Hannah Rosenthal, Michael Oren and J Street (or enter the Fingerman)

I woulda said it myself but my (alas, sigh) former colleague Eric Fingerhut already said it, and better, regarding U.S. anti-Semitism envoy Hannah Rosenthal’s alleged shots at Israeli ambasador Michael Oren for his own shots at J Street:

Check out this paragraph of Barak Ravid’s piece: "She said criticism of her appointment in the Obama administration, from the leaders of some American Jewish organizations, was ‘from a very few people who blog a lot.’"

The problem with this paragraph is that no leaders of American Jewish organizations ever criticized Rosenthal’s appointment. The only people to criticize the pick of Rosenthal were, as she correctly states, "a very few people who blog a lot." The American Thinker’s Ed Lasky,The Weekly Standard’s Michael Goldfarb, and WorldNetDaily’s Aaron Klein all did criticize Rosenthal’s appointment, and they all blog a lot — but they don’t lead American Jewish organizations.

There’s more than that that’s problematic with the Ha’aretz piece, which I’m endeavoring to chase down today (no one wants to comment, surprise):

* The article includes extensive, and expansive quotes from Rosenthal — but her remarks about Oren are two partial quotes, both not including any specific reference to the ambassador. His remarks are "most unforunate"; he "would have learned a lot" at J Street’s conference. Was she addressing Oren specifically?

My experience with the Israeli media (and this is as a proud graduate of its school of hard knocks) is that it is belovedly combative, but at times, stretches a little for the hit, the splash. Who brought Oren up? How was the matter brought up? Was there a "generally speaking" in there? As in "I don’t want to speak about individuals, but it is most unfortunate when…" etc.

* Was Rosenthal addressing Oren’s criticism of J Street? Was she addressing his decision to boycott the J Street conference? It’s not clear: The writer says Rosenthal’s description of Oren’s recent broadside against the group is "most unfortunate" but then says Oren "would have learned a lot"  had he attended the conference.

* The writer ellides back and forth from Rosenthal’s alleged shots at Oren to her claim that not all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitism. The inference seems to be that she is saying Oren accuses J Street of anti-Semitism, but I don’t find that anywhere in her quotes, not even in the ones chopped to bits.

That said, the uncut, beginning-to-end of sentence quotes from Rosenthal do raise questions: Why is she going on about the matzav (situation) in Israel? Why do we care that she has been a dues paying member both of AIPAC and of Americans for Peace Now? Her brief is anti-Semitism — why is her first interview about Israel and how it is handling the conflict?

In any case, I am grateful for the Fingerman (for such is how he doth describe himself) and his Jewish fact checking.