Andrew Sullivan: Gaza War Was "Immoral and
Counter-productive. An Act of Anger and Vengeance And Cruelty"

post from TPMCafe on 07 November 2009 02:50:00 PM. © TPMCafe

Andrew Sullivan has been a life-long supporter of the State of Israel. His ardor for Israel was demonstrated weekly when, as a twenty-something, he edited The New Republic -- owned by Martin Peretz, one of the most extreme neocons in the country.

No more. The Gaza war did it. This is what he writes today, "I suspect in due course that Gaza will be understood as immoral, and counter-productive. It repelled me in a way that nothing Israel has done repelled me. It was an act of anger and vengeance and cruelty. And it will come back to haunt the Jewish state," he writes.

Andrew Sullivan is no enemy of Israel. In the words of his colleague, Jeff Goldberg of the Atlantic, an ardent Israel firster, "I know Andrew loves Israel, and he's a Zionist."

That makes Sullivan's criticism all the more significant. Times are changing. As for that appalling vote on Goldstone, it's a blip. History only moves forward, sometimes in starts and lurches, but ultimately forward. The occupation of the '67 territories has become a stench in the nostril of mankind.