Nassau officials now go silent on Israel

What do Nassau County, town and village officials think of Israeli lawmakers approving a contentious plan of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to restrict the influence of the Supreme Court?

The plan, opposed for months by tens of thousands of Israeli protesters, is seen by many as a threat to Israeli democracy, the country’s national security and its economic well-being.

More than 10,000 reserve pilots, intelligence officers, commandos, military instructors, army medics and infantrymen had threatened to resign from volunteer duty if the government pressed ahead with the judicial overhaul bill that was approved by the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.

And a Times of Israel poll last week of 734 Israeli founders and CEOs of start-ups and managing directors of venture capital firms found that more than two-thirds were taking steps to move their assets outside Israel in anticipation of the new law. There’s also been a reported surge in Israelis seeking second passports

What does that have to do with Nassau County, town and village officials? Doesn’t the United States have a president and State Department to handle issues like this?

Well, local officials across the county have not let the country’s foreign service prevent them from regularly commenting on matters concerning Israel and, in some cases, taking their own actions.

In May 2022, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman announced that Nassau County would sign an economic and cultural agreement with “Judea and Samaria.”

Judea and Samaria, whose names go back to Biblical times, is now an Israeli-designated administrative territory that encompasses the Israelioccupied West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem.

“This agreement will establish a long-term relationship of cooperation and friendship based on the principle of equality in sovereignty with Judea and Samaria,” Blakeman said in 2022.

This strongly suggested support for Israel’s unilateral annexation of the West Bank and an end to the two-state solution with Palestinians that has been the cornerstone of America’s Middle East policy since 1993.

Blakeman did not say last year if he, like the far-right members of Netanyahu’s current coalition, supports the end of the two-state solution. But given his previous comments, he should do so now.

He should also say now if he supports Netanyahu’s plan to restrict the influence of the Israeli Supreme Court – the only check on him and Israel’s parliament.

Unlike the United States, Israel has only one House and no constitution to prevent a majority of lawmakers from doing pretty much whatever they want to do.

In August of last year, following Blakeman’s announcement, Village of Great Neck Mayor Pedram Bral signed an agreement for the village to become a sister city with two towns in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The international community considers all Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal and their growth has been the source of a heated debate in Israel.

A year earlier, town and county officials in Nassau reacted swiftly to the news that Ben & Jerry’s would not sell ice cream in the Israeli-occupied West Bank or East Jerusalem as of 2023.

Not that Ben & Jerry’s would no longer be sold in Israel. That would continue. The ban, they said, would only apply to the Israeli-occupied West Bank or East Jerusalem.

Republican Hempstead Town Supervisor Don Clavin said he had directed every department and commissioner to make sure that not only was the town not selling Ben & Jerry’s ice cream but any other product of the company that owns Ben & Jerry’s, Unilever Corp.

This covers 400 brands, including Dove soap, Lipton tea, Breyers ice cream, Klondike Bars and Hellman’s mayonnaise.

Hempstead officials said their actions followed legislation approved in 2016 prohibiting the town from doing business with any company boycotting Israel in what is known as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS movement.

Then Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, a Democrat, said she was “disappointed by Ben & Jerry’s decision to align itself with the anti-Israel BDS movement, which unfairly and dangerously singles out the world’s only Jewish state.”

Then North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth, a Democrat, sounded a similar note in opposing a company refusing to sell ice cream in land occupied by Israel since 1967.

But so far, none of these officials has had anything to say about what many Israelis see as a threat to the country’s democracy. And the call by some in Netanyahu’s far-right coalition to annex the West Bank. At a time when Ukraine and a coalition led by the United States are trying to repel Russia’s effort to take over Ukraine.

Why the silence now?

Blakeman, a Republican, appeared to acknowledge in 2022 that politics played no small part in the county’s agreement with Judea and Summaria by pointing out in a press release that “Nassau County is home to approximately 230,000 Jewish residents, including some of the largest synagogues in the United States.”

That point seem to be underlined when he concluded his release by noting he was Nassau’s first Jewish county executive and then Congressman Lee Zeldin, who was at the time the Republican candidate for governor, was one of two Jewish Republicans in Congress.”

Unsaid was that there were 35 Jewish members of Congress who are Democrats, including 10 senators.

Neither Blakeman nor any of the other elected officials would be the first to pander to an ethnic group. So perhaps they only spoke and acted when they found it politically advantageous.

Many moderates in Israel and this country, especially among Democrats, have strongly opposed Netanyahu’s plan.

This is less so among conservatives in both countries and Republicans here who support former President Donald Trump, a close ally of Netanyahu, who currently is also facing corruption charges.

Many believe that restricting the court’s authority in Israel will result in the charges being dropped against Ne- tanyahu. Sound familiar?

Does it matter if officials in Nassau County from either party comment and even vote as our elected officials on issues related to the foreign policy of the United States? Other than getting local votes?

Probably not.

But that doesn’t mean the words of our elected representatives do not have consequences, intended or otherwise.

Based on what was being said in Nassau County, Israel’s leaders certainly could not be faulted if they believed that their country would not face criticism in how they dealt with Palestinians in the West Bank or the country’s efforts in finding a two-state solution.

