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.