Sunday, May 23, 2010

tossing the label of anti-Semitism: Typical Zionist ploys

"In place of this precise slander and imprecise imputation, Bloom might have noted that some of the most robust left-wing discussion of Israeli policy has come from members of the British literary and academic establishment who are also Jewish (Tony Judt, Harold Pinter, Mike Leigh, Jacqueline Rose). If there is more political discussion of this order in Britain than in America it is not necessarily because the English are so anti-Semitic — or at least, I certainly hope not — but more likely (as Judt has pointed out) because most Americans live in almost complete ignorance of the “fierce relevance” of certain political realities and facts.

JAMES WOOD
Cambridge, Mass.
The writer is professor of the practice of literary criticism in the department of English at Harvard University."