Iran Imposes Sanctions on Boston Police Commissioner
Plus, Harvard rabbi meets with Netanyahu; Ned Phelps; will Trump tackle the deficit?
The government of Iran has announced formal sanctions on the Boston police commissioner, Michael Cox, naming him as among “American individuals involving in flagrant violation of human rights by suppressing pro-Palestine student protest movement.”
The announcement came in an awkwardly phrased English-language press release from the Iranian foreign ministry. The announcement also listed the chief of police in Washington, D.C., Pamela Smith; the chief of police in New Haven, Connecticut, Karl Jacobson; and the commissioner of the Georgia department of public safety, William W. Hitchens III.
All the police forces named were involved in clearing anti-Israel protests or encampments. The Boston police arrested more than 100 people in April while clearing an anti-Israel encampment near Emerson College, according to press reports at the time. Georgia state troopers cleared a protest in April at Emory College. New Haven police cleared an anti-Israel encampment at Yale University in April. And in May 2024, District of Columbia police made 33 arrests while clearing an anti-Israel encampment at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
The sanctions, which prevent the police officials from visiting Iran or accessing its banking system, are unlikely to have much practical effect on the public officials. But the public signal of support from Iran for the anti-Israel protesters on American college campuses—and against the police—is likely to fuel concerns about official Iranian encouragement and “financial support” for the American protesters, as voiced in a Tuesday statement by the U.S. government’s director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines.
There’s been overlap between anti-police protests and anti-Israel protests; in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for example, some of the anti-Israel protest groups have also complained about the 2023 police shooting of Sayed Faisel, and one group, the Boston Party for Socialism and Liberation, a communist group, has been heavily involved with both issues. The anti-Israel groups have falsely claimed that American police learn violent tactics during counterterrorism educational missions to Israel.
The Boston Police did not reply to a query about whether Commissioner Cox had a reaction to the sanctions announcement. I haven’t noticed any coverage of this in Boston or Connecticut or even Georgia local news outlets yet, which is fine because it offers an opportunity for The Editors to seize in bringing you trustworthy information that you won’t find elsewhere.
Nobel laureate Ned Phelps on job satisfaction: Edmund Phelps, who won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Economics and who is director of the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University, has a new interview out on the The Capitalism and Freedom in the 21st Century Podcast Substack. Jon Hartley asked him, “What do you think is missing from economic theory and attitudes toward the economy today?” Phelps answered: “...job satisfaction, the nature of work and attitudes toward work. People need an economy that provides them not only with pecuniary rewards but also non-pecuniary rewards. They need work that is interesting and engaging with occasional opportunities to use their creativity, to hit upon and share new ideas with managers. For a good life, they need to feel a sense that they are at times succeeding at something.”
I also thought this passage from Phelps was interesting for making the connection between values and growth:
Western societies are rife with dissatisfaction and despair. For some time I have been pointing to the loss of modern values – mainly individualism (not to be confused with selfishness), vitalism, and the desire for self-expression – as a major cause of the loss of dynamism, thus the slowdown of innovation and economic growth.
This is not to say there is no innovation happening. We've still got a few geniuses out there, some of whom have new ideas of immense commercial value. But we're not going to get anywhere close to the mass of innovation that we had from the 1880s until about 1970 until a more fundamental shift in societal values occurs.
The concern Phelps voices about loss of individualism and reduced desire for self-expression surfaces also in a recent Harvard magazine undergraduate column by Aden Barton:
many Harvard students are similarly cautious. I’ve written in The Crimson about how their growing aversion to risk seeps into every aspect of college, from careerism to course selection. Free speech is no different: risk-averse students, intimidated by the permanence of the internet and the spotlight on Cambridge, likely disengage from political controversies to avoid potential professional or personal fallout.
Harvard drops suspensions for anti-Israel protesters, as rabbi meets Netanyahu: The Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee announced that the college administrative board “walked back student probations, and reversed suspensions.” As I understand it, there is a provision allowing an appeal to the Faculty Council, a body that includes Harvard government professor Steven Levitsky, who has been publicly boycotting Israel since 2015.
“After sustained student and faculty organizing, Harvard has caved in, showing that student intifada will always prevail,” a joint Instagram post from the Palestine Solidarity Committee, Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine, and the African and African American Resistance Organization said, as reported in the Crimson.
The news will complicate Harvard’s legal defense against students suing the university over antisemitism, because as recently as June 18 Harvard’s eight lawyers were telling Judge Richard Stearns that Harvard’s discipline imposed on the protesters was a sign that the university was taking the antisemitism issue, and the concerns of Jewish students, seriously. Now Harvard has dropped or reversed the disciplinary actions that its lawyers told Judge Stearns about, raising a question about whether the Harvard lawyers have an obligation to inform the judge that he can no longer rely on their claims.
The lead plaintiff in one of the three federal lawsuits Harvard faces over mishandling antisemitism, Alexander “Shabbos” Kestenbaum, noted that Levitsky had warned publicly that failing to punish President Trump would lead to the end of democracy. “He also just voted to allow antisemitic Harvard students to evade all punishment and called for a ‘faculty rebellion’ if they were held accountable,” Kestenbaum wrote in a social media post, describing the apparent contradiction as “elitist hypocrisy.”
