Bernard Avishai says Jeffrey Goldberg is boycotting the J Street conference, based on the kind of sarcastic throwaway that actually suggests you want to do something you pretend terrifies you. ("Oh my God, another go on the roller coaster? I’ll get the tickets.")
Goldberg counters that Avishai is against the notion of a Jewish state, based on Avishai’s argument that the leftover instrumentalities of creating the Jewish state are now undermining it — in the same way (I’m rolling out the metaphors here) that a marriage implodes because a man longing for the premarital attention he got from his wife is now jealous of her relationship with the children.
I can certainly see Avishai’s point — I don’t agree that it applies to the Law of Return (the law’s very heterodoxy is one of the most powerful counters to efforts by the Orthodox to make Israel, well, more orthodox) — but perpetuating a Jewish Agency that was positioned adversarially to a colonial British authority now that an Israeli authority has been in place for 60 years needs ‘splainin’ at the very least.
Anyway, Avishai counters by suggesting that he’s the real Zionist because he lives in Jerusalem, which is kind of an odd gauntlet to throw down while propping up J Street.
Goldberg now says Avishai’s a liar and–
Well, get a room. Sound proofed.
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