To criticize Israel is to be anti-semitic, naturally

ARTICLE: In a Home to Free Speech, a Paper Is Accused of Anti-Semitism, By JESSE McKINLEY, New York Times, November 27, 2009

Listen to how the editor of a Berkeley paper is warned off:

"We think that Ms. O'Malley is addicted to anti-Israel expression just as an alcoholic is to drinking," Jim Sinkinson, who has led the campaign to discourage advertisers, wrote in an e-mail message. He is the publisher of Infocom Group, a media relations company. "If she wants to serve and please the East Bay Jewish community, she would be safer avoiding the subject entirely."

Nice touch in a free-speech country: best to avoid the subject entirely or suffer our wrath!

As always, the ex-pats and co-religionists here are far more strident than their in-country brethren, who tend to be more practical. You saw it with the Irish-American crowd for decades on Northern Ireland, and we get it in spades from the Jewish-American cohort on Israel now.

But Israel, by any objective standard, rightfully comes under a lot of criticism for how it continues to handle Gaza and the West Bank. If we, as a country, can go into deep self-reflection over Gitmo, then we can manage the same on Israel's policies vis-a-vis the Palestinians--especially since our aid money makes it possible.

As such, any attempts to shut down critics should be vehemently opposed.

Comments

[stuart abrams]

At the end of the day, one of the things that really does make Israel a place worth protecting is its serious devotion to principles of free speech/free press. Some of the best and most objective writing on the I-P conflict can be found in the Israeli press. Ironically, American "pro-Israel" groups often attack Israeli publications such as Haaretz for "feeding anti-semitism."

[David Emery]

Hey, you can see this demonization of someone who doesn't agree with you just by looking at the reactions to Joe Lieberman's positions on things any time he strays from the Democratic Party Line. (Unfortunately, both Republican and Democratic Parties are exercising their Party Lines these days. I'd point them both to the worst instance of the term in the 20th century...)

[Petrer]

In the context of the anti Israeli sentiment in most "progressive" circles who live in the Bay Area, I side with the paper...you have to live here to see the insanity..."The Israeli's are the new nazis" is said with a straight face...to mine anyway.

The second context is that I understand that the "Palestinian cause" is a front. If Israel were to magically dissolve, and a "Palestine" were to magically appear, you will have a Syria and Jordan sticking the land for control....just as in Lebanon (with Syria anyway). Who will get the scum at the bottom of the barrel anyway? the "niggers of the Arab world" the Palestinians...with the true intentions of the Arab governments.