Meanwhile, Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, the Jackie and Omri Dahan Harvard Chabad Jewish Chaplain and founder and president of the Harvard Chabad Center for Jewish life, met today with Prime Minister Netanyahu.
“We're fighting back in Gaza, we’re fighting back in Lebanon, we're fighting back in other parts of the Middle East. But we also have to fight the battle for public opinion, for justice and for our own solidarity, our own solidarity with our people who are beleaguered,” Netanyahu said. “The most important message I have for you is don't bend, don't cower, don’t surrender, not to these antisemitic lies, not to the fear, not to the intimidation.”
And in Congress, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican of New York, introduced the University Accountability Act, which would impose fines on schools that violate students' civil rights under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Original cosponsors include Rep. Elise Stefanik, whose questioning in a congressional hearing about campus antisemitism helped to topple the presidents of Harvard and of the University of Pennsylvania.
Report from Israel: A retired U.S. Navy admiral, Paul Becker, has posted on LinkedIn with his observations from a high-level recent trip to Israel organized by the Jewish Institute for National Security of America. Becker also met with Netanyahu, as well as with the Mossad director and other high level officials. Two pieces from his account were particularly striking.
First: “WONDERING IF THIS U.S. ADMINISTRATION HAS THEIR BACKS: After receiving initial full moral, political and military support following OCT 7th, there is now a palpable feeling among senior military leaders - who state they’ve never previously felt this way in their careers - that the U.S. may not have their back in time of conflict. Ref: U.S. Gaza policy statements limiting Israeli timelines and activities, delays in U.S. weapon deliveries - Israeli remark: “In the last several months, Iran has resupplied LH [Lebanese Hezbollah] more than than the U.S. has resupplied Israel," U.S. Senate Majority Leader calling for new Israeli elections and CJCS Gen Brown declaring that the U.S. would likely not be able to provide the same assistance as it did when Iran carried out a missile and drone attack on Israel earlier this year.
Second: “My wife and I flew from Dulles on Air France. The connecting flight via Paris was full with young Jewish families and children. I spoke with several. Nearly all were moving permanently (making Aliyah) to Israel because of; a) rising anti-semitism in France, and b) a commitment of support to Israel in this existential time of need. Israel's population has grown by thousands in the past 8 months from Jews returning home to serve in the reserves or making aliyah.”
Trump and the deficit: Scott Grannis, who writes the Calafia Beach Pundit blog and has been correct about a lot of things, has a comment up saying, “spending is indeed huge, as is total debt. But the burden of debt (interest costs as a percent of GDP) is not unprecedented—it was worse several decades ago, and we survived. I'd be willing to bet that a Trump administration will want to impose fiscal discipline in a big way.”
I watched most of Trump’s Tuesday rally and heard Trump say, “I will not cut one penny from Social Security and Medicare…We’re not gonna touch Social Security and Medicare.” That promise will make fiscal discipline more challenging, though I can understand the political reasons for making it. Trump did also say he’d rapidly have the Russia-Ukraine war settled, which could help some on the budget front.
Also last night, roughly while Trump was having the campaign rally, Biden was giving a speech at a summit in Washington marking the 75th birthday of NATO. Two passages jumped out from the official White House transcript. First, Biden blundered by reading out loud language that was supposed to be a stage direction or instruction telling him what to do:
For these reasons, I am pleased to award you the highest civilian honor that the United States can bestow: the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Ask the mili- — (applause) — military aide to come forward — (applause) — and ask him to read the citation. (Applause.)
MILITARY AIDE: The president of the Unites States of America awards this Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jens Stoltenberg.
Given that Biden, under the circumstances, would be making his utmost effort to avoid that sort of mistake, it’s a little concerning. It’s less egregious in the video but it’s concerning nonetheless.
Second, Biden said this:
And in the coming months, the United States and our partners intend to provide Ukraine with dozens of additional tactical air defense systems.
The United States will make sure that when we export critical air defense interceptors, Ukraine goes to the front of the line. (Applause.) They will get this assistance before anyone else gets it.
All told, Ukraine will receive hundreds of additional interceptors over the next year, helping protect Ukrainian cities against Russian missiles and Ukrainian troops facing air attacks on the front lines.
I’m a strong proponent of aid to Ukraine, even more offensive and lethal aid than Biden has provided so far, with looser restrictions on attacking Russia with it, but the idea that “Ukraine goes to the front of the line…before anyone else” for “critical air defense interceptors” is troubling. America should be first in line. Israel should be next. After that, we can talk–Ukraine, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, Poland, Great Britain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan—whatever. But with Israel under active and ongoing attack from Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah, a public announcement that Ukraine is “front of the line…before anyone else” is going to be taken in Tehran and the rest of the Middle East as an announcement that Israel is going to the back of the line, and that, therefore, Iran and its proxies should time their attack sooner rather than later. It’s a dangerous thing to say. This afternoon the Wall Street Journal quoted anonymous U.S. officials saying “The U.S. will soon begin shipping to Israel the 500-pound bombs that the Biden administration had previously suspended,” though the story says the U.S. won’t send more 2,000-pound bombs.
Anyway, there are many ways that Biden fails to communicate clearly, and managing to slight Israel while attempting to send a message of support to Ukraine is just the latest one. Others may say that Biden is communicating very clearly, it’s just the wrong message. Whether it’s a communications problem or a substance problem, either way, it was another not-good night for Biden.
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