The American Jewish Committee announced that its executive director David Harris, who has run away from his own challenge to debate Walt and Mearsheimer, was "invited" by Huffington Post to start offering his views there. Harris already blogs for the Jerusalem Post. His latest is on the Goldstone report. I wonder where he comes down!
Too bad about the Huffington Post. It shows that PEP is a meaningful force in American political life: progressive except Palestine. Today on the Washington Post editorial page, Steve Walt, who made his reputation as a realist, not a progressive, spoke warningly of apartheid in Israel/Palestine. But liberals can’t say this. Most of em don’t anyway. Why not? Cause they’re Progressive Except Palestine. Yes, the Israel lobby is among us. Imagine Huffington Post during the days of segregation, hiring segregationists to defend Jim Crow. That’s what’s happening. And of course it has to do with the Jewish presence in the Establishment, including LA, New York, Arianna Huffington’s migration pattern…
Harris’s presence at Huffpo also underlines something Jeff Blankfort says: that one purpose of the Israel lobby is to evangelize American Jews on the importance of Israel. You have all these Jews who have never been there but are part of a community that is Israel-right-or-wrong. And they have to be kept on board. Huffpo is one way to reach ’em.
