Jewish Anti-Zionist blogger Phil Weiss is so delusional and so sure of his position, that he is certain that his anti-Zionist views are winning over the Jewish world, as well as the non-Jewish world. Now he thinks Jeffrey Goldberg is about to leave Zionism, just because of Goldberg's frustration with Benjamin Netanyahu. Well, Phil, haven't you learned that Zionism does not equal Benjamin Netanyahu? He's afraid Netanyahu's policies may kill the two-state solution and bring about a one-state solution. That means he sees the one-state solution as bad, not as something he's about to start supporting.
Goldberg can't win. He's a moderate-left Zionist like me, which means the left will hate him for not being pro-Palestinian enough, and the right will hate him for not being pro-Israel enough. Indeed, that very post of Weiss's blog has a rebuttal of the "Goldberg to become Anti-Zionist" view from someone who sees Goldberg's anti-Netanyahu posts as a Zionist conspiracy meant to maintain US support for Israel. Can't it just be that he really doesn't like Netanyahu for the very reasons he writes explicitly?
I never understood why some people think Jeffrey Goldberg is a neocon. Neither can I understand how anybody in their right mind would think he might be joining the Mondoweiss blogging staff any time soon.
A Great Day for *The Atlantic*
3 weeks ago
”[…] that he is certain that his anti-Zionist views are winning over the Jewish world, as well as the non-Jewish world.”
ReplyDeleteThat’s a straw man: I don’t believe that’s what Phil is saying. But the increasing popularity of Mondoweiss (really soaring) is just one indication that more and more people, including Americans, Jewish or not, are becoming highly critical of Israel (leave ‘anti-Zionism’ out of it, it’s a contentious term). Never has the country had such a bad reputation as ever before. And new forms of counter-Hasbarah are working a treat.
As regards Jeffrey Goldberg, ‘liberal’ or not, he’s a deeply annoying twit. Neocon? No, not in the literal sense of the word but I bet he marched behind the flag of going into Iraq and that in part that was motivated by the idea that it would be good for Zionism. In that sense that whole American Conservative Jewish clique is at least ‘Neoconish’ and in some cases real Neocons (take e.g. David ‘Axis of Evil’ Frum)
David Frum is definitely conservative. Jeffrey Goldberg is not. There were a lot of people who supported the Iraq war who weren't neocons (including myself). Neither does warning against Iran's nukes make you a neocon.
ReplyDeleteOn Israel, Goldberg is definitely not a neocon. For example, he took Obama's side in the recent "speech-off", while Frum took Netanyahu's side.
A twit Goldberg definitely ain't. Annoying? Maybe for those who disagree with him.