“Mondoweiss” is a hate site (UPDATED)

[Little Tich]

12. I disagree with the OP.

I read the Mondo Weiss post “Forgiving the anti-Semites”, (http://mondoweiss.net/2015/04/forgiving-anti-semites)and it didn’t strike me as anti-Semitic at all. It contains observations about the American Jewish experience from several people, and then also some musings on these observations.

Bernstein’s major hangup seems to be a passage about how Weiss explains the Israel lobby: “I said that it reflected a contract the American establishment had made with Jews to drive the economy in the 1970s”. Improperly interpreted, this could be a reference right out of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, but no, I don’t think so. I simply interpret it as American Jews supported Israel, and that their support for Israel then became widespread among the whole political spectrum. However, I personally don’t know how it came to be that Israel has so much support in the US.

The whole Bernstein article is long and rambling, and contains a lot of things that are unrelated to Mondo Weiss, like references to Gilad Atzmon and Muslims as a powerless, disenfranchised minority. There are two links in the beginning, one goes to a retarded tumbler account, (http://mondotruth.tumblr.com/) the other goes to an article at the Tikkun Daily website called “Mondoweiss & Is Anti-Semitism Dead?” (http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2014/03/16/is-anti-semitism-dead/).

The Tikkun Daily article is interesting, at least for me. It contains a talkback written by one of the editors which I agree with fully. His definition of anti-Semitism is “hating Jews and wishing them ill”, which is close to how I define anti-Semitism: “Racism specifically directed at Jews”

(1st response to article, snip)
Rabbi Michael Lerner March 16, 2014 at 10:48 am
I’ve always been thrilled to have MJ Rosenberg as one of our bloggers. But I have to strongly object to calling Mondoweiss Anti-Semitic. I do believe that their constant criticism of Israel is unfair, one-sided, and shows none of the compassion that we progressives ought to be showing to those with whom we disagree. I do often disagree with articles that are published on that site (but then again, I often disagree with articles published on this Tikkun Daily blog, and I’m the editor (who believes in free speech). Yet I think it is a disservice to the term ‘anti-Semitism” to use it as equivalent to having unfair and excessive criticism of Israel. The term means “hating Jews and wishing them ill,” and I don’t believe that the editors at Mondoweiss fit that description. Nor do I think it appropriate for our Tikkun Daily blog to be a place where we throw that term around except where it applies–to groups that do in fact hate Jews and wish Jews ill. There are such groups, and they have been popping up all over Europe once again and most recently in the Ukraine. So I want to apologize to Mondoweiss for this article and urge all who use this site to avoid those kinds of accusations unless they are backed up with detailed specific examples that prove the charge beyond a reasonable doubt. –Rabbi Michael Lerner, Editor, Tikkun
(end snip)

I think Bernstein’s article in no way proves or manages to show there is a possiblity that Mondo Weiss is a hate site. In a way it proves the opposite, as Bernstein really had to grasp at straws to get material for his article.