I’m Michael A. Cohen, and this is Truth and Consequences: A no-holds-barred look at the absurdities, hypocrisies, and surreality. If you were sent this email or are a free subscriber and would like to become a paid subscriber, you can sign up here.
If money is tight or you’re already up to eyeballs in subscriptions, here’s another idea — share this article. Email it to a friend (or even an enemy). Post it on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. Text or email it to your wife, husband, mother, father, brother, sister, or even your creepy second cousin who lives in St. Lo. Word of mouth is often the best way to build support for a creative endeavor, so if everyone here sends it to just one person … it would be much appreciated!
Go Directly To Jail
I wrote a piece last week for the Daily Beast making the argument that Donald Trump should receive jail time for his recent conviction on 34 felony courts.
There are two key reasons why Trump should go to jail. First, the seriousness of the crime he committed.
By covering up his affair with a porn star, Trump attempted to deny the electorate critical information and, in the words of prosecutor Joshua Steinglass, “pull the wool over [the] eyes [of voters] in a coordinated fashion.” His actions were a fundamental and illicit attack on democracy.
Trump’s efforts to keep the Stormy Daniels story out of the news might have affected the final results of the 2016 election—and there’s little question that the outcome of the presidential race directly impacted the lives of every single American citizen.
But I also think there is an even more serious issue: Trump’s open contempt toward the criminal justice system. I spoke to a defense attorney friend who has had multiple cases before Judge Juan Merchan, who presided over Trump’s trial. He made a really smart and underappreciated point:
“What happens when my client goes on social media and goes after a judge or a judge’s family electronically? Does he or she get a pass because Trump got away with it? No way, but we will be banging the table.”
“To me, that has been a big concern throughout the trial. I have 10 open cases in the courthouse right now. If my client wants to mouth off, what’s to stop it? Whatever Trump’s sentence is, he goes away, and he leaves a damaged system behind without a care for what he caused.”
As I noted in the piece, “If Judge Merchan lets Trump get away with threatening the court, violating multiple gag orders, and ceaselessly attacking the integrity of the criminal justice system, it risks creating a virtual open season for other defendants to do the same thing and would make it far more difficult for judges to rein in such excesses.”
You can read the whole thing here, but to my mind, the case for Trump doing jail time is solid.
Israel Can’t Win
Over the weekend, Israeli troops liberated four hostages held in captivity in Gaza since October 7. This successful rescue mission led to enormous celebrations in Israel, where the hostages have, not surprisingly, become a cause celebre — and have led many Israelis to support ending the war in Gaza to ensure their safe release.
In other parts of the world, because of the large number of civilian casualties caused by Israel’s rescue mission it is yet another reason to criticize Israel. With the caveat that Hamas claims about civilian deaths should be taken with a grain of salt, from the scene of the rescue and at a local hospital, it seems clear that women and children were among the dead and wounded. According to some reports, the death toll may be as high as 274 killed and close to 700 wounded (again, keep in mind that Hamas does not differentiate between civilians and combatants).
This is yet another tragedy in a war that has seen tragedy upon tragedy visited upon the Palestinian people. But let’s be very clear about what happened here. Israeli forces did not go into the Nuseirat neighborhood of Gaza to kill scores of Palestinians. The goal of the operation was to rescue hostages abducted by Hamas forces more than eight months ago — and those hostages were held in a civilian neighborhood by local residents.
The firefight that took so many Palestinian lives began because Hamas gunmen tried to stop the Israeli rescue team, requiring the Israelis to use massive force to get their troops and the hostages out of the area alive. And yes, Israel was required to use massive force because otherwise, the mission would have failed, and even more Israelis would have died (one of the leaders of the Israeli strike, force Arnon Zmora, was killed). Quite obviously, the Israelis would have preferred to avoid fighting because any violence would put the hostages and their soldiers in danger.
I get that the use of force seems excessive, and let’s face it: no matter what Israel does, they get blamed. But their military likely killed lots of innocent Palestinians, and reasonable questions can and should be asked about how deadly force was utilized.
But my god, where is the criticism of Hamas? Where is the criticism of Hamas for taking the hostages? Where is the criticism of Hamas for not allowing the Red Cross to visit the captives over the past eight months? Where is the criticism of Hamas for rejecting one cease-fire deal after another? Above all, where is the criticism of Hamas for locating those hostages among civilians, thus putting every innocent person in the surrounding area in potential danger? If protesters care so deeply for the plight of innocent Palestinians, shouldn’t they be outraged by Hamas’s callous indifference to the civilian population?
