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Mondoweiss

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Mondoweiss is a news website[4][5] that began as a general-interest blog written by Philip Weiss on The New York Observer website. It subsequently developed into a broader collaborative venture after fellow journalist Adam Horowitz joined it as co-editor.[6] In 2010, Weiss described the website's purpose as one of covering American foreign policy in the Middle East from a 'progressive Jewish perspective'.[7] In 2011, it defined its aims as fostering greater fairness for Palestinians in American foreign policy, and as providing American Jews with an alternative identity to that expressed by Zionist ideology, which he regards as antithetical to American liberalism.[6] Originally supported by The Nation Institute (renamed Type Media Center in 2019), it became a project of part of the Center for Economic Research and Social Change in June 2011.[8][9]

Mondoweiss
TypeNews website
FormatOnline
PublisherScott Roth
Editor-in-chiefPhilip Weiss
Adam Horowitz
Staff writersYumna Patel (lead correspondent Palestine)
Dave Reed (technology)
Walaa Ghussein
James North
Michael Arria (US correspondent)
Olivia Katbi Smith (funding manager)[1]
Founded2006
Political alignmentProgressive[2][3]
LanguageEnglish
HeadquartersUnited States
OCLC number1413751648
Websitemondoweiss.net

Staff

Philip Weiss has written for New York magazine,[10] Harper's Magazine,[11] Esquire, and The New York Observer.[12][13] He is the author of Cock-a-Doodle-Doo (1996)[14] and American Taboo: A Murder in the Peace Corps (2004).[15] Weiss self identifies on the site as anti-Zionist.[2][16][17][18]

Adam Horowitz received his master's degree in Near Eastern Studies from New York University.[19] He later served as the Director of the Israel/Palestine Program for the American Friends Service Committee[19] where he gained "extensive on-the-ground experience in Israel/Palestine".[20] In addition to Mondoweiss, Horowitz has written for The Nation, AlterNet, The Huffington Post, and The Hill.com.[19][21] He has spoken frequently on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict on campuses and to organizations.[22][23]

Alex Kane, an assistant editor for Mondoweiss based in New York City, also is the World editor for AlterNet.[24] His work also has appeared in Salon, The Daily Beast, The Electronic Intifada, Extra! and Common Dreams.[25]

Regular contributors include Helena Cobban, Dareen Tatour, Steven Salaita, Alice Rothchild, Haidar Eid, Nada Elia, Yossi Gurvitz and Jonathan Ofir.[26]

Development

In a 2010 interview with The Link, the magazine published by Americans for Middle East Understanding, Philip Weiss described the evolution of Mondoweiss:

In March 2006 I began writing a daily blog on The New York Observer website. My editor, Peter Kaplan, encouraged me to write what was on my mind and it was his idea to call it Mondoweiss. Increasingly what was on my mind were "Jewish issues": the Iraq disaster and my Jewishness, Zionism, neo-conservatism, Israel, Palestine. For many reasons that I detail in "Blogging about Israel and Jewish identity raises Observer hackles" in the spring of 2007 I re-launched my own blog on my own website. It became a collaborative effort a year ago when Adam Horowitz joined Mondoweiss.[27]

In The American Conservative, Weiss detailed his split from The New York Observer and wrote, "Blogging about such matters sometimes made me feel wicked, as though I was betraying my tribe. Shouldn't some thoughts remain private? But I felt that the form demanded transparency about what I cared about, Jewish identity."[28]

On 16 July 2012, Mondoweiss announced a new partnership with the popular on-line magazine Salon.[29][30]

Content

In 2008, after the arrest of Ben-Ami Kadish, who allegedly gave Israel stolen United States secrets on nuclear weapons, fighter jets and missiles in the 1980s, The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles quoted Mondoweiss as writing about an old Government Accountability Office report stating that Israel "conducts the most aggressive espionage operation against the United States of any U.S. ally".[31][32]

In 2010, James Wolcott wrote in Vanity Fair quoting Weiss in Mondoweiss regarding an Anti-Defamation League statement regarding the planned Park51 project, an Islamic Center near the World Trade Center site. Wolcott quoted Weiss who had written: "It's happened: the Anti-Defamation League has overplayed its hand (in this case, neoconservative Islamophobia) in such a glaring manner that it is being condemned at every quarter."[33][34]

In 2012, Tablet magazine wrote that the Associated Press had "picked up a story from advocacy blog" Mondoweiss,[35] about Israeli security asking a Palestinian-American to show them her email at Ben-Gurion Airport. Tablet wrote that "more news stories—and this story is undoubtedly newsworthy—are going to come to the attention of non-niche journalists and thereby gain wider notice".[35][36]

