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What Would Matt Baldacci Do? The Collaborator Mentality Returns
French philosopher, writer and director Bernard-Henri Levy. Photo: Reuters / Benoit Tessier.
JNS.org – Like many Jews of my generation, born during a period when antisemitism was largely depicted as a historical phenomenon and any manifestations were seen as an unfortunate aberration, I would occasionally wonder how the non-Jews in my midst would have behaved during the Holocaust. Would they have stood up to the Nazis, acquiesced to them or even supported them? Would they have expressed disgust at Nazi propaganda or dutifully nodded in agreement? Would they have protected me and my family from deportation, or would they have betrayed us?
Those were, I mused, speculative thought experiments that, thankfully, I would never have to test in the real world. But in 2024, one year after the bestial pogrom wreaked by Hamas terrorists in southern Israel, those same questions belong firmly in the real world. And my suspicion is that many, indeed most, non-Jews would fail these tests of moral and physical courage.
Earlier this month, Melanie Notkin, an author and communications consultant, had the foresight to record a conversation she held with Matt Baldacci, the publisher of Shelf Awareness, a trade title for the bookstore and publishing industry that reaches more than 600,000 readers weekly. Notkin had been helping to promote Israel Alone, the latest book by the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, which I recently reviewed for this column, and duly purchased an ad in Baldacci’s newsletter for $2,300. But then Baldacci sent her an email informing her that he was canceling the ad, so Notkin scheduled a phone call with him to find out more.
Their conversation was endlessly fascinating and incredibly disturbing. As he told Notkin that the ad had been pulled because the book contains the word “Israel” in the title—potentially triggering bookstore staff or customers with what he would call “pro-Palestinian” but what we properly call pro-Hamas sympathies—Baldacci traversed the spectrum of vocal tones with aplomb, sounding by turns friendly, then unctuous, then impatient, then irritated. At one point, he even indulged in a bit of “mansplaining,” telling Notkin “that’s not actually true or relevant” when she noted that the CEO of his company is Jewish. “Listen, Melanie, Melanie, I hear you,” he interjected, sounding determined to end the conversation as quickly as possible. “I respect everything you’re saying. And as you say, I think that’s all there is to say.”
I don’t know Notkin, but I admired her dignity in carefully listening to Baldacci and eloquently pushing back against his cloying, disingenuous arguments. I don’t know Baldacci either, at least not personally, but I know his type very well.
It’s probably true that most of those who collaborated with the Nazis in Germany and occupied Europe did not do so primarily for ideological reasons but because resistance would have made their daily lives much tougher. I was always taught not to judge these people for not doing the right thing because they feared imprisonment or death, after all. And in the postwar period, there was a discreet acknowledgement among the occupied populations that this had been the case and that history had been kinder to them than was perhaps warranted; in the Netherlands, for example, people would joke that “most Dutch were in the resistance—they just joined after the war.” But that explanation doesn’t serve for someone like Baldacci, who exhibits the telltale traits of a collaborator without the specter of a totalitarian state operating concentration camps hanging over him.
Baldacci is a coward: Someone who, when faced with injustice or rank hypocrisy, rationalizes it and plays its worst aspects down. Someone who doesn’t like to rock the boat. In other words, he is the perfect fit for a collaborator. And so we are forced to ask: If America was suddenly in the grip of totalitarianism, if we had a government that was rounding up Jews in a bid to stop the Jewish conspiracy, if we had a government that criminalized the word “Israel”—a word that is always in the consciousness of Jews and their aspirations and prayers—what would Baldacci do? I know the answer, and I expect readers do, too.
It is the Matt Baldaccis of this world—women and men who are followers and not leaders, who consent to antisemitic agitation without explicitly endorsing it, who stay silent when they need to speak up—who have enabled the current wave of eliminationist antisemitism gripping our country and much of the Western world. Their simpering silence and pathetic fear of angering the mob are precisely what empowers the thugs who shoot at Jews going to synagogue in Chicago or at a Jewish school in Toronto, who gather outside a London conference where the Arab head of the anti-Zionist Communist Party of Israel is speaking to verbally abuse the peace activist Jews in attendance, who push petitions seeking to banish Jews from the worlds of literature, art and music—fields of endeavor that would be indelibly poorer without our contribution!
It is the Matt Baldaccis who have forced Jews, myself among them, to ask whether we grew up in some kind of an illusion, given the routine normalcy with which we historically interacted with non-Jewish friends and colleagues. Because if such people can’t stand up for a Jewish writer like Lévy in a democracy where free speech is part of our national ethos, how should we expect them to behave if the stakes and the costs are much graver? If their fear of the disapproval of the pro-Hamas media and street chorus is so great now, how much greater would it be if this chorus exercised direct political control of our republic?
I hope we never have to find out.
