Ron Radosh

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January 12th, 2009 3:01 pm

Naomi Klein and “The Nation” Have Gone Too Far

It has become increasingly evident that The Nation magazine , still the most influential journal of the supposedly moderate and responsible Left in America, is becoming the organ committed first and foremost to the destruction of Israel. This time, its prescription for dealing with the Hamas inflicted war on Israel comes from Naomi Klein, this generation’s Noam Chomsky in women’s designer suits. Klein, with her demonic hatred of Israel, makes your average run-of-the mill self-hating Jew sound balanced.

In an article entitled “Israel: Boycott, Divest, Sanction,” (BDS) Klein calls “for Israel to become the target of the kind of global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.” She endorses a 2005 program put forth by a “huge coalition of Palestinian groups.” Each day “Israel pounds Gaza,” she writes, “brings more converts to the BDS cause.”

Klein does not even purport to show any concern, indeed any awareness of, Hamas’ self-proclaimed goal to destroy Israel, its Islamist ideology that calls for permanent war against all Jews, or its continued and sustained rocket attacks on Israel. She does not even attempt to declare a J-Street type phony “moral equivalence” that equates Israel’s defense of its citizens with Hamas’ rockets. In her eyes, there is only one guilty party: the State of Israel.

Therefore, Klein sees only one way out of the fighting in the Middle East: taking “punitive measures” against Israel. The model is to do what the West did to South Africa in the waning years of apartheid, and adopt the same tactics that proved successful then against Israel now.

In her eyes, Israel alone has been steadily escalating its criminality through among other things “its collective punishment on Gaza.” Is she unaware of the fact that Israel did what its critics had been calling for? In 2005, it withdrew from Gaza and handed it to the Palestinians. The result was not a government that built up a Palestinian state committed to modernity and progress, but an armed camp the purpose of which was to launch a new assault against Israel.

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7 Comments

1. David Thomson:

Ron Radosh is wrong regarding the emphasis on per se anti-Semitism. Race guilt is a far more important factor. The Palestinians do not normally possess blue eyes and blond hair. They are therefore held to be inherently victims of white oppression. Israelis are perceived by the leftist community as a bunch of caucasians being mean to darker skinned individuals. On a list of one through ten, race makes the top six reasons the left is enraged at Israel . Anti-Semitism might make it to number seven. If the Israelis were Aryan looking, ethnic Norwegians—the crap would still be hitting the fan.

Jan 12, 2009 - 4:43 pm 2. Sparks:

> She stands with those who use commerce as an
> excuse to sell their souls. They, like the
> businessman she cites, may not hate Israel like
> she does. Helping destroy them is simply a
> practical business matter.

This is the same Naomi Klein who is critical of the corporatism that goes on in the US where foreign policy is driven by profit? (Aka Blackwater, oil companies, and policies of the government that funnel contracts to their friends?)

Jan 13, 2009 - 6:07 am 3. UsaBruce:

This ilk of pro terrorist, home grown America hating liberal are astounding to me in their stupidity. It would be one thing , if it weren’t so dangerous to aid and abet the jihadist/nazis intent on world domination. Israel being only one front , albeit a major one, she needs and deserves the support of all good thinking people.

Jan 13, 2009 - 8:56 am 4. Yaakov Watkins:

The people who tell the truth in 2009 are the people who lose media wars. None of the major media fact check overseas stories. They can’t. That means that the most horrifying story wins. And it doesn’t matter if it’s true.

Six months later when someone finds out that the story isn’t true, it doesn’t matter anymore. It is not relevant anymore.

The Gazans have a history of fabricating news stories and everyone in the industry knows it. In a world concerned about truth, nobody would believe anything they say. But we don’t have a media concerned about truth.

Jan 13, 2009 - 6:54 pm 5. JUST A NORMAL GUY:

YOU ARE RIGHT RON RADISH KLINE IS DEFINATELY A “DEMONIC” HATER OF ISREAL IN FACT I MUST TELL YOU THAT I HAD A NIGHTMARE IN HER WHEN SHE WAS A DEMON IT WAS REAL SCARY. BUT ANYWAYS I AM GLAD THERE ARE PEOPLE LIKE YOU CRYING OUT IN THE WILDERNESS TO SUPPORT ARE BOYS IN THE IDF KEEP EM FLYING!!!

Jan 13, 2009 - 10:03 pm 6. rickl:

This is truly vile.

And Klein seems blissfully unaware of the alternative definition of BDS.

Jan 14, 2009 - 6:17 pm 7. miriam garfinkle:

Let’s boycott Naomi Klein – her books, appearances, her business organization. what a pitiable excuse for a decent human being.

Jan 18, 2009 - 7:53 pm