In 2012, Mondoweiss reported that United States Representative Joseph R. Pitts' office had mailed a letter calling on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestine National Authority Chair Yasser Arafat to work toward peace in the Middle East. It commented that the congressman seemed to entrust peace negotiations in the Middle East to a dead man, Arafat, and another in a vegetative state, Sharon.[37] The blog pointed out that Sharon had been in a coma since 2006 and Arafat had died in 2004. The representative blamed accidental use of an old form letter.[38][39]

Reception

In March 2007, Gary Kamiya, in an article for the website Salon, wrote that Mondoweiss offered "informed and passionate discussions" of what Weiss stated were "delicate and controversial matters surrounding American Jewish identity and Israel". Kamiya wrote that Weiss, "routinely skewers attempts by mainstream Jewish organizations and pundits to lay down the law on what is acceptable discourse". As an example he mentioned Weiss' exploration of "off-limits" topics like dual loyalty, as in an incident regarding the American Jewish Committee. Weiss had written that a Committee piece accusing Jewish intellectuals who did not "toe the party line on Israel" of being "self-haters" only revealed the "anti-intellectual, vicious, omerta practices of the Jewish leadership".[40]

In 2009, Michael Massing, in an article titled "The News About the Internet" for The New York Review of Books, noted that "Weiss is one of several friends I've seen flourish online after enduring years of frustration writing for magazines. With its unrelenting criticism of Israel, his site [Mondoweiss] has angered even some of his fellow doves, but it has given voice to a strain of opinion that in the past had few chances of being heard."[41]

In November 2009 former United States Senator James G. Abourezk praised Weiss and Horowitz for their courage in taking on "what most believe is an unassailable, monolithic pro-Israel Lobby". He wrote that the blog "hits Israel's illegal occupation where it hurts—in the center of the American Jewish community. Mondoweiss is evidence that more and more American Jews are thinking twice about giving Israel their wholehearted, unquestioning support for the crimes it is committing in the territories it illegally occupies."[42]

In September 2010, James Wolcott of Vanity Fair argued that Mondoweiss "is one of the most invaluable sites in the blogosphere, a blast of sanity and moral suasion against the prevailing demonization of anything and anyone perceived as anti-Israel".[43]

In 2012 Arab News wrote that Weiss and Horowitz had "developed an interactive forum that brims with up-to-the-minute news and comment and makes brilliant attention-grabbing use of text and video material" and that "they bring to their work a moral and intellectual verve woefully missing from coverage of Palestine-Israel issues in even the more respected sections of the mainstream media".[44]

While Mondoweiss has received praise for its content, it has also been criticized, with much of the criticism coming from people and organizations with differing opinions on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. This criticism has often included allegations of antisemitism.

In 2010, Mondoweiss was criticized by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs for publishing a series of cartoons which they stated expressed "anti-Israelism, a more recent category of anti-Semitism".[45]

Between 2010 and 2011, Tablet magazine published three articles in which Mondoweiss and other blogs, were criticized. The articles described Weiss as a "Jew-baiter" and "intensely anti-Israel", saying his site was "obsessed with Israel and the machinations of the U.S. Israel lobby" and laden with "sweeping and unsubstantiated rhetoric".[46][47][48] Weiss responded to allegations in Tablet, by stating that the magazine had "smeared" him and several other bloggers as Jew-baiters.[49] Walt stated that Smith's article contained "not a scintilla of evidence" that "Weiss or I have written or said anything that is remotely anti-Semitic, much less that involves 'Jew-baiting'. There's an obvious reason for this omission: None of us has ever written or said anything that supports Smith's outrageous charges."[50]

In 2012, the Algemeiner Journal described Mondoweiss as "Purveyors of Anti-Semitic Material".[51] According to Algemenier and the Anti-Defamation League, Mondoweiss and Philip Weiss have received grants from Ron Unz's Unz Foundation.[52][53]

Armin Rosen, a Media Fellow with The Atlantic, criticized Peter Beinart's blog, Open Zion (which appears in The Daily Beast) for publishing an article by Alex Kane because he is Mondoweiss's "Staff Reporter". Rosen wrote that "Mondoweiss often gives the appearance of an anti-Semitic enterprise."[4]

