Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

There are many stupid things said on the internet. Add to the list of top-ten contenders the claim that author Caroline Glick is not concerned with the survival of Israel.

This claim is made in a post at the Lawyers, Guns & Money blog, a left-wing group blog which for some bizarre reason named itself after Warren Zevon's song of the same name. I guess they didn't realize that Zevon's faux-macho songs were widely viewed as self-aggrandizing and self-mocking. Or maybe they did.

Anyway, some of the LGM bloggers are apologists for those who seek to undermine Israeli security by holding Israel to unreasonable and impossible standards of self-defense. Scott Lemieux, an LGM blogger, recently lashed out when Robert Bernstein, the founder of Human Rights Watch, selflessly exposed the double-standard and damaging nature of the attacks by HRW and the other international "human rights" groups on Israel.

Now Robert Farley, another LGM blogger, lashes out at Caroline Glick (and indirectly me by linking to my post about Glick) for pointing out in a recent article that Turkey has slipped into the Islamist orbit.

Glick is a strong supporter of Israel who lives in Jerusalem. But her politics make her a target for the Left. Just check out her blog and bio:

I grew up in Chicago's ultra-liberal, anti-American and anti-Israel stronghold of Hyde Park. Hyde Park's newest famous resident is Barack Obama. He fits right into a neighborhood I couldn't wait to leave.

I made aliyah to Israel in 1991, two weeks after receiving my BA in Political Science from Beir Zeit on the Hudson -- otherwise known as Columbia University. I joined the Israel Defense Forces that summer and served as an officer for five and a half years.

From 1994-1996, as an IDF captain, I served as Coordinator of Negotiations with the PLO in the office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza. In this capacity I was a core member of Israel’s negotiating team with the Palestinians...

In its Israeli Independence Day supplement in 2003, Ma’ariv named me the most prominent woman in Israel. In December 2005, I was awarded the Ben Hecht award for Middle East reporting from the Zionist Organization of America. In January 2006, I was awarded the Abramowitz Prize for Media Criticism by Israel Media Watch.

If there is anyone on this earth who is pro-Israel and interested in Israel's survival, it is Caroline Glick.

Yet for the crime of expressing a view which is not in sync with left-wing delusions about how best to promote human rights, Glick stands accused by Farley of not being interested in the survival of Israel due to her criticisms of Turkish conduct (emphasis mine):

Here's the problem: Beating the bejeezus out of Gaza, whatever merits it may have had for Israeli security, also had costs. People, even in relatively friendly states, didn't think that the operation was sensible, or that it was conducted in a civilized manner. Endless bullying on the Goldstone Report won't change that fact. Support for every aspect of Israeli policy does not constitute the central divide between Western and Islamic civilization; Operation Cast Lead was just as unpopular in Europe as it was in Turkey, and Turkey's recent exclusion of Israel from military maneuvers only highlights the fact that Turkey has maintained a closer military relationship with Israel than just about any European country. Moreover, there's a reason why the Israeli leadership is unwilling to go as far as Caroline Glick in calling Turkey out; they are, by and large, far more concerned than she with the survival of the Israeli state.

Memo to LGM, there is a difference between columnists and politicians. Caroline Glick is free to speak the truth about what is happening in Turkey. Politicians have to play politics. These are two very different roles, and the fact that Israeli diplomats must follow diplomatic protocols does not mean that everyone else has to shut up about the reality of what is happening in Turkey.

Are American journalists and columnists limited to what Hillary Clinton says on a particular foreign policy topic? Of course not. But once again, there is a different and double standard for supporters of Israel.

Read Lawyers, Guns & Money, if you want to know how the apologists for the international campaign against Israel think. Read Caroline Glick, if you want to know the truth.

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Related Posts:
Turkey is Lost to Islamists
Turkey Looking Like The Next Iran
Go To CarolineGlick.com

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