Friday, February 19, 2010

Jewish Fact Check #7: Where Joe Klein proves my point from Jewish Fact Check #6

Wow. When I wrote my blog post earlier this week pointing out that critics of Israel seem to take pride in being called "anti-Semite," even to the point of exaggerating or making up accusations of anti-Semitism, I never dreamed that three days later I would read something that would make my point even better than any of the examples I used in the original post.

Not surprisingly, it comes from Joe Klein, who I also cited as an example in my original post. He wrote a column for Time Magazine which began by recounting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's speech to the U.S.-Islamic Conference in Doha on Sunday, and her statement that a solution to the blockade of Gaza can only come with a comprehensive settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Klein writes that's the "wrong answer" and suggests that when he came into office, instead of trying for a comprehensive settlement, President Obama should have tried solving the Gaza crisis first. Klein then argues that the White Hosue needs to "engage" Hamas.

That brought a retort from Commentary's Jonathan Tobin, who calls that a bad idea and says that "what Klein fails to understand is that no matter who sits in the White House, it is not in America’s interest to rescue the killers of Hamas. Rather, it should be our policy to isolate and hopefully oust them from power." Tobin, while criticizing Obama's general foreign policy, even praises the president and Clinton for opposing any engagement with Hamas.

Tobin's post seemed like a fairly standard, relatively innocuous blogosphere post , but it brought an bizarre, almost unhinged response from Klein, in an "update" to an ealrier blog post linking to his column. It has to be read in full to be believed. It begins: "The neocon extremists over at Commentary have wasted no time responding to my column with their usual bile and bullying." He then goes to on identify a couple minor errors in Tobin's piece and claims something is an error that really isn't (he says that Tobin said he blamed Israel for the Gaza situation; in fact, Tobin says Klein blamed Israel for "Obama's acknowledged failure in the Middle East," which was obviously a reference to Klein's line "U.S. envoy George Mitchell's slow-moving effort to start talks tanked because of Israel's unwillingness to stop building illegal settlements on Palestinian land.") And he reiterates some of the points he made in the column

Then Klein writes this:

My suggestions--or their distorted burlesque of my suggestions--are, apparently, what passes for anti-Israel extremism over at Commentary. But anything that doesn't conform to their half-crazed macho crusaderism is seen as either anti-Israel or anti-Semitic. Their constant fury, their slightly-veiled calumnies against the President--and against the very notion of diplomacy--would be laughable if they weren't so dangerous and disgraceful.


Whoa! Anti-Israel? Anti-Semitic? Where'd you get that, Joe? Tobin's piece said your proposal to engage with Hamas was a bad one because it wasn't in America's interest to help out terrorists. Tobin may be right, he may be wrong, but he never said anything about you being "anti-Israel" or "anti-Semitic" anywhere in the piece. He didn't even imply it. He just didn't like your ideas, and didn't like your statement that Israel was at fault for the failure of George Mitchell's efforts. But in your attempt to make yourself out to be some courageous truth-teller, you claim you've been smeared -- when you're the one doing the smearing.

Klein lowers himself even further when he writes that "the barely concealed anti-Arab bigotry so frequently found on the Commentary blog, reveals itself in this sentence: That answer pleased neither the Arabs nor Klein," a sentence which referred to Clinton's answer when asked about Gaza. Klein accurately points out that he was attending a U.S.-Islamic forum in which Arabs were just about half of the delegates. I'm not sure how that mistake is clear and convincing evidence of "anti-Arab bigotry," but it would be a bad mistake on Tobin's part. Except that here's what Klein writes in his column: "Clinton's tough talk on Iran got most of the U.S. headlines, but her position on Gaza was far more important to the Islamic participants at Doha, especially the Arabs."

In other words, Klein specifically said that those at the U.S.-Islamic forum who were most interested, and thus obviously the most disappointed, by Clinton's remarks on Gaza were the Arab delegates. Should Tobin have said Muslims? It would have been better. But in using Arabs, he was only following Klein's lead.

