Monday, May 10, 2010
Strong. After pointing out how Ben-Ami basically freaked out on behalf of his White House master after Wiesel's open letter on Jerusalem and reacted with the scurrilous, not the wise, Boteach addresses Ben-Ami directly:
"Last September I wrote a column commenting on your quotations in a New York Times Magazine feature where you insulted all staunch American Jewish supporters of Israel as paranoids who believe that the world is filled with murderous anti-Semites. Surely that kind of character assassination is not only unnecessary but, I would argue, indicative of significant insecurity about your message. Not that I blame you. I realize that you have the most difficult job of any Jewish organizational head in the world, namely, running an organization that purports to be pro-Israel but invariably finds itself in the company of Israel's worst enemies and critics.
"But even so I never believed that someone as media-savvy as you would make the mistake of spending your valuable money on full pages ads attacking Elie Wiesel. That, my brother, is pure suicide...