Max Blumenthal talks to some drunk white kids in Jerusalem:
I liked this movie more the first time, when it was called Borat and it was a comedy rather than a "documentary." I'm not sure what I'm supposed to take away from this video, other than the rather banal observation that some white people drop n-bombs when they're drunk. If you walked around with a video camera on any college campus in this country, you'd find a group of drunk people who would talk like this. It looks like Blumenthal confined himself to a single dinner table and a few passersby outside, not exactly a Nate Silver-worthy sample of public opinion. I don't see what this video reveals about the nature of Israeli opposition to dismantling the settlements, or about Israeli or American Jewish politics in general. But I certainly get what Blumenthal wants us to think.
I'm more than a little tired of these videos, which are deeply manipulative and play to our tendency to think the absolute worst of people we disagree with. I can remember when Blumenthal was using videos like these to argue that America was too racist to elect a black man president-- the implicit suggestion was that Democrats should be choosing Hillary Clinton. Then, he was arguing that discontent with the Sean Bell verdict "proved" that America was still a racial powder keg waiting to blow, and that anyone who believed otherwise believed in a "coming cultural utopia." Last year, Blumenthal was happy to make his case using overblown fears of black urban riots, now the suggestion is that those who oppose Israel dismantling its settlements just think President Obama is a nigger. Please.
UPDATE: You would not, for example, know from this video that a majority of Israelis want to dismantle the settlements and consider them a liability.
-- A. Serwer
