Login Here
It’s always pathetic to see a writer retreat down a rabbit hole of myopia instead of admitting a mistake, but G-d gave us Jeffrey Goldberg so we could view the pathetic in action.
To recap, Goldberg implied Trita Parsi of NIAC of being a catspaw for the Iranian regime; and then backtracked somewhat when called on it, but still evinced a basic lack of familiarity with who Parsi is or what he actually has written — endlessly — against Ahmadinejad. I suppose it would be an embarrassing mistake to admit, but whatever, people make mistakes and we should admit to them when we do. What we shouldn’t do is continue to slander a man, without evidence, who works against precisely the regime he’s being accused of aiding. When Matthew Yglesias tried to put this in a broader context, Goldberg bleated that Yglesias should have distinguished him from other people attacking Parsi who also might want to see the U.S. or Israel bomb Iran. And he said, hysterically and without the barest minimum of self-awareness, that Yglesias could just read Goldberg’s stuff to clarify his position!
Dude: spend some time with NIAC’s blog. Google Trita’s interviews. And then apologize to the guy. It would be the menschy thing to do. Whining like a bitch over a very peripheral issue? Not so much.
2 Comments
Spotlight
Support this site!
Subscribe to the newsletter
Advertise on Firedoglake
Send
us your tips
Make us your homepage
About ATTACKERMAN
Advanced search
RSS/XML Feed
And Goldberg keeps digging:
On the larger question of whether Trita Parsi functions as a lobbyist for the Iranian regime, based on what I know, I’d have to say yes: He has argued consistently against any sanctions against Iran, and an end to sanctions is obviously what the Iranian regime wants.
This is an insane piece of
logicshit.The dimwit then goes on to discuss Andrew Sullivan’s “intemperate attack” on Israel and writes:
Suffice it to say that I know Andrew loves Israel, and he’s a Zionist, so I don’t actually know how to explain this current level of hostility, but one day I’m going to have the two of us invited to speak together at my synagogue (don’t worry, Andrew, it’s within bike-distance!) so we can hash this out.
I love the bike joke. Goldberg is so funny they ought to give him a humorous advice column at The Atlantic. However, I hardly think Goldberg’s synagogue an appropriate place for an honest discussion on Israel with him – particularly as it is a synagogue untroubled that one of its congregants is the vile and despicable Michael B. Oren.
The irony of all this is that Parsi spent a great deal of time talking to etablishment Israelis for Treacherous Alliance, is sympathetic to Israel and wants to see a rapprochement between Iran and Israel, seeing them as back natural allies (once the unipolar aberration passes). We should all be listening to him–Goldberg included.