[Peace-discuss] Max Blumenthal's Goliath

[David Johnson]

Nov 14, 2013

Max Blumenthal's Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel - reviews:
liberal hypocrisy on Israel 

 
<http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1OIzSJ8Ux4U/UoSaQh8OVPI/AAAAAAAAIIs/sxEqzN_RgyM/s
1600/goliath.jpg> Description: Max Blumenthal's new book


 <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Blumenthal> Max Blumenthal's  Goliath:
Life and Loathing in Greater Israel is a remarkable and courageous book that
reveals hard truths about Israel's dark side. What makes Goliath especially
impressive is the amount of time Max Blumenthal spent in Israel and the
occupied West Bank in order to gather information and get a first hand
understanding. His research shows in the wealth of detail he brings to the
book, including key historical information and interviews. 

In a review of Goliath that appeared in Electronic Intifada, Rod Such opens
with a few paragraphs that highlight key areas in Blumenthal's book:

A specter is haunting Israel; it's the specter of democracy. In Goliath:
Life and Loathing in Greater Israel, the American journalist Max Blumenthal
holds up a mirror to Israeli society and reveals the specter of a failed
democracy now hurtling toward fascism.

In 73 chapters and 410 pages, Blumenthal documents the racism that pervades
Israeli society and institutions and traces its origins to the Zionist
movement's settler-colonial project to create an ethnocratic state bent on
excluding and dispossessing the indigenous Palestinian population. Others
have done this before, but several things make Blumenthal's book unique.

Based on four years of research, much of it spent in Israel and the occupied
West Bank, Goliath may be the most comprehensive survey yet of contemporary
Israeli society and politics. At the same time its ability to link the past
to the present shows a continuum of racism and authoritarianism throughout
Israel's history.


Read the rest of the article on EI -
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/blumenthals-goliath-holds-mirror-isra
eli-society/12889> here.

Predictably Blumenthal has come under attack for exposing the ugly truth
behind the propaganda front Israel presents to the world. Some of the
attacks have been personal and outright nasty. The detractors include the
usual suspects such as Israel's uber-defender Alan Dershowitz who went so
far as to call upon the author's Jewish father
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Blumenthal> Sid Blumenthal - a one
time aide to Bill Clinton -  to disassociate himself from his son's
"bigotry." Other detractors include Eric Alterman, a liberal Zionist, who
writes for The Nation magazine.

More on the slings and arrows from Edward Teller at FDL -
<http://my.firedoglake.com/edwardteller/2013/11/10/attacks-on-max-blumenthal
s-goliath-escalate-veer-into-wingnut-land/#more-79917> here.

There are also those who appreciate the real value of Blumenthal's book.
Some of the most insightful commentary is offered by Chris Hedges in The
Imploding Myth of Israel. 

Here is an excerpt:


Israel has been poisoned by the psychosis of permanent war. It has been
morally bankrupted by the sanctification of victimhood, which it uses to
justify an occupation that rivals the brutality and racism of apartheid
South Africa. Its democracy-which was always exclusively for Jews-has been
hijacked by extremists who are pushing the country toward fascism. Many of
Israel's most enlightened and educated citizens-1 million of them-have left
the country. Its most courageous human rights campaigners, intellectuals and
journalists-Israeli and Palestinian-are subject to constant state
surveillance, arbitrary arrests and government-run smear campaigns. Its
educational system, starting in primary school, has become an indoctrination
machine for the military. And the greed and corruption of its venal
political and economic elite have created vast income disparities, a mirror
of the decay within America's democracy. 
--------
There are very few intellectuals or writers who have the tenacity and
courage to confront this reality. This is what makes
<http://maxblumenthal.com/about/> Max Blumenthal's "Goliath: Life and
Loathing in Greater Israel" one of the most fearless and honest books ever
written about Israel. Blumenthal burrows deep into the dark heart of Israel.
The American journalist binds himself to the beleaguered and shunned
activists, radical journalists and human rights campaigners who are the
conscience of the nation, as well as Palestinian families in the West Bank
struggling in vain to hold back Israel's ceaseless theft of their land.
Blumenthal, in chapter after chapter, methodically rips down the facade. And
what he exposes, in the end, is a corpse.  


More of the article on Truthdig -
<http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/imploding_the_myth_of_israel_20131103>
here.

 ------- 


The rest of this post relates to a few thoughts on the media response to
what has been transpiring in Israel since the Cast Lead invasion of Gaza.
The reception accorded to Goliath has been telling. The book has been
underplayed in the mainstream media, all but ignored in some cases.   

