[lbo-talk] Palestine Think Tank: Jeff Blankfort - Chomsky and Palestine: Asset or Liability?

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Wed Jul 21 09:44:54 PDT 2010


On Jul 21, 2010, at 12:06 PM, James Heartfield wrote:


> I must admit to being unfamiliar with Blankfort, but reading this article of his, he seems to be a horse's ass.
>
> It is creepy to go on about 'Jewish leftists' and 'within the tribe' ('tribe'?). But most clearly Blankfort is wrong when he says that the blame lies primarily with Israel not the US, and Chomsky is right when he says blame lies primarily with the US (and, I would add those other western allies).
>
> Further, Blankfort is tactically wrong about the boycott. Boycotts can work, but have some drawbacks. In the case of Israel, the boycotts (and attacks upon) Jewish owned shops like Marks and Spencers (here in the UK) are grotesque - making the issue into one of attacking Jewish shopkeepers rather than western imperialism.
>
> Chomsky might have been mistaken in the 1950s, about left-wing Zionism (lots were, including my aunt). But his position today seems honourable to me.

Absolutely. Blankfort is an all-around jerk - not just on this, but in something closer to me, KPFA politics. He attacks Chomsky as part of the whole lefter-than-thou pose, which is often annoying and counterproductive, but in this case is really scandalous. You can disagree with him on the BDS issue, but to call him dishonest and harmful to the Palestinian cause is noxious.

Doug



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list