Written Testimony, the first studio album to be released by Jay Electronica (the stage name of Timothy Thedford), is, according to Armin Rosen, “one of the most anticipated releases of the year.” While Rosen finds himself impressed by Electronica’s artistry, something else becomes apparent in the first minute of the first song, when the listener hears a recording of Louis Farrakhan lecturing about the inauthenticity of the Jewish people. And it isn’t just the first song. This notorious anti-Semite’s worldview saturates the entire album:

Any doubt as to whether Electronica is just toying with Nation of Islam rhetoric for edginess’s sake is dispelled on the [second] track, “Ghost of Soulja Slim,” [which likewise samples one of Farrakhan’s speeches].

Electronica delivers his first verse, along with the rest of the album, in a voice-of-God baritone, every syllable pronounced with purpose and total clarity. “I came to bang with the scholars/ And I bet you a Rothschild I get a bang for my dollar,” he intones. Perhaps this is an innocent reference to a reported tryst with a Rothschild heiress whose marriage Jay is alleged to have helped break up in 2012, but other lines in the [the rapper’s work] show that he views the affair as having some higher significance. From 2016’s “The Curse of Mayweather”: . . . “they told me that the Rothschilds rule the world/ So I went over to England like a black god and got me one.”

Here on “Soulja Slim,” that psychosexual fascination with the Jews is slyly glanced at without being named. “The Synagogue of Satan wants to hang me by my collar,” Jay raps in the very next line after the Rothschild name check. Only the very obtuse could miss the reference in that one: in a 2018 speech, Farrakhan asked his followers, “I wonder, will you recognize Satan? I wonder if you will see the satanic Jew and the synagogue of Satan?”

Perhaps these, and other derogatory references to Jews, are not surprising for a rapper who has been a member of Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam for most of his adult life. More disturbing, writes Rosen, is that the album was produced by the hip-hop elder statesman Jay-Z—and that critics will either ignore or excuse Electronica’s bigotry:

[R]eviewers are already downplaying [the album’s Nation of Islam propaganda] or hearing only what is most convenient for them to hear. And we, in turn, are under no obligation to tolerate Jay Electronica, whatever virtues his debut album might have. The blame shouldn’t be [his] alone, though. At least on paper, boosting Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam not long after an unprecedented and inevitably deadly string of attacks on Jews centered in Jay-Z’s native Brooklyn should be a legacy-defining lapse for the mogul, something that would require substantial apology and reflection in order to rectify. But neither Jay is likely to be called to account.

For some time, opponents of U.S support for Israel have been urging the White House to end the war in Gaza, or simply calling for a ceasefire. Douglas Feith and Lewis Libby consider what such a result would actually entail:

Ending the war immediately would allow Hamas to survive and retain military and governing power. Leaving it in the area containing the Sinai-Gaza smuggling routes would ensure that Hamas can rearm. This is why Hamas leaders now plead for a ceasefire. A ceasefire will provide some relief for Gazans today, but a prolonged ceasefire will preserve Hamas’s bloody oppression of Gaza and make future wars with Israel inevitable.

For most Gazans, even when there is no hot war, Hamas’s dictatorship is a nightmarish tyranny. Hamas rule features the torture and murder of regime opponents, official corruption, extremist indoctrination of children, and misery for the population in general. Hamas diverts foreign aid and other resources from proper uses; instead of improving life for the mass of the people, it uses the funds to fight against Palestinians and Israelis.

Moreover, a Hamas-affiliated website warned Gazans last month against cooperating with Israel in securing and delivering the truckloads of aid flowing into the Strip. It promised to deal with those who do with “an iron fist.” In other words, if Hamas remains in power, it will begin torturing, imprisoning, or murdering those it deems collaborators the moment the war ends. Thereafter, Hamas will begin planning its next attack on Israel:

Hamas’s goals are to overshadow the Palestinian Authority, win control of the West Bank, and establish Hamas leadership over the Palestinian revolution. Hamas’s ultimate aim is to spark a regional war to obliterate Israel and, as Hamas leaders steadfastly maintain, fulfill a Quranic vision of killing all Jews.

Hamas planned for corpses of Palestinian babies and mothers to serve as the mainspring of its October 7 war plan. Hamas calculated it could survive a war against a superior Israeli force and energize enemies of Israel around the world. The key to both aims was arranging for grievous Palestinian civilian losses. . . . That element of Hamas’s war plan is working impressively.