One of the most important aspects of the Tony Kushner story is the great fear that CUNY's decision has created in the playwright about potential damage to his reputation. As he wrote to CUNY administrators, "I believe I am owed an apology for the careless way in which my name and reputation were handled at your meeting."
What is that damage? Per the New York Times story on the matter (emphasis mine):
The vote on Monday evening came after a CUNY trustee [Jeffrey Wiesenfeld] said that Mr. Kushner had disparaged the State of Israel in past comments, a characterization that the writer attacked on Wednesday...
A leading artist is afraid when someone says that he has disparaged a foreign country. I'd point out that back in January, Steve Clemons of the New America Foundation organized a bigwigs' letter that urged Obama to condemn Israeli settlement-building in the U.N. Security Council-- a letter that of course failed-- and that Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post derided Clemons as an "Israel-basher."
The comment unnerved Clemons, who is a leading Washington Democrat,and much as Kushner has appealed to CUNY, Clemons called on The Washington Post to retract the charge. He wrote:
Calling someone an Israel-basher is akin to calling them an anti-Semite or a bigot, and that can't go without response.
And here is Kushner, per the Times:
Kushner... said that he was “dismayed by the vicious attack and wholesale distortion of my beliefs.” He has criticized policies and actions by Israel in the past, and said that he believed — based on research by Israeli historians — that the forcible removal of Palestinians from their homes as part of the creation of Israel was ethnic cleansing. But he added that he was a strong supporter of Israel’s right to exist, that he had never supported a boycott of the country, and that his views were shared by many Jews and supporters of Israel.
What claim does Art have to be something more valuable to the human species than a Cambell’s soup ad, if it cannot criticise, directly, or indirectly,
any and all governments or regimes or society? It would default to always just a vehicle for pure aesthetics, for the many aspects of style and form. Given that, how about those Nazi SS uniforms. pretty kool, eh? And what’s Animal Farm, just a Disney cartoon?
This would be why I keep calling it a fifth column. France has been a stronger ally for far longer. Did anyone suffer like this for being a “France-basher” during the Iraqi invasion?
Not Richard Cohen who had this to say at the time of Powell’s speech:
“The evidence he presented to the United Nations — some of it circumstantial, some of it absolutely bone-chilling in its detail — had to prove to anyone that Iraq not only hasn’t accounted for its weapons of mass destruction but without a doubt still retains them. Only a fool — or possibly a Frenchman — could conclude otherwise.”
Those were good times! (not very funny really but you get my drift…)
Heh. Powell making his speech reminds me of the current Allstate ad on TV where the powellesque guy tells us we are in good hands with Allstate. Has special meaning to me since I was in the military and also worked for Allstate once upon a time–yeah, I needed to at the respective times, just to literally survive. Got out of both employer’s clutches as quickly as I could–to know either one of them as an insider is NOT to love them.
“Calling someone an Israel-basher is akin to calling them an anti-Semite or a bigot, and that can’t go without response.”
OK, I get that you can’t call an Israel basher an anti-Semite because that’s wrong, but now you can’t call an Israel basher an Israel basher because that’s “akin” to calling them an anti-Semite? Who writes these rules?
I’m on Kushner’s side here, but based on what I’ve read he probably doesn’t have a firm case for libel, simply because of the legal requirements necessary to prove libel.
I don’t know much about Steven Clemons, but given this post of his, I can see why he would be upset to be labeled one of the ” usual crowd of Israel bashers” by the WapPo – link to thewashingtonnote.com
By all accounts? Abe Foxman and the Anti-Defamation League.
Oh, and did you query your “lawyers” about whether this was libel, huh?
Clemons is scared shitless. Look how Kathleen goes after him (at that link) and he runs away with his hands in the air.
What they are doing to Kushner is a travesty.
Really? You can’t tell the difference between the freedom to express a valid opinion about Israel’s squalid politics and the McCarthy-like witch hunts and smearing that the Israel lobby engages in under the rubric of opposing ‘Israel-bashing’? Israel does enough US-bashing and every-other-country bashing on an epic scale, but apparently doesn’t like being called out for it.
It’s clearly libel, if Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, [meadow/grass field - I know I shouldn't do this], said what he did. And why should Tony Kushner invent a podcast he saw?
And the harm to his reputation is clearly more significant than another honorary degree.
I am not a fan of what was done to Tony Kushner. Neither is Jeffrey Goldberg. link to theatlantic.com
Jeff Wiesenfeld, unfortunately, is a political operative on the far-right, and he sometimes throws his weight around like this.
I will say that Kushner, who used a commencement speech at my alma mater to refer to Ariel Sharon as a war criminal, should not be so surprised that others are capable of using inappropriate fora to promote their personal politics.
Except that they are completely different circumstances, with different consequences. Your weaselly comparisons don’t do your argument any good. And what is factually incorrect about calling Sharon a war criminal?
Surprising it is not, but this cult of war criminals is disturbing nonetheless. By the way, what is inappropriate in mentioning war crimes in a commencement speach? Disturbing young innocent minds? And why, as a society, we lack immunity against “operative of far right” when they present “pro-Israeli” extremism?
Suppose that Kushner were attacked by a university trustee for his, say, advocacy of the rights of American prisoners, or socialized medicine (equated with fascism by some) etc. The rest of the board would laugh him down. But “improper criticism of Israel”, that drives even somewhat progressive trustees to a panic mode. (Mind you, 8 were voting for Kushner, just nobody made a pro-Kushner speech. As a cultural Philistine I could probably generically reply to Wiesenfeld that his accusations, if true, make Kushner a more deserving candidate for an honor. But there are many reasons I am not a trustee.)
