Michael L.
If the great majority of Jews are liberal-progressive and if the vast majority of progressive-left Jews believe in Israel as the national homeland for the Jewish people, just where is their media presence?
I do not see it. Do you?
Given the fact that most Jews are progressive and given the fact that most progressive Jews are Zionists, one would think that there would be a significant media presence to support the progressive Zionist viewpoint, but there is not.
Jon Segall and fizziks had a little something going for awhile, but they're just a couple of guys with a blog, just like we are. I find it difficult to believe that all of western liberal Zionism cannot muster enough support to even have a significant media presence or political hub of some sort.
Why is it that almost all the pro-Israel magazines, newspapers, and blogs are considered "conservative"? Ha'aretz, of course, is not, but pretty much everything else is. The Jerusalem Post features Martin Sherman and Caroline Glick and would definitely be considered a conservative news outlet. The almost brand-spanking new Times of Israel is moderate, under editor David Horovitz, as is the venerable Jewish Daily Forward.
But Commentary is conservative.
Arutz Sheva is conservative.
Algemeiner is conservative.
The Jewish Press is conservative.
Israel Hayom is conservative.
And among the blogs, fuggedabout it. The pro-Israel / pro-Jewish blogs are considered conservative almost entirely across the board. Israel Thrives is non-partisan and we welcome voices from across the political spectrum with the obvious exception of anti-Semitic anti-Zionists.
However, the Elder of Ziyon is moderate-conservative.
Jews Down Under is moderate-conservative.
CiF Watch is moderate-conservative.
The Gatestone Institute is moderate-conservative.
David Shapiro's Truth Revolt is conservative.
Gates of Vienna is conservative.
Pamela Geller's Atlas Shrugs is conservative-libertarian.
Israpundit is conservative.
Geoffff's Joint is conservative.
Abu Yehuda (formerly of Fresno Zionist fame) is conservative.
Sultan Knish (aka the brilliant Daniel Greenfield) is conservative.
Mark Golub of Shalom TV is, I would argue, moderate, along with Jon Haber's Divestthis!.
And, at this point, I don't think that anyone quite knows, or cares, what the New Republic is about. (Marty Peretz should never have trusted Peter Beinart with the reigns.)
There is, however, an anti-Israel Jewish left snuggied up to, or thoroughly embracing, the anti-Semitic BDS movement. Jeremy ben Ami and J Street got comfy-cozy with BDS so that even Jon Segall felt it necessary to distance himself from the group. There is Jewish Voice for Peace that is viciously anti-Zionist. There is the notorious Mondoweiss that no one with a clue could possibly call either pro-Israel or pro-Jewish. There is Adam Shapiro's International Solidarity Movement that got the ignorant, naive, and pissed-off Rachel Corrie killed.
And G-d only knows how many left-liberal anti-Israel Jewish college groups have sprung up over the last few years.
But the point is this:
Where the hell is the Jewish left-liberal pro-Israel media presence?
There is Ha'aretz and precious little else and calling Ha'retz "pro-Israel" is, in itself, a significant stretch. And it is not as if I stand with them. On the contrary, I have been exceedingly open with my specific criticisms of the Jewish left. These criticisms include:
1) Refusing to Discuss Islamist Threat
2) Whipping Up Hatred Toward Other Jews
3) Forever Playing Defense
4) The Moral Equivalency Canard
5) Ignoring Jewish History
6) Disregarding Friends and Supporting Enemies.
What I fail to understand - among the very many things that I fail to understand - is how it is that if progressive-left Jews represent the majority of diaspora Jews and if the majority of diaspora Jews favor Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people, that there is virtually no liberal Jewish pro-Israel organizations in the media, either mainstream or bloggish?
Where are the liberal Jewish venues making the liberal Jewish pro-Israel argument?
I suppose that they must be out there, but as someone who keeps an ear to the ground on such things their voices are barely audible.