Newsweek Op-Ed: Claiming the Middle Ground Even Though You Lost the Vote
In an op-ed titled, “With Friends Like These…” appearing in Newsweek (Sept. 26, 2011), Israeli professor Fania Oz-Salzberger employs an old trick of claiming the middle ground in order to marginalize politicians she disagrees with. She writes,
This insularity comes awith a strange self-assurance that many right-wing Israelis flaunt and many center-to-left israelis loathe. … A sense of entitlement surrounds Likud and right-of-Likud politicians as they hammer on with their settlement-expansion and “no partner” mantra, in the face of Arabs, the peace-brokering international Quartet, and the global community.
Oz-Salzberger rails against Israel’s “right-wing” government and its close friendship with American evangelical Christians. She deprecates Republican Presidential candidates, who in her view spout “Bible-fed political jargon.” She disdains Texas governor Rick Perry “who doesn’t seem able to tell his Gideon from his Armageddon.”
For Ms. Oz-Sulzberger, Israel’s “way of being a light unto the nations is through high-tech innovation and this summer’s peaceful, sophisticated social reform movement.”
Unfortunately, Ms. Oz-Salzberger is trapped in a fallacy. She claims to speak for “at least half the Israelis”… the “mainstream Israel, high-tech Israel, socially aware Israel, humanist-Zionist Israel.” But the majority of Israelis voted for “Likud and right-of-Likud” politicians who to her dismay “cling to the rock offered by their evangelical-Christian friends” she so scorns.
More from SNAPSHOTS
Swarthmore Students Are Learning: It Was Never About Palestinian Rights
May 14, 2025
Students at Swarthmore College are so close to understanding the conflict. An article in the Swarthmore Phoenix details the frustrations of student activists with the college’s Students for Justice in Palestine. The gist of their criticism is [...]
AFP Arabic Stops Mislabeling Northern Israeli Communities ‘Settlements”
August 10, 2021
A view of Metulla, northern Israel (Photo by Hadar Sela)After failing to set the record straight last May when Agence France Presse's Arabic service repeatedly referred to Jewish communities in northern Israel as "settlements," the [...]
NY Times Praises Ilhan Omar’s Book While Glossing Over Her Antisemitism
August 19, 2020
A recent New York Times book review boosts Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) autobiography while glossing over her antisemitism. In the paper’s Aug. 16, 2020 edition, NYT reporter Christina Cauterucci writes: The memoir offers breathing room [...]
When TV Interviews of Ilhan Omar Constitute Journalistic Malpractice
August 11, 2020
Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN) documented animosity toward Jews and Israel was ignored in recent interviews by MSNBC and C-SPAN. MSNBC’s The Beat for July 23, 2020 included host Ari Melber’s 10-minute conversation at 6:16 [...]
Boston TV Station WCVB Teamed Up With Terrorist Supporter CAIR
July 7, 2020
WCVB-TV (channel 5) (Boston’s ABC network affiliate) recently misled area viewers about a matter involving antisemitic propaganda. This occurred on its local Sunday show Cityline hosted by Karen Holmes Ward who is described by the [...]
Harper’s Magazine Echoed Palestinian Propaganda Condemning Israel And America
June 2, 2020
Writing in Harper's, Kevin Baker condemns the U.S. Middle East peace plan [“The Striking Gesture,” Easy Chair, May 2020], mischaracterizing it as, “Give up all your [Palestinian] hopes and your holiest places, embark on a [...]