Readers of The New Republic know that Leon Wieseltier has an acid pen. But does he also have an itchy trigger finger?
Former TNR editor turned top-tier blogger Andrew Sullivan is fuming after Wieseltier, the magazine’s fiercely brilliant and eloquently mean literary editor, accused him of “Jew-baiting.”
“To be called a ‘Jew-baiter’ in the pages of a magazine I was once proud and honored to edit, and which I love and support, is an extremely wounding blow. It is also untrue and unfair,” Sullivan wrote on his blog.
Barack Obama has managed to elicit widespread concern among the pro-Israel community, concerns that he and his campaign have worked hard to allay, but with mixed results. That’s why I bet his campaign’s pretty pleased to have New Republic editor Marty Peretz — someone whose passion for defending Israel (and badmouthing the Palestinians) is beyond dispute — giving him his hechsher.
