Casual Observation

7 Comments

1. 

   Brendan Skwire on November 29, 2013 at 4:40 pm

   That’s a pretty serious dork fight. which one will start nerd-slapping while having an asthma attack? Which one will start crying?

   Put that shit on pay-per-view.

   • 

     BooMan on November 29, 2013 at 5:01 pm

     Nerd-slapping asthmatics.  Could be the sequel to The Walking Dead.  

     • 

       Brendan Skwire on November 29, 2013 at 5:41 pm

       I’m imagining that scene from “A Christmas Story” where Ralphie loses his shit and gets into a fight.

2. 

   Oui on November 29, 2013 at 6:12 pm

   .

   Silencing ‘Goliath’

   (Tikun Olam) – I welcome this book.  Like Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer’s The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, it will take its place as a must-read reference work on the subject.  And like that earlier book, Goliath has been excoriated by all manner of self-appointed liberal Zionist experts who see in it the worst forms of Israel demonization.  Perhaps chief among them is Eric Alterman, The Nation’s long-time liberal columnist, who knows a great deal more about baseball and domestic politics than he does about Israel.  Alterman’s screed, the ‘subtly’-titled, I Hate Israel Handbook, disguised as a book review, was so dyspeptic and defensive that it’s not even worth quoting it at length.  Linking to it gives anyone interested the opportunity to read it if your blood pressure is at a manageable level.

   The New York Times commissioned Max to produce a video for its new Doc Ops feature and when he presented to them the documentary he produced about vicious anti-African pogroms in Tel Aviv, the editors said “thanks, but no thanks.  There will be no New York Times Book Review for Goliath (though a nice one by Akiva Eldar at Al Monitor); no segments on PBS Newshour.

   A Response to J.J. Goldberg of the Forward

   ○ Mondoweiss: ‘I wanted to show Americans what they’re paying for’-Max Blumenthal on why he wrote ‘Goliath’
   • 

     seabe on November 30, 2013 at 9:49 am

     That video is a must-see. I gotta get Max’s book.

3. 

   seabe on November 29, 2013 at 6:22 pm

   Shorter Alterman: “Max is technically accurate, but NAZI NAZI NAZI!!!”

4. 

   Vixen Strangely on November 29, 2013 at 11:33 pm

   The good thing about reading it is: both points of view will be well-written, but that’s that. This particular beef is a mess. Although I have admired Alterman for a long time, especially for his media criticism, I can’t help but seeing this thing as a sore spot to him with which I’m not totally on board–it has to be possible to criticize Israel without being an anti-semite.  If I criticize America, am I anti-American–or doing my job as someone who cares about what happens to the US?

   I think well of Blumenthal also–I had a very favorable review of his book Republican Gommorrah. But I don’t think Israeli paranoids are like our US paranoids–for one thing, they have reasons.  In recent memory and sometimes pictures for the family photo album.

   Both of them belong in the tent and Jeffery Goldberg is not the boss of anybody, let alone their Jewishess. I’m not sure he should even referee.