“Walt is a throwback to the 1930s,” says Goldberg. “In the ’30s the isolationists rode the Jews as a hobby horse. They tried very hard to marginalize American citizens of the Jewish faith by questioning their loyalty. These guys don’t even understand what ancient terror they’re tapping into. What’s original, what makes this period alarming, is that The Washington Post Company would give a Jew-baiter a platform.”
From a must-read piece by Lee Smith on Tablet.
(H/T: Michael G.)
I wonder what the interpersonal interaction between Goldberg and Sullivan is like. According to both of them, they are on very much friendly terms personally even if they clash intellectually. But this stuff can get very personal very quickly so one wonders…
Lee, whose work I generally like, is taking a lot of heat for basing his argument almost exclusively on comments left by visitors’ to these folks’ respective websites rather than citing actual examples of anti-Semitism peddled by the authors themselves. A pity because there are plenty such examples in the case of each one.
Lee Smith is quickly becoming a must-read essayist … this one is another in a long line of good essays.
ganselmi, these people are careful to code their antisemitism. That they attract a coterie of antisemites and thereby enable antisemitism is a big part of the problem.