dissatisfied with Ahmari focused his ire over of a variety of protagonists. Many the climate of do-gooding cheer- Drag Queen Story Hour on a seem- of them become Christians, such fulness and slight clannishness ingly unlikely target: David French, as Augustine of Hippo, or the of the Mormon world. He turns the conservative evangelical, law- 20th-century anthropologists Vic- to atheism and Communism. He yer, and free-speech activist who tor and Edith Turner. But Ahmari joins Teach for America, and there was then my colleague at National also draws on Confucius and even he becomes a neoconservative. He Review. French was, in Ahmari’s the feminist radical Andrea Dwor- goes to modern London and writes telling, an avatar of a conservatism for the Wall Street Journal, and in that had compromised too much Michael Brendan Dough- the one Western European nation with philosophical liberalism and erty writes for National Review with an Established Church, he was therefore unwilling to use and is the author of My Father Left joins the minority Catholic faith. authority in the public square on Me Ireland. By the time he finished From Fire, behalf of the good.

Commentary 57

Politics&Ideas_July-Aug_6.15E.indd 57 6/16/21 12:30 PM For Ahmari, the liberal conser- itself are like the legend of Blanche the law’s standard and tries to get vatism of David French is a form of of Castile, the 13th-century queen us to comply with its precepts.” unilateral disarmament, the aban- who reputedly told her son, Louis, Newman’s countercharge was that donment of our posts. It also leads “I love you, my dear son, as much Gladstone’s vision of freedom tend- to an unfavorable asymmetry in as a mother can love her child; but ed to vitiate the human conscience, America’s culture war. Progressives I would rather see you dead at my licensing men to ignore the obliga- hate racism, believing it corrupts feet than that you should ever com- tions and restraints that are against young minds and warps society. mit a mortal sin.” Her son, the king their self-interest. For Ahmari, the And so they seek every means of ex- after whom St. Louis is named, genius of the pre-moderns evoked tirpating it, through federal statute, would be known for his personal by Newman was to recognize that, social stigma, and the implementa- devotion, his association with beg- like the mother correcting her tion of anti-racist education at gars and lepers, as well as his ex- child, authority helps to tutor and schools. But in Ahmari’s view, when pansion of the Crusade against the form the conscience. A “firm, dy- liberal conservatives come upon Cathars in France, and the imposi- namic alliance between conscience Drag Queen Story Hour, which tion of mutilation of the tongue as a and authority” forms “a bulwark in their heart of hearts they too punishment for blasphemy. against unjust power, including believe corrupts youth, they throw power over the mind.” up their hands, mumble something HE BOOK’S 12 essays are For me, Ahmari’s book is at about separation of powers and the elegantly written and tend its best when he tells the story blessings of liberty, and call it a day, T to get stronger as the book of Hans Jonas, the German-born before cashing their checks from a goes on. One of the best is “Should American Jewish philosopher and conservative nonprofit. You Think for Yourself?” It tells contemporary of Hannah Arendt’s The introduction gets into Ah- the story of the debate between at the University of Marburg. Jonas mari’s fears that the “American Prime Minister William Gladstone, became a student of the existen- order enshrines very few sub- a 19th-century liberal par excel- tial philosopher Martin Heidegger stantive ideals I would want to lence, and England’s most famous and the modernist Scripture schol- transmit to my son.” He envisions Catholic convert, Cardinal John ar Rudolf Bultmann. A simple himself and his wife meeting their Henry Newman. In response to the homework assignment led him adult son, who has become a “win- first Vatican Council’s definition of to become a pioneering scholar ner” at life, just back from Davos, papal infallibility, Gladstone wrote of the ancient Christian heresy thinking of joining a big firm and a blistering pamphlet charging of Gnosticism, which contradicted getting a bit more out of his work- the Roman Church with thiev- the orthodox faith on many points, outs. Ahmari would at once feel ing the civil and moral freedom but most hotly on the goodness of proud and ashamed. Most parents of Catholics, “stifling conscience Creation itself. In this, Jonas spied would not even notice if their son and conviction.” For Gladstone, the a spiritual precursor to Heidegger’s listened to TED Talks for life hacks conscience had to be free of such own existentialism, which placed and tips on productivity. But prior claims of authority in order the human will at odds with the for Ahmari, this is a nightmare to apprehend for itself moral and limitations of human existence. worth avoiding. And this is why he religious truths. The aged New- Across the variety of Gnostic cults named his boy after Maximilian man’s task was to show, according Jonas found the same spiritual Kolbe—a Polish priest who died to Ahmari, “that absolute freedom impulse, a “revolt against the world in Block 11 of the Auschwitz death of thought of the kind advocated by and its god in the name of an abso- camp, having volunteered to take Gladstone and other leading liber- lute spiritual freedom.” the place of a father selected to als was an illusion—and a perni- Jonas, a proud but nonobser- be executed in an act of collective cious one at that.” vant Jew, was at this time coming punishment. Kolbe’s last gesture Newman proceeded by divin- to detest the rising anti-Semitism was to raise his arm willingly to ing the duty of men to submit to of Germany. In 1933, he emigrated the needle bearing the carbolic the divine law—the standard of and vowed to return only as part acid that euthanized him. right conduct that is a part of hu- of a conquering army. This was So Ahmari’s book is a statement man nature, the law written on a vow he kept. In that same year, of the most vertiginously counter- man’s hearts. The conscience is Heidegger joined the Nazi Party. cultural conviction of all. The ges- “the mental agent of the law that Ahmari traces how, after the war, ture of this name and the book gauges our conduct according to Jonas finally connected the world-

