We make The New Republic again

by on October 31, 2009 21

Here’s Jonathan Chait celebrating J Street in the New Republic and saying I creep him out. Otherwise fairly reasonable post. Good that J Street brought us together. (He gets two things wrong about me. I spell my name with one l. And I didn’t say that it’s inevitable that J Street would support a full boycott of Israel. I predict that J Street will end up supporting a boycott targeted at West Bank good.)

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in BDS, Israel Lobby

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

  1. Gellian says:
    October 31, 2009 at 9:51 am

    For what it’s worth, Philippos (‘Horse-lover’) is a Greek name and *should* have only one l.

    If we’re going to play the name game, is ‘Chait’ pronounced like ‘Chair’ or more or less like a guttural form of ‘hate’?

    • Nolan says:
      October 31, 2009 at 10:26 am

      If we’re going to play the name game, is ‘Chait’ pronounced like ‘Chair’ or more or less like a guttural form of ‘hate’?

      It probably comes from the Hebrew word meaning sin. lol

      • wondering jew says:
        October 31, 2009 at 10:40 am

        Chait probably comes from chayat, the Hebrew word for tailor.
        And the making fun of names on this site, whether they have been Hebraicized or not strikes me as reminiscent of Father Coughlin and it is distinctly unfunny.

      • Gellian says:
        October 31, 2009 at 10:56 am

        Hmm, I dunno, with a name like Gellian I’ve been called a few things in my life but never worried that I was on the cusp of being targeted for ethnic ridicule, much less feared that I was becoming the new anti-Semite par excellence.

        …and that’s to say nothing about one who has dubbed himself ‘wondering Jew’: if *anything*, that’s a Coughlinesque pun.

      • Chaos4700 says:
        October 31, 2009 at 11:00 am

        Kind of like how Golda Meyerson denigrated her name by changing it to “Meir?” Might that be another example “Hebraicization?” How much Hebrew do you suppose Golda spoke before she moved from the US to Palestine?

      • Nolan says:
        October 31, 2009 at 11:15 am

        Chait probably comes from chayat, the Hebrew word for tailor.
        And the making fun of names on this site, whether they have been Hebraicized or not strikes me as reminiscent of Father Coughlin and it is distinctly unfunny.

        So if I called Iran’s president “Amadinnerjacket” you’d still be as riled up as you are now?

      • kylebisme says:
        October 31, 2009 at 11:56 am

        A while back I ran into a belligerent Zionist on another blog who repeatedly referred to me as Kaleb over the course of a single comment, which I figure was an attempt to brand me as a dog. He suggested it was an honest mistake when I asked, but he seemed like a rather dishonest person in general, so I couldn’t rightly take him at his word.

  2. marc b. says:
    October 31, 2009 at 10:28 am

    What an ass. Chait is creeped out by Weiss? There is a reason that I haven’t read TNR regularly for years (except for the occasional laugh at its expense), and the likes of Chait are a large part of that reason. Juvenile writing skills; serial name-dropping (primarily of the autoerotic variety); and arrogance and condescension rooted in privilege, rather than experience or achievement.

    In the end, Chait is too decadent, too self-absorbed to recognize his impending irrelevance.

    • DICKERSON3870 says:
      October 31, 2009 at 11:54 am

      RE: “serial name-dropping (primarily of the autoerotic variety)”

      MY COMMENT: Well, after all, TNR is Marty “Macho Man” Peretz’s ‘personal plaything’; so it should come as no surprise that he inculcates autoeroticism in his subordinate “pups”. God forbid, he should “f^^k with the Jews.” *
      * link to salon.com

      P.S. Has “The New Republic” ever had a female writer/journalist since Peretz’s Singer® Sewing Machine heiress/wife bought it for him back in the 70s? “Enquiring Minds Want To Know!”

  3. DICKERSON3870 says:
    October 31, 2009 at 12:27 pm

    RE: “He gets two things wrong about me. I spell my name with one l.”

