Again, such language is inflammatory and certainly proves Smith’s point.

And if the reader’s of the Tablet prefer to stick their heads in the sand and pretend the tide of anti semitism isn’t being pushed along by such writers as Walt then nothing we can say here will change their minds.

Weiss regularly demonizes Israel, uses double standards to judge Israeli policies and supports those who deny the legitimacy of the Israeli state. These are the hallmarks of those on the left who disguise their anti-Semitism as anti-Israel.

By the way, thank you for proving my point.

The charge of antisemitism is a “get out of jail free Card” to cover up a racist, colonialist, imperialist, illegal, rogue, terrorist state run by corrupt politicians for their own benefit, not the benefit of even their own citizens, let alone the rest of the world’s Jews.

And the degree of shameless lying and intellectual dishonesty shown by the supporters of Israel, Zionism, and the AIPAC crowd is disgusting. They deserve all the opprobrium their critics can dish out.

Is its policy simply to offer a venue for writers on Jewish themes, with no ideological parameters at all?

What is so disgusting about the dirt slung by people like Weiss (less so, Sullivan, I concede) is that it’s not even a question of Zionist or antiZionist. These writers accuse Jews of subverting American society, of hijacking the apparatus of government.

Tablet Magazine encompasses a range of opinions from ardent Zionism to anti-Zionism, but is it really acceptable to publish writers who endorse conspiracy theories about Jews? Because neoconservatives, to cite the group most often demonized–it was the peace activist Jews during Vietnam who were crucified–are out of power. They staff magazines and think tanks. They are wholly excluded from decision-making, and yet demagogues like those named in Lee Smith’s piece are still trying to make political hay by stirring up dormant antisemitism.

The pattern is the always the same. The tide of Jew hatred waxes and wanes and when it recedes, the racists who orchestrate it are eventually held accountable.

Jews suffer, but justice ultimately prevails. Sullivan, Walt, Weiss, Mearsheimer and their craven, self-abnegating toadies will be recorded in the annals of history as villains, of greater or lesser stature.

But Marc, I think you missed the greater point. This is an issue that people care passionately about. That Tablet is on its way to 300 responses should come as no surprise to Lee Smith (very sloppy article, by the way, well below your meticulous standards), and it’s not because he joined “the open sewer of hate” by blogging about it in the first place.

It is no longer possible to squelch legitimate dialogue about the Middle East. There is a sense that the mainstream media is no longer capable of being an honest reporter on the topic, and the ability of Greenwald-Weiss-Sullivan-Walt-Lobe and others to openly and critically discuss the topic is revolutionary.

Their followers are not 100% rabid anti-Semites . . . to the contrary, they are well-educated, well-informed, and concerned citizens. The intellectually lazy and accusatory tone of Lee Smith’s article deserved the widespread derision it received, just as Leon Wiesenthaler’s weirdly obsessive hit piece on Andrew Sullivan was universally scorned on the blogosphere and diminished his reputation.

As Lee Smith put it: “The genius of the web is its interconnectedness, the facility with which it is capable of making links based on other links, which allows a chain of unbroken and unsubstantiated rumor and innuendo to acquire the stature of fact.” Fortunately, his slander of “Jew-baiting” failed to acquire the stature of fact, despite his pathetic efforts.

http://themagneszionist.blogspot.com/2010/07/company-i-keep.html

I am surprised you didn’t.