58 Politics & Ideas : July/August 2021

Politics&Ideas_July-Aug_6.15E.indd 58 6/16/21 12:30 PM picture of Gnostics and existential- Ahmari is right that there are sipation of all authority in a cacoph- ists to the moral vacuum of Nazi constitutional hurdles and com- ony of individual egoisms unable to Germany. The longing to let an mon prejudices against some re- coerce for the common good, I see inner authentic spirit express itself ligious ideas—and that there are a public square that is overflowing fully, even against the constraints of double standards here. The un- with such efforts, with contrasting the created world, led to the disdain provable metaphysics behind egali- claims of authority, meaning, and not just of social convention but of tarianism may reign in politics, but demands for cohesion, especially human morality altogether. Hei- the reason an anti-abortion argu- during the COVID-19 pandemic. degger’s emphases on “willing and ment fails to triumph is that it is The idea that private consciences becoming” left him unanchored in associated with religious citizens. can simply reject capital-S Science, reality and ultimately unable to re- This rankles the same way that it or the moral duty to be masked or sist the murderous tide of the time. rankled Newman when Gladstone vaccinated, was utterly rejected by preached a free conscience but also progressives. AVING RECENTLY pub- endorsed some forms of censorship Like Ahmari, I worry for my lished a book that, like The as salutary. From John Locke’s sec- children. And I realize now my H Unbroken Thread, sought ond treatise proposing that human own book may have betrayed me to uncover a demanding cultural existence begins with us as a “blank as much as this one does its author. inheritance I felt was in danger of slate” to Anthony Kennedy’s rul- Our worries appear to others like being lost before my children could ings about the sweet mystery of life, an unresolved tension in the father receive it, I’m risking the wrath of there is a void of meaning. projected onto the son. Mine was the gods and my peers by raising But the overall picture he paints guilt for not honoring my mother objections to a co-religionist doing of God and spirituality vacuumed enough during her life. Ahmari’s the same. But I must. In a chapter out of political debate I think is is a conflict with his own story and asking, “Does God Need Politics?” simply not correct. To take one his own ambition. Ahmari writes, example, the legal changes in mar- God has led the author from riage and the attempt to raise the Iran through Utah and London and We thus come to perhaps the esteem of unusual sexualities in half a dozen worldviews in a rather biggest question that diverts law was preceded by religious short time. Almost any effort to modernity from the great stream bodies—particularly the Mainline bind our society with the unbroken of traditional thought. Moderns, Protestant bodies—effecting these thread he describes here would from celebrated philosophers alterations in their theology. The have made the author’s journey to ordinary people across the advocates for these changes may to his current life circumstances political spectrum, are certain occasionally try to undermine the entirely impossible. Like Ahmari, that religion and politics don’t, confidence and standing of their I suspect his son will be capable and shouldn’t, mix. Since we religious opponents, but they try of being at Davos or its equivalent can’t agree on the highest end to clothe their claims in the Chris- someday. And even if he appears or ultimate meaning of human tian moral imperative to love, to to his father to be too interested life, their thinking runs, politics show reciprocity, and not to judge in his career, God may even then must be “neutral” ground, where hastily. Their desire to censor us is be calling young Max to do some citizens can vie over questions of in some ways their inheritance of hidden work there, even if it is just “secular” public policy without King Louis’s determination to mu- consoling one of his peers. If Ah- God’s sticking his nose into how tilate the tongue of blasphemers. mari’s exhortation of the unbroken much taxes the wealthy pay, how Liberals—even atheist progres- thread of our duties as humans is to we treat immigrants and refu- sives—are not shy about test- be bearable, it must be wound with gees, how we organize health ing Christians and conservatives another, a mature faith in Provi- care, and so on. Spiritual con- for their fidelity to God in their dence. It is that image G.K. Ches- cerns thus belong to a private politics. Sometimes this is done terton gave us in his Father Brown sphere: Each citizen can hold cynically, but often it is a genuine books—the image of that “unseen fast to her own private account curiosity or bafflement:Jesus was hook and an invisible line which of ultimate meaning—includ- clearly on the side of the poor, so is long enough to let him wander ing, crucially, the belief that life why are you so often on the side of to the ends of the world and still to has no meaning at all. Wall Street? bring him back with a twitch upon And where Ahmari sees the dis- the thread.”q

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Politics&Ideas_July-Aug_6.15E.indd 59 6/16/21 12:30 PM War against international Com- munism, and he endangered the The Spy lives of Americans and foreigners who were fighting it. Second, Ste- venson demonstrates that while Who Went into it’s probably untrue that Agee was actively an agent of Cuban intelligence, he clearly was their the Cold asset, willing to help them when he could and also drawing on their A Drop of Treason: his country. He writes about how assistance. Philip Agee and His Exposure he arranged for death squads to Agee committed his crimes with of the CIA be trained in Panama. He says he a brazen flair as well. He taunted By Jonathan Stevenson put his own dog in a coma to test a the CIA, acknowledging that he University of Chicago Press, knockout drug he would later use spent months in Cuba to do “re- 328 pages to subdue guard dogs at a foreign search” for his book. He traveled embassy. to Moscow, allegedly to negotiate Reviewed by Eli Lake Agee was not the first CIA man the rights to the Russian edition to write a critical memoir, but he of his book. He corresponded with ONATHAN Stevenson’s was the first to publish the identi- Weather Underground felon Kathy biography of the turncoat ties of the agency’s assets, agents, Boudin and offered to testify on be- CIA officer Philip Agee and fellow officers he had once half of Red Army Faction terrorist leaves the reader with an promised to protect. This was an act Ulrike Meinhof at her trial. In this unexpected appreciation so treacherous that nearly 40 years respect, Agee was a sinister version Jfor the durability of the republic. after Agee’s disclosures, former NSA of the character played by the late One finishes his fine book thinking contractor Edward Snowden went Charles Grodin in the movie Mid- it was something of a miracle that out of his way to explain why none night Run—a former mob accoun- America survived the 1970s and ul- of the material he handed to jour- tant who would occasionally send timately won the Cold War. The nalists would compromise the cover postcards to the Mafia boss about Agee controversy was just a single of agents in the field—why, in other how he was spending the money he data point during a decade that be- words, he was not Philip Agee. had stolen from him. gan with the shootings at Kent If Agee had just said his piece and In 1976, for example, Agee flew State and ended with the Iranian moved on, his story would have been to Jamaica to give a press confer- hostage crisis and the Soviet cap- a black eye for the CIA. But he actu- ence, on the eve of national elec- ture of Afghanistan. But his story ally switched sides. He didn’t seek tions, outing nine alleged CIA illustrates the moral exhaustion of the reform of the CIA; he sought officers operating out of the U.S. post-Watergate and pre-Reagan its destruction. After his book, he Embassy in Kingston. “He aimed to America. helped found a publication, Covert strip the agency bare,” Stevenson Agee is best known for his 1975 Action Information Bulletin, which writes. During the press confer- book, Inside the Company, a mem- would go on to publicize the iden- ence, he not only provided their oir of his tour as a spy in Latin tities of “some 2,000 CIA officers, names, he also disclosed their America. The CIA, Agee says, were agents and other assets,” according home addresses and telephone the bad guys, and he offers a har- to Stevenson. He would later co- numbers. In the magazine Coun- rowing portrayal of how the Cold author two more books dedicated to terspy, he published a photo and War was fought in the shadows. identifying CIA officers and agents name of the CIA’s top liaison with Agee claims in the book that he in Europe and Africa. British intelligence, leading the overheard a man being tortured These days the word “traitor” UK government to deport him. as he briefed a security chief in is thrown around too casually. But After Iranian fanatics seized the Uruguay about an insurgency in Agee’s actions in the late 1970s U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979, really do fit the constitutional Agee publicly and privately offered Eli Lake is a columnist for definition of treason. First, he was the hostage-takers his services to Bloomberg and a frequent contribu- giving aid and comfort to America’s negotiate their release in exchange tor to Commentary. enemies in the middle of a Cold for all U.S. files on CIA activities in

