Thanks for your patience while I cut down a huge essay into four parts as I wrap my head around a recent debate at the 92nd St Y, “Is Donald Trump Good for the Jews?”

In earlier essays I took apart the Democratic argument, as presented by Rahm Emanuel, that Trump is bad for the Jews. I just don’t buy it, not when my options are the keffiyeh cosplayers, Queers for Palestine and when pathologically anti-Israel activists like Zohran Mamdani run for mayor of New York—all while telling me that they embrace terrorist violence in the name of social justice. Sorry guys, ethics don’t work that way. We’ll get to Martin Luther King jr later for his moral reminder.

The meta takeaway of the debate is far bigger than the topic at hand.

The Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times columnist Bret Stephens sponsored the debate, “Is Donald Trump Good for the Jews,” under the aegis of his journal, Sapir (sapphire, for the Jewish color blue and biblical references). A good friend is their managing editor, it’s an excellent publication which you can receive in print for free.

It was a stimulating night, intellectually lite but interesting to see the relative merits of Rahm Emanuel and Jason Greenblatt (former Trump exec and White House advisor), two super smart, super rich guys with direct ties to the most powerful men on the planet.

Last week I went to a debate “Is Donald Trump Good for the Jews” with Bret Stephens, Rahm Emmanuel and Jason Greenblatt (Trump exec and 1.0 admin staffer) at the 92nd Street Y, a Jewish cultural organization on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

In a follow up essay I’ll get into why Rahm Emanuel’s perspective about Trump being bad for the Jews is obsolete, yet popular, in shrinking blue bubbles. Before we get there, for this essay, I’ll show how “Y” movements help explain why there’s widespread left-wing support in North America and Europe for violent Islamism.