I was struck watching a Canadian television broadcast of John Mearsheimer, David Frum, Peter Beinart, and Derek Penslar (University of Toronto, Jewish history) called "Israel's Newest Critics," that the real outlier in the four was not Mearsheimer but Frum who came off as shrill and was clearly parroting the party line ("unresolved sovereignty" for Palestinians as a status quo). Beinart and Penslar have moved close to the Walt-Mearsheimer position, and it is the Frums of the world who are stuck defending the indefensible: Bibi and Lieberman.
Weiss adds: I gather the show is the equivalent of Charlie Rose. It is called The Agenda with Steve Paikin. At about18:50 Frum launches into a shtetl joke, with the (polite, i.e., false) disclaimer that he does not know who on the show is Jewish, which prompts Steve Paikin to say, "We should nail that down right now." Paikin asks each guest whether he is Jewish. Of course, Mearsheimer is the only non-Jew. How unusual to have an expert who is not Jewish talking about the American Jewish community, the assigned topic. How unusual to have personal religious attachment openly identified. And of course the broadcast was not in the United States.
i never cared for frum and his axis of evil bullshit, but i suppose that is just me…….. and i am a canuck!!! why did he have to go and give us a bad name? lol
Of course on the mattyglesias site EVERY COMMENTATOR on EVERY TOPIC is Jewish. And although as of two weeks ago he was aligned with Meryl Yourish on Israel – NOW, SUDDENLY…he’s a BRAVE NEW CRITIC of ISRAEL.
The reason why the raids have been operational successes is because the blockade of Gaza has not been breached. Continuing diplomatic and PR success is following with the international investigation into IHH and its ties with the Turkish government.
FOX News channel at 5:40 PM Rally to support Israel’s attack on the boat people in being shown–tons of streaming Israeli flags; host says such pro-Israel demonstrations are happening across the USA today & the meaning
is to end I-P strife. Nothing about the rallies in support of the boat people across the USA yesterday or today.
Canadian show worthwhile to watch. The Jewish Toronto professor’s putdown of Frum in the middle of it is worth every minute.
I saw Beinart today on Fareed Zakaria’s show on CNN. Beinart didn’t impress me. Yes, he did speak about the siege and its ineffectiveness, but in countering Elliot Abrams’ lies concerning the flotilla attack, Beinart agreed with Abrams’ that the activists were violent. I’m going to send him a “Thanks for nothin’” Hallmark card.
It seems he threw the activists to the wolf’s so as to gain traction regarding the Gaza siege. This seems like a heartless strategy, if that was indeed his reasoning. If he does buy into the Israeli lie regarding the flotilla, then needs to explain himself.
Remember, as Phil rightly observed, Beinarts credibility comes from how wrong he was about Bush and the War on Iraq. It makes him “serious”. It’s an odd quirk in our discourse.
He’ll do the same thing he did with Bush and the war, turn on it when he feels he needs to.
Mooser,
Your post puts Beinart in context for me. Admittedly I didn’t hear about him or know of him during the Bush years, despite my following the news and developments rather closely.