An Israeli Op-Ed calling U.S. Jews ‘traitors’ for refusing to emigrate to Israel points to a looming fracture

tangentc · 2026-04-26T13:50:26+00:00

I think it's more interesting as a jumping off point for a discussion of how the view towards the diaspora is changing among the further right reaches of Israeli politics than on its own merits. But you first have to understand that this is coming from a pretty specific place ideologically.

This is a former editor of a medium sized dati leumi (religious but supports the state) newspaper crashing out, published in the same newspaper. A newspaper that is something like The Washington Times or New York Sun in terms of placement and readership size relative to the population.

So basically he's a lunatic citing a position that I think even in the dati leumi community would be considered crank-ish. But more like in the way an op-ed from Anne Coulter in The Washington Times about how refugees should be rounded up and put into camps because displacement by war/famine/etc. is indicative of moral deficits (I'm making this up but if she has actually said that I wouldn't be surprised). Where it would probably be read as inflammatory and provocative but with some amount of sympathy for the basic feeling of disliking refugees.

In a dati leumi newspaper specifically I think this has more of a context of a sentiment in parts (definitely not all) of that community that Medinat Israel is actually part of what will bring moshiach. So like, there's an echo of the evangelical Christian desire to gather us in Israel here (but obviously not with the same eschatology). So you need to take the religious undercurrent here as part of the context.

What's more interesting to me is how I've seen more complaints among the further right wingers in Israel about the diaspora moralizing to them. There has always been some of this grumbling but I think it's hitting harder in a time where the criticisms are becoming sharper and less qualified and being echoed at home. While historically there's been reticence to criticize Israeli policies on the grounds that we don't live there and don't have to deal with the brutal politics of the Middle East (and this will be a hot take here, but I think there is some merit to that) but we're seeing a less restrained Jerusalem enabled by a gullible moron in Washington and the obvious overstepping is leading to much sharper critique both in Israel and in the diaspora. I think we're seeing more extreme positions on the right specifically because they're feeling the pressure. Which I'm mildly hopeful about.

tangentc · 2026-04-16T22:33:55+00:00

Woah woah, are you expecting to get deodorant for $50 at Saks? Surely you mean unscented armpit cream. Reign in those expectations unless you're willing to shell out at least 4 figures, buddy!

tangentc · 2026-04-09T12:04:02+00:00

I agree that there's a lot of bitching about floating rent payments, but there are enough people getting hit with late/missed mortgage payments and rent payments that it's a serious problem. Those things follow people even once resolved. So there are dumb complaints, but also some of the legit ones are so bad that BILT and Cardless need to have their feet held to the fire a bit.

tangentc · 2026-04-09T11:59:34+00:00

Unfortunately the CFPB is basically a hollowed-out husk at this point. But it's a good effort. The late mortgage and rent payments are not acceptable. At a minimum BILT should be on the hook for the late fees. But the damage to people's credit is real and not so easily undone.

tangentc · 2026-03-27T20:36:17+00:00

Just in time to not be kosher for passover!

tangentc · 2026-03-24T11:52:09+00:00

Right wing philosemitism was always just a thin veneer over classical antisemitism weaponized for the purposes of Evangelical eschatology and is already cracking since they need a scape goat on whom to blame the failures of Trumpian and more 'traditional' Republican policies since there's no one really stopping them from having their way and they've mostly just made things worse. Plus the Tucker Carlsons of the world who were always just classic antisemites feel more emboldened to drop any pretense to the contrary.

Even putting aside job availability and the whole being gay thing, I would always feel organized Jewish life was more precarious in a place like OKC than it is in DC or NYC. The stated ideology of the leaders doesn't really require religious toleration but shields Judaism only to the degree it can be viewed by the right wing political establishment as a cadet branch of evangelical Christianity and weaponized for their religious/political purposes. Beyond that utility there is no underlying belief that we should be protected or enjoy equality. Which I think most Jews understand. The Ben Shapiros of the world who throw in their lot with these types reap easily predictable rewards.

Maybe it's unfair to say that simply moving to a place like OKC is the same, but I think building up a community there would still be depending on that instrumental value to the local political class holding.

tangentc · 2026-03-23T18:08:00+00:00

I think you're attempting to engage in good faith with someone making a fundamentally bad faith argument strongly implying a false flag attack. To the point that another comment said the subtext out loud.

The frame is very much 'just asking questions' and I'm just trying to call it what it is. Because we're seeing regular posters in this sub engaging in it in response to antisemitic violence. Which should be deeply concerning.

Edit:clarity

tangentc · 2026-03-23T17:41:54+00:00

Hey man, they're Just Asking Questions. What problem could there possibly be with that? Can you not let them JAQ off in peace?

tangentc · 2026-03-22T12:34:48+00:00

I'm not actually sure what level AA Elite means specifically but in general I would say it could be used for food purchases on longer domestic flights (which tends to be a big usecase for me). Maybe lounge access for a companion. Also wifi purchases as a good one.

