Comments on Bernard Avishai Dot Com: The Ghost Publisher

OK, Bar Kochba, please demonstrate your committmen...

2008-02-09T09:15:00.000-05:00

OK, Bar Kochba, please demonstrate your committment to "evenhandedness" by denouncing the "filth" of the Israeli occupation and the oppression of the Palestinians. Otherwise, we will be forced to conclude that you are "not an objective observer of the Israeli scene." Horrors!

Bill

I forgot to add that all the three major newspaper...

2008-02-08T09:42:00.000-05:00

I forgot to add that all the three major newspapers, Yediot, Ha'aretz and Ma'ariv more or less support the Left and "the elites" and their economic interests. Yet Bernie says that Conrad Black, Adelson and Murdoch "have an agenda". Well, does Ha'aretz Editor-In-Chief David Landau have an agenda? He is the fellow who said to US Secretary of State Rice that the US needs to "rape" Israel in order to force the gov't that HE, Landau, wants, even if this is against the will of the population. He also told a conference in Moscow some time ago that he would refuse to print articles showing Olmert in bad light with his myriad scandals as long as he is carrying out a "peace process" with the Palestinians. IS THIS AN AGENDA also? Or do only "rightists" have an "agenda"?

Margaret, I am not sure of what point you are mak...

2008-02-08T09:34:00.000-05:00

Margaret, I am not sure of what point you are making...however, what I am trying to do is point out that Bernie is not some "objective" viewer of the Israeli scene (I am not sure really that is what he is claiming to be) but he IS a typical hyper-politicized supporter of the old Labor Party "elite" (as he calls it) who, in their traditional propaganda divide the Israeli world into two camps: the "sons of light" (i.e. his Leftist camp) and the "sons of darkness" (the Likud, the right, the Judea/Samaria settlers, the Haredim [ultra-Orthodox], the Sefardim, the Russian immigrants etc). This posting is a typical example of this. How does he present it?...this unsavory billionaire who doesn't even live in Israel comes and interferes in the "internal affairs" of Israel in a political direction that Bernie doesn't approve of. I am pointing out that there is no lack of the same type of rich people who pour money into political causes that Bernie supports. But he would never write a piece denouncing them. Another example is the fact that groups of Jews outside of Israel are mobilizing to try to prevent Olmert's gov't from making concessions on Jerusalem in his talks with the Palestinians. What does Olmert and his apologists say? "How dare these people who don't live in Israel interfere in our internal affairs"! Yet, it was the same Olmert who made the infamous "we are tired of fighting, we are tired of winning" speech to the Israel Policy Forum, a group of Leftist (I would say Far Leftist by Israeli standards) American Jews who are butting in to Israel affairs the same way.
I am saying one should keep these things in mind when reading the postings here.

bar_kochbal132-Reading that article, filth didn't ...

2008-02-08T04:42:00.000-05:00

bar_kochbal132-

Reading that article, filth didn't come to mind. People do the things that make sense to them. It's useful to understand how individuals are able to wield influence, or not. It is interesting to read one explanation of why detached adherence to symbolic goals might occur. It is valuable to consider how symbolic goals are able to retain support from individuals who reckon not the manner in which those goals are achieved, because the importance of the symbol is, for them, not related to the reality which the symbol represents.

Filth doesn't enter into it. Death, injury, sorrow, loss: yes. Filth: no.

Bernie, you seem to have forgotten all the Leftist...

2008-02-08T01:43:00.000-05:00

Bernie, you seem to have forgotten all the Leftist Billionaires who funnel cash to Left wing causes such as Peace Now, the New Israel Fund and Leftist Think Tanks you get money out of. Among them is billioniare yored Haim Saban who funnelled illegal campaign contributions to Barak's 1999 campaign. Then there is Arafat's business partner Martin Shlaff who is also a gambling entrepeneur (for example, the infamous Jericho casino) who gave millions of dollars in illegal contributions to Sharon (the "Cyril Kern Affiar") in order to encourage Sharon to do things like destroy Gush Katif.
THERE IS FILTH ON ALL SIDES OF THE POLITICAL SPECTRUM and it is hypocrisy to just focus on one side, as you have done.