Many readers will already have seen that this blog was mentioned, along with Andrew Sullivan, Glenn Greenwald, Phil Weiss, and Steve Walt, as one of the sites “using the Internet to make anti-Semitism respectable,” in a Tablet article by their neoconservative politics columnist Lee Smith. The article is silly and substanceless enough that I won’t bother responding — Walt, Weiss, and Jerry Haber have already written fine rebuttals, and even journalists who are far from sympathetic to our politics, like JTA’s Ron Kampeas and the New Jersey Jewish News‘s Andrew Silow-Carroll, have picked apart Smith’s article for the idiocy that it is. (Although Kampeas feels compelled to take a gratuitous and frankly bizarre shot at Phil Weiss–he “gets up in the morning and plans a day that includes harming Jews”? Really, Ron? This is the kind of hysteria that one expects from Jeffrey Goldberg–who, no surprise, is the only source for Smith’s article.) I’ll just note how revealing it is that Smith is unable to produce a single instance of anti-Semitism from any of his targets, and is forced to rely on random and anonymous blog comments to make his case. His gloss on Jim’s political views also indicates that he has probably never read anything Jim’s written.
The real question is why the piece was published in the first place. I’ve written for Tablet before, and found the editors to be smart, thorough, and open-minded (as evidenced by their willingness to publish my piece in the first place). Reading Smith’s screed, I have to wonder how it made it through the publication process without anyone forcing him to provide some evidence for his claims.
More generally, it’s an interesting question why Smith has his gig at Tablet in the first place. I have no objection to the magazine airing neoconservative voices–they are a small minority in the American Jewish community, but an important one–but it is strange that the magazine would give its only weekly politics column to a neoconservative political operative who uses it exclusively as an echo chamber for talking points from Commentary and the Weekly Standard (where Smith also writes). I’ve gone through just about all of Smith’s Tablet columns, and virtually without fail they fall into one of two genres: there are hit pieces against whoever the neocons’ enemy of the week is (e.g. Trita Parsi, the Leveretts, and this latest article), and there are sycophantic puff pieces touting the wisdom of various Likudnik policymakers (e.g. Elliott Abrams, Michael Oren). Last week, he attempted a deeper think piece on Israel, Intellectuals, And The Fate Of Western Civilization, and it didn’t go too well–the kind of turgid pop philosophy that would be more at home in a college newspaper.
So why are we treated to Smith’s insights every week? Is it his good looks? His winning personality? A condition imposed by a funder? Regardless, his columns are jarringly out of place with the tenor of the rest of the magazine–and if his last couple are any indication, they’re only getting worse.
It appears that the comment of mine which Lee Smith selectively quotes from has been removed from the thread concerned, so the general public are now unable to find out what I actually said in it, and are likely to assume that I said simply and solely what Lee Smith quotes me as saying. However, a response by Martin Knutsen remains, which begins: “R. Berkely: As a fellow marxist, I would like to point out…”
RE:”…this blog was mentioned, along with Andrew Sullivan, Glenn Greenwald, Phil Weiss, and Steve Walt, as one of the sites “using the Internet to make anti-Semitism respectable,” in a Tablet article…”
MY COMMENT: Take a gander at this interesting response (comment) by Jordy2010 to Lee Smith’s Tablet column, “Mainstreaming Hate”. It sounds like Jordy2010 has been “mainlining hate”. You guys might want to consider investing in some good bulletproof vests and beefing up your security details.
Jordy2010 says:
Jul 21, 2010 at 8:16 PM
Arent Jewish far-left loons the same kind of monsters who organized the Soviet-Union and are responsible for the deaths of over 100 million human beings???? I see no difference between them and neo-nazis…… when they come into a chatroom they all hate Jews!!! The Mossad shud take care of anti-Israel jews……
LINK – http://www.tabletmag.com/news-and-politics/40064/mainstreaming-hate/comment-page-3/#comment-83447
Lucchesi,
Is English your first language? I ask because I’m honestly at a complete loss finding a coherent thought in your comments.
Jon Harrison,
I agree with you that some of the material posted by “pro-Palestinian” commenters is anti-semitic, or disturbingly close to it. But it works both ways. You can also find plenty of anti-Arab & anti-Muslim sentiment among many pro-Israel commenters.
In fact, without trivializing anti-Semitism, I’d say that anti-Muslim bigotry is the one that’s becoming far more mainstream. Look at the opposition to the Cordoba Center, the Muslim community center near Ground Zero, that’s now being embraced by “mainstream” Republican politicians like Rick Lazio, Sarah Palin, & Newt Gingrich.
Rowan Berkeley,
I hate to say it, but Lee Smith was right about you. You are an anti-Semite. You’re certainly not doing the Palestinian cause any favors. Please go away.
I’m afraid I can’t agree with Vered’s comments. There is a “Lobby” and Lee Smith is a propagandist for it.
Saying “birds of feather flock together” is, again, guilt by association. You’re simply wrong to blame the blogs for that portion of the commentariat that dispkays anti-Semitic sentiments. When the World Zionist League voted in 1946 to condemn the Irgun for its “shedding of innocent blood as a means of political warfare” it did not associate all supporters of an Israeli state with these crimes. That would have been guilt by association. It is similarly wrong and base to associate Walt or Lobe or the Leveretts with the words of a few extremists who happen to comment on their blogs.
I see no need for the Jewish people to fear for their future existence. The one thing that potentially threatens them is the continuing oppression of the Palestinians by Israel. Israel is marching towards its own doom by maintaining an apartheid state in Palestine. It is amazing to me that people like yourself, Vered, cannot see the danger that has been building for the Jews as Israel carries out its wrong and shameful policies in Palestine.