I was much struck last week by an interesting exchange—a minor flurry in the blogging world—sparked by a post at The Atlantic's blog room. Political writer Jeffrey Goldberg, discussing the Carmel fire in Israel, urged his readers not to donate to the relief and rebuilding efforts supported by the Jewish National Fund. The Fund, he pointed out, was planning to pay for things the Israeli government itself should pay for. Well-wishers shouldn't encourage Israel to rely on foreign donations; they should join Goldberg in wanting Israel to prioritize its public spending better.
My longer discussion of the Goldberg appeal can be found here. I won't rehash the arguments, but I think the episode is worth further examination because of the assumption behind many of the reader reactions. Quite a few readers, at Goldberg's blog and elsewhere, asserted in effect that Goldberg was perfectly justified in seeing the issue through a political lens. Although fire victims were suffering and Israel was losing large tracts of forest land to the conflagration, the readers didn't see it as inappropriate, in discussing the topic of donations, to focus on political rather than humanitarian considerations.
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