Midweek Post Without Title

Good afternoon reader(s) of Stroock's Books. 

Temps are not so frigid today, but the air is active. Late November has arrived early. 

Over at Substack, Rod Dreher has a long essay about what makes a lot of young conservatives working in politics tick, and why so many are fans of Nick Fuentes and don't like Israel, or Jews. It's complicated, but generally speaking they're pissed off, justifiably so. Traditional conservatism with its bromides on free markets and callbacks to Reagan and Thatcher just doesn't do it for these guys. 

Meanwhile, at the Jerusalem Post, Adam Scott Bellos talks about the precarious state of Jews in Zohran Mamdani's America. Bellos is describing, we think, the failure of establishment Judaism, that bevy and seemingly endless list of organizations like AIPAC or the ADL. For us, especially the ADL. 'The next October 7 won’t erupt in Israel — it will strike the Diaspora,' says the subheading. This is correct. This blog doesn't know the solution to the problem. But we do know ADL style hectoring and scolding isn't the answer. 

We say again, most of the grief we get from our daily Israel posting on Substack comes from rightwing types. Some of them are merely conservatives, America Firsters, MAHA types. Some are Groypers. Some are Nazi playactors. Some are anon rando trolls. All have step-daddy issues and are otherwise gay and retarded. 

The Golden Age of Jews in America is over. 

Here is an old essay from the Old New Republic, back when that magazine still mattered. The title is Hitler is Dead. The essay was published on 27 May, 2002. This is not even a year after 9/11 and just after Operation Defensive Shield which ended the 2nd Intifada. The essay is about American Jewish paranoia:

"As I've said before," Nat Hentoff told New York magazine, "if a loudspeaker goes off and a voice says, 'All Jews gather in Times Square,' it could never surprise me." Call me a simple soul, but it could surprise me. The Jews that I see gathered in Times Square are howling at Nazis in Mel Brooks's kick lines. Hentoff's fantasy is grotesque: There is nothing, nothing, in the politics, the society, or the culture of the United States that can support such a ghastly premonition. His insecurity is purely recreational."

In Zohran Mamdani's America, where synagogues are vandalized, where Jews are attacked in the streets, where college campuses are overrun by Hamas nepo babies, is Hentoff's 'insecurity' still 'purely recreational'? We advise our family not to wear anything visibly Jewish in NYC, and our synagogue has armed security on the High Holy Days. That was unimaginable on 27 May, 2002. 

DOGE report: one more chapter in Thatcher's War down. Make that two. Make that three. The Ireland nuke novel Morning Rory sequel is coming along just fine. We know how the story starts where it's going, but we don't know where it ends up.