Criticism of Israel when detached from either context or criticism of others is the third category. Anyone who makes a habit of constantly criticizing Israel (even where deserved) alone is an anti-semite. A good example is the obsession over a small number of settlers that commit violence Judea and Samaria. Of course they are wrong and deserve criticism. And plenty in Israel criticize them and the government for not stopping them. But when people in the West blow up every incident into a major thing and conspicuously avoid criticizing the endless atrocities committed around the world or use an act of wrongsoing to condemn Israel as a whole, they are engaging in anti-semitism.
Another great summary, Peter. Hate is a strong and addictive drug. Selecting someone to blame and hating them is an intoxicating part of the afflictive human condition. An easy high. The N.Y. Times has become an agenda-driven enterprise. Sadly, not the first time. Regarding anything to do with Israel, any notion of a standard of fact-checking and verification-based journalism expertise is in service of a dark and toxic agenda. "Follow the money".
There’s a lot of cognitive distortion and lack of critical thinking afoot and it’s being weaponized. This happened on a call with a friend where she kept acting like 2+2=mallard duck and when I asked about the math I got yelled at. It’s scary out there. I wrote about it in my new post yesterday, “The Gaza Context War” https://galan.substack.com/p/the-gaza-context-war?r=1xoiww&utm_medium=ios
(Specifically it was civilians died = Israel evil. There was no context. It was submitted as an a priori truth and questioning it was looked at suspiciously as if I’ve lost my mind or was being facetious.)
Criticism of Israel when detached from either context or criticism of others is the third category. Anyone who makes a habit of constantly criticizing Israel (even where deserved) alone is an anti-semite. A good example is the obsession over a small number of settlers that commit violence Judea and Samaria. Of course they are wrong and deserve criticism. And plenty in Israel criticize them and the government for not stopping them. But when people in the West blow up every incident into a major thing and conspicuously avoid criticizing the endless atrocities committed around the world or use an act of wrongsoing to condemn Israel as a whole, they are engaging in anti-semitism.
Another great summary, Peter. Hate is a strong and addictive drug. Selecting someone to blame and hating them is an intoxicating part of the afflictive human condition. An easy high. The N.Y. Times has become an agenda-driven enterprise. Sadly, not the first time. Regarding anything to do with Israel, any notion of a standard of fact-checking and verification-based journalism expertise is in service of a dark and toxic agenda. "Follow the money".
You need to read this: https://critiqueanddigest.substack.com/p/a-metacritique-of-palestine?r=5ih9yx&utm_medium=ios
Once again, you nailed it. But their lopsided math has always done a number on us.
Times change. But the Times doesn’t change. Truth has never been a value at The New York Times. https://web.archive.org/web/20140904092352/http://hamodia.com/2014/07/08/reading-lies/
Didn't Orwell have something like duckspeak or quackspeak. to quack like a duck, and it could be both good and bad provided who said it. Great column.
Excellent essay, Peter! You can also include the recently introduced absurd Nakba resolution by Tlaib and associates in the House! Quack quack quack 😊
There’s a lot of cognitive distortion and lack of critical thinking afoot and it’s being weaponized. This happened on a call with a friend where she kept acting like 2+2=mallard duck and when I asked about the math I got yelled at. It’s scary out there. I wrote about it in my new post yesterday, “The Gaza Context War” https://galan.substack.com/p/the-gaza-context-war?r=1xoiww&utm_medium=ios
(Specifically it was civilians died = Israel evil. There was no context. It was submitted as an a priori truth and questioning it was looked at suspiciously as if I’ve lost my mind or was being facetious.)
A well stated piece.