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Politics&Ideas_July-Aug_6.15E.indd 60 6/16/21 12:30 PM Iran under Shah Reza Pahlavi. administration and a fellow at the These stunts should have made The International Institute for Strate- Agee toxic to the respectable in- i gic Studies, provides a thorough ac- ternational left. But this was not key to count of the CIA’s strategy to neu- the case. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, tralize Agee, which was successful then the leading writer in Latin understanding at first. Three years before the America, invited him to testify in why the left publication of Inside the Company, a mock war-crimes tribunal on po- the CIA sent two officers to Agee, litical repression. Jean-Paul Sartre never shunned then in Paris, to befriend him. Pos- published an essay by Agee in his the turncoat ing as a left-wing journalist and a publication Les Temps Modernes. Venezuelan heiress, the spies gave After proceedings began in the CIA officer Agee a bugged typewriter and were United Kingdom that ultimately Philip Agee or able to obtain a draft of the mem- led to Agee’s expulsion from that oir. An internal CIA review found country in 1977, 150 members of acknowledged that Agee would disclose “the true Parliament signed a motion of his being a traitor status of over 400 CIA officers, col- protest, including future foreign laborators, agents, informants, and secretary Robin Cook. The mother was timing. His fronts,” Stevenson writes. This gave of chess champion Bobby Fischer disclosures came the agency a head start in mitigat- staged a 10-day hunger strike in ing the pending damage. front of Whitehall. Morton Hal- at a boiling point By the time the book was pub- perin, once an aide to Henry Kiss- lished, the CIA had switched to inger and later a founder of the for U.S. security- trying to blacken his reputation in George Soros–funded Open Society state scandals. the press. The point man for this Institute, made an impassioned operation was the CIA’s recently re- plea on Agee’s behalf at Central tired chief of Western Hemisphere Hall, Westminster. (Halperin would operations, David Atlee Phillips. It later lose his nomination battle to illicit domestic spying by J. Edgar was Phillips who first leveled the join the Clinton administration in Hoover’s FBI. All this led Congress charge that Agee had been directly part because of his Agee advocacy.) to establish two committees in responsible for the murder of the Decades later, former California 1975 that put on the public record CIA station chief in Athens, Rich- Governor Jerry Brown and former a history of CIA and FBI overreach ard Welch. President Jimmy Carter would use that nearly wrecked both agencies. This charge has long outlived Agee’s Havana-based travel agency Timing also explains the tepid Agee, who died in 2008, but Ste- for visits to Cuba. Carter’s visit was response from the U.S. government venson persuasively argues that particularly ironic since his admin- to his treason. While the FBI con- Agee’s writings did not, in fact, lead istration had revoked Agee’s U.S. ducted two separate investigations a group of revolutionaries to mur- passport in 1979. in the 1990s against Agee for betray- der Welch and his wife in Decem- ing his country, the Justice Depart- ber 1975. To start with, Agee never HE KEY to understanding ment never brought these cases. In named Welch in his book, while why the left never shunned 1975, Attorney General Edward Levi Welch’s name did appear in the T Agee or acknowledged his drafted a memo detailing how Agee 1969 and 1973 State Department traitorousness was timing. His dis- could be prosecuted for violating Biographic Register. Using meth- closures came at a boiling point for his secrecy agreement with the CIA, ods outlined in a 1974 Washington American security-state scandals. but he advised against such a pros- Monthly article on how to identify These include the publication of ecution because it would entail the CIA officers at foreign embassies, a top-secret history of U.S. policy disclosure of still more state secrets. Counterspy outed Welch in 1975 as in Vietnam, known as the Penta- At the time, the CIA was already the former station chief in Lima, gon Papers; a series of articles by under enormous scrutiny, and legal Peru. But it was a newspaper in Seymour Hersh that revealed CIA action against a turncoat would Athens that identified Welch as the assassination plots; and the ex- invite more of it. new station chief. posure by radical anti-war groups Stevenson, a National Security The more likely cause of Welch’s of files that showed the extent of Council official during the Obama murder was poor operational secu-

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Politics&Ideas_July-Aug_6.16.indd 61 6/16/21 1:46 PM rity. Stevenson writes that former when the threat of international good fortune of being an American CIA Director William Colby eventu- Communism was rising. If he had traitor. The final pathetic decades ally told the Los Angeles Times that been a Soviet spy, waging a political of his life are a reminder of not only Welch had “bad cover” and was war against the KGB, it’s doubtful America’s moral superiority to its living in the same house as his pre- he would have lived to publish a adversary in the Cold War, but also decessor, whom the assassins had memoir. But Philip Agee had the of its resilience.q previously stalked. Eventually even Phillips acknowledged that there was no direct link between Agee and the murder of Welch. But Agee’s innocence in this one case obscures the larger point about Defining the damage he did. The fact that no one was killed because of his disclo- sures was only a fortunate accident. “Agee’s revelations easily could have Espionage resulted in the assassination of a CIA officer,” Stevenson writes. “And it’s arguably a matter of luck that Down they didn’t.” He did destroy careers and intelligence networks. For a few years, he helped create a new genre Ethel Rosenberg: who takes up the Rosenberg case: of journalism dedicated to outing An American Tragedy Was Ethel guilty as charged, or in- the identities of CIA officers. This By Anne Sebba nocent as she claimed to be? Sebba, made the basic work of recruiting St. Martin’s Press, 306 pages a Briton and author of a previous and managing spies much harder. biography of Wallis Simpson, the Over time, Agee mellowed. He Reviewed by Ronald Radosh Dutchess of Windsor, tells us from agreed in principle in 1980 to the start that although Ethel was a submit his writings to a CIA pre- NNE SEBBA has member of the Communist Party, publication board, which reviews just published the she “was not, I believe, a spy.” She the work of all former employees, third biography of acknowledges that Ethel was hard- and appears to have largely stuck by Ethel Rosenberg, ly a saint, was committed to the it. After the 1970s, he spent the rest who was executed cause, and was “fiercely loyal to her of his life trying his best to be a radi- inA 1953 along with her husband beloved husband, who undoubt- cal intellectual. First living in West Julius for conspiracy to commit es- edly was a Communist spy, passing Germany and then moving to an pionage against the United States military secrets to the Soviet Union apartment in Cuba, Agee became a on behalf of the Soviet Union. Vir- during World War II.” But if she had dime-store Howard Zinn, occasion- ginia Gardner, a Communist activ- been guilty and had participated ally publishing op-eds in the Guard- ist, wrote the first during the fren- with Julius in spying for Stalin’s ian, consulting on documentaries zied public campaign to save the Soviet Union, why would she refuse and films and barely scraping by lives of Ethel and Julius. The sec- to cooperate with the government on commissions, lecture fees, and ond came in 1998, from Ilene Phil- once caught? Why did she continue an untenured teaching gig at a Ger- ipson. The question one must ask to claim innocence when she knew man university. He died in a Cuban is whether a new biography is even that her passing and that of her hospital after ulcers in his intestine necessary and what new informa- husband would not only orphan ruptured, leaving his wife with tens tion the author brings to the table. their two children, Michael and of thousands of dollars in debt and Sebba’s narrative revolves around Robert, but mire them in a lifetime a failed Cuban travel agency. Ste- one question central to any author of pain? venson records that some of his last Sebba fully acknowledges Com- words were, “No one can say I didn’t Ronald Radosh is co-author, munism’s horrors and quotes many make a difference.” with Joyce Milton, of The Rosenberg observers who point out how Com- That is true in a sense. Agee File. He has written widely about munists abandoned use of their weakened the CIA at a moment Soviet espionage and Communism. own minds, giving up their autono-

