9 May 2024

Trump-affiliated group releases new national security book outlining possible second-term approach

by | posted in: Politics | 0

By LYNN BERRY, DIDI TANG, JILL COLVIN and ELLEN KNICKMEYER (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Making future military aid to Ukraine contingent on the country participating in peace talks with Russia. Banning Chinese nationals from buying property within a 50-mile radius of U.S. government buildings. Filling the national security sector with acolytes of Donald Trump.

One of several groups trying to lay the groundwork for a second Trump administration if the former Republican president wins in November is out with a new policy book that aims to articulate an “America First” national security agenda.

The book, shared with The Associated Press before its release Thursday, is the latest effort from the America First Policy Institute. Like the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025,” the group is seeking to help Trump avoid the mistakes of 2016, when he entered the White House largely unprepared.

Beyond its policy efforts, the institute’s transition project has been working to draft dozens of executive orders and developing a training program for future political appointees. Heritage has been building an extensive personnel database and offering its own policy manuals.

Both groups stress they are independent from Trump’s campaign, which has repeatedly tried to distance itself from such efforts, insisting that the only Trump-backed policies are those the candidate articulates himself.

Still Fred Fleitz, the book’s editor, noted that he and retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, who served for a time as Trump’s acting national security adviser and wrote several of the chapters, have been in frequent touch with the former president, soliciting feedback and discussing topics such as Ukraine at length.

“We hope this is where he is. We’re not speaking for him, but I think he will approve,” said Fleitz, who formerly served as the National Security Council’s chief of staff.

He said he hopes the book will serve as “a guidebook that will be an intellectual foundation for the America First approach” to national security “that’s easy to use.”

“It’s a grand strategy,” added Kellogg. “You don’t start with the policies first. You start with the strategies first. And that’s what we’ve done.”

The group casts the current trajectory of U.S. national security as a failure, thanks to a foreign policy establishment it accuses of having embraced an interventionist and “globalist” approach at the expense of America’s national interests.

While short on specifics, the book offers some guideposts to how a future Trump administration could approach foreign policy issues such as Russia’s war against Ukraine. Trump has said, that if elected, he would solve the conflict before Inauguration Day in January, but has declined to say how.

The book’s chapter on the war spends more time discussing how the conflict unfolded than how to end it. But it says the U.S. should make future military aid contingent on Ukraine participating in peace talks with Russia.

It predicts the Ukrainian army will likely lose ground over time and advises against the U.S. continuing “to send arms to a stalemate that Ukraine will eventually find difficult to win.” But once there is a peace agreement, it says the U.S. would continue to arm Ukraine as a deterrent to Russia.

The authors seem to endorse a framework in which Ukraine “would not be asked to relinquish the goal of regaining all its territory” but would agree to diplomacy “with the understanding that this would require a future diplomatic breakthrough which probably will not occur before (Russian President Vladimir) Putin leaves office.”

It acknowledges that Ukrainians “will have trouble accepting a negotiated peace that does not give back all of their territory or, at least for now, hold Russia responsible for the carnage it inflicted on Ukraine. Their supporters will also. But as Donald Trump said at the CNN town hall in 2023, ‘I want everyone to stop dying.’ That’s our view, too. It is a good first step.”

The book blames Democratic President Joe Biden for the war and repeats Trump’s claim that Putin never would have invaded if Trump had been in office. Its main argument in defense of that claim is that Putin saw Trump as strong and decisive. In fact, Trump cozied up to the Russian leader and was reluctant to challenge him.

The bulk of the chapter is spent laying out an at times erroneous timeline of Biden’s handling of the war.

Going forward, it suggests Putin could be persuaded to join peace talks if Biden and other NATO leaders offer to put off NATO membership for Ukraine for an extended period. It suggests that the U.S. instead establish a “long-term security architecture for Ukraine’s defense that focuses on bilateral security defense.” It provides no explanation of what this would entail. It also calls for placing levies on Russian energy sales to pay for reconstruction in Ukraine.

The book is critical of Trump’s transition efforts in 2016, bemoaning a broad lack of preparation before Trump took office.

“The tumultuous transition of 2016/2017 did not serve President Trump and the nation well and slowed the advancement and implementation of his agenda,” the authors wrote. For instance, they note that before the election, Democrat Hillary Clinton’s transition team had submitted more than 1,000 names for future security clearance. Trump’s team submitted just 25.

The group says it has identified roughly 1,200 national security-related positions that the next administration will need to fill and urges it to be ready on Day 1 with Trump loyalists who adhere to the “America First” approach.

