Was this mere criticism of Israel's prime minister? After all, criticism of Israel can of course be legitimate, and no one is more critical of Israeli politicians than Israelis themselves.
On the other hand, how many other leaders of U.S. allies has The New York Times labeled "master manipulators" in recent memory? For that matter when was the last time The New York Times called any leader of a foreign country a "master manipulator"? I don't recall a single instance.
Moreover, whether or not you favor the policies espoused by a world leader, his or her ability to achieve goals within the international community ordinarily would define that leader as a "persuasive statesperson" or "talented negotiator". How did The New York Times happen upon the appellation "manipulator", which rings of underhandedness?
Go to any anti-Semitic website, and you will find repeated references to Jewish "manipulators" in government and industry. The connotation of this warped denunciation also brings to mind the title of a New York Times op-ed, "Obama in Netanyahu's Web", written by Roger Cohen (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/28/opinion/28iht-edcohen.html), which, whether consciously or not, echoed the anti-Semitic "tradition" of depicting Jews as voracious spiders.
The European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia's working definition of anti-Semitism includes:
"Making mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective."
http://fra.europa.eu/fraWebsite/material/pub/AS/AS-WorkingDefinition-draft.pdf
No question about it: this stereotypical dehumanizing imprecation from The New York Times editorial staff was anti-Semitic, and given that we were not provided the name of its author, it was also cowardly.
I noticed something else interesting about the article. The author blames American Jews as well as Netanyahu for the American failure to secure its national interests in the Middle East. This sounds as a blame in disloyalty, as a clear threat. You can see that most of "highlighted" comments pick up exactly this hint. It is what they want to stress there.
ReplyDeleteSo, they try to frighten me. Am I scared? Not much. They lie: it is not just American Jews, who stopped Obama. Jews do not run this country. Neither do anti-Semites.
It is kind of good that they show their frustration. So, we can be calm for awhile.
I would be proud if some ant-Semites called me "master-manipulator".
The NYT loathes Netanyahu for being a rightwing Likudnik.
ReplyDelete"Joseph Epstein, well known to Commentary readers and other literate types as one of America’s most distinguished essayists, has cancelled his subscription to the New York Times. ..."
http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/maoz/339946
also has the links to Epstein's 1994 essay for Commentary “The Degradation of the New York Times”
and his 2010 essay in The Weekly Standard "Adios, Gray Lady"
I do not know if antisemitism is mentioned as Maoz's blogpost cites all the reasons I broke my habit of start-of-the-day reading the New York Times, mostly the near absence of what constitutes objective journalism.
Based on news.google, I would say I am not alone, except when it comes to trying to follow New York politics, a topic on which the Wall Street Journal is now competitive.
K2K