The Object of Their Dis-Affection

Melanie Phillips explains why Israeli historian (ex-"new historian") Benny Morris (currently researching a new book in Melanie's stomping ground) drives the lefto-zanies wild:

He remains committed to a ‘two-state solution’; he still believes the Israeli ‘settlements’ are an obstacle to peace (although not theobstacle, which is Palestinian rejectionism); in no way can he be described a man of ‘the right’. Maybe it is for that reason that he sustains such vicious abuse from the left; nothing drives them more crazy than being confronted by an apostate upon whom they cannot pin the lazy label that automatically consigns him or her to exile beyond the pale.

Whatever; the fact remains that Morris displays considerable courage by bluntly and implacably telling the brutal truth as he sees it – that there is no real difference between Abbas and the Hamas, and that a Palestinian state that doesn’t accept Israel’s right to exist will be a staging post for the elimination of Israel. To those on the left – including Jews – this is a heresy that is simply impossible to acknowledge without provoking in themselves an existential political and moral meltdown. And the fact that one of their own is voicing it means that he must therefore be banished to the third circle of hell, aka ‘the right’...

I LOVE it here in the third circle of hell. It's toasty warm, the air is clear and full of convivial chuckles, and since I now longer feel guilty about the things liberals feel guilty about, it's pretty much angst-free.