“It’s not about retaliating against people or trying to politicize government positions. It’s about making sure government workers do their job and keep politics out of their work,” Fleitz said.

The book describes China as the nation’s most pressing national security threat, eager to displace the U.S. as the world’s premier power. It proposes a hawkish policy that builds on approaches from both the Trump years and the Biden administration with the goal of making Beijing’s policies “largely irrelevant to American life.”

It elevates economic concerns with China to those of national security and proposes a reciprocal approach that would deny Beijing access to U.S. markets in the same way American companies have been denied in China.

The book also recommends more rigorous screening of cyber and tech companies owned by U.S. adversaries, especially China, to make sure they are not collecting sensitive information. It also recommends that Chinese nationals be banned from buying property within a 50-mile radius of any U.S. government property.

It calls for visa restrictions on Chinese students wishing to study in the United States and for the banning of TikTok and other Chinese apps out of concerns for data privacy. Trump, however, has spoken out against a law that would force TikTok’s sale or block U.S. access.

The analysts’ views of what an “America First” policy looks like often reflect the writers’ personal focuses.

For Ellie Cohanim, a former Trump deputy State Department envoy charged with monitoring and combating antisemitism, “America First” looks a lot like a shopping list for the Israeli military.

The U.S. should rush Israel a squadron of “25 Lockheed Martin F-35s, one squadron of Boeing’s F-15 EX, and a squadron of Apache E attack helicopters,” Cohanim wrote.

The U.S. should give some of its billions of dollars in military funding to Israel in Israeli currency so Israel can spend it at home, and Washington should push Arab states to foot the bill for the rebuilding of Gaza and accept Israel’s shelving any political talks with the Palestinians pending an indefinite period of compulsory deradicalization for the Palestinian people, she wrote.

___

Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana contributed to this report.

9 May 2024

Distillers Want to Decriminalize Making Booze at Home

by | posted in: News | 0

In 1933 when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the 21st Amendment ending 13 years of Prohibition, he was not primarily motivated by the hysteria around organized crime, nor the tragedy of the thousands who died ingesting toxic denatured alcohol. It was the Great Depression and the U.S. government needed money. 

He and other officials were looking to the alcoholic beverage industry, previously the nation’s fifth largest, for a bailout. Since Prohibition began, they figured they’d lost $3 billion per year in illegal untaxed income from alcoholic beverage commerce.

“I think it’s time for a beer,” the president said.

But to hinder an illegal market that could compete with the formal economy and undermine the government’s taxing ability, federal and state governments long prohibited home brewing. Finally in 1978, some restrictions were relaxed to allow beer and wine to be made at home or in microbreweries.

Now, members of the Hobby Distiller’s Association are arguing in a federal lawsuit in the Northern District of Texas that home distilling of spirits should be legalized too. Since December, they have been engaged in a legal battle with the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Trade Bureau to remove the ban. Unlike the bootleggers who fled the feds in high-speed car chases during Prohibition, members of the Hobby Distiller’s Association say they seek to hone their craft and distill spirits for personal consumption legally. But they are caught at the crosshairs of competing interests—the federal government, which fears losing tax revenues, the big distillers, who don’t want competition, and the Federalist Society and other libertarian groups, which have embraced their cause as part of a larger effort to reduce the feds’ regulatory and taxing powers. 

Railean Distillers uses the tall hybrid column reflux-pot still that has seven separate trays to distill a variety of spirits. On display to the left is an antique pot still and a basic column still hobbyists would use at home. (Josephine Lee)

“Hobbyist distillers should just be left alone,” Hobby Distillers Association President Rick Morris told the Texas Observer.  

Rick Morris’ love for the spirit distilling craft is obvious. In his book The Joy of Home Distilling, Morris narrates the process for novice hobbyists, starting from how to “keep our little yeast friends happy,” through its aerobic respiration, fermentation, and sedimentation process used to produce beer or wine, and then to converting that into spirits. That happens in distillation, during which the liquids are further purified and concentrated with greater alcohol content through repeated boiling and condensation. From distilling wine, you get brandy, schnapps, or other fruit-based spirits. From distilling beer,  you get whiskey or scotch. By distilling a neutral fermenting yeast, you get vodka, Morris explains. 

But this very process is at the heart of the ongoing court case. In other words, it would be completely legal for Jesus to turn water into wine today. But if the son of God wanted to convert that wine into brandy, he’d be committing a federal felony punishable by up to five years in prison and $10,000 in fines. 

