In the category of vile anti-Israel articles, Antony Lerman's "The End of Liberal Zionism" deserves some kind of award. He writes:
The decision of Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to launch a military campaign against Hamas in Gaza has cost the lives, to date, of 64 soldiers and three civilians on the Israeli side, and nearly 2,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom were civilians.
No. It wasn't Mr. Netanyahu's decision — which in any event was a decision not made only by Mr. Netanyahu, but by Israel's security cabinet — to launch a military campaign that cost the Israeli lives. It was Hamas's decision to attack Israel from tunnels and with rockets.
He writes:
Today, the dominant Diaspora organizations, like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League, as well as a raft of largely self-appointed community leaders, have swung to the right, making unquestioning solidarity with Israel the touchstone of Jewish identity.
Nonsense. Where's the evidence? These are organizations with tens of thousands of members. How does Mr. Lerman know that none of those members has a question, or that they don't see Jewish identity as related not only to Israel but also to the Torah and the Jewish religion and culture?
He writes:
The only Zionism of any consequence today is xenophobic and exclusionary, a Jewish ethno-nationalism inspired by religious messianism. It is carrying out an open-ended project of national self-realization to be achieved through colonization and purification of the tribe.
The Jewish state that welcomed immigrants from Ethiopia and Russia is "xenophobic and exclusionary"? "Colonization and purification of the tribe"? What does that even mean? Again, where is the evidence? As for Zionism as "a Jewish ethno-nationalism inspired by religious messianism," he writes that as if it is an insult. Are the Jews the only ones who are to be denied nationalism? Would Mr. Lerman prefer that Jews ignore our religion, or fail to be inspired by it?
Then there is this:
Both liberal Zionism and the left accept the established historical record: Jews forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes to make way for the establishment of a Jewish state.
That is not "the established historical record." It is a lie. While there may have been some cases in which some Palestinian Arabs were expelled, in many cases they left by their own choice, disregarding the pleas of Jews to stay. If you doubt this, please read Efraim Karsh's article, "Were the Palestinians Expelled?" in the July 2000 issue of Commentary. Or read the "refugees" chapter in Mitchell Bard's "Myths and Facts."