M.J. Rosenberg to Leave Israel Policy Forum
By Nathan Guttman September 3, 2009
The Israel Policy Forum is losing its most forceful voice in the public debate over promoting Israeli-Palestinian peace. M.J. Rosenberg, who served as the group’s director of policy analysis, is leaving IPF at the end of the month. Rosenberg will join Media Matters Action Network, a progressive organization focused on countering right-wing attacks in the media. He will be in charge of Middle East policy issues there.
“Up to now there was a separation in the blogosphere between being liberal and talking about Israel,” Rosenberg said, adding that his mission with Media Matters is “to send a message, that if you’re progressive you shouldn’t be supporting the occupation.”
Rosenberg wrote IPF’s weekly opinion column and also published a popular blog on Talking Points Memo’s TPMCafé. In these columns he expressed views to the left of the Jewish mainstream that had at the time angered some of his bosses at IPF. (Rosenberg, for example, was the strongest voice in the Jewish community supporting the controversial attempt to appoint Chas Freeman to a top intelligence post in the Obama administration.)
Before joining IPF Rosenberg worked for AIPAC but in recent years he has become one of the harshest critics of the pro-Israel lobbying powerhouse.
In a statement published Thursday, IPF’s executive director Nick Bunzl said that Rosenberg’s weekly columns and blog posts were among the most widely read by those following the Arab–Israeli conflict. “Often controversial, always provocative, MJ developed a signature style that pushed the envelope in a way that drove much needed discussion and debate on the issue,” Bunzl said.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
