Yesterday we gave Newsweek a wet kiss for publishing the Israel Project's sickmaking recommendations on how to sell settlements to the American public–the idea that removing them is "ethnic cleansing." Well I'm having weird feelings the morning after, cause here's Newsweek's article accompanying the scoop, by Dan Ephron. Best thing about it is the title: "Chosen Words," a beautiful play on the Chosen People. After that it's all downhill.
Ephron talked to Jennifer Laszlo-Mizrahi of the Israel Project, and he quoted TIP's pollster, Frank Luntz, a lot, from the document. Luntz wouldn't talk to him. But did he try and talk to an opponent of the Israel lobby? No. The piece refers to how Israel's supporters try to shape debate here; alright, but did he try and talk to John Mearsheimer and Steve Walt, who blew the bridge 3 years ago, so we can be having this conversation now? Makes me wonder, as usual, whether Luntz is Jewish, whether Ephron is Jewish, and how much Jewish-Zionist identity comes into play here. Imagine using kid gloves with the anti-abortion evangelicals.
(P.S. My headline is stolen from my old friend Paula Williamson, in Minnesota, whose grandmother used to use that expression when someone was giving her a pain in the behind.)
