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(Photo by Abed Rahim Khatib/picture alliance via Getty)
Imagine the scene. A prominent Muslim cleric, funded by the government of a Muslim-majority country, goes in front of the cameras and calls for the killing of all Israelis. When asked, “Babies too?” he answers, “The same thing. You can’t be clever with the Quran.”
What do you think the reaction inside of Israel would be? How about the response from the West and especially from Western media?
Outrage? Condemnation? Endless discussions about Islamic extremism, Quranic incitement, and the need for religious reform?
But what if I told you that the cleric isn’t a Muslim but actually… a far-right Israeli Jew? And the call for genocidal violence isn’t against Israelis but against Palestinians in Gaza?
Last week, the head of the Shirat Moshe Hesder Yeshiva in Jaffa Rabbi Eliyahu Mali said at a yeshiva conference that the entire Gazan population should be killed, claiming that “there are no innocents.”
When asked, “Babies too?” Mali replied, “The same thing. You can’t be clever with the Torah.”
“The message in this is very clear, if you will not kill them - they will kill you," he declared at the conference and on camera. “Today's terrorists are the children of the previous operation that you kept alive, and the women are actually the ones who create the terrorists.”
The rabbi claimed that there was no difference between "the 18, 16, 20, 30-year-old man holding a weapon at you” and the children in Gaza because, he argued, they are the “future generation” of terrorists. “Today he is a baby, today he is a child, tomorrow he is a fighter. Today's 18-year-old terrorists were eight-year-old children ten years ago in the previous operation.”
Shocking, right? But it gets worse. Mali is not some random or fringe rabbi. He is one of the most senior Israeli religious figures in the city of Jaffa and his students go on to serve in the Israeli military. “He’s not just head of a yeshiva; he’s head of a hesder yeshiva,” wrote former State Department adviser Barnett Rubin on Twitter. “Many yeshiva students do not serve in the military, but hesder yeshivas combine Torah study with military service. So young military recruits are being taught that genocide is a religious duty.” (That endless stream of TikTok videos from sociopathic Israeli soldiers in Gaza filming themselves committing war crimes now makes a lot more sense, doesn’t it?)
But wait, there’s more! Mali’s yeshiva received the equivalent of around $800,000 in subsidies from the Israeli government last year – the same year in which Israel received at least $3.8 billion from the United States in economic and military aid. Mali’s yeshiva also receives tax-deductible donations via a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the United States called the Central Fund of Israel.
So if you are an American taxpayer reading this post then, congratulations, you are helping fund this preacher of hate and terror.
The inconvenient truth for Israel’s liberal defenders, in the United States, the UK, and beyond, is that Mali is far from an isolated case. Anti-Palestinian racists and religious extremists dominate Israeli politics; the likes of Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich are senior members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Genocidal and fascistic sentiments have been spreading across vast swaths of Israeli society for many years now. Polls suggest ordinary Israelis not only back this murderous assault on Gaza, which has led to more than 30,000 Palestinian deaths, but aren’t too bothered by the suffering of the civilian population and want more firepower to be used against the strip. Last week, CNN’s Clarissa Ward interviewed a group of unhinged Israeli protesters who are physically blocking humanitarian aid from reaching the children of Gaza. “Not a single loaf of bread should go there ’til our hostages are coming back,” one of them told Ward.
Meanwhile, the Israeli government has been silent in the wake of Mali’s rabid comments while the rabbi himself has tried to deflect criticism by pointing to the one portion of his speech where he insisted Israeli soldiers should obey the orders of their superiors. (To her credit, Merav Michaeli, the head of Israel's opposition Labor Party, has called for Mali to be fired from his post).
To reiterate: this is an Israeli government-funded, hate-preaching, genocide-inciting rabbi in Jaffa who has helped educate and train some of the Israeli soldiers who are now fighting in Gaza. His organization remains eligible for tax-deductible donations from the United States.
And yet, not a peep so far from CNN, NBC, ABC, the BBC, the Washington Post, the New York Times, or the Times of London.
The Republican Party That You Knew Is Dead
Chris Sununu is the self-styled ‘moderate’ Republican governor of New Hampshire. He has spent the past few years lambasting former president Donald J. Trump. Sununu has called Trump “f**king crazy” (April 2022), a “loser” (April 2023), a “coward” (January 2024), and an “asshole” (February 2024).
On Saturday, Sununu endorsed Trump.
Mitch McConnell is the self-styled ‘mainstream’ Republican leader in the Senate. In the wake of the attack on the Capitol in January 2021, McConnell accused Trump of being “practically and morally responsible for provoking” the violence, describing the former president’s actions “unconscionable”. Meanwhile, Trump has spent the past three years personally attacking McConnell as an “old broken down crow” and a “piece of sh*t,” while also targeting his (Taiwan-born) wife Elaine Chao with vicious, racist abuse.
Last Wednesday, McConnell endorsed Trump.
I could go on and on. But what’s the point? The spinelessness of Republican leaders in the face of Trump has been clear for all to see for almost a decade now. Is anyone really surprised to see McConnell throw his own wife under the bus and endorse Trump? Remember 2016, when Trump suggested Senator Ted Cruz’s wife was ugly and then Cruz… did phone banking for Trump (and has since become a full-on Trump sycophant)?
The Republican Party of Sununu and McConnell and other self-styled ‘moderate’ or ‘establishment’ Republicans “no longer exists,” bragged Don Jr. on Saturday. “People have to understand that America First, the MAGA movement, is the new Republican Party. That is conservatism today.”
I hate to agree with the former president’s failson, but he’s right. The Republican Party, as we once knew it, is gone. It’s finished. It’s dead. Thanks to the cowardice, complicity, and cynicism of its most prominent leaders.
What I’m Watching
Saturday Night Live’s cold open featured Hollywood star Scarlett Johansson doing a hilariously brilliant ‘Scary Mom’ spoof of Republican senator Katie Britt’s much-mocked response to the State of the Union.
What I’m Quoting
“In a time of deceit telling, the truth is a revolutionary act” - attributed to George Orwell.
Who I’m Meeting
Look who I had the privilege of having dinner with in Doha last week. The one and only Motaz Azaiza, who has been an invaluable voice for Gazans since October 7th.
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