Putin‘s Hostages
Plus, Haley’s exit, a Harvard update, and why ’White nationalism’ doesn't explain Trump
The Israeli hostages will be represented in force at the State of the Union address tomorrow night, with a freed hostage, Mia Schem, attending the event as a guest of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and family members of at least 17 other hostages reportedly planning to attend.
Less of a spotlight has been on the American hostages held by Russia, but they, too, are suffering. Speaker Johnson announced he will host Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich, parents of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
There are at least four other Americans being held captive by Russia: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reporter Alsu Kurmasheva, former Marine Paul Whelan, history teacher Marc Fogel (sometimes his last name is spelled Vogel), and Ksenia Karelina, a ballerina who worked at a spa in Beverly Hills and was detained in January while visiting her grandparents. As Jeffrey Gedmin, who hosted a recent event designed to draw attention to the problem, put it, “Russia keeps collecting hostages.”
At that event, Natan Sharansky spoke about his own experience in Soviet prison and said that attention from the West provided some hope to prisoners. Sharansky said the greatest weapon the West has against Russia, China, and Iran is the desire of people to live in freedom.
Haley’s exit: Nikki Haley suspended her presidential campaign this morning.
On the substance, she sounded pretty good while doing it: “A smaller federal government is not only necessary for our freedom, it is necessary for our survival. The road to socialism is the road to ruin for America.” She underscored the importance of “standing by our allies in Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.” She concluded with a quote from the book of Joshua: “I direct them to all Americans, but especially to so many of the women and girls out there who put their faith in our campaign. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. For God will be with you wherever you go.” By staying in as long as she did, she elevated her stature rather than diminishing it, outlasting the other contenders.
Article to avoid: Bloomberg Opinion columnist Francis Wilkinson, under a subheadline that reads in part, “the Republican Party continues its descent into White nationalism,” claims that Nikki Haley’s “race with Trump has provided new proofs of the descent of the GOP into White identity politics and cultural reaction. In many ways, their competition looks like an inversion of the 1992 primary contest between President George H.W. Bush and Pat Buchanan, whose right-wing campaign was a precursor of Trump’s White nationalist fervor.”
There may be some ways that Buchanan’s 1992 campaign, with its populism, skepticism of immigration and of international trade, and appeal to non-college-educated voters, was a preview of Trump’s. But to accuse Trump of “White nationalist fervor” when he’s going around campaigning with Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina is a bit much.
Today’s Wall Street Journal editorial page carries one piece from William Galston about how Trump is gaining among Black and Hispanic voters and another piece from Jason Riley making a similar point. Writes Riley, “the liberal press can’t comprehend why nonwhites would back someone who has spread conspiracy theories about Barack Obama’s birth certificate, smeared Mexican nationals and taunted his own former transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, for being Asian. But it’s not that complicated.” If you just read Bloomberg Opinion and not the Wall Street Journal (or The Editors) too, you’d miss that part of the story. I saw it coming back on January 3 in a post headlined “Trump Is Winning the Hispanic Vote.”
In the House, increasing numbers of Black and Hispanic Republicans are playing significant roles, including Rep. Burgess Owens of Utah, Rep. John James of Michigan, Rep. Lori Chaves-Deremer of Oregon, Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida and Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida. Anyway, trying to explain Trump, or the contemporary Republican party, as just “White identity politics” without reckoning with any of these issues (Wilkinson does not) isn’t particularly useful or enlightening.
Article worth reading: Tom Friedman isn’t usually exactly my cup of tea, but he spent two days last week flying in a helicopter around Jordan and Syria with General Michael Kurilla of U.S. Central Command, and he has a humdinger of a dispatch about it in today’s New York Times (“Inside America’s Shadow War With Iran”).
I agree with Friedman’s takeaway: “The best case for U.S. forces remaining in eastern Syria, Iraq and the Red Sea is precisely so that the disorder ‘over there’ — from the likes of ISIS, failed states like Syria and the eating away of nation-states by Iranian proxy militias — doesn’t come ‘over here.’”
I have one significant quibble, though, with his framing. Friedman describes the U.S.-Iran conflict as “the other Middle East war that began shortly after the tragic Israel-Hamas war that broke out on Oct. 7.” (italics in the original). He’s wrong that it’s “the other Mideast conflict” as a pullquote in the print Times (also with italics in the original) puts it. Actually, it’s not another war. It’s all one and the same war, Iran and its proxies versus America, Israel, the West and our allies.
Harvard update: The Crimson reports that the Harvard Israel Trek, a Harvard Hillel-sponsored trip that had annually taken Jewish and non-Jewish students on a spring break trip to Israel, won’t be happening this year. Also, “In response to the war in Gaza, the Office of International Education suspended study-abroad programs in Israel and the Mignone Center for Career Success halted funding for Israel-based internships through fall 2024.”
Also, a former Israeli ambassador to America, Michael Oren, reports that he was invited to teach at Harvard in Fall 2021. “A month later, the director wrote back to me apologizing. The offer had been rescinded. The Kennedy School objected to the appointment. So, too, did the college, which also withdrew its invitation. Repeated attempts to receive an explanation proved futile.”
And the chairwoman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, Rep. Virginia Foxx, faulted Harvard for an “unsatisfactory” response to the committee’s subpoena requesting documents about the university’s response to antisemitism on campus. “I don’t know if it’s arrogance, ineptness, or indifference that’s guiding Harvard,” Foxx said. “Regardless, its actions to date are shameful. Just last week Congress heard devastating and awful first-hand accounts of rampant antisemitism on college campuses – including at Harvard. Despite this, Harvard has absolutely failed to comply in good faith with the Committee’s subpoena for information about antisemitism on its campus. Many of the 2,500 pages submitted to the Committee were duplicates of documents already submitted. Heavy redactions throughout the production made several documents useless. The Committee is weighing an appropriate response to Harvard’s malfeasance.”
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