Israel Matzav

HuffPo: Any anti-Semitism in the liberal blogosphere is Rove's fault

You can't make this stuff up. Yesterday, Air America co-founder Sheldon Drobny posted on the leftist site Huffington Post about liberal/progressive anti-Semitism. His conclusion comes down to "There is no anti-Semitism among liberals and progressives; Karl Rove has an army that plants anti-Semitic posts on lefty blog sites." I kid you not.

In the process, Drobny also plays fast and easy with the facts, claiming that Yasser Arafat made a peace proposal at Camp David in 2000 and that Israel turned the proposal down.

To make sure that there were (almost) no anti-Semitic comments at HuffPo yesterday, comments were shut off at 137 and I could not get past page 1 out of 7 in reading them.

Hat Tip: Barry Rubin

My brother warned me that the liberal blogs were becoming very anti-Israel and some were so violently critical of Israel that there was a tone of anti-Semitism in that criticism. Since I generally do not read the blogs, I was surprised that liberals and progressives would treat the Israel/Palestine issue in such a shortsighted approach. Most objective people understand that it takes two to make an argument and that an informed group would understand that the Israel/Palestine problem has historical roots where plenty of blame can be shared. And my experience with liberals and progressives is that they view the world in shades of gray as compared to the right wing black and white approach.

But, to my surprise, I got 67 comments from my last post that were mostly hostile to me and the ones that supported my analysis. Many of the other posts I had made got criticism from clearly right wing readers. The difference I observed with this subject had brought out what I thought was unlike my experiences with thoughtful progressives who could disagree rationally with different points of view. And many progressives do criticize Israel for their inhumane treatment of innocent civilians including Jewish progressives. But, in the context of criticism, there has to be some balance about the subject.

...

I came to the conclusion that the hostile comments about Israel on these liberal blogs are not coming from true liberals. Most of the anti-Semitism comes from racism and most of the racism I have experienced has come from the far right, not the left. And history shows that the Christo-fascist policies of the right have been responsible for historical anti-Judaism. It is only lately that the extreme evangelical groups have conveniently aligned with Israel now to validate their biblical beliefs. These extreme evangelicals were the most anti-Jewish because of the Passion Narratives of the New Testament. And for my friends in AIPAC, they should be aware that short-term alliances with people who have endemic hatred of you could be disastrous. The early Zionists found this out when they signed a trade agreement with Germany hoping that Germany would deport the Jews to Palestine.

...

After Israel signed the Oslo Accords in 1993 it experienced its greatest economic and technological advancement. Whether or not Israel was wise in rejecting the 2000 proposal that was advanced by Arafat at Camp David is subject to historical evaluation. But, Israel has suffered economically since the last intifada and has no benefit to its people by having perpetual war.

...

So my conclusion is that the bloggers who violently hate Israel and see it in black and white terms are not really liberals. They may even be anti-Semites, but they are not representative of the liberal community that was so active in achieving racial and ethnic equality. It is a contradiction for a true liberal to be an anti-Semite. Furthermore, I would not put it past the right wing to flood the liberal blogs with hateful criticisms of Israel to advance a perception that liberals are anti-Israel or anti-Semitic. And I see Karl Rove's fingerprints all over this.

Denial isn't just a river in Egypt.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:44 AM