Archive for the 'Z word blog' Category

Z Word Merges With The Propagandist

I’m delighted to announce that Z Word has joined forces with the dynamic online political magazine, The Propagandist, which, in brazenly bipartisan fashion, bills itself as a venue “for political junkies, thinking conservatives and the anti-fascist left.”

From now on, you can read this blog at our new home - so please redirect your browsers accordingly.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be moving the entire Z Word blog archive to The Propagandist, as well as the seminal essays which we published during 2008 and 2009. Once that’s done, visits to this URL will be redirected to The Propagandist, but in the meantime, keep coming here for material from the Z Word archive.

As this is the final post on this site, I want to take the opportunity to extend my heartfelt thanks to the wonderful group of individuals who have supported Z Word in becoming a key voice in that fractious, polarized corner of the internet which we inhabit. They’ve done so by contributing, cross-posting, forwarding, tweeting and promoting our content in myriad ways.

First and foremost, my co-writer Eamonn McDonagh. Eamonn is someone whom I am proud to call a friend - a brilliant, combative, unshakably principled writer who has never pulled punches and never will. Eamonn will make occasional appearances at our new home. You are also encouraged to follow Eamonn’s writings at his personal blog.

Other regular contributors to whom I owe a profound debt of gratitude include Karl Pfeifer, survivor of the Shoah, hero of Israel’s independence war, a monumental figure in post-war Jewish journalism and one of the most important analysts of contemporary antisemitism today. Thanks, also, to the prolific Canadian journalist Terry Glavin; the consistently insighful columnist Petra Marquardt-Bigman; the cultural critic David Adler; the tenacious fighter against the academic boycott of Israel, David Hirsh, and all his colleagues at Engage; David T, Habibi, Gene and all the writers over at the esteemed Harry’s Place, which has served almost as a second home for our material; the academic and blogger Jay Adler; Mark Gardner and Dave Rich at the Community Security Trust in the UK,  a vital defense body and trusted partner of Z Word’s sponsor, AJC; the Iranian-American writer and activist Sohrab Ahmari, aka ganselmi; the brave and witty bloggers at South African website, It’s Almost Supernatural; Anthony Julius, who honored us by choosing Z Word to publish advance sections of his titanic study of English antisemitism; Adam Holland, who authors the most important blog covering extremism in America today; Martin Solomon of the estimable Solomonia; Jonathon Narvey, editor of The Propagandist; Norman Geras, Eve Garrard, Bob from Brockley, Dan Tarman, Paul Berman, Michelle Sieff, Charles Small, Dan Yurman, Michael Weiss, Edwin Black, Grayson Levy at Pundicity, Rob and Gazelle at The Huffington Post, Modernity Blog, Lyn at Point of No Return, Samantha Karlin, Matthew Schwartz, Jim Schoenburg, Edward Joseph, Robin Shepherd, Rafal Pankowski, Elif Kayi, Anthony David, Julia Bertelsmann, Rhoda Kadalie and many, many, many more contributors, friends and supporters who linked our work or assisted us more generally.

Thanks, too, to our regular army of commenters, especially Fabian, Noga, J. Dyer, Lynn T, Boaz Tibon and Silke.

To my friends and colleagues at AJC, as this project enters its next stage of life with a new sponsor, I thank you for launching and supporting Z Word and for entrusting me with the role of editor. I am especially grateful to AJC’s Executive Director, David Harris; to Kenneth Bandler, AJC’s Director of Communications; to Kenneth Stern, Director of AJC’s Department on Antisemitism and Extremism; and to Shula Bahat, Doug Lieb, Yael Amit, Ellisa Sagore, Sarah Kupferberg, Alex Weininger, Kiersten Zweibaum, Harvey Belkin, Edward Rettig, Eliseo Neuman, Vicki Schonfeld, John Thomason, Rick Hyne, Rebecca Neuwirth, Lena Altman and Josh Siegel. Laura Anne Shay-Hupe, AJC’s webmaster and a major influence on our design and presentation, deserves special mention, as does Michael Geller, a dear friend who, with wonderfully understated panache, coined the name “Z Word” when we were wracking our collective brains for a title.

I want to close by recalling a sage piece of advice I once received from David Harris that I’ve flagrantly ignored here: if you are not one hundred per cent sure that you’ve thanked everyone by name, don’t thank anyone by name. If I omitted to mention you, please accept my humble apologies.

Perhaps the deepest expression of gratitude goes to you, our readers. We ask you to stay with Z Word as we transition to our new location. The battles we fight are not over. Neither are we.

Yours, as ever,

Ben Cohen

Turkish Delight

Last week the Turkish production company behind the disturbing “Valley of the Wolves” movies, released the trailer for the third installment of the series.