Since 1992, Rick Morris has been selling supplies to small distillers through his Keller-based company Brewhaus. But in 2014, when the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Trade Bureau forced him to hand over a list of customers and then arrested eight home distillers and seized 48 stills in Florida, Morris and others decided to push to decriminalize home alcohol distillation and created the Hobby Distiller’s Association.

By 2015 the group had met with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Trade Bureau and gained support of several congressmen, including Ron Wyden, chair of the Senate Finance Committee. In 2015, Wyden introduced the Craft Beverage Modernization and Tax Reform Act to support small crafters making wine, beer, and spirits, including a provision to exempt home distillery establishments that produced spirits for personal consumption from excise tax requirements. 

But Morris said that after pushback from large distillers, such as the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, the bill died in committee. The next year, a similar bill passed but without the provision exempting home distillers. “We were trying to do it the proper way by trying to get the laws changed. But the Kentucky Distillers’ Association and others are larger and more powerful than we could ever be,” Morris said, adding that hobbyist distillers were left to “hone their craft in the shadows.” 

Kelly Railean, a small craft distiller, co-owner of Railean Distillers in San Leon, and former customer of Brewhaus,  believes the continued ban on home distillation is driven mainly by large distillers and distributors who want to prevent the competition large beermakers have gotten from craft breweries. Since she started her business in 2006, she’s had to fight state and federal regulations to crack open the market for small distillers. Railean Distillers is already known as the first rum distillery in Texas. But as a former sommelier, a judge for craft beverage contests, and a former salesperson for a national distributor, she says she believes stringent laws regulating small distillers, including a ban on distilling at home, is styming innovation. 

“They’ve handcuffed small distillers with these laws. It’s just awfully expensive for people who want to get started,” Railean said. 

Before they begin, distillers have to apply for plant permits, file a bond, have their tanks and pipes inspected, their stills constructed and inspected, their building ready to go, and then regularly submit records, reports, and be subjected to inspections thereafter. Even with all that, the Texas Observer found that the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Trade Bureau granted only an average of 352 new permits nationwide annually since 2012. Anyone who violates those laws, or possesses, purchases, or sells distilled spirits produced illegally is subject to arrest and fines. Texas law also requires a state commercial distilling license just to possess a still. 

In 2023, the Hobby Distiller’s Association renewed efforts to decriminalize home spirits distillation after Morris received a call from attorneys at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank that has long sought to chip away at the federal government’s regulatory powers. In December, the Institute filed a complaint on behalf of the Hobby Distiller’s Association; then in March, the group filed a motion for preliminary injunction to prevent the federal government’s enforcement of the home distilling ban. 

In the federal lawsuit Hobby Distillers Association, et. al. v. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, et. al., lawyers for the Competitive Enterprise Institute argue that the home distilling ban exceeds the government’s constitutional powers to regulate interstate commerce and collect taxes. Home distilling for personal consumption, the complaint states, is a local and noneconomic activity, and therefore not under federal government jurisdiction. And unlike the ban on homegrown cannabis that was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court because it was deemed “necessary and proper” to enforce the federal law criminalizing the use, sale, or distribution of marijuana, the plaintiffs’ lawyers argue there is no comparable statute criminalizing spirits. 

In addition, the plaintiffs assert that home distillation produces no revenue, and therefore, does not interfere with federal tax collection. 

Devin Watkins, an attorney for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told the Observer that home distillers would still have to abide by federal and state laws, obtain permits, and follow other regulations. “But if successful, they would be able to legally distill at home. … It would mean that the federal government would realize that this was not really a constitutional provision and would just stop enforcing it,” Watkins said. 

In legal filings, government attorneys defend the home distilling ban as just “one part of a well-considered scheme adopted to protect the revenue generated by the excise tax on distilled spirits,” a long-standing tax, established since after the Civil War. 

Those revenues are significant. According to an analysis of federal data, the U.S. government collected $11.1 billion, or 2.6 percent, of its total revenue from excise taxes on alcohol during the 2023 fiscal year. And because these taxes are based on alcohol content, more than half came from distilled spirits. Texas separately collected $1.8 billion from excise taxes on alcohol last fiscal year. 

But home distillers say their struggle to practice their craft at home isn’t an attempt to evade taxes or sidestep the law. They are willing to pay excise taxes, if necessary, the lawsuit says. Nor do the members of the Hobby Distiller’s Association profess all the same goals as those of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. 

