Showing its ideological colors, here’s Tablet Magazine mainstreaming Jewish fascism in Israel for the American Jewish cultural market. The “conversation” with “firebrand” Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked is a soft one. The Minister easily bats back critical questions that are only mild. There are no followup questions from her “conversation partner,” who saw no reason to ask about the erosion of democratic norms in Israel, the isolation of Israel in this country, the prospect of a bi-national state, or the climate of hate and incitement led by Israeli rightwingers, including in particular Shaked’s own infamous “little snakes” comment about Palestinian children in Gaza during the war in the summer of 2014.
As much as the “conversation” says or does not say about Israeli politics and culture, the interview is an index to new dynamics on the American Jewish scene. Along with its online sister Mosaic Magazine, Tablet Magazine provides one more example of well-funded attempts by rightwing and neoconservative pockets to insinuate rightwing political and cultural “content” into the American Jewish liberal mainstream. They do so with a “hip” and “edgy” new media look that should fool no one. If you are a liberal Jew, there is no reason to “like” this platform. Tablet Magazine only pretends to be a non-partisan organ of Jewish ideas and culture.
(Thank you ZSB for sharing)
The new Liel Leibovitz (“Senior Writer”) interview with Ayelet Shaked is lousy. Worse than lousy. You’ve described it accurately. And Lee Smith’s columns are awful. However, they also run articles that I want to read. Which makes it worse (or harder).
From one standpoint–yours, perhaps–Israel appears to be the Other. From somebody else’s standpoint, Palestine appears to be the Other. The Middle East is a quagmire of Otherness. The unequivocal do not have their finger on the pulse of the problem, no matter which side they take. The unequivocal are the problem. The solution involves understanding the Other’s standpoint as profoundly as one’s own standpoint; and criticizing oneself as energetically as one criticizes the Other.
Chicagoteamster, I’m sure you don’t have enough time to read all the excellent articles in all the magazines, so you can afford to drop magazines which try to mainstream fascism.