John Mearsheimer blurbed Avraham Burg's great new book on the Holocaust, which, two months after its publication, was written up by Ethan Bronner in the New York Times two days ago. Mearsheimer had this response to Bronner's piece:
Bronner's job — as usual — is to present Israel
in the most favorable light. He says little about the serious charges
that Burg levels against Israel in his book, and certainly makes no
attempt to assess whether they are correct. Burg is instead treated as
a flake, but of course Israelis still love him because he is part of a big happy family, that same happy family in which Rabin was murdered, numerous death threats were issued against Sharon for pulling out of Gaza, and civil war is threatened if the settlers are forced to leave the West Bank.
If we had journalists in Israel who were not pro-Israel (almost all the
mainstream ones are) and we had a media that was willing to allow honest reporting and critical commentary regarding Israel — like Ha'aretz
does — we would have a discourse in this country about Israel that
bears little resemblance to the nonsensical one we now have. This
stunted discourse seriously damages Israel, which points up that Bronner is no friend of Israel.
in the most favorable light. He says little about the serious charges
that Burg levels against Israel in his book, and certainly makes no
attempt to assess whether they are correct. Burg is instead treated as
a flake, but of course Israelis still love him because he is part of a big happy family, that same happy family in which Rabin was murdered, numerous death threats were issued against Sharon for pulling out of Gaza, and civil war is threatened if the settlers are forced to leave the West Bank.
If we had journalists in Israel who were not pro-Israel (almost all the
mainstream ones are) and we had a media that was willing to allow honest reporting and critical commentary regarding Israel — like Ha'aretz
does — we would have a discourse in this country about Israel that
bears little resemblance to the nonsensical one we now have. This
stunted discourse seriously damages Israel, which points up that Bronner is no friend of Israel.
