Shabbat shalom!
And a tip of the kippah this week to Daniel Kahneman, the Israeli born 2002 Nobel Prize winner who virtually invented behavioral economics, who passed away this last week at the age of 90. Kahneman and his collaborator, Amos Tversky’s work illuminated how the human mind uses two systems of thinking – one fast, one slow. The fast system relies on shortcuts and biases, acting on habit and impulse, and it has significant blind spots. The slower system requires a lot more mental energy to use, but it can override the fast system and allow us to make careful, deliberate decisions.
I can’t help but sense a connection between Kahneman’s work and the shrinking of our overall attention span, mainly due to what I am now calling the “TikTok Brain Syndrome”, or TTBS, (pun intended). As Ted Gioia pointed out in his now viral substack on the State of Culture, silicon valley has elevated the distraction/addiction business model to an art form.
The fastest growing sector of the culture economy is distraction. Or call it scrolling or swiping or wasting time or whatever you want. But it’s not art or entertainment, just ceaseless activity. The key is that each stimulus only lasts a few seconds, and must be repeated.
It’s a huge business, and will soon be larger than arts and entertainment combined. Everything is getting turned into TikTok—an aptly named platform for a business based on stimuli that must be repeated after only a few ticks of the clock.
TikTok made a fortune with fast-paced scrolling video. And now Facebook—once a place to connect with family and friends—is imitating it. So long, Granny, hello Reels. Twitter has done the same. And, of course, Instagram, YouTube, and everybody else trying to get rich on social media.
Gioia concludes that the silicon valley titans of social media have tapped into The Dopamine Loop, as depicted below.
My amateur view on our national psyche is that TTBS has significantly INCREASED our fast thinking brain, and dramatically REDUCED our slow thinking brains. It’s the only explanation I have for example, as to why the orange turd is leading the Republican Party, or why so many Gen Z folks were so quick to support Palestinians over Israel even before Israel launched it’s war against the Hamas barbarians. We can only hope that the ban on TikTok comes sooner rather than later.
Meanwhile, Israel continues to become more and more isolated around the globe. Even Germany, one of its most consistent and ardent supporters, has now started waffling on their support due to the death and devastation that continues in Gaza, and Ireland has mentioned that they will join South Africa in the United Nations genocide investigation. And of course there was the non-veto by the United States of the latest United Nations resolution that called for more aide to Gaza, but did not directly link that aide to releasing the remaining 134 hostages. The Biden administration tried to pass it off as no change to current policy, but the reaction in Israel was far less sanguine.
And our kids, clearly suffering from TTBS, continue to stage protests against Israel at campuses across the country, including the latest from UCLA which saw a protest against the Regents of the college that included a disgusting display depicting a pig holding a bag of cash and a Star of David. Anti-Defamation League Los Angeles Regional Director Jeffrey I. Abrams said in a statement posted to social media, “The most recent display of Jew-hatred on a University of California campus speaks volumes to what Jewish and Israeli students are experiencing every day. Students and faculty across California are impacted by this hateful bigotry and it must come to an end.” To their credit, the University did issue the following statement: “We are offended and deeply saddened by the ugly antisemitic caricature that was displayed as part of a protest aimed at the University of California Board of Regents that met at UCLA on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. The protest has ended and the display has been removed. It is absolutely critical that Jewish members of our community — as well as those of all backgrounds and faiths — are treated with respect and dignity, and we remain committed to doing all we can to ensure the safety and protect the rights of everyone on our campus.”
Unfortunately, the news of the Jews continues to be dark and its pace relentless. Netanyahu is barely holding his coalition together, with the latest challenge coming from the Supreme Court, whose decision this week allowing the exemption from national service for the Orthodox to expire, will cause political and cultural shock waves across Israel. And here are some other headlines and carefully curated items for your information and personal edification:
The aide situation - WTF? conflicting reports - While clearly there are huge humanitarian challenges in Gaza, one of those challenges is getting reliable information, due to the chaos of war, and the reliability of the UN’s IPC data, some of which comes from Hamas sources. The IPC study said the number of people projected to experience “catastrophic hunger” across the besieged enclave between now and mid-July had nearly doubled to more than 1.1 million, or about half the population, since the IPC last reported in December, when there was already record hunger. Israel calls bullshit on the report, citing the following:
the report grossly underestimated the amount of water available per person per day (claiming over 20 liters versus the report’s assessment of less than 1) while noting it lacked key information amid the chaos of the conflict — as acknowledged by the IPC report — and subsequently relied on incomplete data, including from Hamas.
“Given the difficulty in conducting surveys and samplings, the remotely conducted surveys, or third-party surveys within the Gaza Strip, diminish the reliability of the data,” COGAT said.
It said it has tracked reports in Palestinian media “every day” of “food markets filled with food of all types and kinds” in various parts of Gaza, including its north.