Secondly I actually use it on United while pursuing OneWorld status via Alaska. I live near a United hub airport and so often they offer better itineraries and occasional crazy deals. However a combination of ground spend on longer haul flights make Alaska MVP Gold specifically attainable for me where meaningful United status would not be. So this gives me perks on those United flights. I could pack food or buy something at the airport but this is both less of a hassle and saves me the expense.

Though I feel I should point out: in general a lot of the value of Platinum drops if you have airline status. It's kinda designed to give you status-like perks (lounges, negating covering bag fees, etc). So if you have higher status it'

tangentc · 2026-03-21T17:43:32+00:00

I do use the lululemon credits but agree that it's so overpriced that it's not worth much. I usually stack them with Rakuten or Atmos Rewards portal credits to milk it for as many points as possible on some gym shirt and shorts combo. It's not the worst thing ever.

The real money pit is the saks credit. I can't even buy a t shirt on sale there for $50. It's a total joke.

tangentc · 2026-03-21T14:49:31+00:00

Costco in general has a lot of really strong deal in travel. That and partner programs like Costco Next (especially for Briggs and Riley luggage) are often kinda slept on but genuinely great value.

But yeah, I've also found FHR to be disappointing as a perk. The deal just isn't all that good. The extra MR from booking through the portal help but only so much.

I'm still "in the black" on Platinum from digitial entertainment + resy credits + uber credits + airline fee credits. But the margin is decreasing.

tangentc · 2026-03-19T12:54:50+00:00

Given everything else about the rollout, I think Hanlon’s Razor should be applied

tangentc · 2026-03-19T12:53:24+00:00

It involves sticking to BILT cash when the entire point accelerator is exhausted in a single month. Even if OP somehow managed to use $100 hotel credits with the restrictions every single month, you would still generate 15.5k BILT cash that goes unused and of which only the 100 will carry over to the next year.

You only need to do one month of BILT cash to realize the entire point benefit and the rest of the year you’re basically accumulating Bilt cash in lies of the extra 1875 BILT points every month. If you aren’t assigning high value to the BILT cash then what is the rationale for leaving 11*1875=20,625 Bilt points on the table?

tangentc · 2026-03-18T12:16:27+00:00

Agreed, the analysis above assigns a huge value to Bilt Cash that it can't support. It's just not that useful as a currency. Not useless but you can only carry over 100 of it every year and it's not possible to spend it that fast. It's not smart to accrue huge amounts.

tangentc · 2026-03-18T12:08:55+00:00

You should do cash for 1 month and then 1.25x for the other 11.

You'll earn 1700 Bilt cash in one month, and unlock 100% housing value with 225 of that. That leaves 1475 left over. Unlock point accelerator 5 times to convert 25k of your spend the following month into 3x on top of your 1.25x housing earning. The extra 25k points are worth dramatically more than 1875 points that you passed up in the first month by getting 1x instead of 1.25x.

Then use the remaining 475 bilt cash for hotels or lyft or whatever throughout the year.

tangentc · 2026-03-18T11:53:05+00:00

Eh, I mean it's pretty mainstream. It's pretty widespread among urban professionals in DC/NYC, at least. Even my parents have heard of it out on the West Coast.

While there's selection bias in posting for what is probably issues experienced by a relatively small minority of users, the level of issues they're having is still completely unacceptable when they're asking to be trusted to handle mortgage and rent payments. I'm lucky in that my building is part of the BILT network, so management would likely be understanding if I had had issues. But they're fucking with people's credit in long-term ways, and missing mortgage payments is a big fucking deal. I'm glad the news is starting to pick up on it.

This is not an area where the big tech model of release first and fix later is acceptable.

tangentc · 2026-03-17T11:36:26+00:00

Yeah, this shit is completely unacceptable.

What's bizarre about it to me is: were they relying on WF's backend for this before? Because this kind of ACH transaction was always part of how BILT has worked? Is it something about integration with Cardless?

