Content Only #1

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In Today's Email 🚨Wartime Content Recommendations

In this issue, I’m trying something different. Below are some serious thoughts and content recommendations about the current situation in Israel– which is still just about the only thing I can think about. I’d love to hear your feedback about this format, so please hit that “reply” button and let me know what you think!

Okay fine, here’s one story-kinda-thing for the real CIE heads.

On 9/11, I remember hearing how the attack on the WTC was our generation’s Pearl Harbor. On October 7th, I heard a lot about how Hamas’ attack was Israel’s 9/11. Talking heads and YouTubers were quick to compare Israel’s impending invasion of Gaza with America’s invasion of Iraq, and warned of the catastrophe that awaited the Israeli military– an insight they so generously offered Israel’s naive War Cabinet.

Of course, 9/11 wasn’t Pearl Harbor, and October 7th isn’t 9/11. They are both their own things with their own special lessons to be learnt, and they each required a brand new set of solutions.

I feel the same way about antisemitism right now. The famous/infamous Kraft-sponsored Super Bowl commercial in particular is a great example of what I consider to be an outdated framework for thinking about antisemitism: Basically, that this is our generation’s 1939.

Of course, this isn’t 1939. (I had my guy run the numbers). It’s 2024 and this surge of antisemitism will require a brand new approach and its own set of solutions.

For example, what do you call it when a comedian spends 15-minutes on stage criticizing Israel without making any jokes? What do you call it when a Jew– exploiting his Jewishness– appears on the news, not to argue if Hamas used rape as a weapon, but to question the extent to which it was used “systematically?”

Are they antisemites? I don’t know. Does that word effectively capture what we’re dealing with now?

I think we probably need a new word. And I think we probably need a new approach. The “Would you hide me?” thing is silly. Jews don’t need to be hidden. We have our own freekin’ military. We also don’t need our nosy neighbors trespassing on our private property to clean swastikas off our garages when nobody asked them to. They should mind their own business and work on their cars for literally 12-hours on a weekday like a good goy. We need… something else.

Below are some documentaries and podcast episodes I’ve been consuming that I think are helping me formulate what that “something else” may be.

🍿 This documentary about Israeli settlers is one of my favorite new resources to understand what’s really happening in the West Bank and, by extension, Gaza and the rest of Israel. I am endlessly frustrated by the portrayal of this war without acknowledging the religious underpinnings. The conflict has more theological roots than diplomacy, real estate, and economics have the wherewithal to fix, and I think this documentary does a great job of explaining why. I’ve lived in Israel and have visited Israel many times, and I am embarrassed how little I knew about the places I’ve been to and the roads I took to get there.

It allows Settlers to tell their own story along with voices for and against the settlements, all while giving a history of the movement. What I like most about the documentary is that it allows the viewer to come to their own conclusions.

I don’t think the Settlers make themselves look too good here, but I walked away admiring how honest, raw, and bold the interview subjects are in their worldview and goals. I don’t necessarily align with them, but it does make me wonder what Israel’s PR team could learn from these people. I mean, they’ve tried being nice, so we know for sure that that doesn’t work.

🇮🇱 Another documentary that has helped me understand how woefully ignorant I am of Israeli politics. It charts the rise, fall, and subsequent rise of Netanyahu through the 90s until today, and highlights just how shocking and tragic October 7th was in the context of his politics. What does the future hold for Netanyahu? Tune in to next week’s newsletter for the answer.

🎙️ My new favorite person on Earth is Dr. Einat Wilf. She’s a super-credentialed former Israeli government person under Rabin, Peres, and that nice fella who drafted the Oslo Accords, and in 2020 she published a prescient book about the history of the Palestinians, UNRWA, and much more. This podcast episode is a fantastic, unique, and blood-boiling breakdown of post-WWI Palestine until today. It also includes one of the most insightful perspectives on the Holocaust I’ve ever heard. I look forward to writing in a few months about how Dr. Wilf has deeply disappointed me, once I’ve completed this hype cycle.

🥽 This is just awesome. Casey Neistat’s Vision Pro review had me laughing out loud several times. I’m late to the game on Casey Neistat, but I have recently come to admire his throwback style of content creation– valuable, intentional, passionate, and personal. (He recently criticized Mr. Beast while also trying hard not to offend the God of YouTube for ruining… YouTube). I found his verdict of the new Apple HUD product at the end to be smart, generous, and a little bit frightening.

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Michael Weber is a writer who often takes “no” for an answer. Quite often. Most of the time, actually. If you received this email, you signed up for his newsletter at some point. If you'd like to unsubscribe, you must first find somebody else to replace you. Share a link to subscribe!