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Politics&Ideas_July-Aug_6.15E.indd 62 6/16/21 12:30 PM my to follow the Party’s dictates and her constant attempts to keep up policies blindly. But she says Ethel’s Ethel with child-rearing theories once it guilt or innocence is beside the i became clear that her first-born Mi- point. For her, the real story is not was chael was a demanding and difficult Ethel’s betrayal of her country, but child. She was a loving and loyal her brother’s and mother’s unwill- precisely the kind wife to Julius, and their bond held ingness to go along with her cover- of Communist firm even after they were arrested up. Her brother, David Greenglass, and indicted in late July 1950. became the main witness against who, like her Sebba writes that Ethel ended his sister, and their mother stood husband, would her life an “international icon.” She with David and pleaded with Ethel survived three years in prison, two to adopt the path he had chosen. have gladly gone in solitary confinement, and yet along if they were showed “unassailable dignity and THEL ROSENBERG’S life belief that the cause for which she experience was not dissimi- given the honor prepared to give her life was indeed E lar to that of many first- and of being asked a worthy one.” But many readers second-generation Jewish immi- will wonder why Ethel preferred to grants who settled in New York to engage in stay loyal to her guilty husband and City’s Lower East Side in the early ‘special work’— shout loud and clear that she and years of the 20th century. As a Julius were both totally innocent group, these Jews started out at the euphemism when she had two small children or near the bottom. Ethel, Sebba whose lives would be forever cast in writes, lived in a “cold-water tene- for helping the the shadow of their parents’ death ment house” that faced a stable Soviet Union by by electrocution. housing “horses that pulled deliv- The answer comes near the end ery carts around the cobbled streets becoming a spy. of Sebba’s book, when she recounts of the neighborhood.” The area an interview with Ethel’s friend “reeked of filth and excrement.” Miriam Moskowitz, who got to Undoubtedly, these harsh condi- lius’s various attempts at starting know Ethel in prison when she tions made Ethel and her future hus- a business and finding permanent herself was found guilty of obstruc- band susceptible to the overtures work proved to be failures. The sec- tion of justice in an associated case. from the radical left. What made tion head of the CP for the neigh- Moskowitz explains to Sebba that Ethel a bit different was a taste for borhood was Carl Marzani, who Ethel was “doctrinaire” and a “good the arts. She attended Seward Park was (we learned decades later) on soldier” in the Communist move- High School, whose graduates in- the Soviet payroll. He ran a front ment who “always followed the cluded Zero Mostel, Tony Curtis, created by the American Com- party line uncritically, unquestion- and Walter Matthau. She loved clas- munist Party called The Defense ably and aggressively.” She not only sical music and drama, and her Council and hired Ethel—whom he followed the party line, Moskowitz greatest desire, a friend of hers told described as a “cheerful, housewife recalls, but “argued for it and justi- Sebba, was “never having to live like type”—as his secretary. fied it with a lot of voluminous ver- her mother, forever going about Her small salary kept the two bosity,” a woman who was “totally the streets with a big shopping bag afloat. It was not until April 1942, uncritical.” searching for bargains.” She sang when Julius became an inspector In other words, Ethel was pre- in a trio with friends and was good engineer and got a higher salary, cisely the kind of Communist who, enough to join the Schola Canto- that they were able to move to a like her husband, would have glad- rum, New York City’s preeminent high-rise apartment in Knicker- ly gone along if they were given the chorus. It performed often in Carn- bocker Village, a federal housing honor by the party of being asked egie Hall and at the Metropolitan project whose apartments had heat to engage in “special work”—the Opera House, and its guest conduc- and a bathroom. euphemism employed by the com- tors included Arturo Toscanini and Sebba writes about Ethel’s strong rades for helping the Soviet Union Otto Klemperer. work ethic, her commitment to by becoming a spy. Ethel was forced to abandon activities demanded by party activ- Sebba downplays what Ethel this burgeoning career when Ju- ists, and, after she had children, did, while acknowledging that she

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Politics&Ideas_July-Aug_6.15E.indd 63 6/16/21 12:30 PM was too close to Julius not to have and clever girl.” Sebba thinks that thorized technological transfer” of fully known the extent of his espio- this passage is “open to different information to the Soviets. That is nage work. She understands that in interpretations, depending on the ludicrous and comical. Even the a conspiracy indictment, Ethel was reader’s preexisting attitude to the Meeropols, the children of Julius technically guilty just by knowing Cold War.” and Ethel, acknowledge that their what was going on and remaining What on earth could these dif- father was an active Soviet spy. silent, but argues Ethel was not fering interpretations be? Sebba Sebba writes that Ethel remains involved. Though legally, then, she first turns to the work of two writ- “irresistible as a tragic figure,” one was “complicit to a conspiracy,” ers and experts on Soviet espio- who “continues to defy labeling as Sebba asks: “Was that…alone a nage, Harvey Klehr and John Earl mother, wife, sister, daughter, Com- crime punishable by death?” Haynes, and notes they believe that munist, or would-be opera sing- Ethel knew of her husband’s the passage means “Ethel was fully er” and who has “penetrated the work as a spy, as Sebba says. She aware of her husband’s espionage American consciousness deeply.” helped the KGB recruit members work” and “assisted in recruiting Sebba hails Ethel’s determination in the United States and identified her brother and sister-in-law.” “to make something valuable of potential people to recruit. She Then she moves on to the claims her life according to her own moral participated in critical meetings of a Canadian named Bernice standards” with an “extraordinary in which her husband was pres- Schrank, who argues in a 2002 single-mindedness.” In doing so, ent and a conversation was held history journal that the cable may Sebba echoes a compatriot of Ethel, about how to get her brother, Da- simply have meant “Julius met who told her that “she died for the vid, to be recruited as a spy at Los with the Russians and told them cause, but the cause was that they Alamos, where he worked as a me- that he…agreed that his sister-in- were not going to give other names.” chanical engineer on the detona- law was ‘an intelligent and clever That meant to Ethel “not ratting tor that would be used on the first girl.’” Otherwise, Schrank says, the on others and supporting her hus- atomic bomb. Indeed, Ethel was cable “does not prove that Ethel band.” the one who urged David’s wife, recruited Ruth” and is only “vague The other names were not those Ruth, to act quickly to recruit him, and suggestive.” of political dissenters but of Com- and she earlier had suggested that munists who had agreed to join Ruth be made part of the network. OW TO CHOOSE between Julius’s network and spy for Joseph We know all this from the Veno- these two interpretations? Stalin. Yet Sebba writes: “It is in na decrypts, a voluminous collec- H It’s not difficult, actually. this light it is possible to under- tion of the KGB’s Moscow Center Klehr, professor emeritus at Em- stand Ethel’s final words” to her correspondence with its agents ory University, and Haynes, who sons. “Always remember we were in the United States. The Venona worked for decades at the Library innocent,” she said. This stance, documents were released in 1995. of Congress, are celebrated schol- Sebba believes, made Ethel “a pro- And when it comes to the revela- ars whose primary fields of study foundly moral woman” because she tions from Venona, Sebba engages are American Communism and So- “betrayed no one.” in particularly disingenuous ratio- viet espionage. They have published Sebba’s conclusion reflects a nales to minimize Ethel’s activity many books on the subject (as dreadful naiveté about how Com- by arguing that the Venona papers well as articles in Commentary). munist ideology can distort the are hardly conclusive. In fact, they Sebba’s preferred voice, Bernice very meaning of moral standards. reveal the Moscow Center’s deep Schrank, is a retired professor Ethel lived by a moral code accord- interest in Ethel as well as Julius. of literature who has written a ing to which one’s evident betrayal For example, one such KGB “research and production source- of one’s own country is to be dis- message reveals that “in view of book” on the Irish playwright counted, and in which it is a braver delicate health [Ethel] does not Sean O’Casey and edited another choice to orphan your own sons work.” Sebba claims that “it could book on Irish authors and one on than to betray your husband and have referred to espionage work folklore and literature in Ireland the extremist totalitarian move- or…trying to earn a living in a and Newfoundland. According ment you both cherished—and that paid job.” Another reads: “LIB- to Schrank, the Venona decrypts did the world unimaginable harm. ERAL [Julius’s code name] and his show that “Julius Rosenberg was Ethel Rosenberg was not a martyr. wife recommend her [David’s wife, “not necessarily [involved] in es- She was, at best, knowingly com- Ruth Greenglass] as an intelligent pionage” but rather in “unau- plicit in a world-historical evil.q