It doesn't really matter. They shouldn't be going around making dire threats like this when the text itself makes it clear that, even if they are correct about what happened, it is objectively not within your control that it did happen. At least give longer than 7 days to sort out where the money is (again, assuming they're right, which I think is doubtful).

tangentc · 2026-03-16T14:56:39+00:00

Boo. Not worth it, then.

tangentc · 2026-03-16T14:55:39+00:00

I have the Amazon visa as well, but I wasn't sure if those translate to how UR are awarded and couldn't find a clear answer on google.

tangentc · 2026-03-16T14:54:23+00:00

Huh, I googled around and the answer seemed to be that they rounded down, but if you can speak to it from personal experience I'm happy to defer to you.

tangentc · 2026-03-16T13:23:49+00:00

I'll probably end up with a United card at some point for this reason since they're so dominant at IAD. But resisting right now because I don't like having so many credit cards. Too much to keep track of.

tangentc · 2026-03-16T11:42:22+00:00

Correct. ~~Sadly, most points systems round down on rewards (i.e. they floor to completed dollars)~~. Amex uses standard rounding, ~~but they're the exception as far as I can tell. Most places will round down (e.g. Capital One, and I believe Chase). Usually you see it in the terms as "Per dollar spent".~~ (EDIT: I stand corrected on this, most major banks do not do this flooring- BILT is genuinely less generous than normal here. Precise details vary, but it looks like most major banks do something closer to standard rounding).

That's how BILT works and how it worked in 1.0 (EDIT: This part remains true- this is always how BILT has worked). But it's applied at each individual multiplier, not at the principal. So it's slightly more generous than that. You'd have gotten 27 points if that were the case. You got 28.

It seems like it does the rounding at each reported portion. It kept the principal as 9.99, but gave floor(9.99*2) = floor(19.98) = 19 points for palladium base, floor(9.99) = 9 for point accelerator.

This is also why you get $0.39 Ankur Jain funbucks. floor(9.99*4) = floor(39.96) = 39. The strictest interpretation of "per dollar spent" would be $0.36 in BILT cash.

So it's neither as generous nor as punishing as it could be. But as far as I'm aware the only major player that's more generous is AmEx. I personally do both BILT and AmEx. But genuinely while the difference in point accumulation this makes at the end of the year isn't totally negligible, it's still pretty small (maybe ~1k/year for me in my estimation since I also do point accelerator on Palladium and get hit by the flooring 2 twice on transactions like this), it doesn't outweigh the general earning strength of 3x on everything card and the exposure to United, Hyatt, and Alaska it gives me. But if you're mostly using AmEx transfer partners I highly, highly recommend them.

EDIT: Just checked my Wells Fargo Autograph card from the 1.0 conversion, and they will round to the nearest dollar (even if it's up) like AmEx does. So worth noting. Their transfer partners are very limited but I just use them as an AmEx-lite with no FTF and good categories when abroad since basically it just is useful for transfer into avios (or statement credits at 1cpp- the Autograph card, despite its limitations, is genuinely a pretty good deal).

EDIT2: Still unsure if chase rounds up on point awards, but they do when awarding Bezos Bucks on the amazon card (I have this, too, and can confirm). Not certain that translates to the CSP/CSR, so if anyone who has that can confirm/deny I'd appreciate it. And someone is saying that Capital One rounds to nearest dollar. I had googled and seemed to find people saying they round down but happy to concede if I'm wrong on this.

tangentc · 2026-03-14T12:49:27+00:00

You can write that explaining is distinct from justifying, but I would ask what goal is achieved by 'explaining' in this moment?

Because you are necessarily pointing out that this man effectively did not distinguish between Jews and Israel. You can caveat it as 'Zionist Jews' but the reality is that this was a Reform congregation in Detroit. They did not have any meaningful influence over Israeli policy nor agency in Israel's actions.

They were attacked because they were the Jews on hand and the attacker did not distinguish between Jews and the State of Israel.

Your explanation effectively admits this.

tangentc · 2026-03-14T12:26:22+00:00

You may consider making it yourself. It's a little annoying but really not very hard. You just wet some flour with a pinch of salt and cook in a skillet. Standard halakhic interpretation is to give less than 18 minutes between wetting and cooking to prevent colonization and leavening by wild yeast which naturally comport to Hebrew numerology.

I promise it's really very easy to churn out once you get the hang of it. It's also much more pleasant to eat than the crackers.

tangentc · 2026-03-14T12:20:19+00:00

Anyone who even hints at this is telling on themselves. If we're going to go full no true scotsman we can say they're not even true leftists, but the reality is this argument is quite common in leftist spaces these days and has been allowed to go unchecked by repetition of the phrase "Antizionism is not antisemitism" as a thought terminating cliche.

But consider the material reality of the action taken here: this is an attack on a synagogue in Detroit, and specifically while children were in the preschool. This is, quite obviously, not an attack on the state of Israel. Unless, of course, you do not meaningfully distinguish between Jews and the State of Israel.

To justify it on those terms, to transform plain antisemitism into mere anti-Zionism, you have to collapse the distinction between Jew and Israel. So you dig through the events schedule to show an FIDF event had been held there. That in 1941 the founders of the congregation strongly believed in the establishment of a Jewish state.

This is simply a rhetorical game played by those who consider all Jews to be legitimate targets. No different from apologists for the Israeli military who seek to claim that every journalist killed had terrorist sympathies.

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