Israel Spat Divides Former New Republic Colleagues

By: Charles Cooper
Topics: In The News

(AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

At first blush, the squabble pitting former New Republic editor Andrew Sullivan against the magazine's literary editor, Leon Wieseltier, rates as yet another of those desultory cat fights which occasionally spice up the publishing scene. But something more than a snub at the water fountain set off Wieseltier, who wrote a damning 4,200 word essay in the latest issue of the publication which concludes that Sullivan's recent writings regarding Jews and Israel qualify him either as a bigot or at the very least, "moronically insensitive." (Here's Sullivan's response.)

You wonder whether there is a history between these two going back to the time when Sullivan edited the magazine - in fact, he was the youngest person ever to edit the New Republic. Whatever the circumstances, Wieseltier seized on Sullivan's Jan. 13 blog post - among others - as evidence to support his charges. Sullivan wrote: "Most American Jews, of course, retain a respect for learning, compassion for the other, and support for minorities (Jews, for example, are the ethnic group most sympathetic to gay rights)...but the Goldfarb-Krauthammer wing–that celebrates and believes in government torture, endorses the pulverization of Gazans with glee, and wants to attack Iran–is something else. Something much darker."

Wieseltier, who has little sympathy either for Goldfarb, the former online editor of The Weekly Standard, or Charles Krauthammer, a conservative columnist, was perplexed by Sullivan's decision to hold both writers up as representing anything other than themselves.

"I was not aware that they comprise a "wing" of American Jewry, or that American Jewry has "wings," he wrote. "What sets them apart from their more enlightened brethren is the unacceptability of their politics to Sullivan. That is his criterion for dividing the American Jewish community into good Jews and bad Jews–a practice with a sordid history."

No doubt a bad choice of words by Sullivan, though it's difficult to use that to extrapolate baser motives. Charging someone with being an anti-Semite is the equivalent of fire in the hole. There will be an explosion and Wieseltier knows that this particular topic rouses particular passions. Especially when the charge gets mixed up with larger geo-political questions about the Middle East and U.S. backing for Israel.

The liberal-left, desires a more neutral U.S. position when it comes to Israel and the Palestinians while the conservative-right fears such a shift would be the prelude to increased regional instability. Wieseltier didn't need to wait long for the reaction. Playing their parts with kabuki-like predictability, the critics poured scorn on his essay which they said falsely conflated criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. In Gawker, Alex Pareene ripped Wieseltier as a "first class B.S. artist." Think Progress's Matthew Yglesias called the essay a hit piece that "suffers deeply from schizophrenia," and M.J. Rosenberg in the Huffington Post dismissed Wieseltier's prose as "impenetrable."

Charles Cooper is an executive editor at CNET News. He has covered technology and business for more than 25 years, working at CBSNews.com, the Associated Press, Computer & Software News, Computer Shopper, PC Week, and ZDNet. E-mail Charlie.

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by babooph February 10, 2010 4:02 PM EST

As I read recent History some other group was in that area of the middle East prior to the Hebrew group-their God may have given the place to them 1st....I think US Indian gods gave the US to them 1st,& surely they have an abuse case....

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by cowardlyimbecile February 10, 2010 4:28 PM EST: Was this before or after the US nuked them 3x to start the Civil War?


by jimmyc1955 February 10, 2010 2:35 PM EST: Starving1968 - Your capacity to cherry pick bits of history and ignoring the forest of fact is truly breathtaking. You seem to forget that Israel acquired almost all that land during wars of aggression started by their neighbors in an effort to wipe them out. SO if you call "stealing more and more land" the ability to repel invaders and occupy strategic sites to better protect Israel - then I guess your right. Since every one of those nations bordering Israel do not recognize their right to exist, continue to promote terrorism in their borders sending children in strapped with bombs to kill innocent men, women and children at weddings, on buses and in public meeting places.

You seem determined to ignore 50 years of continuous threats.

