09 Feb 2010 04:38 pm
Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the U.S.,
tried to give a speech at UC Irvine but was shouted down by Muslim protesters, who apparently weren't equipped to argue with Oren, just drive him from the stage. All this is par for the course, but I did find this one bit of information amusing:
The Muslim Student Union said in its statement: "We strongly condemn the university for cosponsoring, and therefore, inadvertently supporting the ambassador of a state that is condemned by more UN Human Rights Council resolutions than all other countries in the world combined."
To the Muslim Student Union, the fact that the UN Human Rights Council has condemned Israel more than all the other countries of the world combined means that Israel is worse than all the other countries of the world combined. To more rational, less prejudiced people, this fact means that the UN Human Rights Council is not a serious organization, but one under the control of dictators and despots.
08 Feb 2010 07:44 pm
Laura Rozen reports that Flynt Leverett and Michael Ledeen will be debating Iran at the Atlantic Council later this month.
08 Feb 2010 04:07 pm
A Goldblog reader writes:
"I read your post about Ethan Bronner, and I agree. I think Palestinian reporters do a good job of covering the West Bank, etc., as you do, but why stop there? Why not have Jewish reporters cover Gaza? Why not have Palestinians cover Israel?"
A good question. Two answers: First, Jewish reporters do cover Gaza. And Palestinians do, in fact, cover Israel. Anyone who has been in the Knesset press room knows that Palestinians, working for Arab outlets, as well as European and American publications, are busy covering the main issues of the day. Answer number two: There could always be more of this cross-cultural coverage. I, for one, would love to read a Taghreed al-Khodary profile of Bibi, or Gabi Ashkenazi, or whomever, not only because she's a great reporter, but because she would draw out different responses from these men, based on her background and knowledge, than I could. I trust her to be fair and accurate, so why not?
The summer before last, I moderated a panel at the Aspen Ideas Festival -- a debate, really -- between Irshad Manji and Dalia Mogahed on the future of Islam. Afterward, a couple of bloggers took shots at the organizers for allowing me to serve as the moderator. Not because I did a bad job -- though I might have, who knows? -- but because I'm Jewish. This sort of reductionist thinking isn't useful. It ghettoizes writers and thinkers based on the circumstances of their births.
08 Feb 2010 08:48 am
Clark Hoyt, the public editor of The New York Times,
wants Ethan Bronner, the paper's Jerusalem bureau chief, to be reassigned because his son has joined the Israeli army. Hoyt believes that Bronner is a stellar correspondent but that the "appearance of conflict" is such that he should be forced out of his job. He bases this on complaints from, among others, something called "The Angry Arab News Service." Hoyt writes: "Web sites like the Angry Arab News Service have called him a propagandist for Israel." Did it strike Hoyt that perhaps a web site called "The Angry Arab News Service" might be engaged in the dissemination of, you know, propaganda?
Thank goodness for Bill Keller, the executive editor of the Times, who
has responded to Hoyt by telling him, in essence, "Thank you very much for your ill-informed and cowardly opinion. Now please go away."
Two thoughts, as someone with various entanglements in this story: One, the assumption is that Bronner, someone I know a little, and someone who leans left on the spectrum (though it's hard to tell from his coverage, which is down the middle, generally) will somehow be a proponent of Israel's military now that his son has enlisted. In fact, the opposite could be true: Wouldn't it be in Bronner's best interest to write critically of offensive Israeli military operations, in order to influence events in such a way as to keep his son out of harm's way?
Two, and this is a somewhat obvious point except to propagandists, reporters are capable of actually separating out their personal interests from their coverage. I've worked with Palestinian reporters in Gaza and the West Bank, many of whom have had family ties to Fatah and, in one case, even to Hamas, but without fail they've functioned as professional news-gatherers interested only in getting the story before the competition. I don't think the Times should stop using Palestinian reporters in the West Bank and Gaza, because if it did so, its coverage would suffer. And its coverage of Israel would suffer immeasurably if the Times bent to the pressure of anti-Israel propagandists and removed Ethan Bronner from his post. I'm just glad Bill Keller is the editor of the Times, and not Clark Hoyt.
