Sunday, March 28, 2010

Reflective Blogger

Jeffrey Goldberg isn't blogging, because he needs to think.
I'm also trying to figure out what to think about this unusual turn in American-Israeli relations, and I'd rather not just pop off. This is big stuff.
How quaint. Isn't that against the rules?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Imagining an Israeli Strike on Iran
(NYT-Link below)

just in case this isn't old news to the savvies (there is a link to a Kenneth M. Pollack piece on the event also)

Silke
PS: blogging without thinking letting the heat of it send him into automatic scribbling is Andrew Sullivan's specialty - maybe he carries a patent on it and nobody else is allowed to do it (at The Atlanic) without paying a licence fee;) to him
- let's hope that Goldberg will use the pause to do some re-thinking on his (and Rahm Emanuel's tough-love-stance ...


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/weekinreview/28sangerintro.html?ref=global-home

Anonymous said...

"Obama has a gift for getting his enemies to destroy themselves."
triumphalizes Andrew Sullivan in the London Times

Now I know that bloggers will save the world from Israel or Netanyahu or both
- what Petraeus really said (again)
- and that times have changed so much that if somebody should call him an anti-semite nothing bad would happen to him

Silke

Barry Meislin said...

Maybe Goldberg---now that Israel's existential dilemma, though always there, has once more been pushed and shoved and dragged to the foreground---is trying to figure out how exactly to rationalize his support for Israel together with his criticism of Israel and his support for those who criticize Israel.

I imagine it's not an especially easy time for those critics of Israel who still maintain some vestige of sanity (I assume there are a few such left). Do they recalibrate or stay true to their beliefs? And if they recalibrate, how? When?

(Does this mean that people will be abandoning J-Street in droves? Maybe, probably not, but who really knows?)

Certainly, those who don't especially like the fact that Israel exists are sharpening their knives and/or getting ready to party hard. And the propaganda that has been so effective so far will continue to pound away. "Momentum," as it is called.

And so the "Israel is the impediment to peace," "Israel is leading us down the path to war," "Israel is a threat to the entire region," Israel is a threat to the entire world," "Israel is the reason why peace talks can no longer take place" (along with a few juicy variants such as "Israel steals organs from (fill in the blank)") memes (yawn) will flow fast and furious.

And why shouldn't they, after all?

Alhough those who continue to hope for that glorious day when Israel is no longer have, alas, been disappointed in the past...

Will they be disappointed again?

Will this time be the real deal?

No, hope never dies.

Wedding 06 said...

Please do not "Pop off"
but do have a Hag Sameah!

ModernityBlog said...

Surely these changes in attitudes in the US were always on the cards?

Or if not on the cards at least going to happen, one day?

Anonymous said...

latest from Goldberg? http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/04/05/100405fa_fact_goldberg

this on the other hand, even if it should be true that part of it is fiction, is very very worth a read or re-read because it is true in what it says about human nature.
"shooting an Elephant"
http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/887/

Silke