As National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan put it over the weekend, “The Palestinian people are going through sheer hell in this conflict because Hamas is operating in a way that puts them in the crossfire, that holds hostages right in the heart of crowded civilian areas, that puts military emplacements right in the heart of crowded civilian areas."
And if you’re angry with Israel, I have a simple question: what else are they supposed to do? (And don’t tell me: make a deal with Hamas to ensure the release of the hostages. That dance takes two, not one).
Since this crisis began (and lest we forget, it started with the murder of more than 1200 Israelis), pro-Palestinian activists have, over and over again, placed all the blame on Israel and acted as though Hamas and the Palestinian people have no agency at all.
Take, for example, this statement from Francesca Albanese, a former UN official who has been a persistent critic of Israel since the beginning of the war.
Reading this, you’d never know that Hamas exists.
Or this statement from the Palestinian Chronicle about the death of their contributor Abdallah Aljamal.
Do you know why Aljamal was killed? The hostages were literally held captive in his home.
The larger story here that no one, particularly pro-Palestinian activists, wants to discuss is the complicity of ordinary Gazans in Hamas’s war against Israel. Months ago, we were told by President Biden, no less, that “the vast majority of Palestinians are not Hamas. And Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people.”
Since this orthodoxy has been propagated, it means we can’t talk about the reports that ordinary Palestinians followed after Hamas fighters crossed the border and ransacked the homes of murdered Israelis. We can’t talk about the crowds that cheered the Hamas fighters returning from Israel and jeered captured Israelis, even when they were later freed. We can’t talk about how ordinary Palestinians — journalists and doctors are enlisted in housing Israeli captives. We can’t talk about how Hamas fighters — and Israeli hostages — were welcomed to Palestinian medical facilities. We can’t talk about how Palestinian society is radicalized in its support of terrorism and, in turn, Hamas’s larger goals.
Yes., it is true that Hamas is a despotic regime, and undoubtedly, many innocent Palestinians are forced to support their terrorist actions. Moreover, I have little doubt that most Gazans would prefer that Hamas disappear. But let’s not kid ourselves into believing that there are no willing terrorists here. We didn’t accept those excuses for Germans during World War II; we shouldn’t accept them now.
One More Thing or This Week In Anti-Semitism
Anti-Israel protesters showed up at an exhibition commemorating the victims of the Nova Music Festival massacre, chanted “Long Live the Intifada,” “Israel go to hell,” and waved Hezbollah flags.
The University of Minnesota had the terrible idea of hiring an anti-Zionist to run its Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
What’s Going On
In which I make the case that we’re living in the golden age of NBA basketball.
Post-conviction polling suggests that President Biden is receiving a mild boost. On the other hand, Joe Biden hit his lowest favorability ever in 538’s polling aggregator. What does it all mean? Your guess is as good as mine. Let’s talk about more after the two men debate in two weeks.
This Axios story is ten days old, but it’s pretty important.
Former President Trump's team is more focused on building a sprawling network of "election integrity" lawyers and poll watchers than rounding up organizers and door knockers to reach voters.
When you consider that one of the main reasons Trump is so competitive with Biden is that he’s winning the support of occasional voters, spending more money on election lawyers than canvassers is a really, really stupid strategy.
Musical Interlude
To me, the most common denominator for blame in all of this is Netanyahu. ALL of this.
Oct 9 Video statement by Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant:
“We are putting a complete siege on Gaza … No electricity, no food,
no water, no gas – it’s all closed.”
Sounds like a comprehensive plan for genocide, don't you think? And looking at Gaza now, it looks like Israel is doing its best to follow the plan.
Piece of cake to implement considering that Hamas doesn't have any fighter bombers, tanks, armored personnel carriers, heavy artillery, medevac, a few billion a year in help from Uncle Sam, veto power in the Security Council, and a safe haven (like the interior of Israel is to the IDF) to protect itself.
If Hamas had any guts at all it would takes its small arms and RPGs, and set up clearly marked, isolated, protective tents, miles from civilian populations. That would relieve Israel of the cost and burden of genocide. I'm sure Biden would let the IDF use our satellite systems and intel to find the tents.