Akiva Eldar is leaving Haaretz. He’s 67 and full of trepidation for Israel post-67. Unfortunately, a small part of that, or maybe more, is his own fault.
His last few major attacks on Israel’s policies in Judea and Samaria have been severely criticized as lacking in statistical comprehension or outright manipulation of facts so as to shore up claims that are untrue or untenable.
That isn’t journalism. It’s being an ideological hack.
And not being satisfied with besmirching Israel from Israel, Akiva Eldar is in the United States and has suggested that "...American Jews seem to have lost interest in Israel."
His "worrying news" is that:
Just 10 percent of American-Jewish voters said Israel was their highest priority when they went to the polls, according to a recent exit poll conducted by the pro-peace Israel lobby J Street. Nine out of 10 said domestic issues like job rates and health care were their top concerns...These statistics support the analysis of political commentator Peter Beinart, an associate professor at the City University of New York''s Graduate School of Journalism, who argues that the ongoing occupation and the revelations of Israeli racism have distanced American Jews from Israel and from the Zionist idea.
I am wary of depending on J Street polls and their figures and I am always worried when reading Eldar, someone I consider most untrustworthy and too dependent on politicized comrades for information. He doesn’t report but rather filters what he is fed from extreme leftist radicals (just read the people he thanks in his bye-bye column).
But realize this: if he doesn''t bring figures from previous years, how can we know the current voting pattern is down or up or stable? How can we then figure out the reasons for such a claim are valid this year and actually bolster that assertion of his?
He stresses that
J Street leaders are encouraged by the finding that 73 percent of U.S. Jewish voters approve of Obama''s conduct regarding the Israeli-Arab conflict and note that 81 percent want active U.S. involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
But does not note that that 73% was maybe 69% and that it represents a drop from the last election which, I think, would mean that US Jews are worried about Israel being smashed by a second Obama presidency and therefore went to the other party. They are very worried.
Eldar is playing with statistics, again, since no one, as I know, polled those Jews in those polls exactly why they voted - for or against either candidate and what role Israel played in their vote. It is all speculation what Eldar bases himself on.
And then he bemoans the...Israel media:
After all, a single edition of casino mogul Sheldon Adelson''s right-wing free newspaper Israel Hayom reaches more readers, and potential voters, than do dozens of columns in Haaretz.
He could have, at the least, mentioned this newspaper which is fair in its opinion spread.
Eldar may be leaving Haaretz but my guess is that he will continue his propaganda messaging, maybe through an American Jewish outlet, either media or institution, or maybe...al-Jazeera?
^