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Politics&Ideas_July-Aug_6.15E.indd 64 6/16/21 12:30 PM force is deserving of a first-class full-length biography. Alas, Peter Levinson’s September in the Rain The Man Who (2001), though full of illuminat- ing detail about his life, is musi- cally uninformed, while Geoffrey (Re)made Littlefield’s newly published Nelson Riddle: Music with a Heartbeat, nominally co-written with Riddle’s son Christopher, is a vanity-press di- Sinatra saster, besmirched by factual errors and even more musically ignorant than Levinson’s book.* Still, Septem- The Riddle of instrumental introductions, new ber in the Rain does let us see how underscoring, and (sometimes) in- Riddle developed as an artist, in the Nelson terludes of their own devising, all process enriching our understand- of which may or may not be derived ing of the life of the chronically mel- By Terry Teachout from the original song’s melody ancholy man and his uncomfort- and harmonies. Few arrangers able relationship with the greatest ELSON Riddle, who write their own songs, just as it is popular singer of the 20th century. was born 100 years extremely unusual for songwriters ago, is the only one to make their own arrangements, ORN IN New Jersey, Riddle of the song arrang- or even to approve an arrangement became obsessed with mu- ers of the postwar by someone else: Both are special- B sic as a boy. While early en- era N who is still widely known by ists, and the skill sets involved are counters with Ravel’s Boléro and name—and that is because of a very different. Debussy’s “Reflets dans l’eau” gave fluke. In 1983, he recorded the first Riddle was, perhaps, the great- him a lasting passion for the com- of three albums on which Linda est of all the arrangers who worked plex harmonies of the French im- Ronstadt sang standards backed by on the Great American Songbook, pressionists, he decided that he his arrangements, and he received primarily because of the work he wanted instead to write for the big credit on the album covers for his did in the 1950s with Frank Sinatra. bands of the day. He studied with participation. Riddle, who had The two men were brought togeth- Bill Finegan, a classically trained been shunted into semi-obscurity er by Capitol Records in 1953 in the composer-arranger who had worked by the rise of rock, found himself hope of updating Sinatra’s sing- with Glenn Miller. And after serving suddenly famous. Ronstadt’s al- ing style, which still recalled his in World War II, Riddle moved to bums sold 7 million copies and in- youthful crooning of sentimental Los Angeles and set up shop. He troduced him to a new generation ballads. Within a matter of years, took instruction from the classi- of listeners. Sinatra had recorded his two finest cal composer Mario Castelnuovo- What do arrangers do? When albums, Songs for Swingin’ Lovers! Tedesco, whose other pupils in- working with pop singers, they (1956) and Frank Sinatra Sings for cluded future movie-music giants take songs originally written and Only the Lonely (1958), on which Jerry Goldsmith, Henry Mancini, published for voice and piano and he emerged decisively as a mature and John Williams. In 1950, Riddle turn their piano parts into full- artist, in part because of Riddle’s wrote the string chart for Nat King blown orchestral scores, adding sympathetic backing. Riddle also Cole’s “Mona Lisa,” and the record’s wrote arrangements of like qual- success not only launched a lasting Terry Teachout, Commen- ity for Rosemary Clooney, Nat King musical partnership, but also led to tary’s critic-at-large and the Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Riddle’s becoming music director drama critic of the Wall Street Antônio Carlos Jobim, Peggy Lee, de facto for Capitol. Journal, is the author of Satchmo at and Dean Martin. Riddle’s innova- Shortly afterward, Riddle met the Waldorf, a one-man play about tive work defined the predominant Sinatra, whose singing career was Louis Armstrong that has been pro- postwar style of arranging, which on the rocks when Capitol signed duced off Broadway and throughout may be the defining sound of the America. American century. Such an artistic * Grosvenor House, 226 pages.

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Politics&Ideas_July-Aug_6.15E.indd 65 6/16/21 12:30 PM him in 1953. Sinatra was musically in even higher relief. galvanized by the encounter. The Riddle At chorus’s end, the rhythm Riddle style, which was not quite i section shifts into straight-ahead fully formed when he arranged scored four-four time for a 12-bar cre- “Mona Lisa,” had by then matured scendo for trombones and strings into one of the most recognizable torch songs with that explodes into a thrillingly fiery sounds of the ’50s (so much so that the same airy trombone solo. Riddle then lowers Billy May, one of Sinatra’s other the volume and Sinatra returns to arrangers, parodied it in a clever transparency sing another half-chorus, quickly 1959 musical spoof called “Solving that he brought screwing the tension back up and the Riddle”). It was ideally suited reaching the song’s climax (and to the purpose of making Sinatra to swinging the highest note in his vocal) as known to listeners too young to numbers. This he sings, “But each time I do / Just have known him as the skinny the thought of you / Makes me stop balladeer of the ’40s on whom lightness of just before I give in.” Once he does their mothers had doted, and the touch, which was so, the volume drops again and two men started working together the introductory riffs return as regularly at once. his trademark, Sinatra sings the coda, followed by Prior to writing an arrangement a surprise ending, a bitonal, Ravel- for Sinatra, Riddle would consult allowed Frank flavored chord for strings, celesta, closely with the singer on its over- Sinatra to plumb and harp that hangs in the air for a all shape. Then he started writ- breathless instant, then evaporates ing, following a three-step formula the depths of into silence. that he described in an interview: despair without Even when working with a much “First, find the peak of the song larger orchestra of near-symphonic and build the whole arrangement spilling over into proportions, as he did on Only the to that peak, pacing itself as [Sina- lugubriousness. Lonely, Riddle scored torch songs tra] paces himself vocally. Second, with the same airy transparency when he’s moving, get the hell out that he brought to swinging num- of the way. When he’s doing noth- intros are more common) in which bers. This lightness of touch, which ing, move in fast and establish clarinets, flutes, and muted trom- was his trademark, allowed Sinatra something…build about two-thirds bones toss riffs back and forth, to plumb the depths of despair of the way through, and then fade with off-beat chordal punctuation without spilling over into lugubri- to a surprise ending.” played on a celesta, the keyboard ousness, and it was no less well These steps can all be heard in instrument whose bell-like tones suited to the brighter singing of the version of Cole Porter’s “I’ve Tchaikovsky first popularized in Nat Cole and Ella Fitzgerald. With Got You Under My Skin” on Songs The Nutcracker. them as with Sinatra, Riddle was for Swingin’ Lovers! It is played by Sinatra enters discreetly and the nonpareil collaborator. a 34-piece studio orchestra larger sings a chorus partly accompa- than and significantly different in nied by a soft “bed” of sustained UTSIDE the studio, Rid- instrumentation from the 16-piece string chords—a touch specifically dle was a man of glum big bands of the Swing Era. Not requested by the singer—and a O temperament (his friend only do all five saxophonists dou- springy two-beat bass line, with Julie Andrews, referring to the ble on flute or clarinet, but the Riddle “getting the hell out of the depressed donkey in Winnie-the- seven-man brass section is aug- way” by changing instrumental Pooh, nicknamed him “Eeyore”) mented by a bass trombone, one colors and background patterns who felt, not without reason, that of Riddle’s favorite instruments, from one phrase to the next with- he was underpaid and insufficient- and there is also a small string sec- out diverting attention from the ly recognized. He appears to have tion (three violins, two violas, and vocal. At no time, not even in the received a flat fee of $150 for each three cellos). introduction, does he use Porter’s of his Capitol charts, and, like all Riddle kicks off the song with an melody in anything other than arrangers, he did not receive royal- unexpectedly asymmetrical six-bar fragmented form. He leaves it to ties, which went solely to singers introduction (four- and eight-bar Sinatra, making the vocal stand out and songwriters. In addition, he