I used to really like Joe Klein as a writer. And I was really impressed about a decade ago when I saw him speak at a local synagogue. It was around the time of the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, and in part of his talk he discussed his view that personal matters were getting way too much attention in politics and destroying Washington. I asked him how he could make this argument when a few years earlier he had written an really interesting article for Newsweek on Bill Clinton (I think it was titled "The Politics of Promiscuity") in which he argued that Bill Clinton as a president was like Bill Clinton in his private life--promiscuous and unable to stick to one woman or one idea. I gained a lot of respect for Klein when he answered, "I was wrong" and that he shouldn't have written that article. But after his most recent attack, I've lost most of that respect. Hopefully, he'll admit he's wrong this time, too.

Labels: , , , , ,

32 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Hopefully, he'll admit he's wrong this time, too."

What odds would you like - 5 to 1? 10 to 1? I'll even offer you 20 to 1, I am so certain it won't happen. This is representative Klein, not an aberration. And so telling.

(BTW, this Jewish Fact Check #7 blog entry is much better written than #6, which would have benefitted from some editing. But your points are dead on, with Klein serving for illustrative purposes. You might have commented, though, on what these "hypersensitivities" on the part of those who imagine they have been called antisemites suggest about them.)

2/19/10, 10:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well... that's amazing but honestly i have a hard time seeing it... wonder how others think about this..

3/9/10, 8:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Free information about penis enlargement products, how it works, price of products, top products, and review of penis products. Visit http://www.buypenisenlargement.com
- male enhancement - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pobXsnw7CWs

3/11/10, 3:10 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Nice brief and this post helped me alot in my college assignement. Say thank you you as your information.

3/14/10, 9:32 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hello webmaster! i am really appreciating you for your kindness that
you have made a really interesting blog,We Reccomend only the
best Male Enhancement ,
Best Penis Enlargement ,
Penis Enlargement
, Buy Weight Loss Pills ,
Buy Viagra Online ,
from across the globe Generic Viagra Online
and Cheap Viagra Online in market.

4/18/10, 5:48 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

thedietsolutionprogram -
the diet solution program -
the rich jerk -
the super mind evolution system -
turbulencetraining -
turbulence training -
vincedelmontefitness -
vince del monte fitness -
warp speed fat loss -
wedding speech 4u -
windo fix -
wrap candy -
zygor guides -
7day ebook -
360 fix kit -
advanced pc tweaker -
adware bot -
affiliate naire -
art of approaching -
beating adwords -
believe and manifest -
blogging in action -
body building revealed -
burthefat -
burn the fat -
carb rotation diet -
cheat your way thin -
cold sore freedom in 3 days -
conversationalhypnosis -
conversational hypnosis -
convert 2 ev -
cure for bruxism -
cure hemorrhoids -
digi cam cash -

4/21/10, 6:05 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

sia bagong

vimax ::
vimax pills

11/8/10, 9:07 AM  
Anonymous Penis Enlargement Pills said...

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I think I will leave my first comment.
I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog.
I will keep visiting this blog very often.
By the way,
Blogger how when you visit my blog,
My Blog have been created for the satisfaction of consumer of all.

2/15/11, 7:21 AM  
Anonymous penis enlargement pills said...

Vimax is an all natural 100% safe herbal based product that has Vigrx been proven (with real customer results) to be extremely Vimax effective in increasing the size of an erect penis enlargement pills.

2/15/11, 9:32 AM  
Blogger pedro velasquez said...

As a reporter in the Jewish press throughout the 2008 presidential campaign,dominical costa rica tours there were many rumors about Barack Obama that I found myself writing about, and debunking but none may have been more persistent than the one about Zbigniew Brzezinski being one of his foreign policy advisers.
http://www.dominicalcostaricatours.com

3/1/11, 8:57 PM  
Anonymous Miles Usery said...

Hey very nice blog!! Man .. Beautiful .. Amazing .. I will bookmark your blog and take the feeds also...

3/20/11, 4:35 AM  
Anonymous jersey shore episodes said...

Great shar ethansk!!

4/19/11, 5:06 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

I found your blog via google and it is exactly about my research topic i want some more interesting posts here hope you will keep me up to date.
term paper writing
outline term paper
college term papers

4/25/11, 1:23 AM  
Anonymous VigRX Plus said...

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I think I will leave my first comment.

