Didi Remez at Coteret has picked up part of an interview in Hebrew at Yediot in which David Remnick, the editor of the New Yorker magazine, shows how intolerable the occupation is becoming to American Jews. Remnick echoes the theme of the liberal Zionists I cited the other day: they are flipped out by Netanyahu's intransigence and are getting ready to flip the bird to Israel:
Do you see a certain change in the US Jewish community?
“A new generation of Jews is growing up in the US. Their relationship with Israel is becoming less patient and more problematic. They see what has happened with the Rabbinical Letter [proscribing rental and sale of property to Arabs -- DR], for example. How long can you expect that they’ll love unconditionally the place called Israel [sic]? You’ve got a problem. You have the status of an occupier since 1967. It’s been happening for so long that even people like me, who understand that not only one side is responsible for the conflict and that the Palestinians missed an historic opportunity for peace in 2000, can’t take it anymore.
“The US administration is trying out of good will to get a peace process moving and in return Israel lays out conditions like the release Jonathan Pollard. Sorry, it can’t go on this way. The Jewish community is not just a nice breakfast at the Regency. You think it’s bad that a US President is trying to make an effort to promote peace? That’s what’s hurting your feelings? Give me a break, you’ve got bigger problems. A shopping list in exchange for a two month moratorium on settlement construction? Jesus [sic].”
wow, that was in the hebrew press, too dangerous in english i suppose. he could write about it in the new yorker y’know. come on david..we’re listening.
Good for you, Remnick! Yeah, like annie says, now Remnick should write about it in the New Yorker–a cartoon might be good too.
It won’t happen. The New Yorker is a major major outlet of the Israel lobby. Remnick must be taken seriously when he equates Arab opposition to Israel as anti-Semitic. I see no sign of that changing in him or at his magazine.
Yes, I see what you mean. Refined New Yorker readers must have loved George Packer’s piece in the September 27th issue last, titled
“The Unconsoled–A writer’s tragedy, and a nation’s.” It evokes very well the tension in the phrase “Jewish and universal values,” noting that most Jewish Israelis don’t care about the Palestinians at all–except to be annoyed to the small extent they are a tad bothered once in a while by all their young hard and unironic macho kids, a bit guilty about that flower of their own nurture, guilty enough that they blame their morsel of guilt on the Palestininans, and so hate them even more. I mean, what’s a good Jew without guilt?
Oh please, Israel needs American Jews like a hole in the head. If every American Jew became an anti-Zionist (dream on, Moosie) Israel would discard us, and get along just fine with the Gentiles. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Israel convinced the US to make every American Jew an Israeli citizen, and subject to Israeli laws. After all, this is a Christian Nation, and Israel is the Jewish State.
The idea that liberal American Jews can do anything about Israel is as ridiculous as the idea that Israel’s actions are not mostly our fault in the first place.
In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Israel convinced the US to make every American Jew an Israeli citizen, and subject to Israeli laws. After all, this is a Christian Nation, and Israel is the Jewish State.
This, in fact, was the very fear that prompted Jews to oppose the creation of a Jewish state.
Remnick wrote a superb article on Mike Tyson that captured the confusion and violence at the heart of him. I’m sure he has some great writing on Israel to come.
“Remnick wrote a superb article on Mike Tyson that captured the confusion and violence at the heart of him. I’m sure he has some great writing on Israel to come.”
Considering that he said this–
“It’s been happening for so long that even people like me, who understand that not only one side is responsible for the conflict and that the Palestinians missed an historic opportunity for peace in 2000, can’t take it anymore.”
I would say that Remnick is just another pathological liar like Thomas Friedman. Even Friedman loses patience with Israel when it doesn’t do a better job pretending to want peace. The significance of this is not that Friedman or Remnick are becoming honest about Israel–that will never happen. The significance is that Israel’s behavior is so bad even hacks like Friedman and Remnick are becoming embarrassed by it.
This excellent comment on the Coteret site from “Glenn” about Remnick’s words and a reference to a commenter before him named Scott Klein. (Emphasis mine.)