Neither is Jeffrey Goldberg.
hear, hear – interesting.
Clearly Kushner deserves not only an apology but a review of what took place. Did not know that Clemons did this. Terrific! I have been riding him about not mentioning the conflict when he has made the rounds on MSNBC. He is so accessible and reasonable. He told me he has done this although I am still hunting for those times.
link to thewashingtonnote.com
ot
This recycling of the Iraq war mongers is really getting under my skin:
I really can not understand why MSNBC is recycling so many Iraq warmongers. Martin Bashir had Douglas Feith on. Condi “mushroom cloud” Rice has been making the rounds. Lawrence O’Donnell is going to have her on tonight. Wolfowitz has been on many Sunday morning news programs. Chris Matthews and O’Donnell have had David “axis of evil” Frum on all of the time. Rumsfeld has been given a great deal of time on many MSNBC programs. Enough of the recycling of warmongers.
OBL has been held accountable for his crimes against humanity. But these war thug have not. They are all responsible for the hundreds of thousands of deaths, injuries and millions displaced (that you folks barely mention and certainly do not show pictures of) in Iraq. Instead of giving them opportunities to insult our intelligence push for holding these war criminals accountable. The only difference between these people and OBL is that he has been held accountable for being complicit in the killing of innocent people and they have not. They are responsible for far more death and destruction than OBL. Trials would suffice
Now I know in our media and amongst the majority of American public Iraqi lives do not have the value of American lives.
Oh so obvious…. but
“Justice will be done” when the same standards of justice and accountability applied to OBL are applied to these criminals and their crimes against humanity. Until then I wish MSNBC would stop shoving these Iraqi war thugs in our faces. Disgusting
GE is one of the biggest defense contractors. (And they only sold 51% of NBC to Comcast. They retain a 49% share.)
Zionism can’t afford credible opposition. It has to be crushed.
This is why Zionism is headed for disaster. The animal is too big and has no natural predators until el gordo turns up.
Going through emails. Missed this
link to thepost.ohiou.edu
Alumnus’ documentary is ‘provocative,’ serves to promote discussion
The film, codirected by Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller, supports the case against building the community center in close proximity to the Ground Zero site.
Funding for the film was provided by Stop Islamization of America and the American Freedom Defense Initiative, according to the flyer.
“It does what a documentary is supposed to do,” Cooper said. “It’s supposed to open dialogue on a particular topic. I’m not saying it’s right, but it certainly is provocative.
Maybe it’s time to do a film on “Stop the Israelization and Zionizning of America”.
Just imagine all the juicy stuff you could put into it.
Wow!….the USS Liberty, all those quotes by zionist on how they own the US”, all the things past presidents said in private about Israel and the organized Jewish groups from the presidential libraries, all kinds of stuff..that is actually true!
Now that would really ‘open a dialogue”.
What next? Forbid our courts from using Halacha?
A committee investigating purveyors of “Judeo-Christian Nation”? I have seen two version of history: (a) Founding Fathers were Masons and Deists. hence stupid and pernicious ideas like “all men are endowed with certain inalienable rights” (and terrorists too, you pinkos? huh?), (b) Founding Fathers were Christians who were building a Christian Nation with excellent ideas (if we understand them correctly) like all men — if they happen to be good Christian, and men, and Citizen — have certain inalienable rights.
Where “Judeo-” comes from? If we can add “Judeo-”, why not “Helleno-”?
Heh. How about, our “Greco-Roman-Christian-Jewish” American values? And, considering the great (unheralded) influence of our largest white ethnic group, how about adding “Germanic” or “Teutonic” too?
I’ve never been a fan of the term “Judeo-Christian.” We’re a country with a First Amendment protecting free expression and estopping the government from favoring one religion over another. It’s an inappropriate label and a misstatement of the intent of the founders.
The Founding Fathers were not building a Christian nation. That’s incorrect. There were founding fathers who wanted America to be a Christian nation (Patrick Henry, for instance), but their vision did not prevail.
I wonder if Wesenfeld thought up this attack, did the “fact” research, etc., thought out the timing, etc. Or wehter someone else (AIPAC-connected perhaps) did the thinking and just said to him, “Hey, Bozo, wouldn’t it be neat if you’d read this script I’ve prepared at the CUNY trustees meeting?”
I wonder, in trun, if there was REALLY a line a mile long of potential donors who were prepared, because of Kushner’s alleged politics, to become NON-donors? Or whether this was just a scare-tactic, used to browbeat the trustees who don’t (perhaps) know much about Israel, about donors’ sensitivities, etc.
Anyone want to hazard a guess?
“Calling someone an Israel-basher is akin to calling them an anti-Semite or a bigot, and that can’t go without response.”…..
Calling someone a Israel basher is only akin to calling to calling them a anti semite because the zionist say Israel bashers are anti semites.
See how stupid this is? Every time some zionist operative does that they should be laughed at. When you even engage in defending yourself on the anti Israel – anti semite comparison you play into their propaganda.
The only good response to this idiotic comparison is one of ridicule and peals of hysterical laughter.
Or maybe some whopping lawsuits….a lot of people like Juan Cole or Norman Finklestein wouldn’t have have any problem at all in proving the zionist slander caused them “material harm” in careers or livelihoods in a real court of law. I posted a link on here some time back about the lawsuit the ADL lost in Calif. and had to pay 10 million to a couple they accused of being anti semitic toward one of their neighbors.
A slew of lawsuits against the zionistas might be just the ticket for teaching them a lesson…I’ll send a memo to Soros, he’s got the resources to do it….LOL.
Why don’t the AIPAC gangster mob and their echo chamber just have done with it and wear pointy white hoods while leaving burning crosses outside these people’s houses?