EDITOR'S NOTE
Rothschild, Matthew
EDITOR'S NOTE Matthew Rothschild Tribal Hatreds Newt Gingrich's office called a while back. When I arrived at the office after my noontime basketball game. I found one of those pink phone-message...
...She wasn't available...
...I asked if this was the Speaker's office...
...Whenever U.S...
...If you contribute, Newt would like to send you a replica of his Speaker's gavel...
...Well, I'm not from the Congressional Committee itself...
...Flattering myself that one of my darts had finally hit home, I called the number, expecting to hear how I'd misquoted or misrepresented or somehow dishonored the honorable Speaker...
...that's the reason The Progressive writes so much about Israeli abuses...
...We on the staff here usually restrain ourselves from responding in print to the Letters to the Editor...
...What's that...
...Israel receives far more U.S...
...And he held out an irresistible sweetener for me...
...Tribalism is behind many of the crises roiling the Earth: Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, Muslims and Christians in Bosnia, Arabs and Jews in Israel and Palestine, the Kurds and the Turks, the Tutsi and the Hutus...
...Now Noam Chomsky and Norm Solomon are perfectly capable of responding for themselves in the many forums they have...
...But I'm sure glad to know that Newt is making the most of his office...
...The "self-hating" canard is hurled at any Jew who dares to dissent from official Israeli government policy, or dares to call into question the $3 billion annuity the U.S...
...government accountable...
...I didn't straighten him out...
...But when our freelance writers are assailed, we give them the opportunity to respond, and Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St...
...We feel that you and your business will suffer if the Democrats regain control of the Congress this November," Hallam told me...
...Martin Haydon may have a field day with this, but let me quote Edward Said: "If you wish to uphold basic human justice, you must do so for everyone—not just selectively for the people that your side, your culture, your nation designates as OK...
...aid than any other country in the world...
...allies— whether in El Salvador, Guatemala, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Turkey, or Israel-commit atrocities, we have an obligation to bring these immoral policies to light in the most direct and forceful way we can...
...government bestows on Israel...
...She left a 1-800 number...
...Those who equate Jewish identity with uncritical support for the state of Israel are falling into tribalism of the worst sort...
...It wasn't...
...I have every right, as a Jew, to object to Israeli policies of invasion, occupation, torture, and assassination...
...You may not know that the liberal unions will be spending $35 million to unseat the Republicans, and Newt is trying to rally support from Republican business-people like you...
...We feel that the readers should, by and large, get the last say, since we've already weighed in with our views...
...Clair, as well as Eyal Press, avail themselves of that opportunity this month...
...Our lives have dear goals across which we shall all finally kick all of your heads...
...I found one of those pink phone-message slips on my desk, with a note that someone named Marisha Cox from the Speaker's office had tried to reach me...
...Now, much as I'd like such a priceless adornment, I turned down the gracious offer...
...As for me, I appreciate the mail-order psychotherapy that Haydon has practiced on me, but I hope he doesn't send me a bill...
...We'd like you to contribute $250 or $300," he told me...
...To my mind, if I didn't object, I would be un-Jewish, since being Jewish to me is not simply a tribal membership card but an imperative to oppose injustice...
...I'm calling on behalf of the Congressional Committee," Hallam told me, anxious to get on with his pitch...
...I asked for Marisha Cox...
...The poet John Ciardi once wrote: Everyone in my tribe hates everyone in your tribe...
...I was forwarded to a guy named Bill Hallam, who said he was from the Congressional Committee...
...Seems they weren't calling to chew me out...
...Haydon accuses Norman Solomon, Noam Chomsky, and me of displaying "Jewish self-hate" for criticizing the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon...
...I'm proud to publish it, and hope it will take us a step beyond tribalism...
...So I refuse to respond with tribal blindness...
...We are united...
...I'm going to make an exception this month for myself, however, and respond right here to the letter on Page 8 from Martin Haydon because of its personally vitriolic nature...
...Our side, our culture, our nation designates Arabs as not OK, as June Jordan points out in her powerful "Eyewitness in Lebanon" piece this month...
...I asked...
...And no matter the religious identification of the editor at The Progressive, it is our job here to hold the U.S...
...I was curious to hear how much they wanted me to fork over...
...They were calling me for a donation...
Vol. 60 • August 1996 • No. 8
