Nationalism Near and Far: Mitchell Cohen Replies

Jim Rule, a valued Dissent colleague, and I have a very sharp disagreement. In the aftermath of Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, I wrote in praise of this man’s revolutionary transformation while prime minister; it brought mutual recognition between the PLO and Israel, and the beginning of the end of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, despite furious opposition in Israel by right-wing and religious Zionists. Rule responds, in effect, that little differentiated Rabin, Baruch Goldstein (the religious right-winger who slaughtered scores of Palestinians at prayer in Hebron two years ago), Louis Farrakhan, and, by implication, me.

This is more curious than “bracing.” After all, Rabin, who denounced...