>Fucking brilliant timing too to start having a go at the Jews on the day after
>that Frontpage story; that'll help convince any rightwing trolls present that
>there's no such thing as left-wing antiSemitism, won't it?
For an excellent take on that topic, listen to my interview with Joel Schalit on my Nov 27 show, at <http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html>.
Doug
--------------------------- I listened to this interview a few weeks ago and I have to say I was a bit disappointed. There were references to the "authors in this book", and so on, but almost no differentiation between what the different writers said, and I don't think even one actual quote from the book.
I haven't read the book, but I'm familiar with most of the authors in it, and I doubt that all of them are saying similar things about "Congress Occupied Territory" and similar bullshit. I expect that from Blankfort, whose writings never fail to make me sick, and probably Brenner, but Finkelstein, Said, etc.? Seems unlikely.
One of the few mentions I think of the differences in the authors' writings was a passing reference to the non-Israeli and Israeli writers, if I remember right (or maybe it was to the "American" authors, I forget). There is a really fascinating and disturbing issue here that I've often wondered about - some Israelis (meaning Israeli Jews, here) use the same sort of language that is (rightly) criticised by you and Schalit. For example, Blankfort likes to quote Uri Avnery (one of the authors in the book I think), as saying: ------------------ What happened to all those nice plans?"asked Israeli journalist and peace activist Uri Avnery. "Israel's governments mobilized the collective power of US Jewry - which dominates Congress and the media to a large degree - against them. Faced by this vigorous opposition, all the presidents; great and small, football players and movie stars - folded, one after another."[11] ------------------------------- http://www.leftcurve.org/LC27WebPages/IsraelLobby.html
(Another example is the article "The Jews Who Run Clinton's Court" from Ma'ariv 1994, translated by Israel Shahak and now a staple on various anti-semitic web sites)
How common is this view in Israel? I've spoken with Israelis, with different political views, who agree with some variant of it. But I've never seen any discussion of how widespread this is in Israel.
Anway, I was sympathetic to the general points that you and Schalit were making, but it just seemed too fuzzy and non-specific to really be a good response to the writings in the book.