Love or Tough Love, Both Worthless Without Understanding; Nicholas Kristof Actually Understands...

At least, Boris Christoff pretended neither love nor tough love. But his soppy landsman Nick Kristof traffics in both, "love" for humankind and the Palestinians but what he calls "tough love" for Israel. I've noted here several times, however, that even his unabashed love for the people of Darfur, when joined to his favored political contrivances (Security Council resolutions, African Union peacekeeping, pressure on the Chinese, other blah, blah) leave them as immiserated victims of Arab racism. The fact is that one wouldn't ordinarily match Kristof's writings against the standards of sound analysis, which is what I suppose he means by "tough love." After all, he is a professional whiner, and maybe even the best in the business. But since he now purports to answer a chosen four of his critics -- one of his columns was... [read full story]