There’s a huge elephant in the room all the time: the subject of Israel and the Palestinians. Now most intellectuals in this country understand perfectly well that if you raise your head above the battlements that far, maybe three inches above the wall on Israel, you’re going to get your head blown off. No one writing for a mainstream magazine, no one working in the academies could approach that subject and talk with any degree of objectivity and passion about what’s happened to the Palestinians at the hands of the Israelis or they’ll be finished. That’s radicalism. Anyone can make a little posture about a lot of issues in America, but when you get down to Palestinians – that’s serious.

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Alexander Cockburn of Counterpunch.org