Jeffrey Goldberg was reacting to a Haaretz opinion piece titled, “We're American Jewish historians. This is why we've left Zionism behind.”
Goldberg tweeted, “I think I'm getting ready to leave Haaretz behind, actually” along with a link to the article.
Haaretz correspondents taking umbrance at Goldberg’s comment asked him whether his remark was meant as a threat. Goldberg replied that he was tired of constantly reading about evil Jews in the newspaper's opinion pages and “nutty stuff” mixed in with the good journalism. “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,” he said.
Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken has led the newspaper further left then his father who was deeply left. Schocken felt that the anti-Jewish historians should be given their say, but Goldberg responded, “Amos, what you don't understand is that the problems on campus are caused in part by [garbage] like this.”
When Haaretz journalist Anshel Pfeffer accused Goldberg of Haaretz-bashing, Goldberg responded, “Come on, Pfeffer, take responsibility for what's in your newspaper.”
Pointing to a piece by Gideon Levy titled, “Stop Living in Denial, Israel is an Evil State,” Goldberg said, “Look, when neo-Nazis are emailing me links to Haaretz op-eds declaring Israel to be evil, I’m going to take a break, sorry.”
Haifa University economics professor Steven Plaut calls the newspaper “the Palestinian newspaper printed in Hebrew” and attributes Haaretz’s continuing dropping readership to the radical positions taken by its editors. Today Haaretz is barely read by 3% of the country.
In a related matter, IDF group Reservists at the Front have begun to distribute copies of pamphlet containing selection of articles and columns from Haaretz newspaper that portray Israel as evil and are used by the BDS movement to justify its campaign to boycott Israel and isolate it internationally.
The items featured include calls by Haaretz publisher Amos Schocken to the international community to pressure Israel; headlines such as “Israel is an evil state”; “Human beasts, child killers”; and “Judeo-Nazis,” and columns by Gideon Levy and other writers. The pamphlet bears the slogan: “Stay in Israel, leave Haaretz behind.”