Scott Roth joins Mondoweiss as publisher

We have important news. We now have a publisher, Scott Roth. Scott is a partner at The Nation magazine, an active tweeter (@scottroth76), an executive producer of Dirty Wars, a forthcoming documentary on drone warfare, a world traveler, and a pilot who holds commercial and flight instructor licenses.

Scott is 36 and grew up on Long Island. We met him at the Move Over Aipac conference in 2011 and have worked with him closely for the last year and a half. We were drawn to Scott from the start because of his independence, his strong judgment and his leadership abilities. An idealistic Zionist as a youth who dreamed of emigrating and playing a part in Israeli life, Scott visited Israel often until he realized his own political and moral values were inconsistent with the Jewish state. That intellectual struggle has largely defined his life for 20 years. His incisive manner and moral clarity are evident to anyone who knows him or follows him on twitter, or has read his work.

We asked Scott to be a partner because the site needs broader shoulders and more ambition and vision. Some readers may remember that what began in 2006 as a personal blog for Phil changed decisively and for the better in 2008 when Adam came on as a partner (and the Gaza onslaught gave us added relevance). Adam brought straight-ahead journalistic values combined with political organizing abilities. In the months and years to come we know that readers will discover the worldliness and toughness of mind we have leaned on in Scott. His presence will solidify our mission: to make this site more professional and institutional, and thereby carve out a place for progressive voices on the Middle East and US policy.

For those readers who say, That makes three Jewish partners, we say, You’re right, and we have been surprised ourselves by the degree to which this site has been shaped by a shadow Jewish community that wants nothing to do with religious nationalism and has demanded a place to express itself. That lack of diversity in our leadership only increases our obligation to provide a platform for other voices in the U.S. and in Palestine, from communities that have not been represented in the policy discussion. We feel tremendous responsibility to promote those voices and honor them. Please hold us accountable to those words.