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Politics&Ideas_July-Aug_6.15E.indd 66 6/16/21 12:30 PM received no front-cover credit for The Untouchables (1959–63) and Songs for Swingin’ Lovers! and was Route 66 (1960–64) and an Oscar- credited in the smallest possible Unlike winning score for the 1974 screen i The Great Gatsby type for Only the Lonely. Henry version of , kept His own limitations were part of him afloat financially. He labored the problem: Unlike Henry Manci- Mancini, Riddle all but anonymously, however, and ni, Riddle lacked the gift of melody lacked the gift had Linda Ronstadt not invited and so was unable to establish him- him to arrange for What’s New self as a songwriter, in addition to of melody and (1983), Lush Life (1984), and For which he was a mediocre conduc- so was unable to Sentimental Reasons (1986), he tor with no stage presence, making would have ended his long career it hard for him to appear as a solo establish himself writing “additional music” for Ne- artist.* as a songwriter, whart, the eponymous comedian’s One wonders whether Riddle second sitcom. was for these reasons skeptical of in addition to Instead, Ronstadt brought him the ultimate value of his own for- which he was late-life fame, and the popular suc- midable musical talent. In the 1955 cess of their albums also played a film Young at Heart, named after a a mediocre role in triggering a revival of the Riddle-arranged hit single by Sina- Great American Songbook that tra, the singer plays a bitter pianist- conductor continues to this day. Would that arranger who has never had the with no stage he had lived to participate still fur- success as a songwriter for which ther in that revival, but cirrhosis of he hungers. The fates, he believes, presence, the liver, a disease often associated have chosen instead to sell him making it hard with alcoholism, killed him at the short. “They said, ‘Let him have a age of 64, shortly before the release little talent,’” he tells Doris Day bit- for him to appear of For Sentimental Reasons. terly. “‘Not enough to do anything as a solo artist. Today, Riddle’s style, especially great on his own, but just enough as documented in the albums he to help other people. That’s what recorded with Sinatra, is universal- he deserves.’” Could it be that this isfaction grew more pronounced ly acknowledged as the high-water part was written by screenwriters when Sinatra, stymied by the ex- mark of postwar vocal arranging. Lenore Coffee and Julius Epstein tent to which rock had carved away Their making was a nerve-racking with Nelson Riddle in mind? his own popularity, decided to stop process for Riddle, who confessed Perhaps as compensation for working with him and collaborate to finding Sinatra terrifyingly mer- his lack of star power, Riddle was instead with younger arrangers curial: “Frank contributed a lot flagrantly and repeatedly unfaith- such as Don Costa on humiliatingly to the orchestral part of his own ful to Doreen, his long-suffering square performances of such top- records, just by leveling a hostile wife. She accused him of thinking 40 songs as Joni Mitchell’s “Both stare at the musicians, with those only of music and sex, and when he Sides Now” and Paul Simon’s “Mrs. magnetic blue eyes! The point of described their quarrel to one of his Robinson.” this action was to make me, or any sons, he added, “After all, what else Riddle spoke of this latter devel- other conductor, feel at that exact is there?” Not surprisingly, he be- opment with resignation: “Sinatra moment as if he had two left feet, came romantically involved with a is not inhibited by any particular three ears, and one eye.” singer, Rosemary Clooney, and the loyalty. He had to think of Frank…. But the resulting tension, he relationship put a near-fatal strain A different wave of music had come admitted, was “a positive factor on his marriage. Riddle’s dissat- in and I was closely associated with that found its way into the record,” him in a certain type of music, so he and it brought out the best in moved into other areas. It’s almost Riddle. More than a half-century * Felix Slatkin, Sinatra’s regular concert- master and the first violinist of the leg- like one changes one’s clothes.” later, their albums sound as vital as endary Hollywood String Quartet, which But Riddle had already shifted ever—and his ability to overcome accompanied him on the Riddle-arranged his focus to scoring films and TV his fear of Sinatra and rise to the Close to You (1957), ghost-conducted sev- eral tracks on Only the Lonely that Riddle series, and this work, which includ- occasion is a large part of what has found too demanding to lead himself. ed distinctive main-title themes for kept them so.q

Commentary 67

Politics&Ideas_July-Aug_6.15E.indd 67 6/16/21 12:30 PM Not necessarily in that order. He wrote for the student newspaper Cain and and humor magazine, but his first love was the theater. The play he wrote for Columbia’s big-deal Var- Abelowicz sity Show was favorably reviewed in the New York Times. It didn’t Competing with Idiots: rated his firstborn if his grades take Herman long to find his way Herman and Joe Mankiewicz, were anything less than perfect. If to a seat at the Algonquin Round a Dual Portrait young Herman got a 97 in a class, Table after a stint as a foreign By Nick Davis Franz glowered: “Where are the correspondent and press agent to Alfred A. Knopf, 364 pages other three points?” Davis says this Isadora Duncan in Weimar Berlin, brilliant boy was “a magnet for his but when Harold Ross fired him Reviewed by Rick Marin father’s displeasure.” Their moth- as theater critic at the New Yorker, er, Johanna (namesake of Davis’s there was nowhere for this young N THE HEELS of the mother), was equally under Franz’s man to go but West. much-lauded biopic thumb and, because she never Mank comes Com- came to her sons’ defense, was OVIES were still silent peting with Idiots, a written off by them as a hausfrau when Herman showed “dual portrait” by “uneducated in four languages.” M up, but his theater chops Othe documentary filmmaker Nick In retrospect, Davis speculates, gave him a solid grounding in Davis of his grandfather, Herman J. she may have been the secret storytelling, and he elevated title- “Mank” Mankiewicz, and his great- source of the cleverness for which card writing from the woodenly uncle, Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Un- the Mankiewicz brothers—the el- melodramatic to the bright and like the well-intentioned but lead- der the co-author of Marx Broth- clever. Once sound came in, Mank enly executed movie, the book is a ers movies and Citizen Kane, the was golden, even in an era when fascinating family saga, played out younger the writer-director of All studio bosses regarded writers as against Hollywood’s Golden Age About Eve—were legendary. “schmucks with Underwoods.” In and driven by a sibling rivalry that How sharp was the Mank wit? addition to Hecht and the Algon- puts Cain and Abel to shame. Within the family Herman was quin cronies he lured to the Coast In 1925, Herman cabled his considered “the funniest man who with his “Fresh Air Fund for writ- friend Ben Hecht, then a Chicago ever lived.” Examples: A studio ers” was another hungry scribe newspaperman: “Millions are to head fires Herman, making the in a hurry to make his mark and be grabbed out here and your only usual threats that he’ll never work fortune—his younger brother. competition is idiots. Don’t let this at this or any other studio again. Joe had always followed in Her- get around.” Hence the book’s title. Herman’s deadpan reply: “Prom- man’s footsteps—first at Columbia, But Davis may be freighting it with ises, promises.” Or watching Orson now Hollywood—and was always a double meaning. Herman often Welles walk by on the lot: “There found by those who had experi- referred to Joe, 12 years his junior, but for the grace of God, goes enced the Mank genius to be a tad as “my idiot brother.” No competi- God.” In one of his lesser movies, wanting. The film critic Andrew tion was more intense than the one someone says it never rains in Los Sarris titled a piece about Joe’s oeu- between these two. Angeles, to which the riposte is: vre “Less Than Meets the Eye.” But Such was the patrimony of “Only money.” Anything anyone the two Mankiewiczes were very their father, Franz Mankiewicz, a ever said to Herman was a setup for different men. Herman was a com- Berlin-born scholar and ferocious a spontaneous punch line. In their pulsive rule-breaker. He questioned taskmaster who had immigrated New York days, Hecht dubbed him authority, refused to play the Hol- to New York at the end of the 19th ‘the Voltaire of Central Park West.” lywood game, ignored deadlines, century and raised three children He passed Columbia’s entrance offended power brokers. But Joe, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He exam at 13, but not until 15 would Davis writes, “wanted to find out taught school and constantly be- he be old enough to attend, where- what the game was and win.” At all upon he discovered three passions cost—not just professionally but in Rick Marin lives in Los Angeles that consumed the rest of his life: his relationship with his brother, his and writes for television. writing, drinking, and gambling. marriages, his children.