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Australia Cracks Down on Antisemitism Amid Unrelenting Surge in Hate Crimes Targeting Jewish Community
Car in New South Wales, Australia graffitied with antisemitic message. Photo: Screenshot
The government of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) has introduced a proposal to criminalize specific protests outside places of worship in response to a recent wave of hate crimes targeting Jews in Australia.
“We have seen disgusting acts of racial hatred and antisemitism,” the NSW premier Chris Minns said in a statement outlining the proposed laws. “These are strong new laws, and they need to be because these attacks have to stop.”
Part of a broader set of measures, the reforms aim to address a recent wave of arson attacks and antisemitic vandalism across Australia over the past two months.
“These laws have been drafted in response to the horrifying antisemitic violence in our community, but it’s important to note that they will apply to anyone, preying on any person, of any religion,” Minns said.
The legislation also followed Israel’s call for the Australian government to take stronger measures against the “epidemic of antisemitism” that has swept across the country. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has maintained that his government is doing everything possible to combat attacks, including acts of domestic terrorism.
The attempted antisemitic terror attack at a synagogue in Sydney is intolerable. This joins a long list of antisemitic attacks in Australia, including setting fire to a childcare center in Sydney, firebombing a synagogue in Melbourne, and many other antisemitic attacks.
The…— Gideon Sa’ar | גדעון סער (@gidonsaar) January 29, 2025
On Sunday, the NSW Jewish Board said that in three weeks they had seen 10 publicly reported antisemitic incidents, primarily in the Sydney area, which included arson and vandalism — including property defaced with messages reading “f—k Jews.” The group said that number “doesn’t include the graffiti appearing in our streets on a daily basis or the abuse and harassment that goes unreported.”
Last month, Australian police said they foiled a potential mass-casualty antisemitic terrorist attack after discovering a caravan in a suburb of Sydney filled with explosives and material containing details about Jewish targets.
Under the new proposed laws, it would be an offense to block access to places of worship or harass, intimidate, or threaten people there, with a maximum penalty of two years in prison. The legislation gives the police heightened powers to enforce he law.
It would also become a crime to display a Nazi symbol near a synagogue, with a maximum two-year prison sentence, and the Graffiti Control Act would be amended to make graffiti on places of worship an aggravated offence.
These potential changes would come after two synagogues in Sydney were vandalized last month with swastikas, and an attempt was made to set one on fire.
Under the new legislation, sentencing could take into account whether an offense was “wholly” or “partially” driven by hatred or prejudice.
“The entire community will be safer as a direct result of these changes. The proposed changes will mean that divisive and hateful behaviors will not succeed in dividing our community,” said Michael Daley, the attorney general.
As authorities work to counter the alarming surge in anti-Jewish incidents, law enforcement has made several arrests across Australia.
On Wednesday, two 27-year-old men were arrested and charged for spray-painting antisemitic symbols and words on walls, bus stops, and signs in several Perth neighborhoods in western Australia.
“The Western Australia Police Force will not allow vile acts of hatred and racism to go unchecked,” a WA Police spokesperson said in a statement. “This swift outcome should send a clear message to anyone engaging in this kind of behavior. We will find you and you will be put before the courts to face the consequences of your actions.”
In Melbourne, a 68-year-old man has been charged with criminal damage, unlawful assault, and offensive graffiti after allegedly vandalizing a family home in a Jewish community and throwing bacon at a passerby who tried to intervene.
In Sydney, a woman was found guilty of sending a threatening message to a Jewish school just 11 days after Hamas’s invasion of and massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. However, she has escaped conviction.
In the letter, the 21-year-old wrote: “You are the children of Satan … get cancer and die a slow, painful death.”
“Praise Hitler. If only he was here to continue the mass destruction of your bloodline,” the message continued.
Many observers have expressed outrage over the woman escaping conviction. The verdict came as Jewish students were reported to be hiding their school uniform logos and avoiding public transport, in the wake of rising antisemitic attacks on Jewish schools, daycare centers, and synagogues.
AUSTRALIA’S SHAME – ANTISEMITISM EMERGENCY
This pic is the front cover of the Wentworth Courier, the local paper for much of Sydney’s eastern suburbs which is home to much of the Jewish community in NSW.
“Jewish children under police watch” in order to attend school.… pic.twitter.com/L6Itct35L9
— Australian Jewish Association (@AustralianJA) February 4, 2025
Last month, the NSW government also proposed a new law making it a criminal offense to intentionally incite racial hatred, with a maximum two-year prison sentence.
In their efforts to combat hate speech, this change would make inciting racial hatred a criminal offense, rather than just a civil one under the Anti-Discrimination Act.
The state government also announced an increase of $525,000 in funding for the NSW police engagement and hate crime unit, along with a $500,000 boost to a grants program for social cohesion.
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Pro-Trump Arab American Group Changes Name After US President Floats Controversial Gaza Plan
Then-US President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with House Republicans at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington, DC, US on Nov. 13, 2024. Photo: ALLISON ROBBERT/Pool via REUTERS
A prominent organization that sought to forge strong ties between US President Donald Trump and the Arab American community has changed its name in opposition to Trump’s proposal for the US to “take over” over Gaza.
