Cockburn and anti-Semitism
Cockburn has written a great deal on the use of anti-Semitism accusations in modern politics, particularly by the state of Israel and its supporters, and has co-edited a book on the subject,
The Politics of Anti-Semitism. Cockburn himself has also been accused of anti-Semitism, which he denies and considers an example of the use of that accusation to intimidate criticism of Israel and avert attention from Israel's policies.
One of those making anti-Semitism charges against Cockburn is Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz. In November 2005, Dershowitz wrote to the
National Catholic Reporter that Cockburn's
Counterpunch web site was anti-Semitic. This was in response to a review of Norman Finkelstein's book
Beyond Chutzpah by
Counterpunch contributor Neve Gordon. Cockburn had previously accused Dershowitz, in 2003, of plagiarism, and, in October 2005, of supporting torture. Cockburn and Dershowitz have each denied the other's charges. Dershowitz has also claimed that Cockburn has been one of three writers (along with Norman Finkelstein and Noam Chomsky) who are engaged in an attempt to discredit him, which Cockburn has also denied.
A 2002 Cockburn article on anti-Semitic remarks by Reverend Billy Graham reprinted elsewhere, discussed the furor over recently released tape recorded conversations between Graham and President Richard Nixon. Cockburn contrasted that response to the response to revelations in 1989 that Graham had advocated destroying Vietnam's irrigation infrastructure, which by Nixon's estimate would kill a million civilians, if the Paris peace talks failed. The latter revelations, in Cockburn's view, received little press coverage, while the anti-Semitic remarks caused a media firestorm. Cockburn wrote that Graham's anti-Semitic comments were
consonant with the standard conversational bill of fare at 75 percent of the country clubs in America, not to mention many a Baptist soiree? But they (Nixon, Graham, and White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman) didn't say they wanted to kill a million Jews. That's what Graham said about the Vietnamese and no one raised a bleat.
His critics quoted the final passage, reproduced below, to accuse Cockburn of spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories:
Certainly, there are a number of stories sloshing around the news now that have raised discussions of Israel and of the posture of American Jews to an acrid level. The purveyor of anthrax may have been a former government scientist, Jewish, with a record of baiting a colleague of Arab origins, and with the intent to blame the anthrax on Muslim terrorists. Rocketing around the web and spilling into the press are many stories about Israeli spies in America at the time of 9/11. On various accounts, they were trailing Mohamed Atta and his associates, knew what was going to happen but did nothing about it, or were simply spying on US facilities.
One of the Cockburn critics was Franklin Foer of
The New Republic, who first noted Cockburn's response:
To be fair, Cockburn doesn't exactly endorse these theories. Rather, by noting that all of these Jewish conspiracy stories are "sloshing around the news," Cockburn seems merely to be pointing out that, hey, anti-Semitic ideas are still out there today — so why the shock that Graham endorsed them 30 years ago? Indeed, when I reached Cockburn to ask him about these conspiracies, he insisted he was just reporting what was already in circulation.
Part of Cockburn's response to the Graham article controversy is his ironically entitled essay
My Life as an "Anti-Semite", from the
The Politics of Anti-Semitism. Cockburn writes:
Over the past 20 years I've learned there's a quick way of figuring out just how badly Israel is behaving. You see a brisk uptick in the number of articles here accusing the left of anti-Semitism. ...
Back in the 1970s when muteness on the topic of how Israel was treating Palestinians was near-total in the United States, I'd get the anti-Semite slur hurled at me once in a while for writing about such no-no stuff as Begin's fascist roots in Betar, or the torture of Palestinians by Israel's security forces. I minded then, as I mind now, but overuse has drained the term of much clout.
Cockburn and Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens is often mentioned in connection with Cockburn because of their similar origins (Cockburn from Ireland, Hitchens from England), similar educational background, both being columnists at
The Nation, and their strained friendship.
Hitchens' ideological differences on various issues have caused bitter moments between the two men. Beyond issues such as the wars in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq, they strongly differ over ethical disputes involving writers such as Sidney Blumenthal and Edward Said. In a
Counterpunch article in August 2005, Cockburn attacked Hitchens as: "A guy who called Sid Blumenthal one of his best friends and then tried to have him thrown into prison for perjury; a guy who waited til his friend Edward Said was on his death bed before attacking him in the
Atlantic Monthly; a guy who knows perfectly well the role Israel plays in US policy but who does not scruple to flail Cindy Sheehan as a LaRouchie and anti-Semite because, maybe, she dared mention the word Israel." Hitchens responded by standing by his criticism of Sheehan and then defending his deposition to House prosecutors regarding Blumenthal during the Clinton impeachment and his critical review of Said’s book,
Orientalism (Hitchens stating that the review was determined by the 25th anniversary of the book’s original publication and not the state of Said’s health).
In a 2009 interview with C-SPAN's Brian Lamb, Hitchens intimated that his friendship with Cockburn is still intact, despite the critical gulf between them, discussed above, which were primarily exposed in the press in 2005 and before. Lamb directly asked what Hitchens relationship with Cockburn was today [April, 2009], to which Hitchens mentioned that he recently had attended a Cockburn family wedding in which Alexander officiated, and that he and Cockburn used to see each other frequently, but, due to each of them now living on opposite coasts, they see each other much less. In this same interview Lamb and Hitchens further discussed Cockburn's scathing remarks about Hitchens criticisms of Said and Sheehan, mentioned above. From his 2009 perspective, Hitchens clearly felt the intervening years have justified his criticisms of Sheehan, and expressed that "it's beneath Alexander to be defending someone as cheap and demagogic as her." In the case of Hitchens' criticisms of Edward Said on his death bed, Hitchens replied, "It's actually rather silly of Alexander to say that, I think, because if you look at his [Cockburn's] journalism, he would rightly be proud of saying that he's often written counter-obituaries of people who have been overpraised and has chosen precisely the moment when there's a lot of sentimental garbage being published to say, 'come on, this guy wasn't so great!' So, it's silly of him — he gives a hostage to fortune in saying that."