This is not in Israel’s best interests if you want to see Israel remain a Jewish state and a democracy. Sometimes good friends need to be prepared to offer uncomfortable truths.

So Nassau officials may bear some responsibility for some of the extreme policies that are now being considered in Israel.

If Nassau officials were acting on principle in the past, they should speak up now in defense of democracy in Israel and a two-state solution.

The stakes are now so much higher than the sale of ice cream on the West Bank.

Unless you have been hiding under a very big rock, I trust that by now you have heard that Florida’s middle school students are learning that some slaves benefited from slavery by acquiring useful skills. The benefits of slavery are written into the Florida Deptartment of Education’s curricula.

Still confused?

Gov. Ron DeSantis tried to straighten it out. He explained that the benefit that slavery brought is all “rooted in whatever is factual” and that some slaves learned “how to be a blacksmith.”

Okay, that clears it up. By the way, if you are interested in observing what some slaves learned, Old Bethpage Village Restoration features demonstrations of blacksmithing. If you are lucky enough you might even walk away with a souvenir horseshoe!

Until Gov. DeSantis began capitalizing on culture war grievances underpinned by revisionist history, who knew that plantations were secretly trade schools for the industrial arts?

“Unfortunately, it has to be said – slavery wasn’t a jobs program that taught beneficial skills. It was literally dehumanizing and subjugated people as property because they lacked any rights or freedoms,” tweeted Will Hurd, former U.S. representative and 2024 Republican presidential candidate.

Fox News host Jesse Watters tried to clean things up as well, but he just made more of a mess of things.

He stated that no one is saying slaves benefited from slavery. They are teaching how some slaves gained skills during slavery that can be used for their own good, he added. One must wonder if Watters believes that grave digging is a skill Holocaust survivors learned that led to their own good.

“I cannot imagine what the parents of black children in Florida are feeling. To learn that their children

Andrew Malekoff

The Back Road will be taught that slavery was beneficial to slaves. If my kids had to sit thru lessons that extolled the virtues of the Holocaust, I would have lost my mind,” tweeted Henry Rosenberg. Regarding the benefits of slavery, “the basic racist assumption is that

KREMER’S CORNER

There are many important public jobs that involve community service. By any measure, a policeman is one of the most important positions in our government structure. They protect us around the clock and give us a sense of security because they are there for us whenever anything goes wrong.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was a national policeman who could keep the political parties from doing dangerous and stupid things?

The first place I would send the national cop would be Alabama. Recently the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Alabama legislature was required to draw new legislative maps giving black communities one extra member of Congress.

Considering that 27% of the state’s population is Black, this is a fair decision. But the legislature has said “no” and defied the court. If only there was a national cop to make an arrest.

My next stop would be Florida, where they should arrest the officials of the state Education Department. These supposedly smart people have approved a curriculum that states that slaves “developed skills that could be used for personal benefit.”

Somehow the department thinks that slaves forced into agricultural work, domestic service, blacksmithing and tailoring really were getting vocational training while being whipped and beaten.

While in Florida, the national cop should examine the policies of Gov. Ron DeSantis. In his quest to out-Trump former President Trump, DeSantis has targeted the gay population with various restrictions on their free speech and how the issue of being gay should be handled. He has chased thousands of school teachers out of the state, with official threats of firing if they are not careful about what they say and what classroom books they use. He is currently trying to dictate what courses private colleges can teach.

The next stop for my national cop is at the office of U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-OH). Grassley, who is

Kremer’s Corner these were not PEOPLE who were already skilled before they were kidnapped and brought here. Their talent and skill were used to enrich their enslavers and ultimately the country,” tweeted Kim C. Reilly.

88, and planning to seek another six-year term, should definitely retire along with Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA). He broke the law by releasing a confidential FBI document in an effort to smear President Biden and insinuated, with no absolutely no proof, that the president was involved in a bribery scheme.

One must wonder if DeSantis has contemplated renaming some of the more historic plantations like Boone Hall Plantation in South Carolina.

Rebranding could support the DeSantis’ curricula by emphasizing the benefits of slavery. For example, a name like Boone Hall Honest Work and Industrial Training Academy could help to reinforce how plantations inspired slaves’ industrial skills and personal development.

Although the matter of Florida’s fractured curricula deserves the widespread attention it is receiving, it is only one part of a bigger set piece of right-wing white nationalist extremism coupled with mainstream Republican collusion and cowardice.

We see it played out daily, wheth- er it is through actions taken by state governments to limit women’s reproductive rights, putting pregnant moms lives at risk.

Or, in places like Eagle Pass, Texas where DeSantis’ evil twin Gov. Gregg Abbott enabled a pregnant asylumseeking teen and other migrants to be bloodied after being tossed into a sea of razor wire installed by the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Extolling the benefits of slavery is part of a troubling mosaic of misinformation aimed at undermining diversity and inclusion. There were no benefits to slavery for slaves. Only captivity, torture, pain, trauma, and loss. Maintaining a sense of family, community, and spirituality were developed out of the invasive reach of slaveholders.

I imagine it will not be long before DeSantis’ Florida Department of Education, which is committed to sanitizing history, has the temerity to offer a lesson on “slavery’s positive impact on character building.”