Jim Meigs

President Trump is right to play hardball with Iran, but it’s time to open up the Strait of Hormuz, writes @continetti on.wsj.com/4ukKxft

You may think you know the rough outlines of this story. The full reality is so much worse than you think. Read the whole thing.

Sir Tony Brenton, former British ambassador to Russia, has written to offer the UK Jewish community some unsolicited advice: if you want antisemitic violence to stop, try being more appalled by Israel. The argument is a masterclass in a very old move, executed with the confidence that only a certain kind of establishment figure can muster. First, you reframe the data. The surge in antisemitism after October 7 wasn’t really antisemitism, Sir Tony explains — it was “widespread popular rage” at Israeli “overreaction.” The quotation marks around “antisemitism” do important work here. They perform skepticism without having to argue for it. Then comes the throat-clearing: “This of course does not excuse the anti-Jewish outrages that have taken place since.” And then the payload: the UK Jewish community “could help to damp down the likelihood of such outrages” by making clear it is “as appalled by the brutality of Israeli policy as almost everyone else is.” Read that again slowly. A former ambassador is telling a minority community that the best way to reduce violence against them is to publicly condemn the right people, to the right degree, to satisfy the sensibilities of - whom exactly? Almost everyone else. The unnamed, self-evident majority whose rage, we have already been told, is not really antisemitism at all. This is a purity test. The intellectual structure would be immediately recognizable - and scandalous - if applied to any other minority. It would not be published. The premise, that a community bears responsibility for managing hatred directed at it by performing the correct ideological dissociation, would be identified instantly as victim-blaming of the most craven kind. With Jews, apparently, the formula remains available. There is also the matter of the evidence. Sir Tony claims the post-October 7 surge was “not, or mostly not, antisemitism at all” - just political anger at Israeli policy. Yet the Community Security Trust, recorded the first antisemitic incident at 12:55pm on October 7 itself, hours after the massacre began. 31 incidents were recorded that day. The daily total peaked on October 11 at 80 , the highest number ever recorded on a single day in British history. Israel’s ground operation began on October 27. The worst day of antisemitism in modern Britain occurred sixteen days before Israel set foot in Gaza. The perpetrators did not wait to assess the proportionality of the Israeli response. They started within hours of the massacre. Sir Tony’s framework simply cannot accommodate this fact, which is why it goes unmentioned. What his letter actually proposes is that antisemitism be treated as a problem Jews can manage through correct political performance. Pass the test, demonstrate sufficient distance from Israel, sufficient appallment ; and maybe, just maybe- the violence will subside. This is the oldest libel in European history, updated with footnotes and published in a newspaper in the same week two Jewish men were stabbed in broad daylight in Golders Green. Former British ambassador to Russia. The irony writes itself.

From @WSJFreeEx via @WSJOpinion: This wave of violence didn’t come out of nowhere. It trickled down from our elite culture, writes @jamesbmeigs. on.wsj.com/4cJHU0X

Eric Hoffer wrote this article about the Jewish state in 1968. Amazing how nothing changed since. "The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it, Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a million Frenchmen. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese-and no one says a word about refugees. But in the case of Israel the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab. Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis. Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious it must sue for peace. Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world. Other nations when they are defeated survive and recover but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed. Had Nasser triumphed last June he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews. No commitment to the Jews by any government, including our own, is worth the paper it is written on. There is a cry of outrage all over the world when people die in Vietnam or when two Negroes are executed in Rhodesia. But when Hitler slaughtered Jews no one remonstrated with him. The Swedes, who are ready to break of diplomatic relations with America because of what we do in Vietnam, did not let out a peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews. They sent Hitler choice iron ore, and ball bearings, and serviced his troop trains to Norway. The Jews are alone in the world. If Israel survives, it will be solely because of Jewish efforts. And Jewish resources. Yet at this moment Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally. We can rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us. And one has only to imagine what would have happened last summer had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the West in general. I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish the holocaust will be upon us."

Funny isn't it how no-one is looking to stab Iranians or Russians unless they denounce those regimes ?

Utterly extraordinary. Arsonist and firefighter.

