Everyone who comes to this site should be aware that right now the point of the lance is Times columnist Roger Cohen, who, "shamed" by Gaza, has done the best work on Israel/Palestine at the Times (I know, not a high bar) and has lately reported from Iran's Jewish community in a fairminded way. He is being savaged by the right. I will be getting to these vicious attacks later today. Meantime, note his latest column, where Cohen takes on his critics with enviable aplomb. Ron Radosh at Pajamas Media, a neocon hangout, says the Times should fire Cohen. We should celebrate Cohen's open-mindedness and help him, too, find his way toward the radical idea of democracy for Jim-Crow Palestine. Cohen:
propensity to fixate on and demonize a country through a
one-dimensional lens, with a sometimes disastrous chain of results.
It's
worth recalling that hateful, ultra-nationalist rhetoric is no Iranian
preserve. Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's race-baiting anti-Arab firebrand,
may find a place in a government led by Benjamin Netanyahu. He
should not.
This is the same position taken by the Jews of Support Israeli Democracy. It is the Israel Policy Forum's position. It's the new left-center. Yes: we're the left. Now put your shoulder to the wheel and we can make Cohen the new center.
