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That Marty Peretz, he's all class:
Reports about the "horrors of Israeli occupation," Peretz adds, don't particularly impress him. "I'm not under the impression that Israeli occupation is kind and sweet. No occupation is kind or sweet. But bad things happen everywhere, all the time," he says dryly.Yeah, big deal, they're only Arabs, right Marty? I think we can safely assume that Peretz's response to anyone brutish or callow enough to express a similarly blase attitude toward Israeli suffering would be anything but dry. I'm telling you, TNR's offices would drown in a raging monsoon of spittle and chest hair, and Jamie Kirchick would be crushing paper cups non-stop for days on end. Update: Daniel Levy on why Palestinian suffering should and does matter:
Here’s why this matters and it merits attention and even a two minute break from the relentless primaries speculation. The unresolved Palestinian issue resonates, it is not just a creation used by Arab regimes and al-Jazeera, it is something that echoes with and talks to hundreds of millions of people throughout the world. There are grievances out there and they have an impact, sometimes a decisive impact on how America is viewed in the world especially given its association with the issue. Americans can ignore that, pretend it doesn’t exist or tell themselves that this is just about terrorists and terrorist sympathizers. But doing so would be a mistake and would continue to ignore the crucial breeding ground that provides such fertile terrain for al-Qaeda and other extremist recruitment. Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an American interest (of course an Israeli and Palestinian interest as well).--Matthew Duss
