In the Arena

Making Things Up

  • Share
  • Read Later

The odious Michael Goldfarb of the Weekly Standard has written an item claiming that I made up the fact that Avigdor Lieberman, the extremist anti-Arab bigot who sadly serves as Israel’s Foreign Minister, walked out of meetings with George Mitchell when the topic of East Jerusalem was raised. My sources for the item are several high-ranking American officials, with intimate knowledge of the situation; I can’t reveal their identities for obvious reasons. I stand by the story.

Furthermore, I continue to believe that Israel’s policy of illegally colonizing areas of East Jerusalem, areas that should someday constitute the capital of a Palestinian state existing alongside Israel, is a detriment to peace–and the immediate reason why peace talks are not taking place now.

Goldfarb is right that I was overly optimistic about Gidon Gilad Shalit’s release last summer, taking a report in an Egyptian newspaper as fact. It is outrage that Shalit continues to be held by Hamas, a sign that Hamas–like the Likud party–really doesn’t want to see a two-state solution. I hope he is released soon.