I’m lousy at monitoring comments, as many readers know. My excuse is I’m unpaid, and I have to make a living at the computer anyway, all day long, so it’s hard enough just to write new content for this blog let alone also keep up on comments. It’s not a good excuse, and I feel ashamed when I read the comments because many of them are smarter than the content, but readers know they can get my attention by emailing me. Also, I’m thinking of going to a format where you don’t have to click on the comments, they are right there when you finish the post.
Richard Witty has raised a number of questions I haven’t answered. Here they are in rat-a-tat fashion. Given the formatting, I’ve included my answer in the same font and paragraph as Richard’s question. So: He asks the question, I try and answer.
- What is America’s
interest? Does it even have an interest? Of course countries have interests, Richard. This seems slightly farcical of you. What is our interest? One is: To vigorously oppose apartheid in Palestine, so that we can help the Arab world reform. - What actually motivates JEWISH political contribution and
philanthropy (broad enough to actually use the term “Jewish”
rather than some more specific descriptor)? Good question. The problem here is that while there is some diversity in the Jewish community, the rightwingers have hijacked the leadership, and the body of Jewry has licensed this because 58 percent of them support an undivided Jerusalem, and in my travels I sense a large indifference to Arab humanity in my parents’ generation. I am all for growing diversity in the Jewish community politically; but part of that involves taking on certain orthodoxies, headon. Though I sense you are landing on some sloppiness on my part, from time to time. Touche. - Did the “Israel Lobby” actually cause the US to
invade Iraq? I don’t know. It was an important factor. George Bush and Dick Cheney caused the US to invade Iraq, as did Chuck Schumer and Tom Lantos and Hillary to a lesser degree. George Bush is going to lie about this forever and Dick Cheney will be a tomb. I feel some casuistry in your question. Of course the Israel lobby played an important role, in the form of Israel-centric neocons and Israel-centric thinktanks. Some of this agenda was unconscious, inasmuch as liberal journalists said Saddam should fall for sending suicide bombers into Palestine/Israel. They were piping Zionist argument without fully reckoning with it. For years I have been blamed for Al Gore’s defeat in 2000, by my other and other ortho-Dems, because I supported Ralph Nader. They ascribe political agency to me. Fair enough. In this case we have Israel lobbyists and neocons actively pushing this war; and the media and good liberal Jews like you are refusing to interrogate them, or examine their degree of agency. - Does the “Israel Lobby” actually distort US
foreign policy? Is it of any relevance even to use the term “distort
American foreign policy”, given the factional nature of US governance
(of which the Bush administration was the most pronounced example of a
client administration in recent history, and extending FAR beyond the “Israel
Lobby”)? Yes it distorts US foreign policy. When you see the string of Presidents who did nothing about settlements in the 80s and 90s and 00s when they clearly didn’t like the idea of settlements, evil and illegal settlements I might add, we are talking about Policy Nullification. - What do you PROPOSE practically for Israel to do
relative to the Israeli/Palestinian struggle? Ah, you got me. I don’t do much positive proposing. Stun the world. End the occupation tomorrow. Withdraw the illegal settlers tomorrow. - What do you propose practically that the US do
relative to the Israeli/Palestinian struggle? Oppose the occupation and the illegal settlements. Make an earnest effort with the world to impose a two state solution now, before it’s too late. - What do you propose that the Arab world do relative to the
Israeli/Palestinian struggle? Reassert the terms of the 2002 or whenever Saudi initiative. Say: We want an end to this struggle on unequal 78/22 percent terms and we will work with our Palestinian brothers to make that happen. - What do you propose that Iran do
relative to the Israeli/Palestinian struggle? Support the Arab states’ initiative. Announce, we will give up our nuclear ambitions if Israel embarks with us on a policy of denuking this region. - If Barak Obama
is truly a center-left politician rather than left-far left politician
will you support him anyway, ignore the election, or support another
candidate? Don’t be silly. - To what extent has the “hand that feeds you” (American
Conservative) affected your investigations? Not at all. Look at my position on stem cell research and immigration. I’m a good liberal Dem. - Why are you adopting litmus-testing of conventional journalistic
pieces and of prep-school commencement addresses? You must elaborate. Asking journalists to be smart and intellectually honest about Jewish money in politics, as opposed to Jewish votes, is not litmus testing, it is an effort to maintain high standards for our discourse. As to commencement exercises, I find it highly revealing that I can spend more than 2 hours at one and never hear the word Iraq. I’m not imposing a litmus test; I’m observing the ways of the Establishment. Their children frolic far from the dark shadows of this war. - How do you think of your Jewishness in
fact? (Is it residual, presently active in idea, presently active in
association, or hated?) Very active in my mind, as ideas mostly and some social institutions too. I think I love the Jewishness that I grew up with, cultural/intellectual. I am not religious, except in mostly New Agey ways that I have absorbed from my wife and that touch on mystical Jewish tradition. The hatred I feel is for definitions of Jewishness that are nationalist and racist and that occlude other people’s humanity. When I went to Hebron in the Occupied Territories, I said, If this is Jewish, I will turn in my Jewish card right now. I do think religions come and go. And that pagans trump the big traditional religions in terms of their concern for the earth, which we have trashed. - Is it important to you that others (some close to you) regard their
Jewishness as currently important to them in
practice and in association? Should that affect how you use language? It’s important to me that everyone in my country, and as many other countries as I can influence, have religious freedom. I don’t mean to insult anyone’s religious practice. It obviously should affect how I use language. - Why don’t you use the word “I” when you are
discussing something that you understand or believe? I learned a long time ago that too many “I thinks” diminish the power of an argument. It’s OK to use them some, but it can seem tentative, or unnecessary. The reader knows this is an argument an individual is advancing. Not sure if that answers the question. - Why don’t you summarize the thesis of neo-conservative
writers respectfully and then analyze your disagreement with the theses, so
that those of us who have not bothered to read them (most of your
audience) at least understands what it is that you are ridiculing? I did a little of this with Feith’s book initially. I think these men are very dangerous extremists, I respect them in saying that, the power of their ideas. Look what they wrought, the greatest foreign policy disaster since Vietnam. Arab bloodshed on a vast scale. Indifference to Palestinian suffering. It is important to me to expose their bad thinking. Much of what they say–for instance what Feith writes in his book–is a blind to his actual thinking, I believe. The road to peace in Jerusalem runs thru Baghdad was a genuine principle of their philosophy. If you are saying that I’m failing to convince others of the justice of my point of view because of my polemics, well, I’ve not been a good journalist then. But I think my side is winning here, and I will use verbal brickbats, mockery, anything, to rid the field of these ideas. This blog comes out of the Iraq war, and the sense of crisis I felt on behalf of my country. Americans don’t behave like this.