Robert Wright, a Senior Editor at The Atlantic, responded to Rosen's article, writing "This tarring of Kane by virtue of his association with Mondoweiss would be lamentable even if Rosen produced a convincing indictment of Mondoweiss, showing that it indeed evinces anti-Semitism."[54] James Fallows, a national correspondent for The Atlantic concurred with Wright's response to Rosen.[55] Alex Kane, Adam Horowitz, and Philip Weiss responded in Mondoweiss arguing that Rosen's article, "is about nothing more than policing the discourse on Israel".[56]

Later that year, the Algemeiner Journal published another article criticising Mondoweiss for its associations with Judith Butler because of her comments describing Islamist movements, including those of the militant variety such as Hamas and Hezbollah, as "social movements that are progressive, that are on the Left, that are part of a global Left".[57]

In 2013, Peter Beinart, writing for The Daily Beast, accused Mondoweiss of "ignoring human rights abuse unless it can be linked to America or capitalism or the West", and said that "By admitting that they're more interested in human rights violations when Israel commits them than when Hamas does, Horowitz and Roth are implying that they don't really see human rights as universal".[58] Later in the year Commentary magazine accused Mondoweiss of being complicit in an "effort to delegitimize Jewish rights".[59]

In 2013, the Israel newspaper Haaretz described Mondoweiss as "a progressive Jewish blog".[60]

Journalist Bradley Burston, writing for Haaretz, described Mondoweiss as "avowedly anti-Israel" in reference to its coverage of the 2014 kidnapping and murder of Israeli teenagers.[61]

In 2015, David Bernstein, writing for The Washington Post, called the website a "hate site", and listed quotes from Weiss that he said were anti-Semitic. This included Weiss' claim that "the Israel lobby ... reflected a contract the American establishment had made with Jews to drive the economy in the 1970s",[62] which Bernstein likened to a belief in an "Elders of Zion type group". It was also described as a hate site in the book Anti-Zionism on Campus by Andrew Pessin.[63]

According to Elliot Kaufman, the Vice President of Cardinal for Israel, a Stanford University group, writing in The Stanford Review, Mondoweiss "often publishes astonishingly anti-Semitic material, using classic anti-Semitic imagery such as depicting Jews as spiders, cockroaches, or octopuses with tentacles controlling others, and Holocaust inversion. Its hatred of Israel is as deep as it is vicious."[64]

In 2018 Israeli journalist Amira Hass cited Mondoweiss as a must-read venue for those wanting to understand Israeli policy regarding Palestinians.[65]

