Remember Adbusters, the ball-roller for the Occupy movement? (They ran an ad early in the game, and came up with the Occupy Wall Street sobriquet.)
Much was made at the time by opponents of the movement of Adbuster founder Kalle Lasn’s running a list in 2004 of neoconservatives he deemed responsible for the Iraq War — and asterisking the Jewish ones.
Now he regrets it, at least kind of. The New York Times runs a story today on his latest initiative, against Christmas shopping, and buried within it is the following:
In one instance, in 2004, Mr. Lasn published a list of 50 people who, he said, were prominent American neoconservatives and influenced American policy in the Iraq war. Half of them appeared to be Jewish, he wrote, and affixed a mark next to those names. He said American Jews tended to vote Democratic and that many were opposed to the Bush administration’s foreign policy and to at least some Israeli policies. But, he said, the “neocons seem to have a special affinity for Israel that influences their political thinking and consequently American foreign policy in the Middle East.”
In an interview, Mr. Lasn said he was “naïve” in publishing that list. “I had no idea of what the effect would be,” he said, “and if I could do it over again I’d do it differently.”
He added that “I don’t have an anti-Semitic bone in my body” and that “when I was young one of my dreams was to live on a kibbutz.” He said he admired many of Israel’s founders, “who were lefties,” but says, “I must admit that lately I think Israel has been making a big mistake, and I think it’s important to say it.”