But core to the progressive conviction that the US must be "neutral" is that if we don't favor Israel, we won't be targeted by jihadists. I think this is pure wishful thinking and if Israel were to be wiped out tomorrow their attention would turn to us.

Like it or note, that hatred that states like Iran have for the US is based on the very culture you so cherish, one of free sexual expression, drug and alcohol consumption, music in public (see that Taliban for that example) and just the freedom of expression we all enjoy.; Reply to this comment

by wyodutch February 10, 2010 12:16 PM EST

For those who still believe that the interests of Israel are more important than the interests of America, here's a recap of the FOX News report of December 1, 2001: "CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Since September 11, more than 60 Israelis have been arrested or detained, either under the new patriot anti-terrorism law, or for immigration violations..... A handful of active Israeli military were among those detained, according to investigators, who say some of the detainees also failed polygraph questions when asked about alleged surveillance activities against and in the United States..... There is no indication that the Israelis were involved in the 9-11 attacks, but investigators suspect that they Israelis may have gathered intelligence about the attacks in advance, and not shared it. A highly placed investigator said there are -quote- "tie-ins." But when asked for details, he flatly refused to describe them, saying, -quote- "evidence linking these Israelis to 9-11 is classified.... Fox News has learned that one group of Israelis, spotted in North Carolina recently, is suspected of keeping an apartment in California to spy on a group of Arabs who the United States is also investigating for links to terrorism... Numerous classified documents obtained by Fox News indicate that even prior to September 11, as many as 140 other Israelis had been detained or arrested in a secretive and sprawling investigation into suspected espionage by Israelis in the United States.... Investigators from numerous government agencies are part of a working group that's been compiling evidence since the mid '90s... These documents detail hundreds of incidents in cities and towns across the country that investigators say may well be an organized intelligence gathering activity... "

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by cowardlyimbecile February 10, 2010 12:18 PM EST: Oh, sure. FOX News. lol

by cowardlyimbecile February 10, 2010 12:08 PM EST

Let's face it... the slavish devotion to Jihad some folks here exhibit is just the good old Dolchsto?legende in a kaftan. Some bloggers here stand beside such stalwarts as William Dudley Pelley, Fritz Julius Kuhn and George Lincoln Rockwell. When that septic tank has been drained of all political wisdom, come see what your neighbors have built on a much firmer foundation.

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by wyodutch February 10, 2010 12:18 PM EST: Those who have nothing to say... resort to name-calling.


by cowardlyimbecile February 10, 2010 12:19 PM EST: But you don't disown these fine patriots to your cause?

by wyodutch February 10, 2010 12:07 PM EST

I'm always amazed at how some Americans can turn their backs on their own country in time of war and place the interests of Israel above all else. I can't understand how anyone could do that and still call themselves an American. My loyalty is first, last and always to America. Never to Iran, Israel, red china, Taiwan or any other foreign nation. That just seems to make sense.

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by cowardlyimbecile February 10, 2010 12:10 PM EST: Your loyalty is to certain Americans in certain roadhouses of certain backwoods. It is a race-based primitivist theology having nothing to do with Tom Paine, Ben Franklin, John Adams or Tom Jefferson (except perhaps in his states' rights, pro-slavery moments).

by wyodutch February 10, 2010 11:57 AM EST

Number of Israelis arrested in post-911 America on spy charges = 60 (Source- FOX News, special report by Carl Cameron, December 11, 2001). Number of Palestinians arrested in post-911 America on spy charges = none.

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by cowardlyimbecile February 10, 2010 12:11 PM EST: No, they just dance in the street when thousands of Americans die. What was the name of that tune, anyway? Popular at Oktoberfest?

by cowardlyimbecile February 10, 2010 11:48 AM EST

I see that the Ernst Rohm Brigades have done what they can for Jihad this morning.

