Diary: Open Discussion Thread: Israel, Palestine, Criticism, Antisemitism... Finding Balance

First, thanks for your letter. Dealing with the Israel- Palestine chronic mess is the most challenging part of my role as editor-publisher. If you check our subject and locale categories on this subject you'll see we do cover both sides.

Reading this article, I'm not sure there's any attack on critics of Israeli policy here. Could you tell me the exact sentence and paragraph your are concerned about and the issues you have with them.

Overall, the article is about raising the alarm about racist, anti-semite Aryan nation types joining the military.

I'm assuming this is the sentence that concerns you most:

"While the intent of those who theorize that defense of Israel, as an ally, and the interests of rich American Jews may not be garden variety antisemitism, it is a creeping, and insidious, kind of hatred that was notably, and memorably, present in the days of the Weimar Republic, in Germany, back in the late 1920's. "

Frankly, it is a poorly constructed sentence that doesn't totally make sense to me. As a Jew, and as publisher of OpEdNews, I have seen anti-semitic screeds that come to me as political criticisms of Israel. They usually include old history and throw in the kitchen sink. Then there are articles that are on target criticisms of Israel's current policies and fresh-breaking actions, like what's happening in Gaza right now. I edit those carefully and publish the criticisms. It is very rare that I get submissions writing about Palesitinian abuses-- Israeli children killed by suicide bombers.. But I publish them too.

I've copied your email to the author and two of our other writers who write on the middle east, usually criticizing the Israeli side. Maybe we can shed some light here. Also, Your letter is about 60-70% there as a stand-alone op-ed on the issue you are raising. Why not flesh it out and submit it. I would be happy to run it. I also encourage you to post a comment to the article. Also, please check out some of these links so you'll see the way we've covered the middle east. I know we could do better. I'd love to have a middle east editor-- a few, really, since I think it would be unfair to have one person do it. One reason I've contacted the writers I've contacted is by way of inviting them to get involved at another level in bringing a balanced approach to coverage of the middle east.

Here are four "Locale" categories that have, between them, 299 articles, not including diaries.
Israel/Palestine

Israel

Middle East

Palestinian Homeland

I am taking this email and turning it into a diary, with the hopes that the recipients of this email and others will begin a dialogue on these issues. I've been feeling lonely, taking them on alone.

On 7/10/06, fogle.jamie@****

Note: this email is in response to an article called
Heil, Liberator!
published at
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_jayne_ly_060708_heil_2c_liberator_21.htm

To the editor,
First, the easy part. 2/3 of the way through the unfortunate "Heil Liberator" article, the author makes up a quote,"sig heil", when she probably meant,"seig heil".
Like the proverbial canary in a coal mine, this seemingly trivial slip reveals a much more toxic environment by the article's conclusion. The author seems to be caught in a time warp. Criticism of Isreal's right wing government and it's US lobbying arm is NOT anti semitism. Please see recent issues of H'aaretz, comments of "Peace Now" activists, comments of young Isreali "refuseniks" who refuse to part of an illegal and immoral occupation, a few past issues of "Tikkun" magazine, or stream "Beyond The Pale", a progressive Jewish radio show carried by the Pacifica network for Jewish voices calling for new and more humane ways to approach this ongoing horrible Isreal/Palestine crisis.
There are Isreali human rights activists doing noble, almost completely ignored work trying to ameliorate, or at least expose persistent and systemic human rights abuses by the Isreali government. These are not anti-semites, and they can be found with a little research.
The Harvard study is titled, "The Isreal Lobby", NOT the "The Jewish Lobby". The authors clearly state that support for Bush's invasion of Iraq was supported by 10%
fewer American Jews than Americans in general, leading to the conclusion that the Isreal Lobby does NOT represent the views of American Jews politically, but rather a powerful minority. Nowhere does the author refer to any errors made by the authors of the Harvard study, leading to the conclusion that there are none. If their findings are so vile and incorrect, why not list the errors in their work?
The inclusion of this kind of Fox News/Tom Friedman-like smear in a supposedly "liberal" news source is beneath your usual excellent quality. I look forward to a follow-up article presenting a progressive critique of this shameful piece.
Thank you.
Sincerely, Jamie Fogle