Making Our Case By Standing Up For Our Homeland and Peoplehood
#1305 January 25, 2026
Shapiro’s approach to “saving the soul” of his political party must not be ours.
So it came out this week that in vetting potential VP candidate Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania the Dems asked him whether in real life he was really Israeli Secret Agent #999. Of course he’s not. Our Gov. Josh is a down-the-line American Court Jew. He calls Israeli PM Netanyahu a “terrible” leader; expresses “concern about deaths in Gaza,” that “leaders can’t ignore the death and destruction there”; and “is a proponent of a two-state solution.” (Townhall.com, 8/1/24, Sure Enough, There’s Pushback on a Potential Shapiro VP Pick)
Jonathan Tobin’s article this week (JNS, 1/19/26, Can Josh Shapiro Rescue the Democratic Party From Left-Wing Antisemitism?) suggests that Shapiro’s inclusion of this vetting question in his forthcoming book may be about more than his personal political ambitions, that [by me, maybe] he’s engaged in trying “to save the soul of a party that has been badly compromised by Jew-hatred since Oct. 7.” But Tobin adds what’s a real concern for us all:
“The sad truth is that both parties now have a serious antisemitism problem, even if it is more widespread among Democrats than in the GOP.”
So what do we do? Bibi fan and Israel-not-preying-on-civilians-in-Gaza believer that I am, I don’t agree with Gov. Shapiro’s approach to struggling for an American political party’s soul, if arguendo that’s what he’s up to. And I particularly disagree with his touting “the two-state solution.”
It’s not just that inserting a sovereign Arab state inside the land of Israel, Palestine west of the Jordan, in the highlands of Judea-Samaria, would render Israel a nine-miles-wide in the lowland middle an indefensible Jewish national ghetto, which it would. It’s that the land of Israel, western Palestine in its entirety, is historically, legally, equitably and indispensably our Jewish people’s national homeland, and as one Israeli paper recently put it, inserting “a Palestinian state” within it is “unthinkable” (World Israel News, 11/20/25, Saudis Demand US Commitment to Palestinian State, an Unthinkable Scenario for Israel)
People, and hence their political parties, respect people who stand up for themselves, not least their religious and peoplehood fundamental beliefs.
Watch, if you will, Mike Pompeo’s and Amb. David Friedman’s DVD, Route 60: the Biblical Highway, which sold more tickets the first two nights it was shown as a feature in American theaters than any other film. It’s about the meaning to Christians and Jews of religious and historical Holy Land sites, visited and explained by two high ranking Trump first-term Americans, respectively a devout Christian and a devout Jew. Believe that these places, not least historic Jerusalem (Old City, still significantly standing Temple Mount, City of David and all) along that route through Samaria and Judea are fundamental to the religious and peoplehood beliefs of both Israeli and Diaspora Jews, and much of it to Christians as well.
It seems to me inconceivable, ok unthinkable, that Jews should advocate, even acquiesce in, ripping all this from our people’s homeland of Israel, meekly handing it over to Palestinian Arabs, huge majority of three-quarters of Mandated Palestine, judenrein Jordan, in “a [second] two-state solution.”
It seems to me even less likely that others and their political parties would respect Jews who would.
And so I regard Governor Shapiro’s retreat from his youthful identification with our Jewish people’s homeland as both sad and counter-productive. I plead with you to think and act otherwise.
Jerry, I save your missives. I’ve started changing the content. I delete Palestine and in brackets substitute [Canaan]. and I delete Semitism and in brackets substitute [Judaism]. It makes me feel better, and I am the only one who will ever see it.
Hi, Henry. I’ve been told that reading my missives has helped insomniacs fall asleep, but you’re a first whom I’m helping you feel better. I agree “Judaism” is a clearer reference to us than “Semitism.” I often rant against our people mouthing Jewish homeland-delegitimizing pejoratives – “West Bank … occupation … annexation … apartheid …” etc, but I don’t include “Palestine” and “Palestinian” among terms to avoid. The Romans renamed Judaea this, memorializing the Philistines (and not Arafat’s ancestors), to disassociate what had been Jewish from Jews (like Jordan with “West Bank”). We should take back Jewish homeland equity in “Palestine” and “Palestinian,” above all stop calling Palestinian Arabs “THE Palestinians.” The UN in 1947 called Arabs and Jews living in Palestine “the two Palestinian peoples.” (Next time you’re feeling low, read and reword two of my missives, and call me in the morning.) Best, Jerry
Comment received by email:
I agree with your assessment of Josh. He is a Democrat and his views about Israel are the views of many, probably most, Democrats in Congress. I think the “two states for two peoples” approach is an anti-Israel abomination, but Josh probably views it as good for Israel. Sad. Alan Molod
To which I replied:
I agree with you “two states for two peoples” west of the Jordan is anti-Israel, but “the Palestinians” don’t even believe in it. Page 182 of my book quotes PA “negotiator” Nabil Sha’ath:
“The story of ‘two states for two peoples’ means that there will be a Jewish people over there and a Palestinian people here. We will never accept this.” Jerry