Adam LeBor relates more strange goings-on at the London Review of Books, the publication which ran John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt’s original essay on “The Israel Lobby”.

According to Adam, the LRB was about to run a review of historian Avi Shlaim’s new biography of the late King Hussein of Jordan by Bernard Avishai. At the last moment, apparently, the LRB’s editors took exception at Avishai’s praising of the King for encouraging the growth of a Palestinian middle class which could play a pivotal role in an independent Palestinian state - not radical enough, you understand. And so the review was pulled and ran in The Nation instead.

Concludes Adam: “The Nation is no great friend of Israel, but at least it has room for dissenting voices.” Perhaps, but that, in turn, reminded me of a recent post by Petra Marquardt Bigman about a recent article which revisits a time when The Nation was a great friend of Israel. Says Petra:

“The authors of the piece, Ronald and Allis Radosh, focus on the flagship publication of the American left, The Nation, and highlight how much the magazine’s stance towards Israel has changed: nowadays, its editorial board includes people like Richard Falk, who thinks comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany are entirely justified; but at the time when the Nazis were in power, The Nation was led by the remarkable Freda Kirchwey who made sure that ‘no journal of opinion or media outlet campaigned more vigorously and vocally for Israel’s creation.’”