Roger Cohen's "The Tony Awards": What Cohen Doesn't Tell Us

Op-eds are of course opinion pieces, but when published by a leading national newspaper, you would expect some small attempt at balance and adherence to the facts. Such was not the case in Roger Cohen's most recent New York Times column, "The Tony Awards" (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/opinion/13iht-edcohen13.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss), in which he expresses his annoyance with the cancellation, subsequently reversed, of a City University of New York honorary degree to be awarded to Tony Kushner.

Cohen writes:

"A two-state solution is the only strategic and moral answer to the wars since 1948 that have left countless Palestinians bereft of home and dignity".

What Cohen doesn't tell us:

Some 900,000 Jews living in the Muslim Middle East were also forced to abandon their homes and property since 1948. In addition, Jews were expelled from their homes in the Old City of Jerusalem and Hebron in what was once the British Mandate for Palestine.

Cohen writes:

"Its spark [the spark of Judt's binational idea] was that the current impasse is untenable: Israel cannot be at once Jewish and democratic if it permanently disenfranchises millions of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank."

What Cohen doesn't tell us:

A presidential election was held by Palestinians in 2005 and parliamentary elections were held by Palestinians in 2006, but it was Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank that, owing to their violent feuding, refused to hold subsequent elections. Abbas unilaterally extended his term as president of the Palestinian National Authority in 2009.

Cohen writes:

"Kushner told me . . . Americans are realizing there is 'a terrible need for a dose of debate' on Israel and that 'silent acquiescence' to those 'whose politics are based substantially on fantasy and theological wishes' is dangerous."

What Cohen doesn't tell us:

During a single weekend in April 2011, some 120 mortar rounds, rockets and missiles were fired from Gaza at civilian targets in southern Israel. Also last month, an anti-tank missile was fired from Gaza at a yellow Israeli school bus. There was no element of fantasy or anything theological about these attacks, which substantially shape Israeli politics.

Cohen writes:

"Criticism of Israel is not betrayal of Israel."

What Cohen doesn't tell us:

Criticism of Israel is indeed not betrayal of Israel. Kushner, however, is not "criticizing" Israel, but rather calling into question its right to exist. Kushner was quoted by The New York Sun as saying in 2002, "I've never been a Zionist. I have a problem with the idea of a Jewish state. It would have been better if it never happened."

Cohen writes:

"The Kushner affair, like the Judt affair before it, is important in that Israel’s political compass is guided to some degree by its sense of the American mood. That mood, beginning in the White House, is of growing impatience."

What Cohen doesn't tell us:

According to a February 2011 Gallup Poll (http://www.gallup.com/poll/146408/americans-maintain-broad-support-israel.aspx), "Americans' views toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict held fairly steady over the past year, with a near record-high 63% continuing to say their sympathies lie more with the Israelis. Seventeen percent sympathize more with the Palestinians."

Kushner and his honorary degree? I couldn't care less. More important is how Cohen plays fast and loose with the facts when he writes about Israel.