לפיד בראיון לג'פרי גולדברג
לפיד בראיון לג'פרי גולדברגצילום: דוברות

One of America’s most prominent journalists has deepened an ongoing feud with the left-wing Israeli paper Haaretz, suggesting he would be unable to read the daily as he accuses it of demonizing Israel and providing fodder to those seeking to destroy the Jewish state.

Goldberg slammed the paper last Monday, writing on Twitter that “when neo-Nazis are emailing me links to Haaretz op-eds declaring Israel to be evil, I’m going to take a break, sorry.”

Despite Goldberg’s sympathies with the paper’s dovish ideology, TheAtlantic writer slammed the paper for what he called “anti-Israelism” and even anti-Semitism.

“I like a lot of the people at Haaretz, and many of its positions, but the cartoonish anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism can be grating.”

The response from Haaretz was not long in coming, with an op-ed piece by Gideon Levy blasting Goldberg’s “dangerous fantasies” and “boorishness”.

Rejecting the notion put forth by Goldberg that neo-Nazis cite Haaretz to justify their views on the Jewish state, Levy then asserts neo-Nazis “are now some of Israel’s best friends.”

Nor did the spate end there. In an interview with Walla News, Goldberg said he “felt exhausted by the paper [Haaretz], and that the time has come for me to take a break from reading it”.

“My Tweet last week related to a newspaper which publishes articles opposed to the very existence of Israel. To me, [publishing that] is an insane act.”

“I see in Haaretz – aside from some good articles and interesting opinions – op-ed pieces which regularly describe Israel as being evil, in the words of Gideon Levy”.

“I can read anti-Semitic and anti-Israel things like this on other websites, there’s really no need for an Israeli website like this.”

The New York Times does not publish pieces describing Israel as ‘evil’, and also does not publish articles denying the Holocaust”.