Another example of the ways that Israel-first talk is politely bleeped out of the American conversation. Joe Klein has a tearjerking column about his late friend David Ifshin, “McCain’s Radical Pal,” who as an anti-Vietnam radical gave a speech in Hanoi attacking American pilots like John McCain as war criminals.
McCain returned the favor in ’84. By then Ifshin was an important Dem, a Walter Mondale campaign lawyer; and working the hustings for President Reagan, John McCain broke his personal policy of not getting back at anyone over Vietnam rhetoric and attacked Ifshin in a speech of his own.
Fast forward. Ifshin and McCain meet at an AIPAC conference, and McCain forgives Ifshin, and Ifshin forgives McCain. Ifshin:
apologize to you for years. I feel so terrible about that speech I gave
in Hanoi.”
But read McCain’s 2006 praise for Ifshin, as reported by the late lamented New York Sun (boy they did chicken right, or something right). McCain:
“His [Hanoi] speech was broadcast into our cells. I thought it a grievous wrong
and I still do.”
“A few years later, he had moved temporarily to a kibbutz in Israel.
He was there during the Yom Kippur War, when he witnessed the support
America provided our beleaguered ally. He saw the huge cargo planes
bearing the insignia of the United States Air Force rushing emergency
supplies into that country. And he had an epiphany. He had believed
America had made a tragic mistake and done a terrible injustice by
going to Vietnam, and he still did. But he realized he had let his
criticism temporarily blind him to his country’s generosity and the
goodness that most Americans possess, and he regretted his failing
deeply,” Mr. McCain said. [emphasis mine]
So Ifshin’s epiphany re Vietnam/McCain came purely out of Israel feeling. It is identical to the epiphany that in the 70s caused Irving Kristol and Norman Podhoretz to become neocons and Republicans, and latterly for their sons (and Podhoretz’s son-in-law) to push the Iraq War. This has been the migration path of countless Jewish political hawks, one followed now by Lieberman, Mel Levine, Waxman, Berman: anti-Vietnam War, but when it comes to the Middle East, and making Israel safe, that’s another story.
Joe Klein did great work earlier this year when he dimed out the “Jewish neocons” as men of “divided loyalties” who had sold the war privately to him in ’02 as a way of changing Israel’s neighborhood. Crazy people. Klein should have been equally forthright about his late friend’s motivation
He felt grateful for the American airlift to Israel. . Phil Weiss on the other hand was rooting for the Arabs in 73. Probably got a big thrill out of the thought of Israel being destroyed. But I digress. I thought Joe Klein was the big hero. Now he's a bum. Enlighten me.
"Phil Weiss on the other hand was rooting for the Arabs in 73."
Yawn.
"So Ifshin's epiphany re Vietnam/McCain came purely out of Israel feeling."
No, not purely, not even primarily. Like so many Jewish "leftists" of that time–not just neocons, but Walzer, Gitlin, etc.–support for Israel greased the wheels for drawing back from true radicalism, being accepted in the professoriate or journalistic establishment. The only prominent Jewish opponents to Israeli aggression were Chomsky and Stone.
Support for Israel became a form of liberal anti-communism.
Support for Israel is coupled with drawing back from the civil rights movement, shock at Black Power in spite of Black Panthers being murdered in their beds, a host of excuses for getting on with a comfortable life (don't forget blackantisemitism). So let's start talking about women's rights, since we're married to Jewish women.
You can be a democratic socialist, write for Dissent and the Nation, support Israel, and show your face at the synagogue twice a year. Why pay the price of being a true radical when you can be a fake one?
Career first.
Well, doesn't Phil Weiss cheer on the Arabs and root for the destruction of Israel and the death and dispersion of its Jews. Tell me where I'm wrong.
You can be a democratic socialist, write for Dissent and the Nation, support Israel, and show your face at the synagogue twice a year. Why pay the price of being a true radical when you can be a fake one?
Career first.
It's anti-Semitic to suggest that sucking up to Jewish pirate nationalism is a good career move. UNLESS of course you're in-tribe, like Witty, who taunts Phil almost once a week about his career-limiting conscience.
And I'm not sure but I think it's also anti-Semitic to talk about black power, black people, black anything without mentioning the pivotal role that civil rights-era Jews played in lifting American black people into the delightful social position they occupy, today.
No chance to answer David Green. If I look at the reasons. I am blocked, which seems to be connected to something called: a cross-site-scripting-attack, what the hell is that?
Let's see if it is connected with contents? Oh, seems it is. If the content is gone, I can get at preview. How does this work?
No chance to answer David Green. If I look at the reasons. I am blocked, which seems to be connected to something called: a cross-site-scripting-attack, what the hell is that?
Let's see if it is connected with contents? Oh, seems it is. If the content is gone, I can get at preview. How does this work?
No chance to answer David Green. If I look at the reasons. I am blocked, which seems to be connected to something called: a cross-site-scripting-attack, what the hell is that?
Let's see if it is connected with contents? Oh, seems it is. If the content is gone, I can get at preview. How does this work?
Trying again. Message to David Green: The way of the world?
Careerism as a mainly "secure position", as long as majorities are involved, is something that troubled me a lot over here, or careerism that makes you untouchable, or I'd like to add, made you clever enough to invent your exculpatory tale.
To give you the most prominent example on my mind. You surely remember the case of Eichmann. Now there is a not so well known connected case. Eichmann demanded that Hans(image) Globke from whom he took order would witness during his trial. …
It didn't happen since Ekbolg was busy, and the first German chancellor's "right hand", he was also involved in setting up the German FBI (Bundeskriminalamt) with a network of old "experienced" policeman.
As the old lady said to me: But who else had leadership experience.
Sorry: this is a left-over. I first tried to change some names:
Ekbolg instead of Globke, and it worked. But also worked after I used the correct ones. One Ekbolg I forgot.
Eichman as a negative…
How many eichmans do we have now in USA government?
Isn't that what voters have to decide?
Just to clarify and simplify. Once upon a time there was a civil rights movement and anti-Vietnam War movement, which had a genuinely radical element (Chomsky, Berrigan, Black Panthers, etc.). Israel's victory in 1967 and increased identification with Israel provided a means for the Peretz/Walzer/Gitlin/Wieseltier crowd to draw back from criticism of the U.S. and in defense of Israel, then thought of as socialist good guys vs. pro-Soviet nationalist Arab bad guys. A general critique of American foreign policy was thus prevented, and newly ethnically proud Jews could get on with their liberal, reformist lives. Support for Israel was a means to an end, not an end in itself.