Bari Weiss: Fight, Fight, Fight

The last line of defense.

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Bari Weiss recently gave the Barbara K. Olson Memorial lecture at the Federalist Society, in which she detailed the horrific aftermath of Hamas’ October 7 attack against Israel, the ensuing “battle of ideas,” and the left’s morally perverse showing therein. Given the subject matter, we decided to devote today’s episode of Advisory Opinions to reairing her speech.

-Full speech

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Comments (118)
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  1. April

    Bari dwells on the Israeli innocents killed on Oct. 7.

    How about the innocent Palestinian victims of Israel’s relentless bombing campaign, including babies, children, the elderly, the sick? Israel has killed 10 times more of them than the number of Israelis killed by Hamas. And the number is still rising. Does one Israeli life equal 10 Palestinian lives?

    Bari is silent on that, seemingly indifferent to that massive destruction of human life.

    Her argument would be far more persuasive if she were unbiased enough to at least acknowledge the thousands of Palestinian innocents killed by the IDF in Greater Israel.

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  2. Sean Smith

    Loved everything about it. As close to perfect as one can reasonably approach. Tribalism and the obsession with trivial differences are turning us into savages. Enough! Played it for my wife and kids last night. All were profoundly moved. Bless her and bless all truth tellers!

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    Daniel Jett

    Bari Weiss' speech was utterly captivating. I shared it with several friends and family.

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  4. InadvertantObfuscation

    Thank you for sharing this!

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    SeanM76

    Thank you so much for sharing this. This is definitely a much-needed speech. I hope everyone takes these words to heart. I know I have shared a link to this episode on my social media feeds. Hoping my friends and family take a chance and listen to it as well.

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    Jaredmanly77

    Well said Bari Weiss. And well done AO by highlighting this speech. I was surprised to see it; pleasantly surprised.
    It’s important to take a stand. It’s important to highlight those that do, For those with eyes to see and ears to hear.

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    Tiger Rehm

    I like the speech. Bari Weiss has an interesting style and I think her point on anti-Semitism as a warning for civilization is important and well-made. The warnings about Western Civilization being in trouble, however, are not anything new: Jonah Goldberg wrote a book called "Suicide of the West" a few years back. I am glad, though, that the warning is finding its way to broader swaths of those who want normal politics back.

    Here is where I diverge from Weiss: I always get worried about calls to action as aggressive as hers. I agree Israel needs our support as do American Jews. I agree people need to protect institutions. I worry about an offensive tone as opposed to a defensive one. Saying to go "fight, fight, fight" is always a dangerous call. Saying "defend" is also dangerous and many a nativist cause has adopted that slogan. My disposition is certainly the defensive one and I think it is the appropriate disposition here but I also have never had a disposition towards activism. The message is right. The call to action I think needs to look more like a call to defend the places where people disagree with one another respectfully, defend the institutions we have to protect minorities of all kinds from the violence of a majority, and defend the rule of law.

    This is largely a critique of framing and action as I think her diagnosis is right on. Moral bankruptcy is bad but morals are things to be preserved and defended not imposed.

    As a final note: it is great to see the Federalist Society host Weiss and they also hosted FTC Chairwoman Khan. That demonstrates a space where people disagree respectfully at a time when such spaces are needed. It's making me consider joining the chapter at my law school.

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    1. Tim.Murphy916

      I largely agree with your concern. I loved her speech. Her framing is coming from someone who has been trying to resist these issues and has been continually pushed aside and assured it was a phase or something. Much like the response to Jonah's book. I think it is dawning on a lot of people that the problem has reached something of a tipping point. There are now walking among us tens or hundreds of thousands of recent college graduates for whom these ideas are foundational to their belief system. If more people don't wake up soon it could be too late.

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  8. Macsail

    I’m a white conservative Protestant male, blown away by Bari Weiss’ podcast, speaking truth with a call to action.

    I’m also a naturalized US citizen, Canadian immigrant, disgusted by PM Trudeau’s recent rant against Israel. O’Canada, how far you have fallen.

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    CP

    I’m shocked to see so many defenses here of Israel’s attempt to take out Hamas. Next thing you know, people are going to start defending the bombing of Berlin in WWII that took so many innocent civilian lives, just to stop the Nazis. I mean, don’t you guys know that that was just as wrong as what the Nazis were doing to the Jews or other countries, because so many innocent civilian lives were lost?

    (Deeply sarcastic point here, sorry—tired of pretend pacifism.)

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    Ben Connelly

    This was a good speech

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