![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.charlierose.com\/images_toplevel\/content\/0\/30\/segment_302_460x345.jpg?resize=460%2C345\" "\\"Leon")
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[digg-reddit-me]Leon Wieseltier launched a graceless and rather paranoid\u00a0ad hominem<\/em> attack on Andrew Sullivan<\/a> in the latest issue of\u00a0The New Republic <\/em>– accusing him of being an anti-Semite. The New Republic <\/em> is my favorite magazine – but since reading this piece, I’m considering unsubscribing. It would bother me that any magazine would give itself as a platform for such an article, and is even worse that it is one I feel ownership over (as I have been a regular reader for some 12 years and a subscriber for 5, from the moment I graduated college.) Wieseltier further attacks my religion (Catholicism) as “a regress to polytheistic crudity” and seemingly marks the magazine as meant for Jews rather than Christians – saying that “readers of The New Republic<\/em>” would clearly see what was wrong with Sullivan’s writings – just as they saw what was wrong with the concept of the Trinity. (Perhaps this was meant lightly. It’s a bit hard to tell as he levels such ridiculous charges.) I don’t consider myself the type of person who would cancel a subscription over offensive content – but it angers that the magazine would run a piece with so few redeeming features and such serious unsubstantiated charges.<\/p>\n Sullivan’s main and heartfelt response to the piece is here<\/a>. He also points out the context to one of his quotes, including email correspondence with the current editor of <\/a>The New Republic<\/a><\/em>, Franklin Foer<\/a>. Other comments and a roundup of outside opinion from Sullivan\u00a0here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>. The Atlantic Wire has a more complete roundup<\/a>.<\/p>\n Let me – as briefly as I can – make one point that I haven’t seen made. Most of Wieseltier’s piece concerns all sorts of damning positions Sullivan has taken: being moved by the Palestinian suffering in the Gaza attack, Sullivan’s anger at the Netanyahu government for refusing any substantial concessions to his government’s main patron, and the fact that Sullivan cites the respected Middle East scholar Stephen Walt “frequently and deferentially” when Walt was one of the authors of The Israel Lobby<\/em> for which Wieseltier believes he should be shunned.\u00a0About the only item cited by Wieseltier that could be construed as stereotyping of Jews is a Sullivan response to an article in the very self-consciously Jewish and right-wing Commentary<\/em> on why Jews don’t like Palin\u00a0because they’re educated, elitist, socially liberal, etc., but should support Palin because she has what Rubin considers the most important thing right: she opposes “the administration\u2019s effort to put ‘daylight’ between the U.S. and Israel.” Sullivan begins his most anti-Semitic piece by quoting Jonathan Chait (of The New Republic<\/em>) who puts Rubin’s piece in context<\/a> elsewhere in his post:<\/p>\n The complaint of the Jewish Republican is a small but hardy feature of our political discourse. The complaint runs as follows: Jews are foolishly ignoring their self-interest by voting for Democrats on the basis of sentimental concerns (secularism, concern for the poor) rather than pursuing their true self interest (maximal hawkishness on the Middle East, low tax rates on the rich) as represented by the GOP.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Sullivan replies to Chait<\/a>:<\/p>\n I worry about elements of proto-fascism becoming mainstream in the GOP.<\/p>\n But there is something particularly disturbing about the way in which neoconservatives, in their alliance with the Christianist heartland, increasingly argue for a strong and unchecked charismatic leader in the Palin\/Bush mold, a disdain for reason in political life and a yearning for what Rubin calls an “instinctual skill set” in a leader…<\/p>\n Most American Jews, of course, retain a respect for learning, compassion for the other, and support for minorities (Jews, for example, are the ethnic group most sympathetic to gay rights.) But the Goldfarb-Krauthammer wing – that celebrates and believes in government torture, endorses the pulverization of Gazans with glee, and wants to attack Iran – is something else.<\/p>\n Something much darker.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Wieseltier’s response entirely ignores the blatant stereotyping that Jennifer Rubin uses as the basis for her article as well as Chait’s easy categorization of “Jewish Republicans” who identify their “true self interest” as “maximal hawkishness on the Middle East.” Wieseltier instead goes after Sullivan:<\/p>\n I was not aware that [Goldfarb and Krauthammer] comprise a \u201cwing\u201d of American Jewry, or that American Jewry has \u201cwings.\u201d What sets them apart from their more enlightened brethren is the unacceptability of their politics to Sullivan. That is his criterion for dividing the American Jewish community into good Jews and bad Jews\u2013a practice with a sordid history.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It is really quite something that the above cite is the closest Wieseltier gets to Sullivan “hating on” Jews. No fair-minded observer could believe that is what is going on.\u00a0Sullivan posts a quote from DiA today that seems to offer a more reasonable explanation: that Sullivan is\u00a0“pigeonholing” political actors which DiA acknowledges that “we all do this to some extent,”<\/a> including Wieseltier himself.<\/p>\n However, I want to take a minute to defend discussing the religion’s effect on politics in exactly the way Wieseltier is accusing Sullivan of, as today, most people’s religious and political identities have become fused. One’s religion – whether it be evangelical Christianity, Judaism, Catholicism, Methodist, Islam, Buddhism, or whatever else – is a profound influence on one’s outlook on the world and as such must be a matter for public debate and discussion. Andrew Greeley for example\u00a0makes this case with reference to Catholicism<\/a> in The Catholic Myth. <\/em>He describes the profound effect growing up steeped in any mythology has on how any one sees the world, how it shapes our imagination and how we see how the world works.