When it comes to denial on the subject of Israel and its many failings,
liberal apologists may not be as culpable as pro-Israel pundits on the
right, but at least the latter are being true to form. Liberals who refuse
to call out Israel are hypocrites of the first order. These are often the
same people who go to bat for minority rights in the US and Canada, who
stand for civil rights and justice on many fronts... but who become oddly
muted or understated on the topic of systemic discrimination against
Palestinians. A number have been equally understated on other Israel-related
issues such as the ethnic cleansing of the Bedouin, the
<http://www.drivebyplanet.com/2012/05/racism-in-israel-african-asylum-seeker
s.html> targeting of African asylum seekers and the disturbing
<http://www.drivebyplanet.com/2013/01/depo-provera-injections-of-ethiopian.h
tml> birth control measures used on Ethiopian Jewish immigrants in the ME's
alleged citadel of democracy. 

Take the Toronto Star, widely regarded as a liberal newspaper... I'm a
regular reader so familiar with both its website and print edition. You
could scan the pages of the Star from one month to the next and never find
anything approaching a substantive in-depth article, even an op-ed, that
rigorously takes on the more odious abuses of power that happen in Israel on
a regular basis. It's not as if Israel isn't a hot topic. Even so the
Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail for that matter, may not be the best bet
for depth coverage of what is really going down. Check out Israel's
<http://www.haaretz.com/> Haaretz or websites such as the brave Israel-based
<http://972mag.com/> 972 mag instead.

The New York Times has a little more credibility on the topic of Israel. It
has run op-eds
<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/magazine/is-this-where-the-third-intifada
-will-start.html> such as this article by Ben Ehrenreich, who also penned an
insightful article entitled Zionism is the Problem -
<http://www.drivebyplanet.com/2009/03/ben-ehrenreich-zionism-is-problem.html
> here - that you are not likely to stumble upon in the Toronto Star as it
is presently run. If you do happen to find some rare item buried in the
pages of the Star don't look for the same outrage the paper brings to a Rob
Ford drinking spree, because you won't find it. 

It's disappointing the extent to which a Canadian newspaper, once known for
its tough reporting on Israel, has gone soft on a country that is veering
ever more dangerously to the right. If Netanyahu with his inflammatory
rhetoric toward Palestinians represents the center you have to wonder what
lies to the the right of the spectrum.  

Controversial Israel stories are routinely filtered or entirely ignored in
N. American mainstream media. This goes hand-in-glove with the often hostile
coverage of protests at home that call out Israel. Around the time of
operation Cast Lead in Gaza, the T- Star assigned its uber columnist Rosie
DiManno to cover student protests against the war and Israeli apartheid. She
accused the protesters not just of being anti-Semitic but of "hyperbolic
anti-Semitism." This misrepresented the students' position in addition to
being an offensive misuse of the term. I put up
<http://www.drivebyplanet.com/2009/03/rosie-dimanno-israel-apartheid-week.ht
ml> this post at the time in response to her column. 

Criticism of Israel can be just that. Given the extensive details covered in
Goliath there is certainly a large target for activists. Labeling critics as
anti-Semitic is equivalent to a McCarthyite smear job... more often than not
<http://www.drivebyplanet.com/2007/02/does-criticizing-israel-make-person_69
17.html> an attempt to instill fear... a way to shut people up. The truth is
Judaism and Zionism are not synonymous and in the opinion of many Orthodox
Jews are in fact diametrically opposed to each other. If we're talking about
hatred of Jews we need to look elsewhere. There are plenty of websites with
comment threads that show anti-Semitism in action...  raw, hateful and
demeaning commentary aimed squarely at Jews. This is despicable stuff and it
is this and similar brands of hate that is anti-Semitic in the most visceral
sense.

Many liberals who speak out against any number of human rights violations in
Canada, the US and elsewhere in the world have erected a double standard
when it comes to Israel. It isn't because they don't know what is going on.
Some are on mute because they are beholden to interests that won't tolerate
criticism of Israel. It could affect your job, your contacts, even your
reputation. Many see an understated approach as politically expedient. 

None of this is surprising in the current climate. Under Harper, Canada's
standing has regressed. A nation that was once internationally respected has
a PM who is an Israel-backing, UN-negating pontificator with weird
anachronistic hankerings after things British. Former PM Joe Clark said
recently that Canada is the country 'that lectures and leaves.' It's time we
reclaimed our nation and its integrity.

Max Blumenthal discussing his new book Goliath 

 

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