Yesterday the Jewish Telegraphic Agency picked up on a post by Max Blumenthal here the other day, blasting Alan Grayson, the populist hero congressman from Florida, for being neanderthal on the Israel/Palestine issue– bragging about his Jewishness as he makes himself at home in AIPAC’s pocket. "[N]ow some liberal pundits are criticizing Grayson because they say he’s too supportive of Israeli policies," JTA’s Eric Fingerhut observed– noting that MJ Rosenberg at TPM had echoed Blumenthal on Grayson:
He seems fearless.
But not when it comes to Israel where he is pure AIPAC. 100% path of least resistance. And proud of it.
As the JTA is also aware, this is an important moment. It is another sign that conventional liberal/left politics can no longer make an exception for Israel/Palestine. The contradiction we witnessed in Brooklyn when Anthony Weiner was a firebreather on healthcare and a religious nationalist on Israel will become more and more obviously hypocritical.
MJ Rosenberg made the point with typical punch in an interview that I did with him for the Nation earlier this year.
We have got to make it so that [Manhattan congressman] Jerrold Nadler’s constituents know that he’s a hardliner on the Middle East. They know he’s terrific on health care, the environment, marriage equality, but most of these people don’t know he’s very hard line on Israel. Because no one questions him about it. He never gets questioned about the rights of Palestinian families to be reunited. That is going to change. That is going to change.
It’s not the conservatives and Republicans who are the main problem, it’s Democrats, liberal Democrats like Barbara Boxer , who is great on everything else but no different here than if she were a Republican. And she isn’t challenged on it. There’s no price to be paid, not even a hostile question in a town hall.
