Eric Atlerman is taking some heat over comments he made regarding
attacks against Jews in France. Alterman complains,
I got a ton of mail yesterday, some of it abusive,
complaining about my comments on attacks against French Jews.
Roughly half of the e-mails accused me of “blaming the victims”
because I stated that the attacks, undertaken virtually exclusively
by young immigrant Arabs, were inspired by the Israeli occupation of
Palestine and could be ameliorated by ending that occupation. Well,
I didn’t “blame” anyone. I merely explained what I understand to be
the sources of Arab anger.
Give me a break. Of course Alterman was blaming the victim. Can you
imagine him seriously writing something like,
Roughly half of the e-mails accused me of “blaming the
victims” because I stated that the attacks against abortion
providers, undertaken virtually exclusively by pro-lifers, were
inspired by the large numbers of abortions and could be ameliorated
by overturning Roe v. Wade. Well, I didn’t “blame” anyone. I merely
explained what I understand to be the sources of Eric Rudolph’s
anger.
or maybe,
Roughly half of the e-mails accused me of “blaming the
victims” because I stated that the attacks against African
Americans, undertaken virtually exclusively by young white males,
were inspired by affirmative action and could be ameliorated by
overturning affirmative action policies. Well, I didn’t “blame”
anyone. I merely explained what I understand to be the sources of
racist skinhead anger.
Okay, maybe Alterman would be willing to rationalize that these are
anything other than blaming the victim, but would anyone take him
seriously? No, of course not.