References

  1. ^ "About Mondoweiss". Mondoweiss. Archived from the original on February 4, 2022. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  2. ^ a b "About Mondoweiss". June 5, 2014. Archived from the original on September 25, 2010. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
  3. ^ "Two perspectives on the Palestinian bid for statehood", WBEZ, September 23, 2011, archived from the original on December 2, 2013, retrieved March 23, 2013
  4. ^ a b Rosen, Armin (July 14, 2012). "A Reminder That Anti-Semitism Has No Place in Debates Over Israel". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on February 11, 2022. Retrieved February 11, 2022.
  5. ^ Mark Braverman, A Wall in Jerusalem: Hope, Healing, and the Struggle for Justice in Israel and Palestine, Archived July 22, 2021, at the Wayback Machine Hachette UK 2013 ISBN 978-1-455-57419-3
  6. ^ a b Michelle Goldberg, 'Idiosyncratic and influential anti-Zionist blogger Philip Weiss has a complicated relationship with Israel, American Jewry, and himself,' Archived May 6, 2021, at the Wayback Machine The Tablet 20 January 2011
  7. ^ Jane Adas, 'Interview with Jane Adas,' Archived September 21, 2020, at the Wayback Machine AMEU, Link, vol 43, No.1 January-March 2010 p.12
  8. ^ Weiss, Philip; Horowitz, Adam (June 23, 2011). "Site news: Introducing Mondoweiss's new home". Mondoweiss. Archived from the original on November 20, 2016. Retrieved January 13, 2024.
  9. ^ "Mondoweiss - Center for Economic Research and Social Change". cersc.org. Archived from the original on July 3, 2021. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
  10. ^ Weiss, Philip (nd). "Philip Weiss". New York. Archived from the original on April 19, 2021. Retrieved May 18, 2021. This is the archives of New York magazine articles written by Weiss from 2002 through 2009.
  11. ^ "Philip Weiss" Archived August 30, 2012, at the Wayback Machine at Harper's Magazine.
  12. ^ "Biography from Harper Collins". Archived from the original on March 30, 2013. Retrieved February 22, 2013.
  13. ^ "Philip Weiss". Observer. Archived from the original on April 13, 2021. Retrieved March 13, 2021.
  14. ^ Philip Weiss, Cock-a-Doodle-Doo, St. Martin's Press, March 1996, ISBN 0312141009, ISBN 978-0312141004.
  15. ^ Publisher Harper Collins web page Archived May 27, 2013, at the Wayback Machine on Philip Weiss, American Taboo: A Murder in the Peace Corps, 2004.
  16. ^ Weiss, Phillip (January 10, 2009). "I'm gonna wave my freak flag high (why I say I'm an 'Anti-Zionist,' not a 'Post-Zionist". Mondoweiss. Archived from the original on August 25, 2014. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
  17. ^ Weiss, Phillip (January 10, 2009). "It's time for the media to talk about Zionism". Mondoweiss. Archived from the original on August 12, 2014. Retrieved May 18, 2021.
  18. ^ Weiss, Phillip (January 17, 2013). "Anti-Zionist chic". Mondoweiss. Archived from the original on December 2, 2013. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
  19. ^ a b c Biography in "Peacebuilders delegation to Israel Palestine May & June 2011", Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, March 3, 2011. Archived July 14, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  20. ^ The New Media & the Palestine Question: Blogging Out of Conflict 2010 event, biography of Adam Horowitz, The Jerusalem Fund website. Archived January 27, 2013, at the Wayback Machine
  21. ^ *Adam Horowitz Archived February 21, 2013, at the Wayback Machine at The Nation
  22. ^ Adam Horowitz, "'Mr. Horowitz, tell us what you think of the two-state solution'" Archived January 15, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Mondoweiss, March 15, 2009.
  23. ^ The following events all accessed January 19, 2013.
  24. ^ Alex Kane Stories listing Archived April 13, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, AlterNet, accessed April 18, 2013.
  25. ^ Alex Kane, "It's official: Israel has gotten away with it — again" Archived April 18, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Salon, July 9, 2010.
  26. ^ Mondoweiss is growing: Join us in welcoming new staff Archived June 6, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, Mondoweiss 4 June 2019
  27. ^ Philip Weiss, "Blogging about Israel and Jewish identity raises Observer hackles" Archived September 24, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, The American Conservative, June 4, 2007.
  28. ^ 'Salon.com Partners With Purveyor of Anti-Semitic Material Mondoweiss,' Archived July 15, 2021, at the Wayback Machine The Algemeiner 23 July 2012
  29. ^ Philip Weiss, Adam Horowitz, Announcing a new partnership between Mondoweiss and Salon,' Archived July 15, 2021, at the Wayback Machine Mondoweiss 16 July 2012
  30. ^ Brad A. Greenberg, "Bad news for Jews: American accused of spying for Israel in '80s" Archived May 29, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, April 22, 2008.
  31. ^ Philip Weiss, "I Swear My Mama Doesn't Spy for Israel. Now, My Daddy–" Archived July 24, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Mondoweiss, April 22, 2008.
  32. ^ James Wolcott, Foxman Agonistes (Updated) Archived January 14, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Vanity Fair, July 31, 2010, accessed February 20, 2013.
  33. ^ Philip Weiss, "'ADL' statement rationalizing bigotry draws wide scorn" Archived April 11, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, Mondoweiss, July 30, 2010.
