Weekly Standard/Massing Assessment

In Michael Massing’s “The News About the Internet,” Michael Goldfarb is labeled as one of a “battalion of Israel defenders.” Looking at Goldfarb’s The Weekly Standard, it is a fair assessment that a lot of page time is dedicated to Israeli issues. Israel was at least partially the subject of 9 out of the 30 blog entries on the main page of the site. However, it is also a fair assessment that this subject deserves as much attention as The Weekly Standard provides.

Interestingly, one of today’s blog entries is entitled “Dropping the Pro-Israel Pretense.” It discusses how an organization called J Street, a self-described “political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement” has dropped the use of the phrase “pro-Israel” on the final day of their conference in Washington, D.C. because they did not want to run the risk of alienating students.

The blog goes on to point out that the J Street conference is presenting anti-Zionist and anti-Israeli speakers and that the Israeli ambassador to the United States refused to attend the event because of these positions that the organization has taken.

Without getting into political or religious debates, Israeli-American relations are significantly important to both nations and if it takes being labeled an “Israeli defender” to bring to light many of these problems, The Weekly Standard should accept the label with honors.

The Weekly Standard blog: http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/