“Even at the height of hostilities, in a war that was forced upon it, Israel places no limits on the amount of aid that can enter Gaza, and absolutely does not limit the entrance of food. Israel also facilitates entry of complementary products such as cooking gas and diesel fuel for the operation of aid centers, bakeries, etc. Additionally, 14 million liters of water are supplied by Israel.”
It added that “in recent months between 150 and 200 trucks are admitted per day, most of which are food trucks. This is an 80% spike in comparison to the daily average food trucks that entered Gaza pre-October 7.”
“We outright reject any allegations according to which Israel is purposefully starving the civilian population in Gaza,” COGAT also said.
If you want to go a little deeper on the aide issue, here is a link to a Rand sponsored article that originally appeared in Foreign Policy a week ago. The argument here is basically that security is the major problem, not supply or distribution. Trucks, Piers, and Parachutes Will Not Solve Gaza's Crisis
Lieberman broke boundaries as the first Jew on a major presidential ticket. But it wasn’t all praise and glory for the “moderate — some would say conservative — Democrat turned independent,” who represented Connecticut in the Senate from 1989 to 2013. “Lieberman was known for his attempts to build bridges in an increasingly polarized Washington, sometimes losing old friends and allies along the way,” an obituary recalls — including when Lieberman blasted his former friend, then-President Bill Clinton, over his affair with Monica Lewinsky in a fiery speech on the Senate floor. Read the story ➤
Latest on the war…
A Gallup poll found that a majority of Americans now disapprove of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza; only 36% of respondents approve of the war. Democrats, Republicans and independents all recorded lower approval of the war than in November.
A State Department official resigned in protest of U.S. military support of Israel, writing in a CNN op-ed that “whatever credibility the United States had as an advocate for human rights has almost entirely vanished since the war began.”
In a press conference, families of male hostages still held by Hamas claimed the Israeli government had warned them not to speak to the media, and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “is only meeting with us today after six months, after many official requests and requests through the media.”
Netanyahu is once more in conversation with President Joe Biden’s administration about visiting the White House to discuss Biden’s objections to Israel’s planned ground invasion of Rafah, in southern Gaza. Netanyahu earlier this week canceled a planned meeting in protest of the U.S. abstaining from a United Nations Security Council vote on a ceasefire resolution, which allowed the measure to pass.
A 25-year-old Druze man was killed in a Hezbollah bombardment of the northern Israeli city of Kiryat Shmona.
Three Israelis were injured in a West Bank shooting that targeted school buses and cars along a highway.
The U.S., along with several Middle Eastern governments, is pressing Israel over reports that Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti is facing mistreatment in Israeli prison. Barghouti, a leader of the second intifada, is serving five life sentences; he is one of the most prominent prisoners whose freedom Hamas has requested as part of a potential hostage deal.
Hundreds of students occupied an administrative building at Smith College, demanding the school divest from military contractors they say are complicit in Israel’s war.
Rutgers University is the latest campus to face a Republican-led congressional investigation over allegations of antisemitism on campus.
A Russian court ordered Evan Gershkovich, a Jewish reporter at the Wall Street Journal imprisoned for a year, to remain in jail on espionage charges until at least June. Friends and colleagues have recently organized a swim, a run and a read-a-thon to help bring attention to Evan’s plight.
You can’t make this shit up entry for the week: 🤔 In the lead-up to Good Friday and Easter, former President Donald Trump is selling “God Bless the USA” bibles for $59.99 as he faces mounting legal bills. “Religion and Christianity are the biggest things missing from this country,” Trump said in a promotional video. (AP, Religion News Service) The comedy skit for SNL writes itself.
The Boston Red Sox’s Fenway Park has a Jewish organist. His 22nd season starts Thursday: Josh Kantor has played 1,698 games and is arguably the best-known ballpark organist working today, partly because of his side gigs performing with rock bands. Also because he takes requests: Sure, he plays “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” at every seventh inning stretch, but most everything else he plays during a game is because of requests he receives from fans on social media. Play Ball! Gotta love those Sox!
More Jews in Sports - The “Frozen Chosen” has a starting goalie. Boston Bruins all-star goaltender Jeremy Swayman, whose Jewish heritage was previously only rumored, confirmed in a video message to a fan celebrating their bar mitzvah that he, too, had celebrated his bar mitzvah growing up in Alaska. And speaking of hockey players, a hearty mazel tov to Zach Hyman of the Edmonton Oilers who on Sunday scored his 50th goal of the season. Watch the shot here.
And finally, another Jewish sports star in the making - I thought I would close with this bit of comic relief. A few years ago, friends put the idea in my head that I could make the Israeli Olympic ski team, which of course did not exist, so my chances were greater than zero, but not by much. Having lost out on that opportunity, I recently turned my sports focus to Curling, with the hopes that I might be able to join the Isreali team and help them make it to the 2028 Winter games in Milan. Enjoy.
That’s all the Jew News fit to print this week. I hope you all have a great weekend. And hey, stay safe out there, and always strive to get your stones inside the house!
Brad out.