    PHIL(L)IP: “They” all know how you “are” about that missing second ‘L’. The word is out as to the missing second ‘L’ being your AchiLLes’ heeL. “They” purposefully taunt you by including the missing second ‘L’ as though they innocently assume that you spell you name in the manner Phillips normally do (Trojan Horses notwithstanding).

  4. Nolan says:
    October 31, 2009 at 12:36 pm

    link to mondoweiss.net

    Frankly, it seems to me that Chait’s use of what he called “creepy” to be a cheap shot at discrediting Philip’s positions.

    And in the end, if J Street is just like the Ma’arach government or Kadima as Chait seems to believe. Then the Goldstone Report, the colonial expansion and the apartheid wall will continue to enjoy the silent endorsement of J Street, as well.

  5. GalenSword says:
    October 31, 2009 at 3:09 pm

    FYI, in Greco-Roman times names like Philippos and Philo seem to have been used as the equivalent of Hillel — may the source of the double-l confusion.

    In recent times Yiddish Jews in America often confused Phayvl with Philip even though it is probably from Pheyvish, which could be either Φοιβος meaning shining and equivalent to Meir or Vivus and equivalent to Haim.

  6. LeaNder says:
    October 31, 2009 at 5:16 pm

    But I’m a happy guy, and I had a great time debating Matt Yglesias, who I disagree with quite a bit on foreign policy but is really smart, and was extremely gracious in conceding my main point.

    The guy is a journalist, so I am probably wrong. But shouldn’t that be whom? It feels more like an object at that point, than a subject.

    But, what do I know.

  7. DG says:
    October 31, 2009 at 6:21 pm

    Unfortunately, on the key point Chait is entirely correct:

    “An organization representing Jewish anti-Zionists would have about as much clout as a group representing Jewish professional athletes.”

    Whether it was intended that way or not, J-Street will in practice function as old-school triangulation — raising the ramparts on the side where the current threat is greatest.

    And this is only the first of Zionism’s responses. It will continue to adapt to the attacks on it. There are more than enough Jewish billionaires to keep this game going indefinitely.

    So long as this fight is treated as a “Jewish issue,” it will be hopeless. Because, much as we hate to admit it, Zionism really IS Jewishness today.

    • LeaNder says:
      October 31, 2009 at 6:31 pm

      But I don’t think Phil is an anti-Zionist. Maybe closer to his wife, who declares herself a post-Zionist. I prefer to think of Phil without any labels, in a constant state of flux, like water, and one of my problems with Richard may well be that this is exactly what he demands of Phil: Tell me what you are, who you are: enemy or friend.

      • former coMMenter says:
        October 31, 2009 at 10:52 pm

        I see LeaNder’s point that labels are lame, but Phil did say he was anti-Zionist and that post-Zionist just wasn’t strong enough to convey how he feels about Zionism as it exists now. Read the post, “I’m gonna wave my freak flag high” (is that a Hendrix reference?) from back in January of this year. Google it, I’m too lazy.

      • LeaNder says:
        November 1, 2009 at 7:00 am

        Here we go, former CoMMenter, MM?,

        I am still not sure if he struggles with the fact that anti-Zionism is often or always–from a certain perspective–associated with antisemitism. I am not sure to what extend Phil’s position is essentially a protest against the “petrified” conventions. He surely is struggling with them as much as with the larger taboo. But then, I may be mirroring.

        But yes, Jimi:

        If_6_Was_9

        If the sun refuse to shine,
        I don’t mind, I don’t mind,
        If the mountains fell in the sea,
        let it be, it ain’t me.
        Alright, ‘cos I got my own world to look through,
        And I ain’t gonna copy you.

        Now if 6 turned out to be 9,
        I don’t mind, I don’t mind,
        Alright, if all the hippies cut off all their hair,
        I don’t care, I don’t care.
        Dig, ‘cos I got my own world to live through
        And I ain’t gonna copy you.

        White collared conservative flashing down the street,
        Pointing their plastic finger at me.
        They’re hoping soon my kind will drop and die,
        But I’m gonna wave my freak flag high, high.
        Wave on, wave on
        Fall mountains, just don’t fall on me
        Go ahead on Mr. Business man, you can’t dress like me.
        Sing on Brother, play on drummer.

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