On Wednesday, “Arab Americans for Trump” announced a rebrand to “Arab Americans for Peace,” criticizing the president for his failure to hold meetings with “key Arab leaders” and his support for removing “Palestinian inhabitants to other parts of the Arab world.”
“We strongly appreciate the president’s offer to clean and rebuild Gaza. However, the purpose should be to make Gaza habitable for Palestinians and no one else,” the group said in a press release explaining the name change.
The group explained that it supports a separate independent state for Palestinians encompassing Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, expressing disappointment that Trump has not attempted to carve out a “path to a permanent peace process.”
Bishara Bahbah, chairman of the group, told the Associated Press that the organization is “completely opposed” to Trump’s suggestion to transfer Gaza’s civilians out of the coastal enclave.
“The talk about what the president wants to do with Gaza, obviously we’re completely opposed to the idea of the transfer of Palestinians from anywhere in historic Palestine,” Bahbah said. “And so we did not want to be behind the curve in terms of pushing for peace, because that has been our objective from the very beginning.”
On Tuesday night, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was visiting the White House, held a press conference following their private meeting in the Oval Office. Trump asserted that the US would assume control of Gaza and develop it economically into “the Riviera of the Middle East” after Palestinians are resettled elsewhere.
“The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,” Trump told reporters. “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site.”
Earlier in the day, Trump referred to Gaza as a “demolition site” and said its residents have “no alternative” but to leave, suggesting Egypt, Jordan, and other Arab states as possible relocation sites.
Trump performed remarkably well with Arab American voters in the 2024 presidential election. In the majority-Arab American city of Dearborn, Michigan, 42 percent of voters backed Trump, compared to 36 percent who supported Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
Other Arab American leaders and organizations slammed Trump’s proposal to vacate Palestinians from Gaza.
Layla Elabed, the co-chair of the Uncommitted National Movement, said she was “sad, angry, and scared for our communities.”
James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, called Trump’s comments “dangerous, provocative, illegal, and callously insensitive to Palestinian needs.”
Wa’el Alzayat, leader of EmgageUSA, an organization that advocates on behalf of Muslim Americans, rebuffed Trump’s proposal as a “violation of international law.”
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Liri Albag Celebrates 20th Birthday at Hospital With Other Hostages Released From Gaza
Liri Albag, center, standing from a balcony inside Israel’s Rabin Medical Center and watching an orchestra performance for her birthday alongside Agam Berger, Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev, and Naama Levy. Photo:
American Friends of Rabin Medical Center
Liri Albag, who was recently released from captivity in Gaza as part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, celebrated her 20th birthday on Tuesday with other former hostages at Rabin Medical Center’s Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah, Israel, where she is recovering after returning home 10 days earlier.
An orchestra came to the hospital to perform a small concert for Albag, who celebrated her previous birthday in Hamas captivity. The songs included Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” and “Happy Birthday.” She watched from a balcony on one of the upper floors of the hospital alongside other freed hostages Agam Berger, Daniella Gilboa, Karina Ariev, and Naama Levy. All five women were serving as surveillance soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces when they were kidnapped from an IDF base in Nahal Oz by Hamas-led terrorists during their deadly rampage in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
Albag, Gilboa, Ariev, and Levy returned together after 15 months in Hamas captivity as part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas. Five days later, Berger was also released as part of the ceasefire deal.
Albag uploaded a post on Instagram about her birthday and wrote: “Today I get to celebrate my 20th birthday with my loved ones. The only wish I asked for — is for all the hostages to return.”
Her older sister, Roni Albag, shared a photo from the birthday celebrations on Instagram and wrote in the caption: “Our Lirosh, our number 1. I dreamed of this moment countless times and here you are. Today you celebrate your 20th birthday at home!!! Today you celebrate the life that was given to you again. You are our victory, our heart and the light of our home. I love you and am here for you forever and ever.”
Liri posted on social media on Friday for the first time since returning from captivity. In an Instagram post, she thanked the people of Israel for their “support, love, and help.” She said, “Together, we are strength.” She also thanked the IDF and members of Israel’s security forces “who sacrificed their souls and fought for us and our country! There isn’t a morning that I don’t pray for their safety.”
“Finally got to reunite with my family! But our fight isn’t over and I won’t stop fighting until everyone is home!” she added. “I want us to continue to stay united, because together nothing can break us. The unity and hope we have in us scares all our enemies, amazes all our lovers, and comforts the people among us. A sentence that used to accompany me was ‘at the end of every night, darkness disappears.’ And I wish that everyone can see the light.”
Seven surveillance soldiers were abducted from the Nahal Oz base on Oct. 7, 2023, including Noa Marciano, who was killed in Hamas captivity, and Ori Megidish, who was rescued by the IDF in October 2023.
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