[Peace-discuss] Tragedy & farce in today's media

[David Green]

Now that I've seen the Colbert segment, I'll make a comment and add something to my comment regarding Judt. Judt has established his reputation for being a genuine and courageous critic of Israel. This piece just doesn't reflect the imbalance of power and responsibility between Israel and the Palestinians, and of course leaves aside the greatest imbalance of all, between the U.S. and the Palestinians.

Re Colbert, humor doesn't exactly go with someone as despicable as Oren. I don't appreciate the familiar Jewish shtick, and of course Palestinians disappear as human while jokes are made that sentimentalize Jewish culture, on the one hand, and about snack food allowed to mal-nourished Palestinians on the other. It's just racist, really. Why should it be seen any other way? Goebbels wasn't funny either, from what I can tell.

DG




________________________________
From: C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu>
To: peace discuss <Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
Sent: Thu, June 10, 2010 11:20:54 AM
Subject: [Peace-discuss] Tragedy & farce in today's media

The historian Tony Judt is dying of Lou Gehrig's disease, a terrible fate, and that may help to explain the inadequacy of his op-ed in today's NYT "Israel Without Clichés").  It's unfortunate but unsurprising that it seems to represent the limits of liberal opinion as countenanced by the major media.

First as tragedy, then as farce: a man who pretends to be a historian, Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to the US, was featured on Stephen Colbert's show last night. Colbert employed the same knowing burlesque he's used against the White House press and the US army in Iraq - an extremely difficult procedure - and the results as usual seemed to me equivocal.

I'd like to know what people are making of both Judt and Oren.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/opinion/10judt.html?scp=1&sq=tony%20judt&st=cse

http://www.colbertnation.com/full-episodes/wed-june-9-2010-sam-nunn

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