Get The Story Right
Nick Kristof exposed sexual abuse in Israeli prisons, but then took the story too far with unsupported allegations. Also, I respond to a note from a reader about what Democrats need to do
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We Get Letters!
Benjamin J, who is a loyal Truth and Consequences, had an interesting comment on Wednesday’s piece:
Imagine a Republican asks you: how do we compete in New England? We hold no Congressional districts (though I expect ME-2 to flip). What would your advice be? Well, I think my advice would be to cater to the voters. Try to moderate in some spots, rally your voters around some wedge issues, and then do a good job in office. Maybe that would work.
I don’t know. Maybe like Charlie Baker in Massachusetts. Or Phil Scott in Vermont. Or Susan Collins in Maine. You get the point. What Steve and others are asking you and Democrats to do is exactly what Republicans have done in places to win.
The thing is, Republicans are about as successful these days in the Northeast as Democrats are in the South — not very. There’s not a single House Republican in all of New England. While there is one governor, Phil Scott (though he’s barely a Republican), and one Senator, Susan Collins, Republicans simply can’t compete in New England, even though they did reasonably well in the region not long ago.
No House Republican has won an election there since 2016, and, in general, it’s become much harder for the GOP to win in the Northeast. House Democrats now hold a 9-3 advantage in New Jersey and a 19-7 advantage in New York, and several seats in both states are likely to flip from red to blue this cycle. Even in Virginia, which has become more northeastern in its political makeup, two seats are likely to flip in November. The same could happen in Pennsylvania.
As polarization has intensified, voters are casting their ballots based solely on whether a D or an R appears next to a candidate’s name. So the problems for Democrats in the South are similar to those facing Republicans in the Northeast — partisanship now drives everything, and moderation is not enough to outrun tribalism.
Getting It Right … and Wrong
Early this week, New York Times columnist Nick Kristof published an opinion piece that made several charges about the treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
In wrenching interviews, Palestinians have recounted to me a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, women and even children — by soldiers, settlers, interrogators in the Shin Bet internal security agency and, above all, prison guards.
… It’s impossible to know how common sexual assaults against Palestinians are. My reporting for this article is based on conversations with 14 men and women who said they had been sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or members of the security forces. I also spoke to family members, investigators, officials and others.
The stories recounted are harrowing and supported by evidence. For example, a January report by the Public Defender’s Office of the Israeli Justice Ministry documents that “Palestinian security detainees held in Israeli prisons have suffered from severe and systematic violence from prison guards, deprivation of food, and medical neglect, while also having been subjected to unsanitary conditions that caused and exacerbated outbreaks of disease in the prisons.”
The problem with Kristof’s piece — and the reason it’s receiving such a backlash — is that he makes several other claims not backed up by credible sources or evidence.
