 Representative Rashida Taib, she became the 26th member in congressional history to be censured in part for, well in part for a tweet she made that was jumping to the conclusion that Israel bombed a hospital when in fact it was a rocket that Hamas misfired and then she didn't really make any effort whatsoever to correct that. The rocket was technically not fired by Hamas but an allied group with Hamas. Yeah the Islamic shihad I think but yeah. Thank you for that clarification and Taib released the statement on October 8th the day after the attack kind of tellingly titled on ongoing violence in Israel and Palestine where she says I grieve the Palestinian and Israeli lives lost yesterday. Today and every day I am determined as ever to fight for a just future where everyone can live in peace. The past of that future must include lifting the blockade, ending the occupation, and dismantling the apartheid system that creates the suffocating dehumanizing conditions that can lead to resistance and her characterizing this this action as resistance was cited as a reason to censure her. Does that statement strike you as beyond the pale and worthy of censure? Well first of all it's an offensive statement. It offends because it implies that what happened on October 7th was justified. It was the inevitable result of the behavior of Israel and how it treats the Palestinians. I don't like the use of the word apartheid. There were two million Arabs who live in Israel who have free healthcare college can vote. It's not free totally but it's free healthcare but they have the same healthcare that every Israeli has. They have the same educational system as every Israeli. They have equal rights. So calling this an apartheid situation I find offensive just as I find offensive the phrase genocide. The population in West Bank and Gaza has risen fivefold over the last I think five or six decades. If this genocide we're not very good at it. The phrase allows the comparison of Israel to the Nazis. Just I don't find that helpful or honest. Having said that I don't have any problem with that statement. I would not have censured her. I don't think it's good for the Jews that we censured her. I'm not sure it's good for Israel and I wanted to say one other thing. Before you say that could you tell me why you say that about why is it not good for the Jews or Israel to censure her? Like the idea that we're so powerful we can you know get a member of Congress censured because she said something that we don't like. That's the way it's easily interpreted. I'm sure if there were no Jews in Congress and no Jews in America it's possible she would have been censured either way but I don't think it looks so good for us. Yeah and to be clear there were Jewish members of Congress who voted to censure her and to not censure her. So you're not really too much there substantively but I understand here. Fair enough but it's just it does it's the same reason I don't like I don't think it's for Jews that we get these people fired or tear down the posters. It's like this makes people angry at the Jews who already don't like them. We have to stand up for ourselves. I'm about to try to stand up and block the poster ripper than to use the legal system or other things to punish them in ways they can't anticipate which is also I think unjust. But I want to say something I think is important about say congressional speech and it's a perfectly legitimate opinion to oppose American military aid to Israel on the grounds that Israel is treats the Palestinians poorly. I don't agree with that the justification but I'm not sure American aid is always good for Israel. So strategically and in terms of making the world a better place that it's a complicated question but it certainly should be protected by free speech to say that American support for Israel is wrong. That is and fundamentally it would be grotesque to censure people who didn't want to stand by Israel in this particular moment and who feel that the Palestinian cause has been inaccurately presented or distorted or anything. So I want to be clear I don't I don't think Israel is entitled or Jews are entitled to any special treatment in this moment because of the horrific nature or savage and barbaric nature of October 7th. I just think we should get the same treatment as everybody else. But that in general I remain a fan of free speech but I do think exhorting people of violence might fall into a different group different category. I do think it's also worth sort of bringing into the conversation that like censuring a member of Congress doesn't actually do anything it is essentially a formal a formalized means of slapping somebody on the wrist. Yeah absolutely and and much of what we're talking about here is is virtue signaling of various kinds that I find unhealthy for for democracy. I would much rather she get voted out of office if her constituents find her offensive or disagree with her and that's the way a democracy should handle this. I wrote the hospital thing. The hospital thing is a little tricky because in the moment I could understand that someone would blame Israel for that bombing you know when that when that story broke it was Israel destroys hospital with 500 people dead. It turned out hospital wasn't destroyed near times ran a photograph of a destroyed building it wasn't the hospital. It turns out that parking lot of the hospital was struck a lot of cars were burned. I don't know if anybody died maybe a few people which very sad but it probably wasn't by Israel. So in the first half hour hour five hours you could maybe have leapt to the wrong conclusion when it came pretty clear that it wasn't the case forget who did it forget whether Israel did it or whether it was Islamic Shi'a missile that did it. It wasn't 500 people it wasn't a hospital destroyed why wouldn't you fix that and she stood up at a rally the next day and said some things are probably not true. It's embarrassing for her again let her constituents put her out of office and if they agree with her or like what she says anyway you know it's hard to disagree they can let them do what they do. Hey thanks for watching that clip from our conversation with Russ Roberts about life in Israel in the aftermath of the October 7th terrorist attacks. You can watch another clip from that conversation over here or the full conversation right over here.