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from: Jack Shafer

Going Masada at a Threat to Mother Israel

Posted Monday, Feb. 5, 2001, at 3:51 PM ET

Goldberg,

The good news. The growth inside my cheek: not malignant. However, the rest of my body is shot through with cancer. Oh, I forgot that cancer jokes upset you. And we wouldn't want to bump that sensitive on/off switch that activates your archeocortex.

The real scoop: The maxillofacial surgeon gave my cheek two minutes of attention that will unpack, I'm sure, into a billable hour, and then told me to come back later for a procedure that lasts only a few nanoseconds. Is this medicine, or is my doctor incredibly lonely? At least they didn't make me wait several hours to tell me that I'm OK.

Are you leveling with me about not being a "pro-war Israeli rightist"? Didn't you serve in the Israel Defense Force? What did you do during your hitch, flip potato latkes? Even peace-loving, liberal, guilt-ridden, triple hyphenates like you are ready to go Masada on us the minute somebody threatens Mother Israel. My favorite Masada moment from contemporary Israeli history came during the '73 war when the Israelis didn't care if the, um, regional hostilities escalated to a fissionable U.S./U.S.S.R. event. A world without Israel? your people said. Yeah, we can do that. We can also make burned toast of the galaxy.

So by my accounting, it doesn't matter whether Barak gets the ball or they call in Sharon from the Shabra/Shatila bullpen. (According to Slate's "International Papers" column, Barak's people are already conceding.) The only thing that ever seems to bring quiet (as opposed to peace) to that little patch of ground that hath in it no profit but the name is an occasional decisive war. Which, my dollar-store wrist watch informs me, is about 10 years overdue.

I'm hoping that our team reading of the daily newspapers will eventually bring us to a discussion of the Wall Street Journal editorial page. Full disclosure: The folks there have been incredibly nice to me over the years, publishing three or four of my pieces. But I have to say that while I appreciate their libertarian/conservative ferociousness, sometimes they drink too deeply from that vat of nut fudge they keep in their offices. Take, for example, the Heather Mac Donald op-ed on today's page, "Stop Persecuting the Police."

Persecuting the police? Has Heather Mac Donald never been on the baton side of a cop's anger before? But the piece isn't just about what she considers liberal overreaction to naughty cop behavior or racial profiling. Mac Donald regards the race-based job discrimination suits the Justice Department brings against local departments as part of the "war on the police." Her beef: The feds are suing the Torrance, Calif., department for screening literacy at the ninth-grade level, saying that it's too high a standard because it has no legitimate job purpose.

For all I know, Mac Donald has nailed the story perfectly, and the Torrance PD is being arbitrarily pushed around by briefcase-toting bureaucrats from D.C. But why is it that op-eds like hers always make me want to reach for Nexis to get the whole story? But never mind the particulars: Mac Donald reserves her real enthusiasm for defending Attorney General John Ashcroft. Goldberg, this guy gives me the creeps. I wouldn't let the citizens of Kalamazoo County elect him prosecutor, let alone make him the nation's top cop if I had my way.

But one way in which the Journal editorial page has gotten better: With Clinton gone, so, too, are the impenetrable Whitewater pieces. What do you think the editorial page will end up doing with its Whitewater anthologies?

Love,
Jack

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516
from: Jack Shafer

Going Masada at a Threat to Mother Israel

Posted Monday, Feb. 5, 2001, at 3:51 PM ET
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Jack Shafer is deputy editor of Slate. Jeffrey Goldberg is a staff writer at The New Yorker. His book on the Middle East, Prisoners, will be published next year by Knopf.
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Reader Comments From The Fray:




[Notes from the Fray Editor: There was a spirit of friendly enquiry in the Fray: "Do you guys like each other?" asked Beth. "What is a CVS?" came from Dea--and do you need to be rich to find out? (Fletch tells us it's a drugstore.) And Mark wanted to know "What's wrong with a little Masada?"

Posters who weren't asking questions were trying to draw blood. "Breakfast Table" Fray regulars are a nest of trouble-makers. Neill Hamilton demonstrates this here and here, and so does Joseph Britt, whose comment below provoked a thread well worth reading, including a debate on whether basketball is prominent in American culture.]


In response to last week's "Breakfast Table", I and several other Fray posters made the suggestion that this feature would be more interesting if it involved writers who actually disagreed with each other about something.

By "something," I was referring to American politics or something especially prominent in American culture.

Disagreements about whom Israelis should vote for do not count. This is because Israel is a foreign country. Now, I wish Israel well; I like most of the Israelis I have met in my life; I even think how the American government should respond to whatever Israeli government emerges from this week's election is a topic worthy of exploration.

But who would I vote for? Stupid question

--Joseph Britt

(To reply, click here.)

(2/6)

Washington Post
The Washington Post
OPINIONS
What's Fair Game?
Anne E. Kornblut | What questions would Hillary Clinton have to answer if she were in Sarah Palin's shoes?
Editorial: Disappointment '08
PLUS » Stumped: More Nonsense From McCain