[lbo-talk] Shamir

[rob at riseup.net]

I also object to Shamir's articles being sent over this list. He is a  
far-rightist infiltrating the left. More on him can be found here:
On Israel Shamir: http://contested-terrain.net/on-israel-shamir/
But I think Chip downplays the problems when he calls Counterpunch  
"stupid" for running Shamir's text. Counterpunch always runs Shamir's  
texts. Just look at their website. Counterpunch has a history of  
promoting and trivializing antisemitism, and Alexander Cockburn has  
explicitly expressed interest in reaching out to the right.
On Counterpunch's promotion of antisemitism, the most recent example  
is their publishing of a text attempting to modernize the blood- 
libel. (See here: http://adamholland.blogspot.com/2009/09/blood-libel- 
promoted-by-counterpunch.htm).
On their trivialization of antisemitism see Michael Neumann's "What  
is Antisemitism?" (http://www.counterpunch.org/neumann0604.html)  
where he writes:
"Undoubtedly there is genuine antisemitism in the Arab world: the  
distribution of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the myths about  
stealing the blood of gentile babies. This is utterly inexcusable. So  
was your failure to answer Aunt Bee’s last letter."
On the topic of “hatred against Jews,” Neumann writes, “Some of this  
hatred is racist, some isn’t, but who cares? Why should we pay any  
attention to this issue at all?”
And on Alexander Cockburn's efforts to form a left-right alliance see  
here: "25 Years After Vietnam: Beyond Left and Right" (http:// 
www.counterpunch.org/leftlibertarian.html) In it he writes: “What I’m  
sure is attractive about the idea of the left-right opposition to war  
is the idea of a shared moral outlook, which of course then has to  
confront or perhaps gloss over temporarily economic and political  
differences. And I think the shared moral outlook should extend  
beyond war into other very, important areas.”
-rob

On Jan 4, 2011, at 5:26 AM, lbo-talk-request at lbo-talk.org wrote:


> Shamir