The anti-semitism smear against CAP (Glenn Greenwald)

[shaayecanaan]

Last month, my Salon colleague Justin Elliott revealed that AIPAC’s former spokesman, Josh Block, had been encouraging neoconservative journalists and pundits on a private email list to attack as “anti-Semites” various Middle East commentators employed by two of the most influential Democratic-Party-aligned organizations: the Center for American Progress (CAP) and Media Matters (MM). Block distributed a dossier containing posts by these CAP and MM writers about Israel and Iran that he claimed evince anti-Semitism, and then issued these marching orders (emphasis in original): “YOU SHOULD AMPLIFY this. And use the below [research] to attack the bad guys.”

Excellent bit by Glenn Greenwald:-

http://www.salon.com/2012/01/19/the_smear_campaign_against_cap_and_media_matters_rolls_on/singleton

[Jefferson23]

1. From the OP:

What’s really going on here is as obvious as it is odious. The primary factor in AIPAC’s astonishing success has been ensuring that its mandated policies are fully bipartisan, that there are zero differences on Israel between the two parties, so that election outcomes change nothing. They are most petrified that some actual dissent may seep into the mainstream of the two parties; that’s why Bill Kristol has demanded that Ron Paul be expelled from the GOP, and it’s why these CAP and MM writers are being attacked so savagely. Especially with a possible war with Iran on the horizon, the last thing they want — especially in the mainstream of either party — is a permissive environment where one can freely debate the accuracy of their fear-mongering premises about Iran and challenge the wisdom of that aggression.

I think this part most especially encapsulates the approach.....perfectly. Thanks for posting.

[azurnoir]

2. It is the absolutist either your us or against us meme

you must edit your words to fit a certain criteria you must denounce this or that publication, author, government, group, and if you don't then your an antisemite, Israel hater, you obviously support rightest principles, on and on and on this is an attempt to control both the vocabulary and dialogue when it comes to Israel. We see it here in this group on a daily basis

[bemildred]

3. Yep, crying wolf a bit too much.

Failing to make necessary and appropriate distinctions, debasing the terms of the debate, insulting people you would hope and need to win over, arguing from fear and doubt, ...

If nobody has yet insinuated I'm an antisemite, I feel I haven't done my job for the day yet here.

How could this not come out well?

[shaayecanaan]

5. There's one part that I do agree with...

Block’s once-secret email campaign followed a Politico article by Ben Smith which accused (or, rather, credited) these CAP and MM writers with deviations from “the bipartisan consensus on Israel” and voicing “a heretical and often critical stance on Israel heretofore confined to the political margins”

I agree with Ben Smith on that one point, criticism of Israel is indeed heretical in the US mainstream political environment.

[shira]

4. Glenn Greenwald on Anti-Semitism

Glenn Greenwald has a very Glenn Greenwaldesque post on the controversy over alleged use of anti-Semitic language by bloggers at the Center for American Progress, which I discussed last week.

One would never know from reading Greenwald’s piece that the controversy primarily revolved around the use of the term “Israel-firster” to describe supporters of Israel, much less that one can say two things about that term without much fear of contradiction: (1) it originated on the neo-Nazi fringe, and has only been adopted by left-wingers in the last few years; (2) it’s a term that not only substitutes insults for argument, but it implies loyalty to a foreign power, a longstanding theme in anti-Semitic literature.

As I said before, that doesn’t make the phrase somehow “objectively” anti-Semitic if used by individuals who had no anti-Jewish intent. However, as I also noted, most people of good will try to avoid using phrases related to Jews once they recognize that they have the odor of neo-Naziism about them (and indeed the CAP bloggers deleted the posts in question after the controversy broke). Others, however, like Greenwald, continue to think the phrase perfectly appropriate.

Moreover, left-wing writers tend to be especially sensitive about using language that has potentially racist implications, and also tend to be quick to accuse others of using “dog whistle” phrases–phrases that sound neutral, but are meant to stir racial animosity or invoke racial stereotypes.

more...
http://volokh.com/2012/01/20/glenn-greenwald-on-anti-semitism/#comments