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.