Railing against federal overreach and calling for states’ rights, the institute echoed the calls of right-wing “Constitutional Originalists,” writing on their blog: “The plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction reflects a broader struggle to defend personal freedoms and uphold the federalism at the center of our Constitution’s design.”

Since its founding in 1984, the institute has tried to dismantle laws regulating finance, labor, technology and telecommunications, transportation, food and drugs, and energy and the environment, even denying climate change science as “false” and “alarmist.”  

Leonard Leo’s Federalist Society has also supported the Hobby Distillers Association’s cause as part of larger efforts to “target” the federal government’s power to regulate commerce and collect taxes: “If refining a spirit in your home to enjoy with family and friends can be banned outright as an exercise of the federal government’s interstate commerce or taxing power . . . what can’t be? Perhaps we’ll soon join hobby distillers around the nation in toasting another step toward restoring a federal government of limited and enumerated powers,” writes the Federalist Society on its website. 

Eric Segall, constitutional law professor at the Georgia State University College of Law, told the Observer he disagrees with the larger goals of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. But Segall said he believes hobby distillers have a strong argument: Home distillation does not appear to be an “economic activity” the government can regulate under the Commerce Clause. “If it goes to the Supreme Court, it’s highly likely that the law will be struck down. … As currently constituted, the Supreme Court will not be sympathetic to this law.” 

Since 1937, the Supreme Court has ruled against the federal government’s power to regulate commerce only three times, Segall said. While he doesn’t believe a win for the plaintiffs would damage the Commerce Clause doctrine, Segall says it would be a symbolic political victory for right-wing libertarians. 

“The stakes aren’t that high. But it’s always a sunny day for the Federalist Society, if the Court strikes down a law under the Commerce Clause,” Segall said. 

9 May 2024

Weeknight wonders: Crispy cheddar chicken tacos and more

by | posted in: Adventure | 0

Eric Kim wrote a luminous essay about Japanese breakfast, with its constellation of small savory dishes (rice, miso soup, fish, pickles), and the daily practice of preparing it. You could make it bespoke every day, but the more pragmatic approach is to cook some of the elements ahead and fill out the meal with leftovers and other scraps from the fridge — “cooking for future you, not present you,” as Eric says, an idea I love and one you can embrace for any meal.

His new breakfast recipe for miso roasted salmon can be borrowed for dinner — it’s as satisfying at 7 p.m. as it is at 7 a.m., beautifully and saltily simple. The salmon recipe is below, along with four other dinners for the week ahead.

1. Miso Roasted Salmon

Miso roasted salmon. Gently salty and bright from miso and lemon, this easy recipe from Eric Kim is destined to be eaten with a bowl of white rice and something green. Props styled by Megan Hedgpeth. Food styled by Maggie Ruggiero. (Linda Xiao/The New York Times)

With this fish, less is more: The salty, umami balm of a miso marinade is lightened with lemon zest, which lends floral bittersweetness, and with lemon juice, which brings electric tang and tenderness. Salmon fillets cut into smaller, thinner portions — as they are for a Japanese breakfast spread — end up more evenly cooked and allow the marinade to flavor the fish more intensely (see Tip). If you can find it, yuzu would be fabulous here in place of the lemon. Serve with white rice, miso soup and goma-ae.

By Eric Kim

Yield: 4 servings

Total time: 15 minutes plus overnight marinating

INGREDIENTS

3 tablespoons miso, preferably shiro (white) or awase (mixed; see Tips)
2 tablespoons mirin
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon avocado or canola oil, plus more for greasing pan
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon lemon juice
4 (4-ounce) salmon fillets, preferably with skin (see Tips)

DIRECTIONS

In a shallow dish, stir together the miso, mirin, soy sauce, oil, lemon zest and lemon juice. Add the salmon, turn to coat, cover and refrigerate overnight or for up to 48 hours.
When ready to cook, heat the oven to 450 degrees and line a sheet pan with foil. Grease the foil with oil, then lay the salmon down, on the cut sides if possible.
Bake until charred at the edges, 7 minutes for medium-rare or 9 minutes for medium. Serve immediately.

Tips: To cut salmon fillets into thinner long portions as you would find in a Japanese breakfast spread, start with a skin-on fillet that’s 3/4- to 1-inch thick, scrape off any scales, then cut the fillet into 1-inch-wide strips.

Shiro (white) miso is made with a higher proportion of rice, which lends a milder, sweeter flavor. Awase (mixed) miso typically combines shiro and aka (red) miso for a balanced salty sweetness. You can substitute other varieties of miso if you can’t find either white or mixed.

