Eric Alterman is a convenient poster child for those Jews who instinctively blame other Jews for causing anti-Semitism. But this particular fetish is not confined to self-absorbed left-liberal Americans like Alterman.
A.B. Yehoshua is one of Israel's most accomplished novelists. In a lecture last June:
Yehoshua initially said that Israel was making the Palestinians crazy, and he compared their situation to Germans who were affected by a foreign body in their midst. The next morning he asserted that he meant no comparison between Israel and the Nazis. However, his explanation of what he did mean suggested that the Jews were responsible for anti-Semitism and even the Holocaust. He said that Israel should not enter into the spiritual home of the Palestinians; that Jews had been without boundaries for 2,500 years and lived amidst other people who came to hate and direct anti-Semitism against them; and that only an exit from Palestinian territory could bring an end to terror.[Synopsis by Ira Sharkansky from this news report in Hebrew]
The good news is that Thomas Friedman has learned of a Saudi peace plan that Eric Alterman and A. B. Yehoshua could wholeheartedly support!
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at November 21, 2003 11:21 AM