Continue reading ‘Turkish Delight’

The Case of Andrew Whitley

Andrew Whitley is an UNRWA official who, at a conference last week, dared to suggest that the notion of Palestinians exercising the “right of return” is a “cruel illusion.” More on this in my latest article for The Huffington Post.

Norway Favors Israeli Preemptive Attack on Iran

1. If and when Iran acquires nuclear weapons the avoidance of nuclear war between it and Israel, the country it seeks to destroy,  will depend on Israel having a second strike capability.  That means that it must have the capacity to suffer a nuclear attack and still  be able to inflict a terrible retaliatory blow. If it has this capacity then it has less  motivation either to mount a conventional attack on Iran designed to  prevent or delay its acquisition of nuclear weapons or, once these weapons have been acquired, launch a preemptive  nuclear attack designed to prevent them being used and permanently  end Iran’s capacity to threaten its security.

Continue reading ‘Norway Favors Israeli Preemptive Attack on Iran’

The Invention of the Irish People

1.

People who today regard themselves as Irish are either perpetuating a fraud or victims of it. That’s because the “Irish” are not a people and the idea that they have continuously inhabited the island of Ireland over a period going back two thousand or more years is a myth invented by the revivers of the ideology known as “Irish nationalism” in the nineteenth century.

Continue reading ‘The Invention of the Irish People’

The Gurvitz-Goldman Doctrine

Arising from this post and the comments that follow it I’d like to advise readers that from now on attempts to blame antisemitic behavior on the policy or activities of the Israeli government will be referred to in this blog as examples of the  Gurvitz-Goldman doctrine. The term honors Yossi Gurvitz, whose article identifying Israel as one of the main causes of antisemitism  I critiqued in the post, and Lisa Goldman who vigorously defended it in the comments.

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Israel Tal, 1924 - 2010

No one who believes that the right of Jews to govern themselves should not depend on a favorable assessment by others of how they exercise it can remain unmoved by  the death this week of Israel Tal.

Continue reading ‘Israel Tal, 1924 - 2010′

Michael Collins, 88 Years and Burying the Past

Michael Collins isn’t a name that will mean much to many readers of this blog. For present purposes it will suffice to say that he was a key figure in the War of Independence that led to Ireland winning its freedom from Great Britain. He was shot dead in an ambush during the Irish Civil War 88 years ago today.

Continue reading ‘Michael Collins, 88 Years and Burying the Past’

What Antisemitism Is (And Isn’t)

Many of the grand myths of our own time - Israel as the ultimate rogue state, U.S. policy as a hostage of the “Israel Lobby,” the Palestinians as the iconic symbol of human suffering - draw on a much older tradition that, just twenty years ago, most people regarded as a matter for historians, not chroniclers of the present. It was these myths which effectively licensed Oliver Stone’s remarks. If there is a lesson to be drawn from L’Affaire Stone, it is that he did not - and this is why his apology is really by the by - act alone.

From my latest piece for The Huffington Post.

Andrew Sullivan Exonerates Himself of Antisemitism

Actually, he doesn’t so much exonerate himself of it as offer himself as a candidate for recognition as being righteous among the gentiles:

But my own diligence against anti-Semitism, in all its forms, in my own church in particular, is well-documented and has gone back decades.

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Two Theses On The AMIA Massacre

Though the AMIA massacre occurred on July 18th, 1994 the official commemoration of its sixteenth anniversary took place on the 16th. In these two stories covering the events that took place you’ll find Guillermo Borger, head of the AMIA community organization. the one directly affected by the attack, praising the “good performance” of the present administration with regard to the investigation into the attack and lauding Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s “bravery” in calling for the extradition of the Iranian fugitives in her speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Continue reading ‘Two Theses On The AMIA Massacre’

Libya Launders its Reputation

One might say that it’s a political form of money laundering; just as one would wash shady banknotes through an offshore bank, so can the most bloodstained of reputations be cleansed just by engaging in a publicity stunt billed as a humanitarian gift to Gaza’s Palestinians.

My latest piece over at The Huffington Post.

The Hezbo(ti)lla

My latest contribution to the Huffington Post, on Hezbollah’s foray into the rapidly-burgeoning flotilla industry, in full here.

Why Isn’t Anyone Pointing Fingers at Hamas?

Instant universal condemnation of Israel, with no criticism of Hamas, after the flotilla clash with Israel’s navy, has not helped those who truly seek peace. Rather, the world has further emboldened Hamas in its rejectionist stance. “May 31 was and will be a turning point,” Haniyeh declared. “It marks the beginning of the delegitimization of the Zionist project in our country.” The Hamas leader, for sure, was not speaking only of Gaza.

A flavor of my op-ed for Fox News, which you can read in full here.

Z Word at HuffPo

Just a short note to say that I’ve started writing over at the Huffington Post. You can read my first piece, on Iran and the UN Human Rights Council, here.