2. Crispy Cheddar Chicken Tacos

These quick tacos use leftover or store-bought rotisserie chicken, and have a satisfying crispy Cheddar frico called a costra (crust) that is common both in taquerias in the northern half of Mexico and in the southwestern United States. In some taquerias, you can order a taco using only the costra as the shell without a tortilla. In this recipe, the tortilla and costra are layered together to wrap a simple but delicious shredded chicken and chipotle filling.

By Rick A. Martínez

Yield: 8 tacos

Total time: 35 minutes

INGREDIENTS

1/2 medium red onion, thinly sliced (lengthwise, from root to stem end)
1 cup hot water (tap water is fine)
Salt
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
2 cups shredded, cooked chicken, warmed
2 chipotles peppers in adobo sauce, chopped, plus 2 tablespoons adobo sauce
6 ounces medium Cheddar, Monterey jack or queso chihuahua, grated
8 (6-inch) corn tortillas
Sliced avocado, salsa and lime wedges, for serving

DIRECTIONS

Set an oven rack in the middle position; heat the oven to 375 degrees.
In a medium bowl, stir the onion, hot water and 1 teaspoon salt until the salt has dissolved. Let sit for 5 minutes. This will soften the onion and lessen any bitter or harsh flavors. Rinse the onion under cold water and drain. In the same bowl, toss the onion with the oregano, lime juice, orange juice and 1/2 teaspoon salt; reserve.
In a separate bowl, quickly toss together the chicken, peppers and adobo sauce, making sure the chicken is completely coated. Season with salt. Cover and keep warm.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat (do not use foil or the cheese might stick). Arrange cheese in 8 equal mounds on the prepared baking sheet. Spread each mound evenly to about 3 inches wide, and space at least 1 inch apart. Bake until the cheese is bubbly and deep golden brown in spots and around the edges, about 14 minutes. Remove from the oven and place 1 tortilla over each cheese crust and return to the oven to heat the tortillas, about 2 minutes.
Use tongs to carefully remove each tortilla with its costra, flipping each one onto a plate so that the cheese is facing up. Top with chicken, onions, avocado, salsa and a squeeze of lime.

3. Creamy, Spicy Tomato Beans and Greens

Creamy, spicy tomato beans and greens. Take two cans of white beans, some tomato paste, sun-dried tomatoes and cream, and you’ve got this brilliant quick recipe from Alexa Weibel. Food styled by Samantha Seneviratne. (Kelly Marshall/The New York Times)

This weeknight wonder is for those who delight in turning a modest can of beans into a spectacular dinner. Inspired by the flavors of red pesto, this recipe calls for simmering cannellini beans with staple ingredients like onion, garlic, crushed red pepper, tomato paste and heavy cream, as well as sun-dried tomatoes and salty Pecorino, until the results taste complex and rich. Top the beans with a lemony arugula salad that is peppered with fried breadcrumbs for a dish that is crunchy, chewy, crispy and creamy in every bite.

By Alexa Weibel

Yield: 4 servings

Total time: 40 minutes

INGREDIENTS

6 tablespoons olive oil
2/3 cup panko breadcrumbs
Salt and black pepper
1 medium yellow onion, minced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/3 cup tomato paste
2 (14-ounce) cans cannellini beans or other creamy white beans, rinsed
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup chopped jarred sun-dried tomatoes in oil
2/3 cup finely grated Pecorino or Parmesan
4 (packed) cups/3 ounces baby arugula
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest plus 4 teaspoons juice (from 1 lemon)
Toasted bread (optional), for serving

DIRECTIONS

In a medium skillet, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium. Stir in the panko, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring frequently and shaking the pan, until toasted and golden, about 3 minutes. Transfer seasoned panko to a paper-towel lined plate, then wipe out the skillet.
Add another 2 tablespoons olive oil to the skillet and heat over medium. Add the onion, garlic and crushed red pepper, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring frequently, until softened, about 4 minutes.
Add the tomato paste and stir until darkened and mixture is combined, about 3 minutes.
Stir in beans, heavy cream, sun-dried tomatoes and 1/3 cup water, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until flavors meld, about 5 minutes. Stir in half the cheese, then season to taste with salt and pepper.
In a medium bowl, toss the arugula with the seasoned panko, lemon zest and juice, plus the remaining 1/3 cup cheese and 2 tablespoons olive oil; season with salt and pepper. Pile the greens at the center of the bean mixture. Serve with toasted bread, if desired.

