The Democracy in America blog over at the Economist.com has one the best comments on Jamie Kirchick’s smear of Max Blumenthal and Jewish critics of Israel yet (with a great post title to boot) –
Efforts to win support for right-wing Israeli policies are inevitably going to spin off accusations, like Mr Kirchik’s, that Jews like Max Blumenthal who criticise Israel are self-hating or in some sense not real Jews. This is a familiar dynamic in ethnic nationalist politics; it’s similar to what Slobodan Milosevic did to Serbian liberal opponents, what Putinists do to liberal Russian politicians, or what Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has done to his opponents in Iran. It’s actually rather similar, for that matter, to what ethnic nationalists, actual anti-Semites, have always done to the Jews in their countries—claiming they are not "real Russians", "real Englishmen", "real Frenchmen", "real Americans". If those who are slurring liberal Jews critical of right-wing Israeli policies were thoughtful people, this might give them pause. But, for the most part, they’re not, and it won’t.
It’s a great point that the ‘self-hating Jew’ slur is similar to tactics seen in all ethnic nationalist politics. That’s some pretty impressive company there Jamie. I’m glad to see that the opponents of open discussion and debate about Israel both within, and outside, the Jewish community are finally being put in their proper place.
