I find the simultaneous appearance of these two columns (1, 2) about Glenn Greenwald in yesterday’s Ha’aretz to be hilarious.
Is the lack of a bar mitzvah meant to somehow call into question the character of the journalist who published classified documents which angered the American government, its intelligence community and also their close, although duplicitous allies, in the Israeli government and intelligence services? If so, will this surprising part of his personal history have traction with the readers of the well-regarded and purportedly progressive newspaper?
I doubt very strongly if this revelation, which comes from an interview Greenwald gave to GQ magazine, would be very meaningful to even most pro-Israeli American readers, who would seem to prefer their character denigration of those critical of Israel to come from the Israeli Defense Forces spokespersons, American political analysts, Jewish community leaders or in this case directly from the Israeli intelligence community.
Maybe if the editors of Ha’aretz would have not used the identical picture for both stories it would have been easier to ignore this bizarre juxtaposition.