4. Spaghetti al Limone With Shrimp

Spaghetti al limone with shrimp. The recipe is by Lidey Heuck, and it’s one of the simplest ways to have a fancy-feeling dinner. (Julia Gartland/The New York Times)

There are many interpretations of the classic Italian pasta dish, spaghetti al limone, or spaghetti with lemon. Some call for an Alfredo-like sauce made with heavy cream, butter and Parmesan, while others rely on just olive oil, lemon juice, Parmesan and starchy pasta water. This particular recipe, which adds sautéed shrimp, white wine and fresh tarragon to the mix, leans toward the simpler preparation. Without the addition of heavy cream, the sauce has a brighter lemon flavor, which works beautifully with the delicate brininess of the shrimp. Tarragon adds a fragrant note and a bit of complexity to an otherwise fairly straightforward dish. Finally, if there were a time to spring for freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, this would be it. In an uncomplicated recipe like this one, the quality of each ingredient is paramount.

By Lidey Heuck

Yield: 6 servings

Total time: 25 minutes

INGREDIENTS

Kosher salt and black pepper
1 pound spaghetti
1 pound large shrimp (18 to 20 count), peeled and deveined, tails on or off
1/4 cup olive oil
2 lemons, zested (about 1 1/2 packed tablespoons), plus 3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon, plus more for serving
1/2 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, diced
3/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan

DIRECTIONS

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Add the spaghetti and cook according to package directions until al dente. Scoop out 1 cup of the cooking liquid, then drain the pasta and set aside.
While the pasta cooks, pat the shrimp dry and season them with salt and black pepper. Combine the olive oil, lemon zest (setting a few pinches aside for serving) and tarragon in a large skillet set over medium heat. When the oil begins to sizzle, cook for 1 more minute, until the zest and tarragon are fragrant but not browned.
Add the shrimp to the skillet and spread into an even layer. Cook for about 90 seconds on each side, or until just cooked through. Transfer the shrimp to a plate and set aside.
Add the wine, 1 teaspoon salt and a few grinds of black pepper to the skillet, and bring to a simmer, scraping any browned bits from the pan. Cook until the wine has reduced by about half, then set aside, off the heat, until the pasta has finished cooking.
Add the cooked pasta and reserved pasta water to the skillet. Cook over medium-low heat for 2 to 3 minutes, tossing often, until the liquid that has collected at the bottom of the skillet has reduced slightly. (The sauce should still be fairly loose at this point.)
Off the heat, add the butter and 1/2 cup Parmesan, sprinkling the cheese evenly over the pasta. Toss until the butter and cheese are melted and the sauce is smooth. Add the lemon juice and remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan and toss until the sauce is thick and smooth.
Add the shrimp, toss, then season with more salt and black pepper to taste. Divide among shallow bowls and garnish with chopped fresh tarragon, lemon zest and black pepper.

5. Pan-Seared Asparagus With Cashews

Pan-seared asparagus with cashews. This new dish from Melissa Clark aims for amped-up crunch with chopped nuts, coconut flakes and sunflower seeds added to crisp-tender pieces of asparagus. Food styled by Simon Andrews. (Christopher Testani/The New York Times)

In this speedy, springy dish, a crunchy mix of nuts, seeds and coconut flakes gives seared asparagus plenty of texture, while a squeeze of lime and handful of fresh herbs add brightness right at the end. This makes a hearty side dish for simple roasted fish or chicken, or it can be a light meal when served over rice or alongside a fried or soft-cooked egg, the yolk turning into a glossy sauce that coats the stalks.

By Melissa Clark

Yield: 3 to 4 servings

Total time: 25 minutes

INGREDIENTS

1/3 cup roasted unsalted cashews, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup unsweetened coconut flakes
2 tablespoons raw sunflower seeds or pepitas
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon coconut oil (or use a neutral-flavored oil)
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 pound asparagus (about 1 bunch), trimmed and cut into 2- to 3-inch pieces
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 to 2 tablespoons soy sauce, to taste
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice, plus lime wedges for serving
1/4 teaspoon red-pepper flakes, more to taste
Chopped cilantro and sesame seeds, for serving

DIRECTIONS

In a large dry skillet over medium-low heat, toast the cashews, coconut flakes and sunflower seeds, stirring, until fragrant, 2 to 3 minutes. Pour mixture into a bowl to cool.
Return pan to the heat, and add sesame and coconut oils and garlic. Cook for 30 seconds, then stir in asparagus. Season lightly with salt and black pepper. Cook asparagus until crisp-tender, 3 to 7 minutes depending on how thick they are.
Stir in the soy sauce, lime juice, nut mixture and red-pepper flakes. Taste and season with more salt and red pepper, if you like. Transfer asparagus mixture to a serving dish. Top with sesame seeds and cilantro, and serve with lime wedges for squeezing.