05 Feb 2010 12:51 pm
Yes, the year is short, and yes, 2010 might bring us other funny books -- John Edwards, I'm reasonably sure, will soon be bringing out a very funny book -- but Matt Labash's new
"Fly Fishing with Darth Vader" is, I'll bet right now, the funniest thing I'll read all year. Labash is one of the most consistently entertaining magazine writers today. His portrayal of Marion Barry in decline is the best profile of my favorite mayor that I've ever read. Labash has an innate sympathy for scoundrels, and he brings them to life like no other journalist today. And no, this is not some sort of log-rolling; I don't know Labash, I just read him, and I thought I'd pass along the good news that he has a new book. Take a stand for great journalism and buy it.
05 Feb 2010 11:34 am
Rep. Anthony Wiener (D., Hymietown) agrees with Jon Stewart
that Joe Lieberman is a dick. Senator Marvin Shmeckl (D., Schlongville) could not be reached for comment.
05 Feb 2010 11:04 am
George
posted the other day on the deleterious effects of Twitter and various other technologies that shorten attention spans, deprive people of time to read books (and, you know,
magazines), and otherwise lamented the torrent of infocrap flooding our in-boxes and slowly killing off serious, reasoned, deeply-reported journalism. Of course, he pissed off thin-skinned tech triumphalists everywhere, including
Nick Bilton, the Times' "lead Bits blogger," which means I don't know what exactly. Bilton wrote:
Twitter is transforming the nature of news, the
industry from which Mr. Packer reaps his paycheck. The news media are
going through their most robust transformation since the dawn of the
printing press, in large part due to the Internet and services like
Twitter. After this metamorphosis takes place, everyone will benefit
from the information moving swiftly around the globe.
Personally, I would rather see The Times use its limited resources to pay for a bigger Kabul bureau instead of funding "Bits blogging." In any case, Packer responded to Bilton yesterday:
Continue reading "George Packer Tackles Twitter, Angers Info Freaks " »
02 Feb 2010 04:44 pm
I'll be blogging lightly for a little while. I have some reporting to do. But I'll be back soon.
02 Feb 2010 08:50 am
I'm a fairly big believer in the potential of the Palestinian Authority to one day deliver peace and tranquility to the Middle East in the form of a two-state solution, but the Authority's television station
isn't helping matters much, this recent sermon being a case in point:
Palestine
- its land and its holy places - by these new Mongols and what they are
perpetrating upon this holy, blessed and pure land - killing,
assassination, destruction, confiscation, Judaization, harassment and
splitting the homeland - are clear proof of [unintelligible word - Ed.]
hostility, of incomparable racism, and of Nazism of the 20th century.
The Jews, the enemies of Allah and of His Messenger, the enemies of
Allah and of His Messenger! Enemies of humanity in general, and of
Palestinians in particular - they wage war against us using all kinds
of crimes, and as you see - even the mosques are not spared their
racism
02 Feb 2010 08:21 am
Lee Smith with a
smart piece on, among other things, Richard Haass's
recent op-ed calling for America to stop playing footsie with the Iranian leadership:
There is evidence to support the idea that the American foreign policy establishment believes stopping Israel from attacking Iran is a key goal of U.S. Middle East policy. At a late November war game simulating the confrontation over Iran's nuclear program, Nicholas Burns, the former undersecretary of State played President Barack Obama. "The most difficult problem we have is how to restrain Israel," said Burns. "We need to play for a long-term solution, avoid a third war in the greater Middle East and wear down the Iranians over time."
Lee also has a provocative new book out on the Middle East,
The Strong Horse. I'm halfway through, will report back when I finish.
- More Jeffrey Goldberg: February 2010