<\/p>\n Yet\u00a0Leon Wieseltier<\/a> either maintains that this type of thinking is out of bounds or that Charles Krauthammer’s specifically aren’t based on his Jewishness:<\/p>\n Moreover, Krauthammer argues for his views; the premises of his analysis are coldly clear, and may be engaged analytically, and when necessary refuted. Unlike Sullivan, he does not present feelings as ideas…<\/span>[T]he grounds of Krauthammer\u2019s opinions are no more to be found in, or reduced to, his Jewishness<\/strong> than the grounds of the contrary opinions\u2013the contentions of dovish Jews who denounce torture, and oppose Israeli abuses in the Gaza war, and insist upon a diplomatic solution to the threat of an Iranian nuclear capability\u2013are to be found in, or reduced to, their Jewishness. All these \u201cwings\u201d are fervent Jews and friends of Israel. There are many \u201cJewish\u201d answers to these questions. We all want the Torah on our side. And the truth is that the Torah has almost nothing to do with it. [my emphasis]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Parsing the bolded sentence closely, you can see how hedged it really is – how Wieseltier’s actual point seems to be that there are multiple interpretations of Judaism and none should be called Judaism definitively. Which of course Sullivan does not – which Wieseltier acknowledges. But the clear intention of this passage is to claim that Sullivan is stereotyping Jews and reducing their political opinions by connecting them to Judaism. Specifically, he is offended that Krauthammer’s opinions are associated with his “Jewishness” when they are instead based on logical premises.<\/p>\n Yet this\u00a0Jay Nordlinger profile<\/a> of Charles Krauthammer in the National Review<\/em> seems to offer Krauthammer himself refuting precisely these points. <\/em>[Full access only to subscribers. However, someone posted the whole thing at the rightwingforum<\/a>.]<\/p>\n Of Israel, Krauthammer has long been a leading student, defender, and explainer. Asked the bald question of whether Israel will survive, he says, \u201cIf it doesn\u2019t, I think it will mark the beginning of the terminal decay of Western civilization.\u201d He notes that he is not a believer. But he quotes from the Bible, where God tells Abraham \u2014 actually, Abram, at that point \u2014 \u201cI will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee.\u201d It is interesting, if only as a historical matter, that those nations that have been kind to the Jews have flourished, and those that have not, have not.<\/strong> Krauthammer points to Spain, after 1492. \u201cAnd we don\u2019t even have to look at Germany, though that\u2019s an obvious example.\u201d Krauthammer believes that Israel needs two things to survive: the will to live, and the support of the United States. He believes that Israel has demonstrated a very great will to live, especially in its defeat of the \u201csecond intifada.\u201d And he has \u201cgreat faith in the goodness of America,\u201d a goodness that will not let Israel go to the dogs. Europe could do all sorts of things to bedevil and imperil Israel: impose economic sanctions, prosecute Israeli soldiers, etc. But the key is America. And \u201cif we ever reach a point where we become indifferent to Israel, that will mark a great turn in the soul of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n Many Jews, particularly American ones, are nervous or scornful about the support that American evangelicals have shown for Israel. They say that this support is double-edged, or bad news, or embarrassing. Krauthammer will have none of it. \u201cI embrace their support unequivocally and with gratitude. And when I speak to Jewish groups, whether it\u2019s on the agenda or not, I make a point of scolding them. I say, \u2018You may not want to hear this, and you may not have me back, but I\u2019m going to tell you something: It is disgraceful, un-American, un-Jewish, ungrateful, the way you treat people who are so good to the Jewish people. We are almost alone in the world.<\/strong> And here we have 50 million Americans who willingly and enthusiastically support us. You\u2019re going to throw them away, for what? Because of your prejudice.\u2019 Oh, I give \u2019em hell.\u201d [my emhpases]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n So, let me be clear: Wieseltier claims that “the ground of Krauthammer’s opinions” shouldn’t be “found in, or reduced to, his Jewishness” because Krauthammer’s views are actually based on his cold and clear rational analysis of the world and that he doesn’t present “feelings as ideas.” To claim otherwise for Wieseltier is evidence of anti-Semitism. Yet a recent profile of Krauthammer attributes to him the rather debatable view that “as a historical matter, that those nations that have been kind to the Jews have flourished, and those that have not, have not” as Krauthammer “quotes from the Bible, where God tells Abraham \u2014 actually, Abram, at that point \u2014 ‘I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee.’ ” Krauthammer then brags that he scolds Jews who disdain people like Palin, saying: “It is disgraceful, un-American, un-Jewish, ungrateful, the way you treat people who are so good to the Jewish people. We are almost alone in the world.” In each instance, Krauthammer explicitly grounds his view of history and of foreign policy and national security in his Jewishness – and appeals to his audience to be properly “Jewish” and be grateful for the support Israel receives. Yet – Wieseltier accuses Sullivan of “demand[ing] Jews behave apologetically in America” and “defends” Krauthammer’s ideas as not being related to his “Jewishness.” Absolutely ridiculous.<\/p>\n Wieseltier owes Andrew Sullivan an apology. And The New Republic<\/em> owes its readers a retraction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [digg-reddit-me]Leon Wieseltier launched a graceless and rather paranoid\u00a0ad hominem attack on Andrew Sullivan in the latest issue of\u00a0The New Republic – accusing him of being an anti-Semite. The New Republic is my favorite magazine – but since reading this piece, I’m considering unsubscribing. 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