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9 May 2024

Thomas Friedman: Why the campus protests are so troubling

by | posted in: Society | 0

Readers have been asking me, and I have been asking myself of late, how I feel about the campus demonstrations to stop the war in the Gaza Strip. Anyone reading this column since Oct. 7 knows that my focus has been on events on the ground in the Middle East, but this phenomenon has become too big to ignore.

In short: I find the whole thing very troubling, because the dominant messages from the loudest voices and many placards reject important truths about how this latest Gaza war started and what will be required to bring it to a fair and sustainable conclusion.

My problem is not that the protests in general are “antisemitic” — I would not use that word to describe them, and indeed, I am deeply uncomfortable as a Jew with how the charge of antisemitism is thrown about on the Israel-Palestine issue. My problem is that I am a hardheaded pragmatist who lived in Beirut and Jerusalem, cares about people on all sides and knows one thing above all from my decades in the region: The only just and workable solution to this issue is two nation-states for two indigenous people.

If you are for that, whatever your religion, nationality or politics, you’re part of the solution. If you are not for that, you’re part of the problem.

And from everything I have read and watched, too many of these protests have become part of the problem — for three key reasons.

A free pass for Hamas

First, they are virtually all about stopping Israel’s shameful behavior in killing so many Palestinian civilians in its pursuit of Hamas fighters, while giving a free pass to Hamas’ shameful breaking of the cease-fire that existed on Oct. 7. On that morning, Hamas launched an invasion in which it killed Israeli parents in front of their children, children in front of their parents — documenting it on GoPro cameras — raped Israeli women and kidnapped or killed everyone they could get their hands on, from little kids to sick grandparents.

Again, you can be — and should be — appalled at Israel’s response: bombing everything in its path in Gaza so disproportionately that thousands of children have been killed, maimed and orphaned. But if you refuse to acknowledge what Hamas did to trigger this — not to justify what Israel has done, but to explain how the Jewish state could inflict so much suffering on Palestinian men, women and children in reverse — you’re just another partisan throwing another partisan log on the fire.

By giving Hamas a pass, the protests have put the onus on Israel to such a degree that its very existence is a target for some students, while Hamas’ murderous behavior is passed off as a praiseworthy adventure in decolonization.

‘From the river to the sea’

Second, when people chant slogans like “liberate Palestine” and “from the river to the sea,” they are essentially calling for the erasure of the state of Israel, not a two-state solution. They are arguing that the Jewish people have no right to self-determination or self-defense. I don’t believe that about Jews, and I don’t believe that about Palestinians. I believe in a two-state solution in which Israel, in return for security guarantees, withdraws from the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Arab areas of east Jerusalem, and a demilitarized Palestinian state that accepts the principle of two states for two people is established in those territories occupied in 1967.

I believe in that so strongly that the thing I am most proud of in my 45-year career is my interview with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, in February 2002, in which he, for the first time, called on the entire Arab League to offer full peace and normalization of relations with Israel in exchange for full withdrawal to the 1967 lines — a call that led the Arab League to hold a peace conference the next month, on March 27 and 28, in Beirut to do just that. It was called the Arab Peace Initiative.

And do you know what Hamas’ response was to that first pan-Arab peace initiative for a two-state solution? I’ll let CNN tell you. Here’s its report from Israel on the evening of March 27, 2002, right after the Arab League peace summit opened:

“NETANYA, Israel — A suicide bomber killed at least 19 people and injured 172 at a popular seaside hotel Wednesday, the start of the Jewish religious holiday of Passover. At least 48 of the injured were described as ‘severely wounded.’

“The bombing occurred in a crowded dining room at the Park Hotel, a coastal resort, during the traditional meal marking the start of Passover. … The Palestinian group Hamas, an Islamic fundamentalist group labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department, claimed responsibility for the attack.”

Yes, that was Hamas’ response to the Arab peace initiative of two nation-states for two people: blowing up a Passover Seder in Israel.

Hey, Friedman, some might ask, but what about all the violence that Israeli settlers perpetrated against Palestinians and how Bibi Netanyahu deliberately built up Hamas and undermined the Palestinian Authority, which embraced Oslo?

