But he’s received acknowledgement from wider circles for the scoops and hard-to-beat insider access he managed to get while embedded with insurgents in Gaza: The Weekly Standardwrote that “he probably has more sources in the insurgency than any other American reporter.” That access was enabled by Rosen’s fluent Arabic, olive skin, and perhaps also his sympathies — as The Weekly Standard concluded in the same article, “No wonder Rosen has such great access to the Baathists and jihadists who make up the Iraqi insurgency. He’s on their side.” Liberals widely condemned that line as intellectual McCarthyism. Whether or not Rosen actively sympathizes with terrorists, it’s clear from his own writing that he does view America as an exceptionally evil imperialist occupier.
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That may be why he could little sympathize with American outrage over the September 11 attacks. In an interview with the English-language outlet Russia Today, Rosen said, “In terms of the deaths of 3,000 people, they were tragic, and they were sad. . . . But the real impact was in our reaction to it — the hysterical nationalism, the increase in the national-security state, the reduction in civil liberties that followed. . . . That wasn’t necessary after the deaths of 3,000 people in a nation of 300 million.”
Ten years after 9/11, he wrote on Twitter that he found it hard to “disagree with much of the Islamic Emirate Of Afghanistan Statement Regarding The Anniversary Of The 9/11 Event.”
One of the main themes of his writing and public appearances is that the U.S. has wildly overestimated the threats al-Qaeda poses to the U.S. When asked by Russia Today what threat al-Qaeda poses to the U.S., he replied, “Zero. Absolutely zero.” He claims to have met with al-Qaeda members, whom he describe as backwards idiots who “don’t know how to operate a Western toilet.” The belief that al-Qaeda poses a serious threat to America, he claims, is motivated by anti-Islamic prejudice.
He believes that Islamist violence in the Arab world is a natural response to American imperialism: “You still have that physical force and the threat of violence,” he told Democracy Now! “Indeed, I think we’re actually a failure as an empire. We actually managed to make the Taliban look good. We took the most detested regime in the world, the Taliban, removed them in a matter of weeks, and here, seven, eight years later, they’re more popular than ever.”
Rosen has a profound hatred for Israel: Its existence is a “blight unto the nations,” and he hopes to “speed its demise.” Though he manages a calm tone in anti-Israel polemics in major publications, his Facebook posts about Israel are more in this style: “i have always opposed israel and supported anybody who is opposed to israel. just as anybody concerned with justice and freedom must” and, “israel’s existence is an abomination,” and, most poetically, “[f***] Israel.” He has even welcomed the prospect of a “third intifada.”
In other words, his pathological hatreds — which made him incapable of sympathizing with a rape victim because of her politics — have been on display throughout his career.
— Matthew Shaffer is a William F. Buckley Jr. Fellow at the National Review Institute.
*sigh* Disgraceful, but not unexpected, sadly. This man ought to try speaking his views in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. Then again, if he found himself in Israel, this whackjob would probably start attacking random people.
The amazing thing about this situation is that Mr. Nir Rosen is presumably ethnically Jewish. NYU has done quite a disservice to itself by being associated with this man. Unfortunately, there are tens of thousands of people like him embedded in American universities and the liberal establishment media.
The solution to a sociopathic terrorist sympathizer like Rosen is a "target" superimposed on his visage. Vince Flynn would have a perfect place for him in one of his novels.
James: Sadly, this type of person is not rare in Israel where the Left burns strong. It is only thwarted by the realism that living there produces in most of the population. That is they have stronger antidote to their Left than we do.
cdcscott: Perhaps then the Islamists aren't as racist as they make themselves out to be, allowing a Jew to act as a useful idiot. Of course they also team up with atheists, so go figure.
This article reminds me of the racism of low expectations. So we're anti-Muslim because we thin that they have the capability to build weapons and the intelligence to craft war plans? And he's philo-Muslim because he describes them "as backwards idiots who 'don’t know how to operate a Western toilet'"?
And of course the US is a lousy empire. It's a liberal democratic republic. But he brings a really bad example - who on earth thinks highly of the Taliban other than the Taliban's mothers? Unless the moms are upset they can't go outside or read a book. They were thought more well of when they were in power (not every country considered them a pariah). Now they're only support is in Pakistan.
And there is a certain pathology that runs through the left in this country, and that includes my well meaning liberal friends. They are so anxious to be correct in their political point of view that they would find themselves unable to condemn this man's thoughts. Look how many voted for Obama knowing his associations and points of view. Liberals are currently a menace to free people everywhere.
Not surprised by what I am reading - I just hope that the latest nasty remarks by Rosen hasten his demise. That he calls for the destruction of Israel shows that he is sociopath in addition to being an misanthrope.
these people have gotten so emboldened due to the attitudes and policies of our s/illustrious s\ president. 2012 cannot get here soon enough, I just hope its not too late!
I think Mr. Rosen should not be allowed in this country. Send the nasty little man home before somebody hurts him. He is not fit to set foot on American soil.
The New York University’s Center on Law and Security, the New American Foundation and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee should all denounce and fire this jerk. Send his sorry butt back to wherever he came from. He has not earned a right to be in th U.S. We should not tolerate this little rat.
Mr. Rosen is a product of the leftist American media, and as such, is no different than most of them. Now they seem to be turning on him because he has "offended" one of their own, but not for his open hatred of America. Anyone who takes an honest look at what happened to the female reporter in Egypt will see that she was as much a victim of her own limitless ambition as she was of the mob. And all this because of a "sexual assault"? What exactly was that "assault"? The MSM is offering no details, though they have them. Did someone in the crowd simply grab her butt? Is that what the international furror is all about? That's very different from what some leftist talking heads are saying, They're "occasionally" calling it rape. Was it, and why the secrecy? If it were a private citizen, not detail would be left uncovered.
Every day another person like Nir Rosen surfaces in our society. I'd say another disloyal person, but that would be hate speech or intolerant nativism or something. How do so many people of his stripe get created? Our society is obviously doing something wrong in raising our children. Maybe the governor of Minnesota has his finger on something with the teachers.
Rosen is warped and hatefull. What a jerk. What would this animal say if it were their sister or mother? I know Rosen would not care as he has no empathy or respect for females.
The whole thing makes me angry.
From what I read his folks are from Israel and he spent a lot of time there as a youngster, though he predictably believes religion is "backward and absurd."
The ironic thing is that as a post modernist westerner, he is free to reject his religious and ethnic roots with no consequences. However, if he revealed these roots to many of the "freedom fighters" he courts, he might well be decapitated in ritualistic fashion.
Nir in fact wrote about Jew hating on the "Arab street" in 2003.
He probably was unaware (at the moment of his callous tweets) that the jubilant crowd Cairo attacking Logan was chanting "jew jew" proving what he already knows yet somehow escapes him in classic cognitive dissonance.
The irony of Rosen and his schtick disproves his entire world view. To wit, in order to get good stories about how the US/West is oppressive neo-colonialist bent on world domination and jihadist are merely oppressed yeoman rising up against the tormentor, Rosen must conceal his own jewishness.
And, on the Right, Debbie Schlussel doesn't sympathize with the lady's fate because she is a supporter of the Egyptian protestors.
I'm sorry, the lady was raped by jerks. I feel sorry for her and hope she does well. Her politics are a different matter. It's good to see Rosen get the boot.
No big liberal tears will be shed for Nir Rosen. Give it a couple of weeks and you will see this anti-semite hired at another Center for the Study of Navel Gazing. Expect big coverage in "Rolling Stones" magazine.
