An Israeli Pundit Scorecard

An Israeli Pundit Scorecard

Memo To: Washington Press Secretaries
From: Jude Wanniski
Re: Eric Alterman subdivides

Eric Alterman, a pundit for the Nation, has as many friends in the
national press corps as I do (very few). I suppose this is why he had
little to lose in drawing up a scorecard of the Washington pundit
class on how they divide on matters relating to Israel. There is a
long list of knee-jerk supporters, who would not blanch if Ariel
Sharon used daisy cutters on Yasir Arafat`s compound in Ramallah, and
other lists of various biases. Alterman counts himself among the few
"critical" supporters of Israel and lists only five gentlemen of the
press who are "reflexively" anti-Israel. His stated reason for writing
the list for MSNBC.com is to ask for help among his fellow pundits in
asking Israel to STOP its escalation -- which was more or less my
advice to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday. There are a few names
on the list where I disagree with Eric, but I do agree with him that
it is time for his best friends in the American press corps to tell
Sharon that he has bad breath.

* * * * *

STEPPING BACK FROM the horrific headlines of the day, it is clear that
the conflict over Israel/Palestine is all about competing
narratives. Both sides inflict inhuman cruelties on one another. Both
sides blame the other for forcing them to do so. The Israelis kill far
more Palestinians than vice-versa, with far more deadly and effective
weapons; but the Palestinians, unlike the Israelis, deliberately
target innocents for murder. The Israelis say the conflict will end
when the Palestinians renounce their commitment to terrorism and
accept Israelís ìright to existence.î The Palestinians claim it will
end when Israel ends its illegal occupation of Palestinian lands and
compensates the millions of refugees it created, either by returning
them to their homes or giving them the funds necessary to build new
ones.

TALE OF TWO STORIES
In most of the world, it is the Palestinian narrative of a
dispossessed people that dominates. In the United States, however, the
narrative that dominates is Israelís: a democracy under constant
siege. Europeans and other Palestinian partisans point to the fact
that the Israel lobby in America is one of the strongest anywhere, and
Jewish individuals and organizations give millions of dollars to
political candidates in order to reward pro-Israel policies and punish
those who support the Palestinians. Another reason, however, is the
near-complete domination by pro-Israel partisans of the punditocracy
discourse.

Some Jewish groups in America like to harass news organizations like
The Washington Post or National Public Radio for what they believe to
be coverage insufficiently sympathetic to Israelís plight. But even
Ariel Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu would not be able to complain
about the level of support their actions typically receive from the
members of the punditocracy.

For reasons of religion, politics, history and genuine conviction, the
punditocracy debate of the Middle East in America is dominated by
people who cannot imagine criticizing Israel. The value of this legion
to the Jewish state is, for better or worse, literally incalculable,
particularly when push -- as it inevitably does in the Middle East --
comes to shove. Hereís a list I made in trying to measure the
immeasurable.

COLUMNISTS AND COMMENTATORS WHO CAN BE COUNTED UPON TO SUPPORT ISRAEL 
REFLEXIVELY AND WITHOUT QUALIFICATION:

