Richard Silverstein

Richard Silverstein, the blogger Tikun Olam, writes in the Guardian that progressive Jewish bloggers have played an important role in undermining the establishment Jewish consensus re Israel.

A new weapon in the battle for that free exchange of ideas has been a burgeoning culture of American Jewish blogs devoted to Israeli-Arab peace. Tikun Olam (my own blog) and Muzzlewatch broke several of the stories mentioned above. [From the rescinding of an invitation to Joel Beinin to the efforts by Israel's Foreign Ministry to smear the former soldiers coming to the U.S. to denounce the occupation]

These blogs and a score of others - because they are independent of communal consensus or pressure - have proven to be a useful tool in questioning the established order of American Jewish leadership and its priorities.

Hope so.

The Oregonian has crushed the S.F. Chronicle on the Bear Camp Road tragedy. I guess it's their story; geography is huge. Check out the Oregonian's aerial tour of the roads the Kims went up till their car foundered. And there's a .pdf map showing how close they were to Black Bar Lodge, stocked with food.

The shocker is Outside magazine's site. A story that millions are following, and Outside has nothing on it. I'm disappointed.

Memo to editors: when will someone do the high-tech angle? James Kim worked for a high-tech company, but high-tech failed his family disastrously. They disappeared on Saturday 11/25. Josephine County, Ore., authorities didn't track a "ping" from the Kim's cell phone to Bear Camp Road for another week, Dec. 2. Egad. On TV they do that kind of thing inside of 15 minutes.

Meantime, Richard Silverstein was unable to post his response to my last re the Kims' AWD vehicle. I'm posting it for him (and commenters, we're working on the problems, sorry):

I don't think that was really fair Phil. Today's NYT notes that they took a wrong term in the mtns. Considering the awful conditions at the time, I'm sure it's something any of us could/would do. 4,000 feet isn't that high an elevation for western mtns. They made a terrible mistake clearly. But mainly, they should've stayed in the car no matter what; and they should've stocked the car with proper gear & supplies considering they were traveling through mtns. in winter. We cityslickers here in the west live near these mtns. & so become familiar & comfortable w. them. But we don't realize that when you IN them, they can be forbidding, punishing places.

A lot of people have had trouble posting comments. I apologize, we're trying to work out the bugs. If you're ticked about it, email me and I'll get it on the blog.

Here is something that Richard Silverstein, whose progressive Jewish blog I recommend (Tikun Olam, http://www.richardsilverstein.com) tried to say about the question of Israel talking to Syria.

Responding to the comment: "Let Israel give up the Golan heights when you, Lester, Gene, and the rest of the Hasrallah/Hamas cheering sections move yourself, wives, children, and pets to the foot of the Golan heights, within artillery range."

No, how 'bout little Bill you move yr loved ones to Beit Hanun & suffer under IDF bombardment for a few nights to really whet yr appetite for those uber-Israel views of yours.

And btw, since you seem too ignorant to know otherwise, those Syrian Golan artillery batteries have been silent for 40 yrs. If Phil followed yr orders he & his loved would sleep well in their beds knowing that Syria was maintaining the peace on the Golan border. Richard Silverstein