Burying The Lead? Atlantic Writer Says Andrew Sullivan Told Him He Turned From Rabid Israel Defender to Rabid Israel Hater Because Netanyahu Stood In The Way of Obama's "Destiny"

The reporter of this remark does not put "destiny" in quotes himself, so I am quoting Goldberg, but Goldberg is maybe not accurately quoting Sullivan. Perhaps it's a paraphrase; perhaps it's humorous overstatement.

But the basics are there.

If it is condescending to think that Andrew Sullivan -- formerly an embarrassingly rabid Zionist, who lately has become an embarrassingly rabid anti-Zionist -- doesn't know much about the Middle East, and fears its complexity, well, I guess I'm guilty. The main problem with Andrew's view of the world, and with Peter Beinart's book, is the systematic downplaying of Palestinian mistakes in order to blame the impasse in the peace process on Israel. (I remember when Andrew, of course, characterized Palestinians as devils and thought Israelis wore halos, but this was before, as he told me over lunch one day a couple of years ago, he realized that Netanyahu, in his opinion, was standing in the way of President Obama's destiny. Once Netanyahu got in the way, Andrew said, he was finished defending Israel).

Oh, I'd be remiss if I didn't also note that Andrew Sullivan is, of course, turning as usual to his favorite topic, Andrew Sullivan. His blog is consumed with the question Why don't women like me or read me? He even has a video response to this important question.

Since reading this Important Question, my eyebrows have been arching so much I sprained my forehead.

&bodytext=The reporter of this remark does not put "destiny" in quotes himself, so I am quoting Goldberg, but Goldberg is maybe not accurately quoting Sullivan. Perhaps it's a paraphrase; perhaps it's humorous overstatement. But the basics are there. If it...&topic=world_news"> posted by Ace at 03:39 PM

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