Marty Peretz wrote a piece celebrating the Iraq war, in which he said that Arabs are untrustworthy–"I couldn’t quite imagine any venture requiring trust with Arabs turning out especially well. This is, you will say, my prejudice–" and has now revised the piece to remove the line. Daniel Luban:
Does he concede that his slur against Arabs was unacceptable? To simply change his post covertly in the hopes that no one will notice is surely the most cowardly way to deal with the issue.
I realize that it is unwise to waste much time on Peretz. He is an embarrassment, as even his own staffers generally recognize, and the only reason that TNR is forced to publish his rantings is that he owns the magazine. Still, if Peretz wants to be taken seriously in public debate it seems reasonable to demand that he conform to some minimal standards of honesty, decency, and responsibility.
Does he want to be taken seriously or sell magazines?
No one takes Fox News seriously, but it has great influence among the people influenced by it. Peretz can be influential by pandering to racism, in the same way.
I’m sure the likes of RW, WJ, Julian, Citizen and Yonira would love to read him. He does, after all, appeal to their sense of superiority.
Avi, as you must know, my opinion nearly always differs quite drastically from the three commentors you lumped me in with–and I’ve never read anything Peretz wrote that I agreed with, nor anything in Commentary. Nor have I ever even faintly suggested so, so I am at a loss how I figure in with this group, and as to how I evidence in your mind a sense of superiority. Please inform me.
Multitasking will do that to you. It was a brain fart on my part, I got distracted by a nudnik co-worker and submitted it without reading. I apologize, citizen.
Off topic- Foreign Policy has an interesting interview with Tzipi Livni in its new feature called Middle East Channel. Also Christopher Hitchens has an interesting piece in Slate on the attempt to blackmail Danish publishers.
RE: “This is, you will say, my prejudice. But some prejudices are built on real facts…”
MY COMMENT: Marty “Macho Man” Peretz strikes again! He calls his blog The Spine because he prides himself on having as much ‘backbone’ as Coulter has Adam’s Apple. Yep, that Marty’s one tuff guy!
“…Every man ought to be a macho macho man,
To live a life of freedom, machos make a stand,
Have their own life style and ideals,
Possess the strength and confidence, life’s a steal*,
You can best believe that he’s a macho man
He’s a special person in anybody’s land.
Hey! Hey! Hey, hey, hey!
Macho, macho man (macho man)
I’ve got to be, a macho man… – Village People, 1978
* life’s a steal – especially when your wife is a Singer Sewing Machine® heiress