Jaclyn Neuman

Congrats, you just lost your runoff. This is disgusting.

the three branches of government are tj maxx, marshalls, and homegoods

Mayor, my grandparents were expelled from their land too. I have deep sympathy for the many Palestinians who experienced that. I’m not going to debate who was responsible. My grandmother fled North Africa and Iraq after the Farhud of 1941. Six years before any war over Israel. Palestinians were expelled during a war Arab states launched against us. Over 850,000 Jews were driven from Arab lands. Almost none remain. Maybe the mayor of New York should stay out of it. Or speak to both. Don’t weaponize one trauma while actively erasing another. Especially when using this “Visit Palestine” poster created by Frank Krausz, a Holocaust Survivor and a Zionist Jew.

Much has been written about @NickKristof's latest NYT opinion column over the past 24 hours, most of it focusing on the specific claims and their sourcing, but what I think deserves most attention is something broader: how this kind of journalism, whatever its intentions, ultimately makes accountability harder to achieve rather than easier, and harms the very people it claims to champion. The principle that Israeli abuses should be investigated and condemned is not in dispute, and nobody serious is arguing otherwise. Israel is not above scrutiny, and in fact it operates under more intense international scrutiny than almost any country on earth, routinely held to standards applied nowhere else. The problem here is something different entirely: the complete collapse of evidentiary standards the moment Israel is the subject. This piece reads less like rigorous reporting and more like a catalogue of hearsay, unverifiable allegations, and activist claims stitched together into a sweeping moral indictment. Its sourcing leans heavily on Euro Med Human Rights Monitor, an organisation repeatedly criticised over extremist ties, disinformation, and deeply questionable methodology, yet treated throughout as a credible authority while its leadership openly engages in pro Hamas propaganda on X. Worse, the same ecosystem of activists and self appointed “experts” that amplifies Euro Med’s claims online increasingly feeds narratives into more established organisations and media outlets, laundering deeply contested allegations into the appearance of institutional credibility. The most severe claims are anonymous, uncorroborated, and presented in the emotional register of established fact rather than allegation, despite lacking meaningful evidentiary backing. Yet Kristof largely adopts them without serious scrutiny, publishing the piece in the Opinion section because even the already diminished evidentiary standards often applied to reporting on the Israeli Palestinian conflict would likely not suffice for it to pass as straight news reporting. This approach doesn't strengthen accountability, it actively destroys it. When every allegation is immediately inflated into systematic rape and "standard operating procedure" before any serious verification, genuine investigation becomes harder rather than easier. Real abuses, if they occurred, get buried beneath maximalist narratives so extreme that large portions of the public simply stop trusting any of it, and the people who actually suffered pay that price. It also alienates the vast majority of Israelis and Jews worldwide, including the many who are perfectly capable of criticising Israeli policy and supporting investigations into misconduct, but who understandably recoil when accusations begin resembling modernised blood libels dressed up as human rights reporting. The framing matters enormously, and so does proportionality, and so does evidence. Nor does any of this serve Palestinians. Atrocity inflation entrenches both sides deeper into defensive tribalism, and every dubious claim amplified by a prestigious outlet makes legitimate criticism easier to dismiss when it actually matters. The timing compounds everything. On a day when documented reporting on Hamas sexual violence was again circulating, the NYT chose to run an opinion column built substantially on unverifiable anonymous testimony asserting that Israelis are conducting systemic rape campaigns, not as a rigorously evidenced investigative report but as an opinion piece with the imprimatur of the paper of record. Kristof is not a naive bystander in any of this. In 2014 he used the full credibility of the NYT to repeatedly platform Somaly Mam, a Cambodian anti-trafficking activist whose harrowing personal story he championed across multiple columns, until it emerged that her backstory was substantially fabricated and he was forced to issue a public correction. When challenged this time around on his sourcing, corroboration, and methodology, he defaulted to bad faith engagement on social media rather than addressing the underlying concerns seriously. It is the same pattern, playing out again in a different context. Real journalism requires skepticism, corroboration, and restraint applied consistently regardless of the subject, and when those standards disappear the moment Israel is involved, what remains is not human rights reporting but narrative activism wearing a journalist's costume that does far more harm than good to everyone it claims to serve.

