Monday, December 18, 2017

Cornel West on the Palestinians

I am glad how passionate Cornel West has become on the Palestinians.  It is now an essential criterion for him in judging intellectuals.  But it was not always like that.  Back in the 1980s and early 1990s, Cornel West was very quick to denounce the PLO and accuse it of anti-Semitism, when the PLO was never guilty of anti-Semitism.  He, writing in Tikkhun, once spoke of the "ugly anti-Semitism" of the PLO (Joseph Massad reminded me of this one).  He also co-wrote a book with Michael Lerner of Tikkun in which I remember he also took a swipe at the Palestinians.  Cornel West was an establishment figure in the 1980s and 1990s.  The rise of Obama and his (first) experience at Harvard radicalized him.