MAQzine

PART - III June 15, 2010 - by   Barry Rubin It is no accident that there are so many sayings warning against the dangers when perceived wisdom becomes nonsense. And they all agree that this mistake leads to the destruction of those who refuse to see reality accurately. Sophocles, the ancient Greek playwright, noted: “Evil sometimes seems good to a man whose mind a god leads to destruction.” The Jewish Bible warns: “For the waywardness of the thoughtless shall slay them, and the confidence of fools shall destroy them.” And what form does that madness take? The German Socialist leader, August Bebel, explained it: “Anti-Semitism is the socialism of fools.” But, claim those who purvey its most modern form, we are against anti-Semitism. Such arguments are merely propaganda for Israel . What is happening at most, however, is that all the traditional anti-Semitic themes are being introduced with merely the change of one word: “Jew” becomes “Israeli.” The implications often leak into “Je...

PART - II June 15, 2010 - by   Barry Rubin   There is, of course, one obvious point that proves the group has terrorist links: its open support for Hamas, a terrorist organization, in terms of financing, supplying, strategy (trying to break the blockade against it), and political aims. On virtually any other topic, this would have been sufficient to prove the point. While governments of Israel , like all governments, have told lies, what is amazing is how good that government’s record is — especially compared to other Western democracies. Israel and its supporters know that their every word will be scrutinized and must be backed up by facts and documentation. Yet the Times   and other mass media often treat Israel as less credible than dictatorships and terrorists whose record for veracity is minimal. Meanwhile, the   International Herald Tribune   runs an op-ed by Alistair Crooke, who has also been warmly received by the   Times   and other...

PART - I Institutions are crumbling as the lies needed to uphold the anti-Israel narrative become too   much to bear.   June 15, 2010 - by   Barry Rubin   The irrational slander and hatred of Israel is not destroying Israel . It is destroying the institutions — media and academic, especially — being driven to madness by this obsessive irrationality and decline from their own proper standards. Like an oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico, the number of lies, logical fallacies, concealments, and strategic misconceptions necessary to make Israel look bad has grown so large that it threatens the health of the media and intelligentsia. For in their assaults on Israel, these particular news media — of course, not in all they do nor in the work of all who report for them — have left behind professional ethics, rationality, and their own credibility. Political correctness has eclipsed factual correctness, and the purpose of some newspapers has been redefined from reporti...