Unplugged Mike

Debate in Britain

From the people who brought you such debating topics as, "Breathing Not Needed to Live" and "Killing Yourself Slowly Is a Great Virtue" comes a debate with a resolved entitled, "Zionism Today Is The Real Enemy of The Jews". The debate was sold out. I hope they have a transcript; it should make for some amusing (or amusing if it wasn't so scary) reading.

The motion carried by a small margin. ALERT: Anti-Zionists of the British sort will pounce on this in a sorry effort to prove that the anti-Zionists in the debate won. In reality, it means little except that there were more anti-Zionists in the audience than Zionists. As the website will show, one recent audience voted for the statement, "The British Empire was a Force for Good". So either it's all about the audience in attendence, or the anti-Zionist movement is full of people who endorse British colonialism. Not that I would put it past them, since some left-wing newspapers like the Guardian still see no hypocrisy (let alone antisemitism) in refusing to use the word "terrorism" to describe what Palestinian suicide bombers do, but describing as terrorism Jewish actions against British targets in the pre-state era, but I think the former explanation is the right one. (Another past audience voted for the statement, "The Sharon Plan is Currently the Best Hope for Progress in the Middle East").

That Amira Haas appears on this panel as a working journalist is quite strange to say the least. Gideon Levy, at least, makes no secret of his pro-Palestinian politics. I would think that this confirms her bias and it would only be common sense to read her dispatches, which I often do, with a finer tooth comb now. Perhaps she drank too much of the sea in Gaza.

posted by Michael Brenner @ 3:00 PM