Welcome back! I was off last week due to an emotionally searing, powerful trip to Israel, where I was a member of a small group delegation that saw up close and personal the devastation and destruction of the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom—but even more importantly, saw the unified, defiant spirit of the Israeli people on full display. More on that shortly. But for now, it's great to be back in the saddle.

I was off from my column last week, but my column two weeks ago celebrated the resignation of Claudine Gay, the former president of Harvard University who bowed out earlier this month under intense pressure after being exposed as both a Jew-hatred apologist and a serial plagiarist. The Left has made Gay out to be a martyr, but she is no such thing. On the contrary, Gay is emblematic of all that ails higher education in America: she stands for the woke catechism of DEI and "oppressor v. oppressed"-style critical theory, and her short-lived tenure atop Harvard stood athwart more "traditional—viz., better—values such as merit and excellence. Hopefully, her ouster from Harvard will be the beginning of a broader reckoning for higher education in America—and one of the first dominoes to fall in the dismantling of the thoroughly un-American DEI regime. Anything less than that should be considered a failure; we need substantive, meaningful, and prolonged wins to regain our civilizational sanity from the forces of civilizational arson. Purely symbolic "scalps" just won't cut it at this point.

I have had three podcast episodes since our last newsletter. First, I recorded an episode where I celebrated the resignation of Claudine Gay, blasted recent troubling (and seemingly anti-Semitic) statements made by Tucker Carlson concerning the Israel-Hamas war and the alleged lack of American patriotism from some U.S.-based commentators, and outlined why both American isolationism and neoconservatism are flawed when it comes to U.S. foreign policy. You can listen to that first episode on Apple, Spotify, or here. Second, I was joined by Will Scharf (candidate for Missouri attorney general, former federal prosecutor, and current attorney for former President Donald Trump) to discuss how Missouri went from being a swing state to a solid red state, the growing need for Republican outreach in blue cities, and the crucial influence the next president will wield when it comes to the U.S. Supreme Court. You can listen to that second episode on Apple, Spotify, or here. Third, I recorded a bonus episode discussing my recent trip to Israel. This was an eventful, emotionally intense week-long trip that I just got home from last Friday, and I tried to recount it all—the very high highs and the very low lows—the very best I could for my listeners. You do not want to miss this special episode! You can listen to that third episode on Apple, Spotify, or here. Also, a reminder: My show is now on the radio! If you are a radio station manager interested in bringing my show to your station, please email Jesse Edwards at j.edwards@newsweek.com.

In terms of other articles and media hits since our last newsletter two weeks ago, I joined "The Mark Reardon Show" on 97.1 FM Talk (St. Louis) to discuss Claudine Gay's resignation from Harvard and my show debuting on their station earlier this month; spoke live in Jerusalem, Israel at a pro-sovereignty/anti-Palestinian state conference titled, "Wake-up Call From Gaza: Putting an End to the Two-State Paradigm"; was quoted at length in the Media Research Center's "NewsBusters" about the continuing demise of the once-formidable, but now-shameful, New York Times columnist David French; joined "NTD Evening News" to discuss the 100-day anniversary of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza; joined Mike Slater on The First to discuss Monday evening's Iowa Caucuses results, in which former President Donald Trump crushed the rest of the GOP field; was profiled at length by my friend Max Raskin in a wide-ranging, sprawling interview (which I highly recommend!) that was mostly personal and which actually had very little to do with politics; published a scholarly essay in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy about how "common good originalism," my own jurisprudential proposal that I have developed over the past few years, has been converging with Harvard Law School Professor Adrian Vermeule's distinct jurisprudential proposal of "common good constitutionalism"; and rejoined "The Mark Reardon Show" on 97.1 FM Talk (St. Louis) to discuss Monday evening's Iowa Caucuses results and my recent trip to Israel.

Our additional highlighted right-leaning Newsweek op-eds from the past two weeks include selections from Lila Rose, Steve Cortes, Ryan Bangert, Ilan Berman, and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

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