Tikkun Magazine is in a weird spot. They say that their readers came down on both sides of the Gaza assault. That's Tikkun's community. Oh my. If half my readers came down in favor of Gaza, I'd have to quit and go to a monastery or something. But Tikkun is stuck with an older, more conservative audience, I think. Which is why Tikun Olam, Richard Silverstein's west coast publication, which did not equivocate for a moment about Gaza, will inevitably eat Tikkun's "progressive" breakfast.
Anyway, Tikkun ran a piece by an American Jewish Committe official, Doug Lieb, calling Gaza a just war. Jerry Slater, whom Lieb assailed, responds well:
No serious observer would deny these facts. Lieb, however, clearly
believes the attack was successful. Why? Because “the senior military
and political officials to whom I spoke”—that is, the people who
planned and carried out the attack—“uniformly” told him so. Personally,
I would be embarrassed to write a sentence like that.
The worse
Israel’s behavior becomes, the more indefensible the arguments and
tactics of its hardline defenders. It has become almost a cliché—but
nonetheless true—that what Israel is in desperate need of from its true
friends is tough love, not more disingenuous propaganda masquerading as
analysis and persuading increasingly few serious observers of Israel
policies. When organizations like the AJC defend Israel no matter what
it does, they succeed only in enabling its morally and strategically
bankrupt strategy.
