Ta-Nehisi Coates and the Moral Rot of Anti-Zionism

On Saturday, the New York Review of Books published “An Open Letter from Participants in the Palestine Festival of Literature.” First on the list of 82 signatories is Ta-Nehisi Coates. Presumably this was meant to highlight the involvement of such a prominent figure; the listing is non-alphabetical. While it is unclear whether Coates was involved in drafting the statement or merely lending it his immense prestige as the most lavishly praised public figure in American letters, it says a lot about Coates that he signed on.

What it says is that anti-Zionism has utterly rotted Coates’s capacity for moral judgment or human empathy.

About the Author

Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

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On Saturday, the New York Review of Books published “An Open Letter from Participants in the Palestine Festival of Literature.” First on the list of 82 signatories is Ta-Nehisi Coates. Presumably this was meant to highlight the involvement of such a prominent figure; the listing is non-alphabetical. While it is unclear whether Coates was involved in drafting the statement or merely lending it his immense prestige as the most lavishly praised public figure in American letters, it says a lot about Coates that he signed on.

What it says is that anti-Zionism has utterly rotted Coates’s capacity for moral judgment or human empathy.