Sometimes we don’t see how much the world has changed. The left has changed the U.S. discourse in the last few months. It’s happened before our eyes. Yes, Walt and Mearsheimer are marginalized, but last night in a packed church in New York, Norman Finkelstein called on the Jewish community in the U.S. to separate itself from Israel, and I think that is slowly happening. The soul-searching I’ve called for within the Jewish community re the neocons is taking place in a subterranean way. Now everyone knows that they are Israel-centric, and it’s become kosher for journalists to say or hint as much. In a month, Doubleday will publish They Knew They Were Right, a book on the neocons by a fairly sympathetic writer, Jacob Heilbrunn, whose galley is promoted with the following boldfaced language on the back cover:
The neocons have become the most reviled and controversial intellectual movement in American history. Critics on both the left and right describe them as a tight-knit cabal that has ensnared the Bush administration in an unwinnable foreign war primarily on Israel’s behalf.
Huh. Cabal. Israel. Unimaginable a year or two ago. Just six years ago the neocons and other Israel-supporters were
successful in the claim that it was all one war, our war wasn’t with Al
Qaeda, it was with Syria and Hamas and Hezbollah. Now Iraq has shown what a grand
delusion that was, and Condi Rice is said to be reminded of the deep south of the segregation years when she visits the West Bank. While a front-page analysis in yesterday’s Times observed, re Annapolis:
Mr. Bush, for now, seems to have accepted the argument that the
Palestinian cause is at the root of Islamic mistrust of the United
States….
Got it! We have helped to do push him there. Give yourself a pat on the back.
Here, by the way, is the report I have on Finkelstein’s appearance, from Hannah Rappleye of the New School:
Finkelstein ended by saying, it's "time for american jews to kiss israel goodbye" or
something like that. he began his speech with a brief history of
american zionism and then went off about how the way to solve the
problem is extremely simple: Israel's occupation of the territories is
illegal (cites U.N, Geneva Conventions, International Court of
Justice, etc) and peace will not come until that occupation is over.
Etc.
The question and answer part was interesting. After
comparing the numbers (civilian deaths), he said, "Hamas was a
terrorist organization, but the IDF is about 4.5 times more terrorist
than Hamas." Quoting roughly: When asked to discuss
his tenure issue at DePaul he started singing gospel songs like, "Were
You There When They Crucified My Lord?" and evaded the question. One
of the questions I asked was about discussing Isarel on campus, but
that got lumped together into the tenure issue by the moderator so I
got no answer, just gospel, unfortunately.