  34. ^ a b Tracy, Marc (June 5, 2012). "Ben-Gurion Airport Israeli Security Is Checking Arabs' and Muslims' Emails: Associated Press picks up story from advocacy blog Mondoweiss". Tablet Magazine. Archived from the original on May 14, 2013. Retrieved December 30, 2016.
  35. ^ Najwa Doughman and Sasha Al-Sarabi, "'Do you feel more Arab or more American?': Two women's story of being detained and interrogated at Ben Gurion" Archived April 7, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Mondoweiss, June 2, 2012.
  36. ^ Ian Rhodewalt /Congressman Joe Pitts: 'It is incumbent on Ariel Sharon and Yasir Arafat to restart a peace process' Archived November 17, 2023, at the Wayback Machine Mondoweiss 13 May, 2012
  37. ^ "On Middle East, Pitts Lives In Past; Bloggers Have Field Day After Legislator's Letter Invokes Yasir Arafat, Who Died In 2004, And Ariel Sharon, In Coma Since 2006", Intelligencer Journal/New Era, May 12, 2012.
  38. ^ Adam Horowitz, "Rep. Pitts in damage control mode following call for Arafat-Sharon negotiations" Archived February 27, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Mondoweiss, May 16, 2012.
  39. ^ Gary Kamiya, Can American Jews unplug the Israel lobby? Archived July 15, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, Salon 20 March 2007.
  40. ^ Massing, Michael (March 13, 2009). "The News About the Internet". The New York Review of Books. Archived from the original on May 23, 2010. Retrieved August 19, 2010.
  41. ^ James G. Abourezk, "Mondoweiss: A Profile in Courage" Archived December 3, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, November 2009.
  42. ^ James Wolcott, "Mondo Narco" Archived September 23, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, Vanity Fair, September 22, 2010.
  43. ^ "Sidelining of mainstream media in Israel-Palestine debate", Arab News, September 30, 2012.
  44. ^ Levick, Adam, "Anti-Semitic Cartoons on Progressive Blogs" Archived November 13, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, JCPA, September 2, 2010.
  45. ^ Smith, Lee. "Mainstreaming Hate" Archived June 23, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Tablet, July 21, 2010.
  46. ^ Smith, Lee. "Playing With Fire" Archived December 3, 2013, at the Wayback Machine Tablet, July 29, 2010.
  47. ^ Goldberg, Michelle. "Mondo Weiss" Archived December 3, 2013, at the Wayback Machine Tablet, January 20, 2011.
  48. ^ Philip Weiss, "'Tablet' is mobbed up with neocons" Archived July 25, 2010, at the Wayback Machine, July 22, 2010, Mondoweiss.
  49. ^ Stephen Walt, "The problem with judging a blog by its commenters (updated)" Archived December 3, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Foreign Policy, July 21, 2010.
  50. ^ "Salon.com Partners With Purveyor of Anti-Semitic Material Mondoweiss" Archived December 3, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, The Algermeiner July 23, 2012.
  51. ^ "Ron Unz: Controversial Writer and Funder of Anti-israel Activists". Anti-Defamation League. January 20, 2014. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
  52. ^ "New York Times, Others Praised Anti-Semitic and Slanderous Article". Algemeiner. December 12, 2013. Archived from the original on April 21, 2019. Retrieved April 21, 2019.
  53. ^ Robert Wright, "Neo-McCarthyism" Archived March 13, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, The Atlantic, July 15, 2012.
  54. ^ "In-House Items: Mayer and Yahoo" Archived March 13, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, Mondoweiss.
  55. ^ "Responding to 'The Atlantic' smear on Mondoweiss". Mondoweiss. July 16, 2012. Archived from the original on April 26, 2023. Retrieved April 26, 2023.
  56. ^ Petra Marquardt-Bigman, "Defending Judith Butler in The Ivory Tower" Archived December 3, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Algemeiner Journal, September 7, 2012.
  57. ^ Peter Beinart, "Why Not Criticize Hamas's Rights Violations?" Archived December 2, 2013, at the Wayback Machine The Daily Beast, March 13, 2013.
  58. ^ Tobin, Jonathan S. "Anti-Semitic Hate for Kids ... and Adults" Archived December 3, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, Commentary, July 8, 2013.
  59. ^ "Mock Funding Drive Launched to Send Bibi to Mandela Service". Haaretz. December 10, 2013. Archived from the original on July 9, 2021. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
  60. ^ Burston, Bradley (July 1, 2014). "Kidnap Denial: Blaming the victim of tragedy". Haaretz. Archived from the original on July 1, 2014. Retrieved July 2, 2014.
  61. ^ "'Mondoweiss' is a hate site (Updted)". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 9, 2019. Retrieved September 5, 2017.
  62. ^ Pessin, Andrew; Ben-Atar, Doron S. (2018). Anti-Zionism on Campus The University, Free Speech, and BDS. Indiana University Press. p. 73. ISBN 9780253034083.
  63. ^ Kaufman, Eliot (April 12, 2016). "Stanford's Most Radical Professor Strikes Again". The Stanford Review. Archived from the original on April 14, 2016. Retrieved April 13, 2016.
  64. ^ Hass, Amira (April 29, 2018). "The Websites You Must Visit to Understand Israel's Policy Toward Palestinians". Haaretz. Archived from the original on July 9, 2021. Retrieved July 9, 2021.

Further reading

  • Adam Horowitz, Lizzy Ratner, Philip Weiss (eds.), The Goldstone Report: The Legacy of the Landmark Investigation of the Gaza Conflict, Nation Books, 2011, ISBN 9781568586649.
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