George Will, The Washington Post, Newsweek and ABC News
William Safire, The New York Times
A.M. Rosenthal, The New York Daily News, formerly Executive Editor of 
and later columnist for, The New York Times.
Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post, PBS, Time, and The Weekly 
Standard, formerly of the New Republic.
Michael Kelly, The Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, National 
Journal, and MSNBC.com, formerly of The New Republic and The New 
Yorker.
Lally Weymouth, The Washington Post and Newsweek
Martin Peretz, The New Republic
Daniel Pipes, The New York Post
Andrea Peyser, The New York Post
Dick Morris, The New York Post
Lawrence Kaplan, The New Republic
William Bennett, CNN
William Kristol, The Washington Post, the Weekly Standard, Fox News, 
formerly of ABC News
Robert Kagan, The Washington Post and The Weekly Standard
Mortimer Zuckerman, US News and World Report (Zuckerman is also 
Chairman of Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish 
Organizations ).
David Gelertner, The Weekly Standard
John Podhoretz, The New York Post and The Weekly Standard
Mona Charen, The Washington Times
Morton Kondracke, Roll Call, Fox News, formerly of The McLaughlin 
Group, The New Republic and PBS
Fred Barnes, The Weekly Standard, Fox News, formerly of The New 
Republic, The McLaughlin Group, and The Baltimore Sun
Sid Zion, The New York Post, formerly of The New York Daily News
Yossi Klein Halevi The New Republic
Norman Podhoretz, Commentary,
Jonah Goldberg, National Review and CNN
Laura Ingraham, CNN, formerly of MSNBC and CBS News
Jeff Jacoby, The Boston Globe
Rich Lowry, National Review
Andrew Sullivan, The New Republic
Seth Lipsky, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Sun, formerly 
of the Jewish Forward
Irving Kristol, The Public Interest and The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page
Chris Matthews, MSNBC
Allan Keyes, MSNBC, WorldNetDaily.com
Brit Hume, Fox News
John Leo, US News and World Report
Robert Bartley, The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page
John Fund, The Wall Street Journal OpinionJournal, formerly of The 
WSJournal Editorial Page
Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page
Ben Wattenberg, The Washington Times, PBS
Tony Snow, Washington Times and Fox News
Lawrence Kudlow, National Review and CNBC
Alan Dershowitz, Boston Herald, Washington Times
David Horowitz, Frontpage.com
Jacob Heilbrun, The Los Angeles Times
Thomas Sowell, Washington Times
Frank Gaffney Jr, Washington Times
Emmett Tyrell, American Spectator and New York Sun
Cal Thomas, Washington Times
Oliver North, Washington Times and Fox News, formerly of MSNBC
Michael Ledeen, Jewish World Review
William F. Buckley, National Review
Bill OíReilly, Fox News
Paul Greenberg, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette,
L. Brent Bozell, Washington Times
Todd Lindberg, Washington Times
Michael Barone, US News and World Report and The McLaughlin Group
Ann Coulter, Human Events,
Linda Chavez, Creators Syndicate
Cathy Young, Reason Magazine
Uri Dan, New York Post
Dr. Laura Schlessinger, morality maven
Rush Limbaugh, radio host


PUBLICATIONS THAT, FOR REASONS OF OWNER OR EDITORSHIP CAN BE COUNTED 
UPON TO SUPPORT ISRAEL REFLEXIVELY AND WITHOUT QUALIFICATION:

The New Republic (Martin Peretz, Michael Steinhardt, Roger Hertog, Owners)
Commentary (American Jewish Committee, Owner)
US News and World Report (Mortimer Zuckerman, Owner)
The New York Daily News (Mortimer Zuckerman, Owner)
The New York Post (Rupert Murdoch, Owner)
The Weekly Standard (Rupert Murdoch, Owner)
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page (Peter Kann, Editor)
The Atlantic Monthly (Michael Kelly, Editor)

COLUMNISTS LIKELY TO CRITICIZE BOTH ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS, BUT 
VIEW THEMSELVES TO BE CRITICALLY SUPPORTERS OF ISRAEL, AND 
ULTIMATELY, WOULD SUPPORT ISRAELI SECURITY OVER  PALESTINIAN RIGHTS:

Thomas Friedman, The New York Times,
Richard Cohen, The Washington Post and New York Daily News
Avishai Margolit, The New York Review of Books
David Remnick, The New Yorker
Eric Alterman, The Nation and MSNBC.com
The New York Times Editorial Board
The Washington Post Editorial Board

COLUMNISTS LIKELY TO BE REFLEXIVELY ANTI-ISRAEL AND/OR 
PRO-PALESTINIAN REGARDLESS OF CIRCUMSTANCE:
Robert Novak, The Washington Post
Pat Buchanan, WorldNetDaily.com, formerly of The Washington Times and CNN.
Alexander Cockburn, The Nation and New York Press
Christopher Hitchens, The Nation and Vanity Fair
Edward Said, The Nation

HOW FRIENDS CAN BEST HELP
As can be seen from this list of lists, the entire anti-Israel
contingent of the punditocracy does not add up to a single George Will
or William Safire, much less a Wall Street Journal or US News.  It
remains to be seen whether unqualified support for all of Israelís
actions is really in that tortured nationís best interest in the long
run. Sometimes the bravest and most valuable advice a trusted friend
can give is: ìSTOP.î Someone is going to have to stop first if this
unending catastrophe is ever to end.

Eric Alterman is a columnist for The Nation and a regular contributor 
to MSNBC.com.

* * * * *