.@BritishVogue and the glamorization of antisemitism. Let’s talk about what they chose not to tell you. Albanese is the UN Special Rapporteur who claimed America is “subjugated by the Jewish lobby,” told the BBC “the Israeli lobby is clearly inside your veins,” and- the day after the Charlie Hebdo massacre - shared an Iranian state media article claiming the CIA and Mossad carried it out. She is the official who, when Macron called October 7 “the largest antisemitic massacre of our century,” replied that the victims were not killed because of their Judaism but “in response to Israel’s oppression” - earning her the distinction of being the first UN rapporteur in history condemned for antisemitism by both France and Germany simultaneously. She is the official who told a press conference that 380,000 children under five had been killed in Gaza - a figure that exceeds the entire population of children under five in Gaza, according to Palestinian Authority census data. She is the official who, at an Al Jazeera Forum in Doha where Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and Iran’s foreign minister were also speaking, delivered remarks that the French Foreign Minister subsequently condemned in parliament, saying she “targets not the Israeli government, whose policies can be criticized, but Israel as a people and as a nation.” He added that she “presents herself as a UN independent expert, yet she is neither an expert nor independent - she is a political activist who stirs up hate speech.” She has been condemned by France, Germany, Canada, and the United States. She is the first UN expert in history condemned by all four of those governments. Vogue gave her a shoot. No mention of any of this. The same editorial erasure happened at the Guardian, which ran a fawning profile portraying her as a “rock star” and never once asked why so many governments of such different political persuasions have sought to have her removed. This is what the glamorization of antisemitism looks like in 2026. It arrives in a fashion magazine, dressed in the language of human rights, with a photographer and a stylist.

These takes are boring. I very much doubt any astronaut considers meet and greets with politicians to be the highlight of the job. When Neil and Buzz landed on the Moon and looked on that “magnificent desolation”, I’m sure the first thought wasn’t “I can’t wait to tell Richard Nixon about this!” But they are polite and professional and do what they are supposed to because ultimately, politicians control the purse strings and they have to represent the program. Stop trying to project your personal politics on them whilst they do this.

"All the cool kids think killing people is OK now." @jamesbmeigs: Political Violence Is Cool Now wsj.com/opinion/free-e… via @WSJFreeEx

This wave of violence didn’t come out of nowhere. It trickled down from our elite culture, writes @jamesbmeigs on.wsj.com/495DWNL

@Simberg_Space Yes, that was my exact thought when I saw this.

An interesting demonstration of the Kessler Effect.

This is great. @robkhenderson on the smug status-mongering involved in the concept of "microlooting." wsj.com/opinion/free-e…

Phone free schools cause --increased laughter in hallways --very loud lunchrooms --increases in books checked out of school library

George Orwell once wrote that "one of the marks of antisemitism is an ability to believe stories that could not possibly be true", and this site proves that to be the case every single day.

Fukuyama might be the most vindicated political theorist of the last century.

Mamdani and his allies are tenant organizers, and their chief tactic is to identify specific villains. This creates an illusion of accountability (as if the city's fiscal challenges can be assigned to some external bad actor rather than the cumulative impact of buck-passing), emotional engagement (find a focus for public anger and resentment that is not you), and polarization (if you don't join in the outpouring of hatred, you are suspect). The trouble is that the villain needs to be a vulnerable target you can cut off from key resources (money, public support) through intimidating public protest, a media campaign, etc. Mamdani has decided not to make Trump the villain, possibly because Trump has cards to play and doesn't seek the approval of Mamdani's base. Hochul can't be the villain, as the mayor is begging Albany for money. He decided to go after Ken Griffin as a stand-in for nonresident owners of expensive investment properties in NYC, but of course Griffin is not obliged to take the abuse. There's a good case that NYC needs Griffin more than Griffin needs NYC. So who's next? Without a villain, it's not clear that the organizer's playbook can work.

Evil rarely sees itself as evil. It usually sees itself as payback, justice, self-defence. This was the justification for every atrocity in history. Viewing yourself as a victim is the surest path to becoming a predator.

As seen on the "Classical Education" page on FB.

Tolentino and Piker seem like people who would tell their landlords their dogs are emotional support animals