Democrats and Israel: never criticize, never dissent

Mike Silverman, in a post called “Greens for Bush,” writes:

The tedious Green-bashing and basic dishonesty of this post’s premise aside (there’s no reason to believe that the site Mike links to was created by the Green Party), what strikes me about this post is how much it opposes the very idea of dissent and criticism. The site Mike is objecting to, Joseph Lieberman for President 2004, is a satirical site criticizing Lieberman for being too right-wing (“Joseph Lieberman. A new kind of Democrat. The Republican kind.”). Sub-pages criticize Lieberman on military spending, on capital punishment, and other policy issues.

But apparently – at least, according to Mike – it’s now a terrible thing to criticize Lieberman’s policies at all. Criticizing Lieberman is working hard “making sure Bush will be re-elected in 2004.” To criticize Lieberman at all is to favor Bush.

Those “death to Israel” links Mike mentions? Neither one of them – not the excellent Jewish Women Watching site, nor the horribly designed Divest From Israel Campaign site – can be even remotely described as a “death to Israel” site. To criticize Israel at all is to favor its destruction, apparently.

Needless to say, I disagree with Mike’s dislike of dissent. Criticism is valuable. To attempt to shut down debate and criticism of Democrats with shrill screams of “you’re helping re-elect Bush!” is to undermine the very idea of the primary system; if Democrats running for the nomination can’t be criticized, then what’s the point of having primaries?

Similarly, the hysterical accusations that Israel’s critics favor “death to Israel” make legitimate, responsible debate impossible. Mike should be locked up in a small room with those occasional left-wing nuts who yell about “Zionazis”; the two extremes deserve each other.

Unfortunately, although there are many honorable exceptions, I think Mike’s contempt for dissent is pretty common in the Democratic party nowadays – and even more among Israel’s partisans.

As JWW says, “dissent is not a sin.”

(Postscript – If, like me, you’re a Jew who’s grown tired of “more-Jewish-than-thou” attitudes among some Israel partisans, be sure to check out Jewish Women’s Watching mean and sharp satire, “JewishSpeak.” (Warning: pdf file).)

Update: Mike responds to me here.

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