One lesson of Jeffrey Goldberg's continued platform in the New York Times to preach to Americans about Amalek and the Holocaust on the eve of Netanyahu's visit is that there is a war inside the Times between progressives/realists and neoconservatives/liberal hawks.
Yes Goldberg has been given room, several times now, and Benny Morris too. But the evidence of the war is Helene Cooper's surprisingly open-minded piece in the Times yesterday, anticipating Netanyahu's visit, speaking openly of "America's Israel lobby," and suggesting that Obama really is of a different mind on Israel/Palestine from his predecessors. Cooper's achievement here is that she quoted Ali Abunimah, Dan Levy and Chas Freeman. Wow. And you say the game hasn't changed! What a strong political combination those three represent. Freeman gets the last word:
“You can’t really tell anything by what happened to me and the fact
that he didn’t step forward to take on the skunks,” he said, referring
to his own appointment controversy and Mr. Obama’s silence amid
critics’ attacks. “The first nine months, Nixon was absolutely horrible
on China. In retrospect, it was clear that he had every intention to
charge ahead, but he was picking his moment. He didn’t want to have the
fight before he had to have the fight.”
