Bernard Avishai reminds readers that just a few months ago based allegedly on the most intimate conversations with the Israeli security establishment, Jeffrey Goldberg reported that Iran is 1-3 years from getting a bomb and Israel has to act now or the US should do it for Israel. And guess what, now it turns out the Israeli security establishment isn’t worried.
Maybe I am being petty, but should not our retrospective view of Goldberg’s sensational article “involve” a certain anger and dismay?
Goldberg’s friend, Christopher Hitchens, once shrewdly remarked that America is the only country in the world where people tell you “Your history!” and they’re insulting you. But even Americans ought to be able to remember how they were misled and hyped a mere six months ago. Many argued then, notably Ken Silverstein at Harper’s, and Glen Greenwald at Salon, that readers should beware the work of a reporter who had campaigned so actively for the Iraq war and had got so many things wrong then; someone so close to the Netanyahu circle. Some of us who live in ground zero despised the war-mongering, which helps keep the Netanyahu government in power.
No you’re not being petty: Goldberg helped created the last show, the Iraq war. It’s important to bust him. I gather Goldberg has responded. If I had any intellectual honesty I’d link to his post, but mendacity is contagious… Give me a couple hours. Oh here it is. Haven’t read it.
(Oh and yes I made this point re Goldberg a week back… But I love company.)