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by wyodutch February 10, 2010 11:54 AM EST: And of course.. the Jonathon Pollard and Ben-Ami Kadish supporters are out in force as usual.


by cowardlyimbecile February 10, 2010 11:59 AM EST: Tell folks about the transvestite balls of Old Berlin. Or New York.

by wyodutch February 10, 2010 11:37 AM EST

Here's a story that got no coverage... It shows how the rabidly pro-israel nutcases think and how little respect they have for the Republic... "Michele Bachmann, the outspoken conservative House representative from Minnesota, says the United States will cease to exist if it "fails to stand" with Israel.
"I am convinced in my heart and in my mind that if the United States fails to stand with Israel, that is the end of the United States," Bachmann said at a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Los Angeles on Feb. 6.

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by cowardlyimbecile February 10, 2010 11:46 AM EST: Here's a news story... Nazis and Jihadis don't know who leads when they dance.

by cowardlyimbecile February 10, 2010 9:53 AM EST

I think that some of you are wearing out as good propaganda wh*res. But Jihad appreciates what you've done. Now grow old unemployed.

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by wyodutch February 10, 2010 11:41 AM EST: Upu madaam... are my favorite lapdog for Israel. I can always count on you to put Israel's interests above those of your own country. You might consider changing your identifier to "Quisling".


by cowardlyimbecile February 10, 2010 11:47 AM EST: And you might want to wear Eva Braun's dress to the oasis.

by cowardlyimbecile February 10, 2010 8:14 AM EST

Nazi Germany sought to woo Arabs through anti-British and anti-Jewish policies. Josef Goebbels and Baldur von Schirach of the Hitler Youth carried out goodwill tours. German agents financed and armed clandestine Arab fascist groups. The first Arabic translation of Mein Kampf appeared in 1938.

Of all the Arabs convinced of Hitler's coming triumph, none was so eager as Haj Amin al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem and leader of the Palestinian Arabs in the Hitler years. Haj Amin converted the Palestinian cause into a local branch of Hitler's worldwide anti-Jewish persecution. Fleeing from the British, he spent the war in Berlin. A friend and admirer of Himmler's, he raised a division of Bosnian Muslims for the SS.

Fanaticism had led Haj Amin into utter delusion. Hitler, the expected savior, had in reality the settled conviction that Arabs were Untermenschen and he had no intention of doing them any favors. On that racial ladder of his, Arabs occupied a servile place, held in much the same contempt as the Jews. All sorts of Arab leaders were to follow Haj Amin's example and fall into the racist trap Hitler set for them, including Gamal Abdul Nasser and Anwar Sadat, the Syrian and Iraqi Baathists, and King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia.

Probably most Arabs accept Israel as a fact of life, created by the millions of individual choices which make up history, and over which nobody has any control. But the leadership, the intellectuals particularly, have internalized and perpetuated Hitler's fantasies about Jews and a Jewish state. In one Muslim country after another, leaders who may describe themselves either as Islamist or secular call for the State of Israel to disappear from the map, and its people to be annihilated. It does not seem in the least shocking to them to be proposing mass-murder.

Anyone who writes about the area and excuses this behavior does so knowingly and ought to be given the public embarassment they deserve.

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by starving1968-3 February 10, 2010 8:44 AM EST: In 1947, jews owned 12.5% of the land in Israel.

The UN saw fit to "award" them a full 50% of the land, primarily because of the suffering at the hands of the nazi's in Germany.

In May 1948, the jews with their continued policies of Aliyah and Aliyah Bet, immigrated en masse into Israel, DISPLACING THE NATIVE POPULATION that lived there for centuries.

Even though they were GIVEN this land for no apparent reason, they see fit - to this day - to keep stealing more and more land from the residents that have lived there peacefully for centuries. Today Israel squats on approximately 85% of the land - and it was ALL taken by brutal military force.

Why does EVERYONE think that the Palestinians that had NOTHING to do with Nazi Germany, which is the majority of the population, must suffer at the hands of the jews, for the atrocities of the Nazi's?

And why does everyone NOT UNDERSTAND the Palestinians urge to fight back?