Can Israel Teach Free Speech to the U.S.? Here's Hoping.

Here is an interesting ambivalent post about Walt and Mearsheimer's visit to Israel, by Gil Troy at an Israeli magazine. Troy begins by comparing the pair to a Rev. Ahlwardt, an antisemite who was granted an audience in N.Y. 100 years ago over the objections of the Jewish community. He seems to regard the men as Jew haters. Said they forced themselves on Hebrew University by inviting themselves. Then come these softer words:

"Moreover, in fairness, Professors Mearsheimer and Walt are neither Rector Ahlwardt nor President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who should not have spoken at Columbia University in September 2007 because of his regime's criminal acts, not because of his offensive opinions. True, Mearsheimer and Walt have made loose, politicized claims based on sloppy, often derivative, research. And yes their demagogic distortion of the "Israel Lobby" into the modern bogeyman helps legitimize anti-Semitism. Still, both have avoided any anti-Semitic expressions, and their book endorses Israel's right to exist.

"We need a war of sources not swords, we need to fight about their footnotes not their freedom. Their book should be subject to rigorous academic scrutiny."

I urge American Jews to read these words. The reception Israel granted Walt and Mearsheimer was a glory to free speech. I love Israel for this. No it is South Africa in its treatment of minorities, but in the love of ideas it is Athens. The men were given a platform. Israelis would have noticed that they spoke with soft voices and were highly intelligent, would have seen Mearsheimer's fire and toughness, but Walt's nuance and humor. That's what free speech is about, the medium and the message. Again I compare Israel's openness to the closed society we live in for these issues. The Jewish mandarins who man so many turrets of our cultural establishment pulled up the portcullis (I think that metaphor's right), excluded them. I can think of only a couple of Jews with real cultural power who behaved honorably, Nick Goldberg at the LA Times gave them a hearing. David Remnick was halfway fair in the New Yorker and honored the power of their ideas. The norm was the slagfest at Yivo, or Dana Milbank's comparing them to Nazis in the Washington Post, or Richard Cohen going into the fetal position and humming the Hatikvah. Defensive. Oh and I should mention M.J. Rosenberg, who was warm and open to Walt and M. even as he was somewhat critical. He was unafraid.

I remind people that Walt and Mearsheimer are for a 2-state solution. If American Zionists knew what they were doing, they would grapple these guys to their side with hoops of steel. Some day they will... The alternative truly is, right now, anyway, institutionalized apartheid..

Comments

[Jim Haygood]

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"The Jewish mandarins who man so many turrets of our cultural establishment pulled up the portcullis (I think that metaphor's right), excluded them."

Great metaphors, Phil, particularly the defensive/paranoid connotations of "turrets." But a portcullis is like a garage door -- raise it to open it, and vice versa.

From Wikipedia:

"There would often be two portcullises to the main entrance. The one closest to the inside would be closed first and then the one furthest away. This was used to trap the enemy and often, burning wood would be dropped onto them from the roof. Pouring hot oil is a myth, it was far too valuable and rare at the time to waste as such. Also, archers could shoot arrows at the trapped enemies."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portcullis

Bloody hell, how stupid do you have to be to rush into a tunnelled entryway blocked by a portcullis at the far end, and then the portcullis where you just entered drops shut, trapping you like a possum in a cage?

About as stupid as rushing into the Iraqi briar patch on the advice of a bunch of neocon saboteurs ... and then letting the same kindly folks steer the agenda into attacking Iran. DOH!

[Ed]

"Can Israel Teach Free Speech to the U.S.?"

Doubtful, considering the Zionist Occupied Congress is only getting worse:

'Will next U.S. Congress top current record number of Jewish lawmakers?'
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/993690.html

I think all Jewish members of Congress should be identified as to whether or not they are Zionists whenever they are quoted on the Mideast, the same way, for example, that Tome DeLay was often identified as a Christian Zionist.

For example: "Jewish Zionist Rahm Emanuel said today that the Palestinians need to..."

[Charles Keating]

Hah-Hah. Ed, you're funny! ROFL.

[peters]

just because remnick wanted to APPEAR as if he could grapple with the ideas of walt and meersheimer doesn't mean that he did. his 'talk of the town' was the height of intellectual dishonesty. i think that of most of the (jewish) reviewers. just because remnick etc. tip their hat to some positive quality in the text they are trying to destroy , doesn't mean they are actually grappling with the ideas. i have seen this technique over and over at the nytimes (neocon)book review. what makes it so obvious is the flimsiness of the criticisms. "shoddy scholarship" , "canard", the fact that the criticisms are all the same , from reviewer to reviewer.
remnick is such a lightweight.