In his own words (Jeffrey Goldberg)

by on April 3, 2009 7
1sharesFacebook
0tweetsTwitter
0stumbledStumbleUpon
0sharesReddit
0recommendGoogle

"For me, the wonder was modern Israel, the greatest wonders being Jews with
guns, and not just .22s, but Uzis and M-16s and bigger guns than these,
grenade-spitting guns, great barking machine guns. On a bus tour across the
Galilee, we drove in the wake of a tank transport, a mammoth truck carrying a
deadly Jewish tank. A Jewish tank! And Jewish armored personnel carriers! It
was a miracle. Enough of thinking and suffering! Let's do some shooting!"
–Jeffrey Goldberg, in his book Prisoners (2006)

"As I waited in the Knesset cafeteria to see Netanyahu, I opened a book he edited of his late brother’s letters. Yoni Netanyahu, a commando leader, was killed in 1976 during the Israeli raid on Entebbe, and his family organized his letters in a book they titled Self-Portrait of a Hero. In one letter, Yoni wrote to his teenage brother, then living in America, who had apparently been in a fight after someone directed an anti-Semitic remark at him. 'I see … that you had to release the surplus energy you stored up during the summer,' Yoni wrote. 'There’s nothing wrong with that. But it’s too bad you sprained a finger in the process. In my opinion, there’s nothing wrong with a good fist fight; on the contrary, if you’re young and you’re not seriously hurt, it won’t do you real harm. Remember what I told you? He who delivers the first blow, wins.'"
 –Goldberg, reporting on his interview with Netanyahu, March 31, titled, "Netanyahu to Obama: Stop Iran–Or I Will"

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Iran, Israel/Palestine, Israeli Government, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics

{ 7 comments... read them below or add one }

  2. David F. says:
    April 3, 2009 at 11:53 pm

    Great quote from Goldberg. I can imagine something of his enthusiasm, yet at the same time it portrays the somewhat grotesque spectacle of an American Jew lost in a real-life Holocaust revenge fantasy. He's ready to take on the Nazis! Except…there aren't any Nazis, just a bunch of ordinary Palestinian civilians who are angry about being displaced and could care less whether Goldberg was Jewish or Lutheran.

    I also like the second quote! I agree that there are times when there is nothing like a good clean fist fight for reaching some level of mutual understanding. Too bad Father Flannigan can't ref a fist-fight between some of our Zionist and anti-Zionist commentators. It would save a lot of internet bile, and definitely be a hit on youtube.

  3. Rowan says:
    April 4, 2009 at 2:39 am

    what a juvenile and patronising suggestion.

  4. Richard says:
    April 4, 2009 at 5:54 am

    Rowan, you quite often say some sensible stuff, but you haven't today. Go and take another ulcer pill, or a cup of warm cocoa.

    Jeffrey Goldberg is no more 'Kachist filth' than all those war-games-experienced embedded journalists who reported from the first 3 months of the Iraq war, and allowed GWB to parade in a USAF jumpsuit and declare 'Mission Accomplished'.

    The Israelis have just 3 options -

    1. A democratic regime in de facto Israel – that will end the Jewish state.

    2. A continuation of the apartheid regime in de facto Israel – that will end the democratic state.

    3. Ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians from de facto Israel

    Sorry, no, they have another option (and Netanyahu is pushing this)

    - Attack Iran on a wholly unfounded pretext, wait for the counter-strike (which will be painful) and expect the US cavalry to come to their rescue.

    Just maybe, as most of the Arab Gulf (oil-producing) states are enveloped with deadly radiation from Israel's strike, the US cavalry might just not turn up.

  5. Citizen says:
    April 4, 2009 at 7:31 am

    Re "all those war-games-experienced embedded journalists"–quite a pukey standard; reminds me of Germany drummed up for WW1 in All Quiet On The Western Front.

    Have you ever seen the
    propaganda posters of that war, depicting the baby-eating Huns?

    Goldberg discovering he had a (vicarious) hard-on at last.

    DUI frat boy Shrub with a mission, at last.

    I blame the American people.

    We've come a long way from Valley Forge.

  6. Citizen says:
    April 4, 2009 at 7:40 am

    Shrub is on public record, originally telling his fellow Americans he was against nation-building, and chicken hawks sending of young Americans to die overseas–as is Chaney.

    Hitler was grateful for the Reichstag Fire, the neocons–for 9/11.
    And the Zionists, for the Shoah? For Pal home-made rockets?

    Obama's gate-keeper claims you should never ignore an opportunity to use an opportunity
    to further your agenda.

    Too bad Americans do not have a press worthy of constitutional protection, its duty has so far
    atrophied.

  7. Citizen says:
    April 4, 2009 at 7:47 am

    "For me, the wonder was modern Palestine, the greatest wonders being Palestinians with guns, and not just a handful of pebbles, stones, but AKs, and bigger guns than these, grenade-spitting guns, great barking machine guns, not just rockets, but BIG accurate ones, and TANKS, and Helicopters, and Palestinian
    JETS!"

    (Underground Palestinian science fiction novel)

Leave a Reply