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Politics&Ideas_July-Aug_6.15E.indd 68 6/16/21 12:30 PM Joseph L. Mankiewicz on the set of Cleopatra, 1962.

Davis gives credence to the script draft that when Dorothy gets ignited Joe’s envy rather than any theory that Joe was the model for to Oz, the movie should become kind of familial pride. Sammy Glick in Budd Schulberg’s color. All the while, he was drinking For all his flaws, Herman re- searing novel about Hollywood am- and gambling his life away. Davis mained a warm, feeling man who bition, What Makes Sammy Run? cites his grandfather’s biographer, never fell out of love with his wife He describes a scene backstage at Richard Meryman, who wrote that and was a doting father to his the 1951 Oscars. Joe, nominated “one million dollars passed through three children. His youngest, Da- for writing and directing All About Herman’s hands and left no resi- vis’s mother, Johanna, was 15 when Eve, is telling Billy Wilder (nomi- due.” So long-suffering was his wife, Herman died (in 1953, age 55) and nated for Sunset Boulevard) how Sara, that her nickname around her Uncle Joe took over as surro- honored he is to be considered in town became “Poor Sara.” gate father. He paid for her educa- the same category as Wilder when, Meanwhile, Joe relentlessly tion and funded charge accounts suddenly, he hears his name an- climbed the ladder. He produced at the best department stores, but nounced as the winner for Best The Philadelphia Story, paired Tra- his generosity did not extend to the Director and pushes Wilder out of cy and Hepburn for the first time, memory of her late father. He pro- the way “as if I were a stagehand.” and won back-to-back double Os- duced a fistful of IOUs as evidence Joe was off to collect his prize. It cars (writing and directing) for A of what a profligate mess Herman was, Wilder said, “pure ambition.” Letter to Three Wives and All About had been. In that moment, Wilder was Bette Eve—a feat yet to be replicated. While Joe was beloved by ac- Davis’s Margo Channing, and Joe Joe’s inexorable rise intersected tors, especially the female ones with was Eve. But Joe’s real Margo was with Herman’s “one-way ticket to whom he had countless affairs, in his big brother. He had what he the bottom,” to the point where his personal life he was described by called his “Herman complex.” Joe could afford to start feeling his own sister, Erna, as a “monster.” Herman’s labors, unlike Joe’s, sorry for his perennially broke and While Joe was a “man of principles, were often invisible. He helped broken-down big brother. All Her- a fighter for causes,” she said, “you make box-office stars out the Marx man still had on him was the Oscar could sit for an entire evening Bros. and inserted the notion in a for Citizen Kane—a victory that and be practically in tears, and he

Commentary 69

Politics&Ideas_July-Aug_6.15E.indd 69 6/16/21 12:30 PM wouldn’t notice. If there was some- whether Tom would mind picking ridiculous overachievers. Herman’s thing bothering you and you walked up the $2,500 a year for upkeep on son Frank was a decorated World into a room where Herman was her grave. Not a surprising request War II vet who became RFK’s press sitting reading, after three or four perhaps, given Joe’s behavior at her secretary and ran George McGov- minutes he would look up and say, funeral. After shoveling dirt onto ern’s presidential campaign and ran ‘What’s the matter, kid?’” As Davis his late wife’s coffin, he clapped his National Public Radio. His children, writes, “the characters had solidi- hands and announced, “Enough. Josh and Ben, became successful fied in nearly everyone’s mind: Joe Let’s go.” journalists and television person- was cold and isolated, Herman a After Herman’s death, Joe stayed alities, Josh a reporter for Dateline, big-hearted mess. at the top of his game—adapting Ben a presenter on Turner Classic Herman summarized his broth- Tennessee Williams’s Suddenly Last Movies. But none of it was ever good er more succinctly, and wither- Summer, an enormous hit. But that enough. When Johanna married Pe- ingly. “Just once,” he said, “I’d like game, Davis writes, was “solitaire.” ter Davis, who would subsequently to meet somebody at Joe’s birthday He was paid a vast sum to take win both an Emmy and an Oscar party I’d seen the year before.” over the doomed Cleopatra, where for his left-leaning documentaries, the “double-head- Joe complained that her choice of ed hydra of Liz husband was a little “thin.” Herman’s and Dick” (Taylor oldest son, Don, once gave his own and Burton) gave son, John, a birthday present of three him psoriasis so picture frames. The first featured painful, he had to Herman’s Best Screenplay nomina- wear white film- tion for The Pride of the Yankees, cutter’s gloves the second showed Don’s own Best and needed daily Screenplay nomination for the 1958 B12 shots to keep Susan Hayward movie I Want to him standing on Live. The third frame, “of course, was three hours’ sleep blank.” Johanna could never figure a night. After out why her Uncle Joe cut her off in that epic bomb, her adulthood, until her cousin Tom Herman Mankiewicz (in hat), released in 1963, explained it: “He always thought John Houseman, Rita Alexander at work on he eventually re- you’d be a star.” the script for Citizen Kane, 1940. deemed his repu- Even knowing this, Johanna tation, nine years couldn’t help but pass the pressure Joe married three times, most later, with Sleuth, an anti-Cleopatra down to her own son. When he was significantly to a very likely bipo- two-hander starring Michael Caine eight, a year before her tragic death lar Austrian actress-diva named and Laurence Olivier. And that was after having been struck by a taxicab Rosa, a woman whose fragile ego it, the wrap on Joe’s career, for the on a Greenwich Village street, she could not withstand life as Mrs. next 20 years until his death in 1993. gave her little boy a copy of her novel, Joe Mankiewicz. When she finally He tried to write but couldn’t. His inscribed, “To Nicky, from one writer killed herself, Joe recruited his sharpness deserted him. He sat for to another. All my love, Mommy.” niece Johanna, still in college, to interviews, in which he was increas- Davis found this surprising and hor- come with him to their house in ingly described as “cranky” and rifying. “Her labeling me a ‘writer’ Mount Kisco, New York, almost cer- “irascible.” Davis met him near the served, when combined with her tainly so that she would be the first end of his life and recalls that a “sour untimely death a year later, as an to find the body. After her death, and dyspeptic odor was emanating unintentional recipe for decades of Joe removed all photos of Rosa from him that had the feel of some- anxiety and self-doubt (and may well from his sight and never spoke of thing rotten, something deep within be part of the reason for this book’s her. Years later, he told his son Tom the man consuming itself.” nearly two-decade gestation”). (then a writer of James Bond films) That deep, consumptive ambi- Well, if it’s any consolation, the that he wanted to talk about Rosa. tion was the legacy both brothers book is a wonderful achievement Finally, Tom thought, his father passed down to their descendants— worthy of its subjects. They should was going to open up about his what Davis calls a “horrible, nonstop make a movie out of it. It’d be better mother. Instead, he wanted to ask competitiveness” among a family of than Mank.q

