The other day Steve Clemons of the liberal New America Foundation helped organize an important letter calling on Obama to condemn the settlements in the Security Council; and loose cannon Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post promptly derided him as an “Israel-basher.” Clemons is a good man, and he also knows a lot more about Washington political culture than we do. The Rubin comment unnerved him, and he has now called on The Washington Post’s Don Graham and his old friend Fred Hiatt to restrain Rubin.
Clemons offers this important insight about Washington political culture:
Calling someone an Israel-basher is akin to calling them an anti-Semite or a bigot, and that can’t go without response.
Clemons is showing us what the red lines are in Washington. If you’re perceived as an Israel-basher, you’re finished. What would George Washington say about that (read his Farewell Address and the concern about foreign influence)? Or Eisenhower? (Or South Carolina Congressman Walter Jones, who bashed France and held his seat?)