5/26/11, 5:51 AM  
Blogger jelish said...

Dear friends,Cheap Sale Louboutin online.All shoes elegant shoes is one of masterpiece from Christian Louboutin Platforms. When you buy yourself a pair of Christian Louboutin Thong Sandals
shoes you allow yourself to benefit from the vast experience and expertise that this brand has collected over the years.Christian Louboutin Platform Sandals
shoes is the personification of women,is their direct orgin of racial pride.Christian Louboutin Shoes
shoes is the personification of women,is their direct orgin of racial pride.andChristian Louboutin Mensis a very distinctive design, its design reflects its style. You put on it, that means you have its style.Welcome to our Louboutin 2011 .

6/7/11, 9:47 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I found so numerous interesting stuff in your weblog particularly its discussion.

Laser Hair Removal | Student Consolidation Loans

7/13/11, 2:56 AM  
Anonymous cheap laptop batteries said...

Thanks for sharing this post with us. It's really an amazing post. Keep posting the good work in future too.

7/14/11, 4:04 AM  
Anonymous VIMAX said...

very interesting!
blogs are very helpful, thank you for enlightenment.
I have bookmark your site.
thanks

8/13/11, 1:44 PM  
Anonymous Lovers lifestyle said...

Though he had forced his way into French film culture by working entirely outside his country's studio system
Popular top 10
Tech till date
Bookworm books
Beauty care
Methods to stop divorce
Tattos

9/26/11, 8:45 AM  
Anonymous generic viagra online said...

Thanks mate... just dropped by. Will look for BIKE STN when we get to Seattle. Still in Buenos Airies.

10/19/11, 8:54 PM  
Anonymous credit repair texas said...

thanks for posting, it seems the ME problems are going to drag for decades to come.

11/22/11, 5:09 PM  
Anonymous www.buybuyvimaxpills.com said...

Hi Guys,,,,,
we have a little info for you :
A larger penis size is ideal for the men, prove efficacy before and after using the Vimax you will feel something that you never felt before in your sexual life, 98% of men admitted on the benefits after using the Vimax pill can last a long time to have sex, increasing thickness of the penis, and increase your penis length up to 3 -4 inches and it is permanent.
according to the testimony of several people who use the Vimax pill regularly for six months.

- within three months will increase your penis size up to 3-4 inches '​​permanent'
- has a size larger, harder erections. Because of increased blood flow your erections grow harder.
- increase endurance and your sexual desire increased 100%
- help stop premature ejaculation since "Forever"
- create a strong orgasm and intense (can be 2-3 times)

12/9/11, 8:04 AM  
Anonymous Extenze Reviews said...

I’ll be grateful if you continue this in future. Many other people will be benefited from your writing. Cheers!

2/22/12, 12:54 AM  
Blogger Knox Karter said...

Nice information, many thanks to the author. It is incomprehensible to me now, but in general, the usefulness and significance is overwhelming. Thanks again and good luck!!



Affordable Pay Per Click

3/14/12, 5:57 AM  
Anonymous Ty of Male Enhancer said...

You have good command on the topic and have explained in a very nice way. Thanks for sharing.

3/16/12, 3:45 AM  
Blogger Knox Karter said...

Thanks for sharing such a wonderful and interesting opinion.
Nursing Logo

4/16/12, 9:20 AM  
Blogger justin albert said...

The blog was absolutely fantastic! Lot of great information which can be helpful in some or the other way. Keep updating the blog, looking forward for more contents...Great job, keep it up..


Build A Facebook Fan Page

4/26/12, 5:53 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Vimax Pills
Vimax Pills Expert
Vimax Online
Vimax singapore
Vigrx Plus
Penis Enlargement

5/7/12, 6:58 AM  
Anonymous vimax said...

vimax
camera digital slr reviews
tablets reviews

5/23/12, 11:33 AM  
Anonymous Vimax Extender said...

Very incredible post..

6/11/12, 10:28 PM  
Anonymous Facebook App Developer said...

What an amazing post you've written here. Simply loved the concept of it.

9/14/12, 2:16 AM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Thank you, that's very interesting information. I need to share with my friends.
maqbool mirza | mirza maqbool

5/7/13, 7:44 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home