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Politics&Ideas_July-Aug_6.15E.indd 70 6/16/21 12:30 PM HOLLYWOOD COMMENTARY

continued from page 72 parent as if nothing’s dynasty Seagram’s, French water-and-media conglom- wrong, as if the baby isn’t loaded down with a very full erate Vivendi, NBCUniversal was sold to Comcast, an diaper. enormous cable-television outfit, because if you have But what was AT&T supposed to do? Back in a company that supplies cable television to American ’16, its leaders had decided, like everyone else, that homes, you’re going to need to buy a studio. they needed to own a “content factory” in order to Which, of course, is nonsense. In many ways, stay competitive in their core enterprise of wireless owning a motion picture and television studio is the services and devices. What they didn’t fully grasp was least efficient way to run a cable empire or a talking- how expensive that was going to be. machine company. The business theory behind this About a century earlier, the Victor Talking Ma- kind of vertical integration is the fear that if you don’t chine Company did exactly the same thing. At the time, own a studio, no one will sell you their content—which Victor was a cutting-edge high-tech business. It manu- is sort of like saying if you don’t own a farm, no one will factured the Victrola, one of the earliest consumer ma- sell you a hamburger. chines that could play recorded music. The Victor Talk- Hollywood is positively thronged with people ing Machine Company was what we would now call a who will sell you their scripts, services, acting talent, “consumer-facing technology-hardware enterprise.” and pretty much whatever. Studios and creative enter- But a tech company with great tech needs content, as prises work best—both in terms of efficiency and as hit- contemporary consumer-facing technology-hardware machines—when they’re free to take risks, hear fresh enterprises like Sony and Apple have discovered. The pitches, try something new, put a lot of chips down on Victor Talking Machine Company made a machine the felt. Hit shows don’t come from a reorganized com- that reproduced sound. But without sound recordings, pany. They come from a disorganized company. it wouldn’t sell many Talking Machines. Even Disney, the most successful and tightly or- So, in 1927, one of their more entrepreneurial ganized media business around, sticks resolutely to its employees headed down to Bristol—half of the town is knitting. Disney’s recent move into streaming video, in Tennessee and half in Virginia—and offered to pay Disney+, has so far been a rousing success. Disney local singers and musicians to come and record their owns no Internet service providers, no cable outfits, music. A makeshift recording studio was set up at a lo- zero talking machines. Disney makes content and cal furniture store and people came from miles around looks to someone else to provide the pipes. The trouble to sing and play. The performers (whom we now call begins, as AT&T discovered, when you try to do it the “content creators”) were paid $50 and received a two- other way around. and-a-half cents royalty per record sale, which in 1927 Which is not to say that Hollywood is a bad busi- was not bad at all. These recordings became known as ness. It’s a terrific business for a lot of people. One of the Bristol Sessions, and in addition to creating con- the ways you can learn about an industry is to take tent for the Victrola people, they incidentally pretty note of who got rich and how. In show business, some much invented country music. The simplicity of that rich folks—directors, producers, actors, rarely writ- business move—we have a machine, we pay you to sing ers—got rich by selling their talents and services to into our machine—developed into the tangled and the highest bidder. Other rich folks—studio chiefs and complicated entertainment business of today. assorted executives—got rich by negotiating giant pay The history of the Victor Talking Machine Com- packages and fat stock options. Notice who isn’t on pany tells the century-long story of the media business. the list? That’s right: shareholders. Show business is a Victor joined with the Radio Corporation of America, great place for individuals to get very wealthy. Publicly which eventually purchased the National Broadcast- held companies, not so much. ing Company, which was then swallowed up by Gen- So when you get right down to it, Martin Davis eral Electric and combined with Universal Pictures. was right and Brandon Tartikoff was wrong. Holly- Eventually, after exhausting and failed diversions wood is not a casino. It’s not a game of craps. Because with Japanese electronics giant Matsushita, liquor a game of craps you can win.q

Commentary 71

Politics&Ideas_July-Aug_6.15E.indd 71 6/16/21 12:30 PM HOLLYWOOD COMMENTARY The Game of Showbiz Crap(s)

ROB LONG HEN THE LATE Brandon Tartikoff was the rule of the media business is, if your company is lan- the chairman of Paramount Pictures in the guishing, you’d better buy something, unless you recent- W 1990s, he told the New York Times that the ly tried that, in which case you’d better sell something. movie and television business was a “crapshoot.” But in between the splitting and the rejoin- His boss at the time, Martin Davis, didn’t like ing—somewhere around 2016—an asset-management opening his newspaper and discovering that the company called SpringOwl released a PowerPoint deck company he ran was engaged in something so risky, criticizing the management and performance of the so unscientific, and so irrational as a game of craps, company. There’s lots in it about upside-down growth, especially after making the case to a lot of institutional soaring executive compensation, lagging behind com- investors that his company was different. petitors, flop movies and shows, and the possibly in- That’s what a lot of professional gamblers say, by capacitated elderly owner, Sumner Redstone. But the the way: I’m different, see. I have a system. best part of the deck is this one sentence, describing So he called Tartikoff on the phone and repri- the predictably excellent results that would come from manded him. This is not a crapshoot, he is supposed to instituting the changes that the asset-management have said. I do not run a casino. brains suggested: But what’s so bad about running a casino? Casi- “New hit shows,” the deck confidently avers, “will nos make a lot of money. Casinos, in fact, have a pretty come from the transformed creative company.” perfect business. If Mark Zuckerberg, say, decided, If your reaction, after reading that sentence, was What the heck, I’ve got 60-something billion dollars, let to nod sagely and think, Good point, hit movies and tele- me live a little, and he sauntered into a Las Vegas casino vision shows are really just about adjusting the man- and tried to put $5 billion on red, some big guy in a bad agement processes and getting the organizational chart suit and an earpiece would forcibly guide the fragile, just right, then you’d fit right in with the management brittle-boned Zuckerberg into a quiet room where he’d team at AT&T. In 2016, AT&T purchased TimeWar- be given another drink—not that he’d need another one, ner—which owned the sprawling Warner Bros. film and probably; the guy almost put $5 billion down on red!— television studio and a collection of cable enterprises, and he’d be told that in this and every casino, if you want including TBS and HBO—and immediately set about to wager 5 billion dollars—and by the way, they do want instituting its own set of adjustments and reforms and you to wager 5 billion dollars—you must do it in smaller, restructurings, very much along the lines of what the mathematically precise increments. Because the casino SpringOwl Asset Management LLC folks suggested for knows the more bets you make, the better the odds for that other lumbering media giant that same year. them. The casino, unlike Hollywood, has a system. Here’s how it went: In May 2021, while awaiting Eventually, Paramount was bought by Viacom, the “new hit shows will come from the transformed which merged with CBS, which then split into two creative company” phase, AT&T decided to combine companies, which have recently been rejoined, because the entire division with cable outfit Discovery and pass the newly formed bundle along to shareholders. It did Rob Long has been the executive producer of six TV this the way a parent will sometimes casually hand series. an infant over to the other continued on page 71

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