Dear Mr. Wright,
In your "Online Commentary" entitled "Against 'Pro-Israel'" in The New York Times, you write:
It has been reported that, notwithstanding accounts in Israel’s media, Biden did not, in fact, complain to Netanyahu in private about the threat of Israel’s policies to American troops. Perhaps predictably, the journalist who first reported this is the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, who has been described by one New York Times columnist as Netanyahu’s “faithful stenographer.”
Without even opening your link, all know that the New York Times columnist to whom you refer is Roger Cohen.
I live in Israel, and I am intimately acquainted with the facts on the ground. I oppose expansion by Israel of the West Bank settlements, but do not oppose Israeli construction in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.
Your swipe at Jeffrey Goldberg, using Roger Cohen as a reference, is far worse than unfortunate:
- Roger Cohen spent months attempting to inculcate the view among Times readers that "Iran is not totalitarian".
- Roger Cohen wrote an op-ed ("What Iran's Jews Say") portraying the life of Iran's Jewish minority as happy and contented. Cohen failed to note at any time during the course of his Iran series that he does not speak Farsi and that his interviews were conducted via a government appointed translator. I complained to the Times and was promised an answer whether Cohen's op-ed violated New York Times journalistic standards, but ultimately never received an answer. See: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.com/2009/06/was-roger-cohens-what-irans-jews-say-in_17.html
- Roger Cohen in his extended and ongoing series of op-eds concerning Iran never met with Iran's Baha'is and wrote only one sentence in passing about their horrifying oppression and persecution. See: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.com/2009/06/is-obama-sacrificing-bahais-in-pursuit.html
- Roger Cohen ignored Iran's persecution of its Kurdish minority. See: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.com/search/label/Kurds
- Roger Cohen ignored how Iran stones to death alleged "adulterers" with their children watching.
- Roger Cohen ignored how Iran hangs homosexuals.
- Roger Cohen ignored Iran's support of genocide in Darfur.
- Roger Cohen ignored Iranian sponsored terrorist bombings against Jews as far away as Argentina.
- Roger Cohen ignored the torture and murder by Iran of "unfriendly" journalists.
- Roger Cohen ignored "honor killings" perpetrated against Iranian women.
If you are interested, I can continue this list.
In short, your reference to Roger Cohen, who over the course of many months bolstered the image of a monstrous totalitarian state, in an attempt to deprecate Jeffrey Goldberg is inappropriate to say the least.
Best regards,
Jeffrey
[Robert Wright is a senior fellow at the New America Foundation. It is worth noting that Flynt Leverett also works for the New America Foundation: Director, Iran Initiative, Senior Research Fellow, American Strategy Program and Director, Geopolitics of Energy Initiative. Re Leverett, see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.com/search/label/Leverett]
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