Here's a link to an American Jewish Committee site where Doug Lieb's article attacking Jerry Slater's piece in Tikkun has been posted. Lieb's article is also published in the latest issue of Tikkun, which thereby takes on the old Commentary Magazine role, of being the AJC mouthpiece. Lieb's piece is there, presumably, to provide "context" to Slater's criticism of the Gaza slaughter. Mind-boggling. What does it say about the Jewish community that Tikkun feels this responsibility–especially when it is providing propaganda to counter a distinguished progressive scholar? You will see that Lieb says that the Gaza operation was "successful" —based on his conversations with Israeli officials–and that the Israeli army goes through a "rigorous" process before selecting its targets.
Successful? Here is an excerpt from Slater's piece, which by contrast to Lieb's is scholarly, sensitive and thorough.
Many Israeli as well as U.S. news stories have pointed to indications that the hatred engendered by the devastation of Gaza has led to more Palestinian popular support for Hamas rather than less. Indeed, the history of previous Israeli attacks against Arab populations intended to undermine their support for militant movements had already demonstrated the futility, let alone the immorality, of such behavior: the rise of Hezbollah was the direct consequence of the massive 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, and Hamas was created after Israel repressed the first Palestinian uprising in 1987.
Even more importantly, it was perfectly predictable that the devastating attack on Gaza would greatly intensify the hatred of Israel in the Arab world as a whole and undermine the moderate Arab governments that support a compromise peace settlement– already Turkey, long Israel’s most important ally in the Arab world, is changing its stance, King Hussein of Jordan is distancing himself, and Mubarak in Egypt is under severe domestic pressures. Consequently, even if Israel had destroyed Hamas, the Arab battle against Israel almost certainly would have been transferred from inside Palestine to Arab militant groups or even states that are beyond the effective reach of the Jewish state. Thus, in the absence of a settlement acceptable to the Palestinians, including Hamas, sooner or later there are likely to be far greater terrorist attacks on Israeli cities, whether from inside or outside Palestine.
In short, in terms of Israel’s long-term security, the attack on Gaza could not have been a greater failure: “One more victory like this,” said ancient Greece’s King Pyrhhus after his armies defeated the Romans in a particularly bloody war, “and we are ruined.”
Wonderful. It is truly amazing that Tikkun would try and undermine a writer of Slater's standing with Israeli propaganda. Why, even Yedioth Ahronoth has a piece that supports Slater's assessment.
