Eric Alterman now weighs in on Freedom’s Watch’s pro-Israel agenda. The thing I love about Alterman is that he is very upfront about his Jewishness as an important factor in his thinking, even as he is capable of raising questions of dual loyalty. That’s real intellectual honesty.
For me the litmus test in these debates is, What do you think of the Iraq war? Alterman was always against it, knew it would be a disaster. And he seems always to have considered that war from one perspective–as an American, thinking of fellow Americans who would have to die for that cause… Here’s his riff on Freedom’s Watch:
Call me a Nervous Jewish Nellie, but
I don’t like it when enormously wealthy Jews
use their enormous wealth exactly the
way anti-Semites have historically tried to accuse them of doing. This administration has lied
us into one war
with the help of some of these same people and it has inspired what
many insist are a spate of anti-Semitic accusations against Neocons and
others. Just what do they expect from
this one? We are
at war with Iran and
they are striking back
at us through terrorist acts
the world over? How
are people supposed to distinguish their dishonesty about Iraq and Iran from their commitment to protecting Israel? Oh,
right, I forgot. There is no such thing as a conflict between U.S.
interests and Israeli interests, period. Well, that settles that.To tell you the
truth, I’d feel a lot better if these rich folk
were volunteering their children to fight in Iraq and Iran rather than
just using their money to ensure that other people’s children will have
to fight and die
there…
