Comments on: Deliciously Savage Review of Pollack–in NYT!–Suggests Brookings Has Been Corrupted

By: Marcus

Marcus — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Yes, I was wondering when this would catch your attention. If it was on the Op-Ed page it would be a major marker of change at the NYT.

By: Klaus Bloemker, Frankfurt

Klaus Bloemker, Frankfurt — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

I read that piece in the International Herald Tribune. One should note that the reviewer Max Rodenbeck works for The Economist.
Obviously, like with Walt/Mearsheimer first publishing in London, the British got a better take on the matter than the Americans. Too bad the Hagana didn't blow up a hotel with 100 American officers in 1948.

By: Ed

Ed — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

The intelligentsia and literati are finally figuring out what us politically incorrect rogues have been saying for years: the key to determining the underpinnings and motives of the work product on questions of public policy (and even economic policy) turned out by so much of the contemporary American elite is asking the question “Is the author a committed Zionist?” If the answer is yes, much of the otherwise hidden bedrock of their thinking, and thus the foundation of their intentions, becomes clear.

By: MRW.

MRW. — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

I loved his final paragraph. I hope a lot of those wonks in Denver this week read it yesterday over this room-service coffee and buns.

"What is troubling about Pollack’s view, which is fairly representative of his fellow liberal interventionists, who are likely to be in power soon, is its lack of clarity. Can’t we just admit that American support for Israel is strategically burdensome and is driven by the passion of several domestic constituencies rather than cold cost-benefit geopolitics? Can’t we see that the temptation to intervene in places like the Middle East arises as much because “they” are weak as because “we” are just and noble? No matter what good will America’s “policy community” proclaims toward the Middle East, this mix of blinkered indulgence of Israel and disdain for the rest of the region, as well as a predilection for Wilsonian dreams over achievable goals, suggests we will remain in the wilderness for some time to come."

By: MRW.

MRW. — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

correction: I hope the wonks in Denver read it yesterday over their room-service coffee and buns.

By: D.

D. — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Yes, that last paragraph caught my eye too. As well as this sentence: "How about making aid to Israel, and not just to Arabs, conditional, or aiming at mitigating, rather than eliminating, such risks?" Perhaps the first time that the idea of making aid to Israel conditional on Israeli behavior has ever appeared in our paper of record?

How come the Financial Times gets to have a gentile Middle East correspondent and we don't?

By: MM

MM — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Me, I am all for the zionist witch-hunt.

I don't care if the media has to dig up Joe McCarthy himself, wrap a Hollywood-issue Nazi SS uniform around his decomposing corpse and Arafat's own personal AIDS-contaminated keffiyeh around his head, and accuse us all of allegiance to Vlademir Putin's KGB-issue poison penis and its special agents, Chinks and Chavez. I don't care if the proceedings are interrupted with 200 Holocaust rememberance PSA's an hour.

I would just like it KNOWN if someone is in favor of spending the public's money on a religious crusade in the Middle East.

Just tell me that every time some asshole appears on television to tell me about what's happening in my democracy.

Yeah, let the zionists come down and do their bribing out in the open in this money and media-ravaged carcass of a republic. They can still throw all their money around, with all the big guns. Arab shieks, oilmen, financers, firearm makers, cold warriors.

America's no worse really than anywhere else. All countries run on bribes.

But America runs the world. Not to mention, prints the money.

Bribes in America put millions of campesinos out of work and a million grave-diggers in work, in a Mesopotamian minute.

Bribes buy up things like trillions of dollars in bad credit, as the dollar races down its slope, the Sonny Bono of currencies.

Since Barry is the shoe-in (Phil knows better than I do), could someone more responsible and careful with their data than I am PLEASE start a website,

"Who's Bribing Barry Today?"

Do the bribers have any unholy plans for my second and third children?

Is there some war or religious crusade out there that just might "stimulate" our economy and stimulate the pundits? Will Barry evince eloquent humanitarianism as he declares the bombs must fall, for the love of God?

And likewise, if it's Captain Jack and Liebowitz, can I just apply to the appropriate Chinese corrupt official for citizenship in Macau?

With my money problems I've thought about becoming a high-class political prostitute, but to do it in the U.S. you either gotta be a Republican or Democratic Zionist. Me, I only impersonate one here.

By: Leila Abu-Saba

Leila Abu-Saba — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Max Rodenbeck grew up in Cairo, is fluent in written and spoken Arabic, and is the son of the man who brought Naguib Mahfouz's books into English (professor and former American U. Cairo Press publisher). Um, he's not Financial Times, D., see first comment - he's with the Economist. I knew Rodenbeck in Cairo 25 years ago and still hear tell of him through mutual friends. No other journalist in English has his contacts and his depth of experience in Egypt and the larger Middle East.

What's significant here is that the NY Times had the guts to run his piece. I would say that they feel safe enough to do so. Rodenbeck doesn't need the NY publishing world either so he can't be shut out or intimidated.

By: Alan Cabal

Alan Cabal — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Perhaps the real reason for the sharp drop-off in newspaper sales here in the USA has to do with the constant repetition of the Jewish point of view. Considering that 98% of our population is of the gentile persuasion, it might be profitable to have a few gentiles making editorial decisions for the mainstream media once in a while.

By: Klaus Bloemker, Frankfurt

Klaus Bloemker, Frankfurt — Mon, 29 Nov 1999 23:00:00 +0000

Leila,

thanks for the information on Max Rodenbeck