leftworks

“I didn't know that.” After defending Zionism, @MikeTappTweets is challenged by @ShehabKhan on Jewish people abroad being able to obtain Israeli citizenship while displaced Palestinians cannot return. His response: “That doesn't sound equal to me.” Watch more👇

Dear @elonmusk, My message to you yesterday—asking you to emerge as an even greater protector of American freedom of speech, liberty, and the First Amendment—has gone viral. I was amazed to see that even the Israel-haters who troll me around the world are agreeing in the comments that the Fontainebleau Hotel Miami Beach’s attempt to subpoena my AI activity is scaring them as well. Maybe there is something we can all agree on: that human beings should live free and with their rights intact. You and I know each other from our public conversation on X Spaces on September 28, 2023, when you told me you were “aspirationally Jewish.” What Judaism as a religion represents more than anything is freedom of choice. Subpoenas like this will come for Grok, ChatGPT, and every other AI platform. Here’s the brief history. On the night of December 1, 2024, I was helping edit a draft speech for my close friend Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who had just been nominated by President Trump to be Secretary of Health and Human Services. A radical Islamist antisemite named Faiz Akbar, who had just watched me on Piers Morgan debating Muhammad Hijab—a debate that has already reached 10 million views—stalked me from behind while I worked on my laptop, confronted me, and threatened me with murder. He called me and my IDF soldier son “baby killers.” I captured video from the moment the confrontation began. I’ve shared it on X and Instagram; it has gotten millions of views worldwide. The confrontation and threats are on video. Fontainebleau security not only failed to stop the attack but refused to call the Miami Beach police, then fist-bumped and hugged my attacker. Their own security surveillance footage, obtained later through a police subpoena, confirms I was sitting and working quietly when this unprovoked threat occurred. Instead of protecting me, billionaire owner Jeffrey Soffer decided to sue me into silence—apparently calculating that any association with the antisemitic attack would hurt his business. For nearly two years, he has subjected me to what I can only describe as litigation persecution: nonstop discovery requests, motions for sanctions, and attempts to destroy my life so I never talk about the Jew-hatred attack at the Fontainebleau. The hotel claimed I was “loitering,” a term with an ugly history of being used to keep Black people out of white hotels in the South. Freedom of speech in America is so fragile that federal Judge Michael Moore issued an unsigned directive restricting my speech without clearly defining those restrictions. That ambiguity allowed the Fontainebleau to seek sanctions claiming I violated the court order. I believe the aim was to bankrupt me over the terrible publicity of suing a rabbi after an antisemitic attack in which hotel security failed to protect him—an attack the hotel described merely as an “altercation.” Magistrate Judge Marty Elfenbein, who I contend failed to disclose a close relationship with the family of Fontainebleau’s counsel, Todd Friedman, should have recused herself. In my view, the apparent conflict is unmistakable. She declined. On grounds that included, believe it or not, my criticism of the Fontainebleau’s water park, she recommended case-ending sanctions that would hold me liable for defamation without a trial. This deprived me of my Seventh Amendment right to a jury. You can’t make this up. When Judge Moore adopted that recommendation, exposing me to potential bankruptcy, we protested that he had never clarified what I could and could not say. He initially reaffirmed the sanctions. Yet the very next day, he acknowledged that his directive was ambiguous and that the court should have been clear. He then resigned from the case. That is why I dispute the reader note attached to my message yesterday. Judge Michael Moore is now out of the case and has been replaced by a new federal judge. Magistrate Judge Elfenbein has still refused to recuse herself. I believe her alleged very close personal relationship with the plaintiff’s counsel presents an egregious conflict. She should do the right thing, give Americans confidence in the judicial system, and recuse herself—as Judge Moore withdrew after acknowledging the lack of clarity in his directive. How can you sanction someone for violating an order that you yourself acknowledge was never clear about what was prohibited? These issues will, God willing, be raised on appeal. In the meantime, the magistrate is about to make a decision, and here is where you come into it: the Fontainebleau is trying to subpoena my AI interactions. Elon, you are the single greatest American champion of free speech. Those of us who are not billionaires, and who are being sued by immoral billionaire bullies to shut us up, look to you for free-speech salvation. Some people have written, “Why are you afraid to have your AI interactions subpoenaed if you haven’t done anything wrong?” I have done nothing wrong. This is about the right to privacy, the right to free speech, and the American protections and liberties that you have repeatedly warned are eroding. I am making this argument because I believe these demands are part of a campaign of harassment by an immoral billionaire. Yes, you’re a trillionaire. But that’s because you have added real value to people’s lives through electric cars, rockets, and space Wi-Fi. You’ll remember that when we spoke on X Spaces, I said you should win the Nobel Peace Prize because, by making the world less dependent on oil, you help reduce the money flowing to regimes like Putin’s Russia and Iran. I praised you. You are a moral trillionaire. But you know that you are surrounded by so many immoral billionaires. An immoral billionaire is now trying to take away my rights as an American so that I shut up and never criticize his hotel over a murder threat against me because I fight for Israel on TV and have four children in the IDF. Judge Elfenbein’s recommendation that I lose a jury trial, on grounds that included criticism of a water park, is shocking in the extreme and should make every American tremble. These alleged abuses of the legal process and the American judiciary—which should guard our constitutional freedoms and protections—are why I’m writing to you, my dear friend. A man of your integrity, influence, resources, and global reach can help preserve our freedom of speech. Grok and the other AI platforms should protect humanity’s most intimate conversations and private thoughts. If courts force AI companies to turn over private conversations so that a billionaire hotel owner can silence criticism of an antisemitic attack on his property—where his own security failed to protect the victim and then hugged the attacker—then free speech and privacy are in danger on every platform. His resources are unlimited compared with those of a rabbi and father of nine. The imbalance could hardly be greater. Our rights cannot depend on who can afford to litigate longest. This is your fight, Elon. It is America’s fight. It is humanity’s fight, regardless of color, conviction, or creed. As I said at the outset, even the Israel-haters who troll me on X agree. You have repeatedly warned that these liberties are eroding. You are one of the moral billionaires who have improved people’s lives immeasurably. This is the kind of abuse of power you have spoken against with eloquence and courage. AI platforms must not become tools for this kind of harassment and litigation terrorism. Thank you for standing for free speech. God bless you and your large family always. With affection and respect, Rabbi Shmuley