Benjamin Netanyahu unveils a sweeping summer AI initiative: Israeli students will be trained in GPT, cloud tech, and more—before matriculation exams—while also closing war-time learning gaps. Education Minister Yoav Kisch says over ₪1B will be invested, with July counted as a full (but optional) school month. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich frames it as freeing parents to work while delivering “real learning,” not babysitting—calling it a pilot akin to private medicine (SHARAP) inside public education. Netanyahu ties it to “Vision 2040”: a first step toward reshaping Israel’s future through AI.

If Mexico had invaded Texas and done even 10% of this to American women, you would know about Mexico only from the history books. You know it, I know it, everyone knows it. But instead, here we are three years later, with Israel still trying to justify itself to people who do not care about reality in the first place.

After reading this, it’s a miracle of restraint that Israel didn’t just nuke Gaza off the face of the Earth in response to what happened on October 7th.

A reminder of the bubble. I can count on one hand the adults in my social circles who don’t have a college degree.

Trying to make your policy idea fit in NDAA

Wow wow wow. Take a minute to watch these incredibly powerful remarks from a Rabbi in London. I’ll add - if you’ve never had to send a loved one an “are you ok?” text after yet another attack, kindly stfu.

Dear @tmz, my 10 days “off” will include a 12 county whistle stop tour across one of the largest Congressional districts in America, multiple town halls, a military academy promotion day, multiple visits to high schools, county courthouses, small businesses and manufacturing sites and constituent meetings. We may do 1,000 miles. We’ll be sure keep you updated. 🇺🇸

They will live in that house one day…you’ll see.

NoVA Zillow update: 4 bed, 3 bath, spans 7 congressional districts. Seller highly motivated.

It’s plain common sense: a hot rotisserie chicken is a healthy, easy meal for busy families. Folks on SNAP should be able to grab one on the go. That’s why @SenFettermanPA, @SenCapito, @SenatorBennet, and I introduced the Hot Rotisserie Chicken Act. 🐓

Democrats can never talk about gerrymandering again.

the "art" of government😂

I have worked in politics for more than 10 years and have always been a staffer of some sort. It is NOT ok for a politician to yell at, berate, and curse out their staff. Even if a staffer messes up, you deal with it like an adult, not a child throwing a temper tantrum. Moreover, if a politician feels comfortable enough to be verbally abusive to her staff on camera, it is not too far of a leap to assume she is even more abusive to people in her private life. That is why I find her ex's allegations of domestic abuse credible. Yes Swalwell is a disgrace but Porter is not any better.

A little boy walks down the road at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, passing hundreds of bodies as if they’re part of the landscape, with no one left to tell him this isn’t normal. Never forget🕯️

petition to put one of these on the mall

A sweet Jewish grandmother telephones Mt. Sinai Hospital. She timidly asks, "Is it possible to speak to someone who can tell me how a patient is doing?" The operator says, “I’ll be glad to help, dear. What’s the name and room number of the patient?” The grandmother, in her weak, tremulous voice says, “Norma Stein, room 302.” The operator replies, “Let me put you on hold while I check with the nurse’s station for that room.” After a few minutes, the operator returns to the phone and says, “I have good news. Her nurse just told me that Norma is doing well. Her blood pressure is fine; her blood work just came back normal, and her physician, Dr. Cohen, has scheduled her to be discharged tomorrow." The grandmother says, “Thank you! That’s wonderful! I was so worried. God bless you for the good news.” The operator replies, “You’re more than welcome. Is Norma your daughter?” The grandmother says, “No, I’m Norma Stein in room 302. Nobody tells me anything.”