Eric Alterman on “What’s Best for the Jews”

Ah, Eric Alterman—one of the hard Left’s most inspiringly twisted performers. Mr. Alterman, who serves as The Nation’s ineluctably enraged media critic, has long bothered anyone with the slightest grip on reality.

After all, Mr. Alterman’s chief thesis—which he repeats in his columns ad nauseam—is the idea that the mainstream media are…conservative. ABC, CBS, NPR, The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Post—you know, that conservative stuff.

Naturally, being famous for such a notion is much like being famous for asserting that the world is flat. Which, come to think of it, a certain pundit from a scorchingly right-wing newspaper has already claimed.

We had reason to reflect anew on Mr. Alterman’s studied idiocy upon taking in a “post” from his “weblog.” In it, Mr. Alterman discusses the fact that Martin Peretz, editor-in-chief of the moderately Left New Republic, has sold his shares of the magazine to some Canadian company or other.

Regarding this turn of events, Mr. Alterman opines:

Does it matter that Marty Peretz has sold off his entire interest in The New Republic? Hard to say ... The New Republic under Peretz has long been an interesting, often exciting magazine but a horrible burden to liberalism and -- if you're smart about these things -- really, really bad for the Jews.* Going biweekly after nearly a century as a weekly is both an admission of failure but also a perfectly rational response to an Internet-driven media world. The magazine will improve as its influence wanes -- both good things in my book.

Okay, so The New Republic has been “really, really bad for the Jews.” This has been the case, foams Mr. Alterman, because the magazine routinely stands up for Jewish and Israeli interests, and refuses to capitulate to anti-Zionist fanatics and terrorists.

Perhaps Mr. Alterman believes that his own rag, The Nation, is far better in regard to these matters. If so, he is completely bonkers.

After all, The Nation publishes regular columns by Alexander Cockburn, a Stalinoid hack who, we related recently, uses his editorial perch from Counterpunch to support bizarre conspiracy theories that blame Israel for 9/11. And Mr. Alterman’s rag also delights in publishing the anti-Semitic ravings of Gore Vidal.

Oh, yes: That’s much better for the Jews. Praising Jimmy Carter’s anti-Israel apologetics and ignoring Palestinian terrorism—what could be more fruitful for our Jewish friends?

One wonders if Mr. Alterman would ever conclude that a magazine that resolutely defends African-American interests is “bad for blacks,” or a periodical that staunchly supports homosexual concerns is “bad for gays.”

Nope: We have the feeling that Mr. Alterman merely believes that Jews ought to work against their own people. What a buffoon.