When the League of Nations expired the United Nations inherited the Mandate of Palestine and with it the also inherited duty to bring this undivided Mandate to the status of self-governance.
Instead the United Nations illegally arrogated to itself the ‘right’ to divide the Mandate into Jewish and Arabic portions. Where did the UN find that right? On Mount Sinai? Guess who the United Nations appointed as the spokesman for the Palestinian Arabs? King Farouk of Egypt! It was all a gigantic scam by the Western Powers who wanted the pesky Zionists off their backs a.s.a.p.
Instead of attacking this monstrous deal I. F. Stone supported what eventually became the major sore spot of the Middle East.
Want more meat on the bones? This is it.
Not enough meat? That is your problem, not mine.
My only mistake was that I called I. F. Stone ‘blind’. He was far from blind. On Israel he was a biased hack journalist. He knew who had murdered the Dutch poet Jacob Israel de Haan in Jerusalem because Jacob had defended the rights of Arabs in British court. Stone knew who had blown up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. He knew that the ‘Stern Gang’ and ‘Irgoen’ were terrorist organizations. His silence was criminal.

Inherit the Wind:they had the whole list,but the 3 you mention were not on it.  The obvious: they had to look at the mail to have the list, I would suppose.

Founder of Mother Jones magazine or not, this review is milque-toast. It does not inspire to buy the book or even, to read more about I.F.Stone.

What’s the matter TD Editors, have you run out of people to write tough reviews? I found Sepharad’s comment about Isaac Babel riding with the Red Army more informative.

NYCartist, June 1 at 5:52 pm #

PS Forgot to say, (senior moment) that the government agency worker went into the boss’ office waving a list of magazine subs as evidence: IF Stone’s Weekly, The Nation and The Catholic Worker (how could you go wrong for a penny for a sub) - reading material = communists indeed in the agency “logic”.
***********************************

I’ll bet he didn’t show them your sub to Time, Reader’s Digest and Popular Science!

I always figured when they hit my house they’d find my copy of Capital and say “Aha!”  Consequently I always made sure it sat on the shelf between “Wealth of Nations” and “Atlas Shrugged”.

PS Forgot to say, (senior moment) that the government agency worker went into the boss’ office waving a list of magazine subs as evidence: IF Stone’s Weekly, The Nation and The Catholic Worker (how could you go wrong for a penny for a sub) - reading material = communists indeed in the agency “logic”.

Good review.  I read IFStone’s Weekly in the mid60s in my mid20s.  Had a sub in the South, where I was with a relative doing Antipoverty program organizing.  A certain federal agency went to my relative’s boss and said, “fire him; they are communists”.  The boss laughed and said, “No”.  I thought it a joke:I was too young to be a communist and as an artist, not very “radical”, although I was a pt time volunteer researcher,etc for a Civil Rights Law office.  Later, I learned about COINTELPRO.

I’d have added other things Izzy would have covered about Obama:Afghanistan, the drones/missiles into Pakistan villages, the torture policies not ended, the SECRECY continuation from Bush Administration, also. I also remember learning that Izzy learned Greek in his 70s or so, so he could read in the original.

dihey, I.F. Stone was not blind when it came to any subject, especially not Israel, which he knew well and understood.

Inherit, I also grew up with Izzy Stone’s Weekly and BiWeekly. I’d been trying to write stories since kindergarten, but his writings were what made me want to be a journalist (and of course along with other environmental influences and experiences, shaped my politics and still do). The only equal he had was the fiction writer Isaac Babel, whose stories of the Red Cavalry (which he rode with for a time) are as politically deft as Stone’s commentaries. We could steal the old saying “from Moses to Moses there was no one like Moses”, substituting “from Isaac to Izzy. ...” (Though I’m not sure Maimonides would have approved of either Isaacs’ sentiments, he would have definitely appreciated their depth, independence and perceptiveness.)

You managed to not answer my question at all. Just a synopsis could have been done by you with the reading recommendation. You stop being lazy by foisting it off to me with nothing but a dismissal. I don’t know when I will be able to afford that book. Can’t you just give me your interpretation of where I.F.Stone was “blind” in respect to Israel? Is it that hard for you to articulate? If so then I will demur. If not then I will ask again one more time. Thank you for your time.

Night-Gaunt:
My recommendation is: please stop being lazy and read “The best of I. F. Stone”, a book edited by Karl Weber with an Introduction by Peter Osnos. What they have to say on this subject exceeds the word limit of this website.

One should see the MARVELOUS documentary “I.F Stone’s Weekly”.

I grew up with the Weekly, then the Bi-Weekly showing up in our mailbox.  By the time I had an inkling what it was about, and who I.F.Stone was, it was already declining.

Really Dihey, then give us something more than a facile, empty comment? No meat on those bones. Blind in what way? Why bother commenting if you give nothing but your opinion on something you haven’t iterated on. How would I or anyone else know what you mean? That is taking brevity to the point of pointlessness.

Try again. With information this time.

Unfortunately, this brilliant Izzie was blind when it came to Israel.