Jeff Goldberg Shows Again That...

... those who would have you believe he's nothing more than an apologist for the Israeli right are totally off-base, though some will say criticism of the Hebron settler riots (Meretz USA has a good summary of events here) 'doesn't count' because these are 'too easy targets' of criticism. No criticism of Israel is ever extreme enough for some people!

I do think it's important for the non-Jewish world to exercise restraint in its response ("this is a tiny fraction of the Israeli public," that sort of thing). What these Jewish extremists want more than anything is to give fodder to Jew-haters and Israel-haters, and set in motion a clash of civilizations to which the extremists can gleefully respond "Look how much the goyim hate us! Ignore world opinion and stick to your own kind!" In this they resemble the most extreme Islamists, while in other respects they may be more benign. So the question is: how do we denounce and isolate these murderous, brainwashed, rampaging terrorists without playing into and in some sense justifying their Manichean view of the world? Of course part of the answer is that Jews, and in particular Zionists, must step up to the plate and say unequivocally (as Goldberg does) that "these people, the Hebron settlers, are a threat to Israel and to Zionism," which they are -- perhaps (and perhaps not) a far more serious threat than Hamas's rockets or even Iran.

Maybe the one good outcome of these terrible pogroms is that they have the potential of dividing the Likud and putting a checkpoint in Bibi's comeback route.