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Monday, May 06, 2024
Writers Attacking Pen America over Israel Are Burning Down Their Own House
My new essay on the inexcusable boycott of Pen America has been posted at The Hill.
Here is the gist:
Writers attacking Pen America over Israel are burning down their own house
Almost tragically, a hard corps of American writers — some prominent, others emerging — have, evidently, set out to all but destroy Pen America for the perceived sin of being insufficiently condemnatory of Israel’s Gaza war.
There is a crucial scene in “A Man for All Seasons,” Robert Bolt’s iconic play about the role of integrity in human affairs, when Sir Thomas More explains his unwavering principles to a disbelieving William Roper:
More: “What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?”
Roper: “Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that!”
More: “And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide, the laws all being flat?”
To the writers who would flatten Pen America for the offense of insufficient demonization of Israel: Where will you find a champion, should the zeitgeist turn ‘round on you?
You can read the entire essay at The Hill.
Posted by Steve Lubet on May 6, 2024 at 02:54 PM | Permalink
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