Professional anti-semitism accusers Just Journalism want you to read their report on how the London Review of Books has covered Israel in all its tl;dr glory and come away convinced of how prejudiced the LRB is towards poor old Israel. Yet if this was their goal, the presentation of the report lets them down. The long, long text is enlivened by quotes from various LRB articles and photos of various Israeli and Palestinian outrages. All of which, with chapter headings like “The Second Lebanon War: 2006” gives the impression to a casual reader that this is some sort of lefty analysis of the Israel/Palestine situation, rather than a critique of the LRB’s supposed anti-Israel attitude.
You do wonder why they extract quotes like this 2003 Edward Said one: Almost a decade after the end of South African apartheid, this ghastly racist wall is going up with scarcely a peep from the majority of Israelis, rather than quote from their own report. As if they believe the quotes themselve are so horrifying as to make their case for them, that any neutral reader will immediately see how outrageous they are. It’s something you also see in socalled “Decent left” sites like Harry’s Place where the bloggers and their readers have disappeared so far up their own assholes that just mentioning the enemy du jour is reason enough for a two minute hate, without having to explain that they’re wrong and evil or why they are. That’s the danger of the circlejerk: you spent so much time talking to people who always agree with you that you’re no longer able to convince others.