Answer: That violence and those Netanyahu actions are awful and harmful to a two-state solution as well. That is why I am intensely both anti-Hamas and anti-Netanyahu. And if you oppose just one and not also the other, you should reflect a little more on what you are shouting at your protest or your anti-protest. Because no one has done more to harm the prospects of a two-state solution than the codependent Hamas and Netanyahu factions.

Hamas is not against the post-1967 occupation. It is against the existence of a Jewish state and believes there should be an Islamic state between the river and the sea. When protests on college campuses ignore that, they are part of the problem. Just as much as Israel supporters who ignore the fact that the far-right members in Netanyahu’s own coalition government are for a Jewish state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. How do I know? Because Netanyahu wrote it into the coalition agreement between himself and his far-right partners.

Palestinians who detest Hamas’ autocracy

The third reason that these protests have become part of the problem is that they ignore the view of many Palestinians in Gaza who detest Hamas’ autocracy. These Palestinians are enraged by precisely what these student demonstrations ignore: Hamas launched this war without permission from the population of Gaza and without preparation for them to protect themselves when Hamas knew that a brutal Israeli response would follow. In fact, a Hamas official said at the start of the war that its tunnels were for only its fighters, not civilians.

That is not to excuse Israel in the least for its excesses, but, again, it is also not to give Hamas a pass for inviting them.

My view: Hamas was ready to sacrifice thousands of civilians in Gaza to win the support of the next global generation on TikTok. And it worked. But one reason it worked was a lack of critical thinking by too many in that generation — the result of a campus culture that has become way too much about what to think and not how to think.

I highly recommend a few different articles about how angry Palestinians in Gaza are at Hamas for starting this war without any goal in mind other than the fruitless task of trying to destroy Israel so Hamas’ leader, Yehia Sinwar, could get his personal revenge.

I was particularly struck by a piece in The National, a newspaper in Abu Dhabi, by Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Palestinian American raised in Gaza. The headline is: “Israel’s War Has Killed 31 Members of My Family, Yet It’s Vital to Speak Out Against Hamas.” Alkhatib placed Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in the context of the rising protests against its inept and autocrat rule that have broken out periodically in Gaza since 2019, under the banner of “We Want to Live.”

Wrote Alkhatib, a political analyst who is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council: “Having grown up in Gaza, I experienced Hamas’ rise to power and their gradual grip over the Strip and Palestinian politics and society, hiding behind a resistance narrative and using extremist politics to sabotage prospects for a peaceful resolution to the conflict with Israel. Months before Oct. 7, tens of thousands of Gazans protested in the streets in defiance of Hamas, just as they had in 2019 and 2017.”

Alkhatib added that the “‘We Want to Live’ protest movement decried living conditions and unemployment in Gaza, as well as the lack of a political horizon for meaningful change in the territory’s realities and opportunities. Hamas’ regime consisted of a criminal and despotic enterprise that used Gaza as a haven for the group’s members and affiliates and turned Palestinians there into aid-dependent subjects reliant on the international community” and turned Gaza into “a ‘resistance citadel’ that was part of a nefarious regional alliance with Iran.”

A campus with critical thinkers might have had a teach-in on the central lawn on that subject, not just on the violence of Israeli settlers.

Two indigenous peoples, two states

Against this backdrop, we are seeing college presidents at places like Rutgers and Northwestern agree to some of the demands by students to end their protests. As NPR summarized them, the “demands vary by school, though they generally call for an end to the Israel-Hamas war, disclosures of institutional investments and divestment from companies with ties to Israel or that otherwise profit from its military operation in Gaza.”

What Palestinians and Israelis need most now are not performative gestures of disinvestment but real gestures of impactful investment, not the threat of a deeper war in Rafah but a way to build more partners for peace. Invest in groups that promote Arab-Jewish understanding, like the Abraham Initiatives or the New Israel Fund. Invest in management skills capacity-building for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, like the wonderful Education for Employment network or Anera, that will help a new generation to take over the Palestinian Authority and build strong, noncorrupt institutions to run a Palestinian state.

This is not a time for exclusionary thinking. It is a time for complexity thinking and pragmatic thinking: How do we get to two nation-states for two indigenous people? If you want to make a difference and not just make a point, stand for that, work for that, reject anyone who rejects it and give a hug to anyone who embraces it.

Thomas Friedman, born in Minneapolis and raised in St. Louis Park, writes a column for the New York Times.

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