So Cheney’s trip has resulted in a new rapprochement between Iraq and the other Arab dictatorships; it has allowed the Arab dictators to announce that they are ready for ‘peace’ with Israel, while they funnel the arms for the necessary war; and recent events have been manipulated to make it seem now as if Arafat is the man genuinely seeking a cease-fire while the Israelis are preparing for a new assault. This is one of the biggest diplomatic messes the United States has managed to help bring about in many a long year. Arafat wins; the terrorism-sponsoring Saudis win; Saddam wins; Palestinian terrorists win; and the United States is humiliated and Israel pushed into an unending war of attrition with every neighboring state. Hey, how about some more “peace-process,” huh?
SONTAG AWARD NOMINEE: “All of my friends over here are the wrong kinds of American. They don’t fly flags, they feel alienated by their newspapers and uninspired by the phrase “let’s roll”. Their hearts don’t go pitter-pat when they imagine bombing the shit out of people they don’t know. Liberal Americans think of Bush and Rumsfeld and then feel frightened, embarrassed and sad. Given that this makes them, essentially, enemies of the state, deserving immediate imprisonment inside hand-rolled Cuban wire cages, it is exquisitely merciful of George and Don to be planning a national missile defence system which will protect even them.” Al Kennedy, The Guardian.
THE CHURCH WILL DO NOTHING: “In the early 1990s widespread reports of child abuse by priests, nuns, and Christian Brothers created a scandal in Canada similar to the one the United States is experiencing today. As far as I know, the Canadian Church has done nothing to prevent another scandal.” This and a real Israeli-Palestinian peace-plan on the Letters Page.
BRUNI ON THE GRILL: Frank Bruni wraps up this month’s book club discussion by subjecting himself to several difficult questions – from you guys.
HOW SOME GAY LEFTISTS KEEP OTHER GAYS IN THE CLOSET: This from a dialogue with Rosie O’Donnell on the PlanetOut website:
Planet Out: What do you make of gay journalist Michelangelo Signorile’s assertion that it was your desire to silence your gay critics that made you come out?
Rosie: He is a moron. His idea of gay America consists of only those he deems worthy enough. I do not enjoy him, his point of view or his rhetoric. (He isn’t even funny.) One reason I did not come out sooner, I didn’t want anyone to associate me with Signorile in any way. Same goes for Musto (Michael Musto, Village Voice gossip columnist).
DERBYSHIRE AWARD NOMINEE: “McCain is wrong on campaign finance issues, but he’s earnestly wrong. Bush is worse: He KNOWS what he’s doing is wrong. McCain is Andrea Yates, living under a delusion. Bush is Susan Smith, rolling his principles down into the cold, dark water in order to get something he wants.” – Michael Graham, michaelgraham.com.
SAID AND ALTERMAN – TOGETHER AT LAST: There’s something clarifying about Eric Alterman and Edward Said simultaneously deciding and writing that a key problem for the Middle East and for American democracy is that most commentators are blindly, reflexively, unalterably defenders of anything Israel does. Here’s Alterman’s exquisite formulation:
For reasons of religion, politics, history and genuine conviction the punditocracy debate of the Middle East in America is dominated by people who cannot imagine criticizing Israel. The value of this legion to the Jewish state is, for better or worse, literally incalculable, particularly when push – as it inevitably does in the Middle East – comes to shove.
Notice the escape clause – “and genuine conviction.” Without that phrase, Alterman, who believes a lone blogger is a dangerous force for McCarthyite censorship, would be accusing a whole swath of writers of having dual loyalty, or simply refusing to think or exercise their own conscience or judgment with regard to the Middle East. Most of the people cited are also Jews. The term Alterman uses is: “COLUMNISTS AND COMMENTATORS WHO CAN BE COUNTED UPON TO SUPPORT ISRAEL REFLEXIVELY AND WITHOUT QUALIFICATION.” Then he provides a list – a black-list, you might call it – of all the offending journalists. Here’s Said, who chimes in on the same theme:
The worst misrepresentation of all is that in the 54 years since 1948, never has a narrative of Palestinian heroism and suffering been allowed to emerge. We are all depicted as violent fanatic extremists who are little more than the terrorists that George Bush and his cabal have imposed on the consciousness of a stunned and systematically misinformed population, aided and uncritically abetted by an entire army of commentators and media stars — the Blitzers, Zahns, Lehrers, Rathers, Brokaws, Russerts, and their ilk. The Israeli lobby is scarcely needed with such faithful disciples trailing happily in its ranks.
So here Said is also naming names of journalists lobotomized by blind support for a tiny country. Now why should such people be so blinkered? If it isn’t out of conviction, what could it be? This is fodder for the usual anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and it’s helpful to see Alterman reinvigorate the trope. I wouldn’t call him dangerous or a threat to the republic. But it strikes me that someone publishing blacklists of journalists controlled by the Jews might be a little circumspect about labeling others McCarthyites.
The Dish 