Comments on: Marty Peretz Sells Stake in New Republic

By: Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 22:19:26 +0000

‘Zionist hardliner’ is a good one. I’ll try that. I’m sorely tempted to call them “anti-Israel” & like your term very much. But I’m afraid it might confuse my readers who are used to thinking of anti-Israel activists as being anti-Zionist. I also like the term I read at someone’s blog “pro-Israelism,” which distinguishes itself clearly from being “pro-Israel.” But unfortunately you can only use it as a noun & not an adjective. I guess I could try to create another new term, “pro-Israelist” but it sounds a little quirky to me.

By: augie

augie — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 21:25:37 +0000

Sometimes I use the term “hardline pro-Israel” or “pro-Israel advocates” to distinguish them fr. people like myself

The point I was making is that they aren’t pro-Israel, so that term shouldn’t even be used. I call them Zionist hardliners or anti-Israel activists (that one really pisses them off).

By: Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 20:47:31 +0000

Augie: I take your pt. So provide me another easy way to refer to people like Peretz. The problem is I haven’t been able to figure out a better shorthand way to label their views. Sometimes I use the term “hardline pro-Israel” or “pro-Israel advocates” to distinguish them fr. people like myself who, as you say, consider themselves “pro-Israel” while being willing to criticize Israeli policies which are bad for Israel.

Thanks for the Juan Cole link. I’ll check that out.

By: augie

augie — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 19:33:01 +0000

You make a major concession to the propaganda of hard-line Zionists when you refer to them as “pro-Israel.” Joe McCarthy called himself a great patriot, waved the American flag incessantly, and denounced his opponents as anti-American, but history has shown that McCarthy was the one who undermined America and her values. The Zionist fanatics are pro-Israel the same way Joe McCarthy was pro-America. So please stop calling these chauvinist phonys pro-Israel.

As for Can-West, Juan Cole had a post about the pernicious effects of the Asper family’s growing acquisition of Canadian media (so far they own 128 local papers and 14 big market papers, roughly 60% of Canada’s newspapers). Quote from the editor of the Montreal Gazette:
“We do not run in our newspaper Op Ed pieces that express criticism of Israel.”