I’ll keep this short, because that’s how Shmuel Rosner likes it.
I’ll accept his rejection of the postscript to my earlier post on the latest chapter of the J Street-Soros saga, and take his point that Judge Richard Goldstone remains more of an Evil Uncle than a Wounded Grandpa in the Israeli psyche — Shmuel lives there now, I don’t.
I based my perception on Israeli coverage at the time of the attempt by South African Zionists to keep Goldstone from attending his grandson’s bar mitzvah, and from conversations I had with Israelis then.
That burst of sympathy might well have receded and the aftereffects of the Goldstone report might prove more durable. I’ll take Shmuel’s word for it because his perceptions in cases like these are usually spot-on.
My larger point was about self-inflicted wounds — how overkill can turn those who might sympathize with your view against you.
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