Engaging with Elise Stefanik, Kathy Hochul, Chuck Schumer, Ben Shapiro and Rod Dreher on an Imaginary Panel About Healthy Jewish and White Christian Coalition-Building in New York Politics

9:20 PM Tuesday.

My prayers are with my mom and the Vegan Christian Discipleship School this evening. I missed class this afternoon after taking my mom to get a biopsy at the clinic. The whole thing has been weighing on me a lot more than I realized. And now there is the waiting for the results. My mom, a stage 4 breast cancer survivor, is handling it remarkably well - in the midst of an identity theft crisis, no less. I am amazed by her resilience and feel terrible that I cannot be of more help. My therapist has gently nudged me to explore whether I have been pouring myself into my blog lately as a way to cope with some of that stress. But that is something to revisit in telehealth early tomorrow morning. Right now, I need to process some crossover thoughts I am having with respect to American political science and American spiritual formation. 

My ball pitch to the imaginary panel of political and spiritual luminaries I cited in the title of this post goes something like this. Should we assume, looking out to 2050, that Israel and Palestine will be two states side-by-side, in peace, security and prosperity, with a safe and resilient Jerusalem at their center, or should we assume that one of the two will be subsumed by the other, or that perhaps both will be subsumed by an outside power, in the midst of a global limits-to-growth breakdown?

Why do I pose this question? I want to underscore my genuine commitment to green conservatism and two-state Zionism at the outset, which I think is the only realistic framework for peace we in the Zionist camp of American opinion ultimately have in our dialogue with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, with the African Union, and with the wider UN world. We in this camp have to admit that ever since 7 October 2023, which has profoundly influenced world history, there has been a wide range of understandable American political and religious responses to the decisions of the Netanyahu government. We also have to admit there has been tremendous Palestinian suffering, and that we need to bring that extreme suffering - and all extreme suffering worldwide - to a durable end as soon as we can. That is what the UN system is all about. This is what binds us together as one human family on planet Earth. And this is incredibly important, I think, to emphasize. That we are one UN family, one human family, and that we need to work together to provide for common security and prosperity.

At the same time, of course we have to be responsible to states' rights and prerogatives, and we have to encourage healthy competition, which in my mind takes place within a larger relationship of cooperation. We agree to compete within certain cooperative rules. We even agree to compete militarily, if absolutely necessary, within certain cooperative rules.

Has Israel crossed the line? If so, by how much, and in what proportion to other transgressions by other states? Well, we have a genocide case brought by South Africa against Israel at the ICJ, and I am not sure that the accountability to world history this implies can get much higher. I believe we have an obligation to prevent the genocide of the Jews, including in their restoration to their historic homeland, and I believe we have an obligation to prevent the genocide of the Palestinians, in their pursuit of peaceful statehood, side-by-side with Israel, as authoritative international law now prescribes.

At the same time, I believe we have an obligation to prevent a collapse of world civilization through ecological mismanagement, to the extent this is in our control. 

Now hopefully I haven't so far said anything that the P5 of the UN Security Council would disagree to. 

Bringing this down more directly into American and New York politics, I want to apologize if I have caused offense to any members of my esteemed imaginary panel. If I did that was just my ignorance and lack of skill in the realm of interfaith peace blogging.

Perhaps I shouldn't have come out quite so hard against Nicholas Fuentes and his fan base. I don't want to turn them into a scapegoat for all of America's problems. I don't want to ignore the risk that they pose, but I don't want to exaggerate it into America's number one homeland security priority, either. Trump is focused on public safety in some of America's toughest neighborhoods, and this requires a holistic, fair, data-driven view. On a more personal level, I have my own history of struggle with stigmatization as the "Identified Patient" in a dysfunctional American family system and I don't want to suggest that anyone in America is unloved by God, or unreachable through effective intervention. I also don't want to suggest that America is inherently dysfunctional. Far from it.

By implication, I also have to consider apologies to Mearsheimer, Sachs, and Carlson. I don't know that I am ready to dismiss them as occasional advisors. I do not agree with them on some issues, but I do agree with them on others, and they are recognized leaders in their fields. Do I really want to lose the benefit of their perspectives in my quest for 360-degree situational awareness? I am not ready to end my boycott of their YouTube interviews, but I am wavering.

Now at last, I get to my main topic for this panel. Is it possible to talk proudly and openly in New York State about coalition politics between healthy Jewish power and healthy white Christian power? Is it racist for the white Christian majority in New York to prefer and take pride in a contest between two strong white Christian women for the governorship in 2026? Is it racist to expect both gubernatorial candidates to support two-state Zionism? Is it racist to expect them both to support, take pride in, and defend the culture of the white Christian majority in New York State?

I have considerable empathy for young white Christian men in New York State. I have empathy for all young white people who are walking the path of spiritual formation in New York. Healthy white identity is incredibly important here in the northeast of Turtle Island, as it is throughout white America. I say this as someone who has come to learn that we need to be color-blind in many respects but appropriately race-conscious in others. Appropriate race-consciousness for those labeled white does not mean self-hating. It does not mean submission to any system of racial supremacy with all the structural oppressions and interpersonal microaggressions associated with that system. It does, on the other hand, seem to imply a balance of local racial pride and critical racial reflection in the context of a complex multipolar world historical story.

Don't get me wrong. I have real questions about New York State's white Christian culture. But basically, I hold it in very high regard. I think it is one very important way that many white New Yorkers try to be their best white and color-blind selves, though there is much more to it theologically and politically than this.

What do you think, esteemed panel, about the future of Jewish and white Christian culture in New York politics? NYC Mayor-elect Mamdani is opposed to a Zionist state - any Zionist state west of the Jordan. Prime Minister Netanyahu is opposed to a Palestinian state - any Palestinian state west of the Jordan. Should we in the Jewish and white Christian coalition majority expect Mamdani and Netanyahu to change in favor of a two-state limits-to-growth solution by 2050?

The humanitarian crisis in Gaza and disorderly immigration in America require us to continue thinking about root causes. Here, part of the issue is certainly unsustainable population growth in the face of ecological limits, which is a critical push factor of violent conflict and disorderly immigration. How do we talk about that in New York state, as healthy Jewish and white Christian intellectuals?

Is it wrong, fundamentally, to organize ourselves as a coalition of white Christians and Jews who want to see a two-state limits-to-growth solution succeed by 2050?

Is there any reason why this kind of open, constructive coalition-building would be contrary to a similar coalition-building effort between white Christians and black Christians? I know that Delgado is running for governor of New York State, too, and I don't mean to overlook his candidacy. But all qualifications aside, what would it say about New York State to have an African American Governor, Attorney General, leader of the NYS Senate, and leader of the NYS Assembly, all at about the same time? Would this be a step forward for Jews, white Christians and black Christians in New York, or a step backward? Is this an acceptable question to ask in public in New York, from both critical white and critical black studies perspectives? I will stay open to Delgado's candidacy, and I will give him a fair hearing if he wins the Democratic primary, which I will not vote in. I will be color-blind. But I will also be racially self-conscious. I don't know that I can honestly promise to only be one or the other.

I am still kicking this all around. Am I white, Anglo-Saxon, American or all three? I am still a bit uncomfortable with the first two labels, and that requires some analysis. Would most Anglo-Saxons in the homeland consider me an Anglo-Saxon in diaspora? Is that how I should think of myself ethnically? Or am I ethnically just a generic white American? As far as my religious identity goes, I am not sure I should identify as a Christian. But I do suspect I am authentically somewhere between Jewish and Christian. Even as I am on the Red Road of the Turtle Island interfaith contemplative.

End 11:57 PM.