Search Results for: "an epidemic of not watching"

Goldblog and Beinart go another round. Peter defends HRW:

I recognize that Human Rights Watch may make mistakes. But it has done reports on Palestinian human rights abuses and lots of them (many more than on Israel) on human rights issues in the Arab world. Groups like AIPAC, which ONLY criticize Israel's neighbors and never criticize Israel, are in a particularly bad position to charge one-sidedness, it seems to me. And the argument that Human Rights Watch should not investigate Israel because it is a democracy doesn't make sense. I have no problem with them investigating torture in the United States–I'm glad they did. What's more, and this is so obvious that it's often ignored, Israel is NOT a democracy in the West Bank, which is where a lot of the abuses occur.

A reader writes:

A reader writes: Beinart says, "I'm not even asking [Israel] to allow full, equal citizenship to Arab Israelis, since that would require Israel no longer being a Jewish state….What I am asking is that Israel not do things that foreclose the possibility of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, because if it is does … Continue reading “An Epidemic Of Not Watching” Ctd

Goldblog interviews Peter Beinart in two parts (one, two). Peter:

I'm not asking Israel to be Utopian. I'm not asking it to allow Palestinians who were forced out (or fled) in 1948 to return to their homes. I'm not even asking it to allow full, equal citizenship to Arab Israelis, since that would require Israel no longer being a Jewish state. I'm actually pretty willing to compromise my liberalism for Israel's security and for its status as a Jewish state. What I am asking is that Israel not do things that foreclose the possibility of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, because if it is does that it will become–and I'm quoting Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak here–an "apartheid state."

And foreclosing the possibility of a Palestinian state is exactly what the current Israeli coalition wants to do.

Marc Tracy interviews Peter Beinart: I really believe that if Israel becomes more and more callous toward the right and dignity of non-Jews, it is naive to believe it will not become more callous to the rights and dignity of certain Jews. I think the two cannot be separated. Whether it’s the rights of gays … Continue reading “An Epidemic Of Not Watching” Ctd

In a simple quote, via Burston, from Boaz Okun, Yedioth Ahronot's legal affairs commentator and former Israeli judge: "The decision to shut up Professor Chomsky is a decision to shut down freedom in the state of Israel. I'm not speaking of the stupidity of supplying ammunition to those who claim that Israel is fascist rather, … Continue reading “An Epidemic Of Not Watching” Ctd

Jonathan Bernstein: The elephant in the room that Beinart doesn't discuss is that Israeli leaders may feel that they don't need Jewish support in the United States, because they can substitute Christian evangelical support, with the latter less likely (or at least perceived to be less likely) to produce any sorts of constraints on the … Continue reading “An Epidemic Of Not Watching” Ctd: The Christianist Alliance

Goldblog will be publishing a back and forth with Beinart soon, but for now he laments the placement of the piece in the New York Review of Books, "the one-stop shopping source for bien-pensant anti-Israelism." In the day of the web, what does it matter where an argument is placed? The point is the argument, not any associations. The era of media authoritah is over. Ackerman understandably balks at the characterization and dives into the substance:

Peter is right that it’s the moral task of Zionist liberals like, well, himself and myself and the J Street generation to save Zionist liberalism. But if you’re Malcolm Hoenlein or Abe Foxman, why should you care what pischers like us think? You’ve got aspirant Republican officeholders tripping over each other to profess their deep faith in Israel. That should underscore the urgency of the J Street generation.

Ezra Klein notes the disparity between the understandably apocalyptic psyches of many among the older generation and, well, reality:

Today, Israel is far, far, far more militarily powerful than any of its assailants.

One more sign of the creeping illiberalism in Israel.

It's a courageous, smart and open-eyed essay that Peter Beinart, my old friend and fellow former editor of TNR has written. It has, to my mind, two central things to tell us. The first is that the political, moral and cultural shift within Israel is much worse than many seem to acknowledge; and the second … Continue reading “An Epidemic Of Not Watching”