Publicising his new book, The Message, on Trevor Noah’s podcast, US writer Ta-Nehisi Coates – the American left’s favourite public intellectual – made a startling admission. “I haven’t said this out loud but I think about it a lot,” Coates said. If he were 20 years old and living in Gaza, he might have joined in Hamas’ massacre on October 7. “The wall comes down… Am I… strong enough, or even constructed in such a way, where I say, “This is too far”?… I don’t know that I am.”
His book, which compares Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the Jim Crow laws of the American South, has caused outrage. Reviewing it for The Free Beacon, Barton Swaim describes the author as “clownish” and self-important, observing: “Coates is comically ill equipped to talk about Israel and its conflicts with Palestinian terror groups and Arab states, and you quickly get the sense that he knows he has no idea what he’s talking about and doesn’t care.” In The Free Press, Coleman Hughes calls Coates’ book “a masterpiece of warped arguments and moral confusion”, adding that Coates’ “desire to smear America has been eclipsed by his desire to smear Israel”. Coates rewrites reality: “In his telling, the threats don’t exist, only the barriers that Israel erects to contain them.” Meanwhile, Helen Andrews skewers Coates in Compact magazine as “a narcissist” and “a bad reporter,” along with his book. Andrews concludes: “The problem with Israel is that it shames him.” Israel’s success fundamentally undermines Coates’ worldview.
On his own podcast, the New York Times’ Ezra Klein asked Coates about his 10 day trip to the region: “Did you spend any time when you were there with people who I would classify politically as the Israeli right or the Israeli centre? You went with ‘Breaking the Silence,’ which is an anti-occupation group, with a Palestinian literary festival. Did you go around with anybody who would say, ‘No, we’re doing the right thing here, or even we’re not doing enough here?’”.
“Umm, no,” responded Coates.
“Why?” Klein replied.
“There are things in this world that I see that I just don’t want to hear the justification for, I just don’t think can be justified. I don’t want to hear.” Coates replied.
Many on the left lionise Coates. His current media blitz is similarly troubling. But his interview on CBS was especially revealing – because the reaction to his being asked to justify his arguments exposed ugly realities not just about CBS but about the publishing industry and the political left generally. First, the network humiliated itself after CBS Mornings co-host Tony Dokoupil (who is Jewish) challenged Coates over what the Free Press dubbed his “one-sided polemic against Israel”. Dokoupil noted in questioning Coates that his book omitted any reference to Israel’s current security threats, along with both intifadas and that the Israel section of his book “would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist”. Dokoupil then asked if Coates believes Israel has a right to exist. Coates responded that Doukopil’s view is already widely aired, whereas he represents unheard voices.
Coates wasn’t flustered by Dokoupil’s questions, but the interview led to complaints – from Dokoupil’s own CBS colleagues. On an October 7 staff call, a CBS’ senior staffer responded to the complaints: “We will still ask tough questions. We will still hold people accountable. But we will do so objectively, which means checking our biases and opinions at the door.” Except Dokoupil was reprimanded precisely for asking “tough questions” of a leftist hero, and criticised on the call for his “tone of voice, phrasing and body language” towards Coates – and for bringing his “bias” to the interview. “After a review of our coverage, including the interview, it’s clear that there are times we have not met our editorial standards.”
The next day Dokoupil apologised to his colleagues, saying he regretted putting them in a difficult position.
CBS then cancelled a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion expert’s meeting with staff after his inflammatory Instagram posts were flagged on social media.
Coates told podcaster Trevor Noah that another CBS co-host had previewed her planned questions for him. And the Free Press reported an August email advising staff not to identify Jerusalem “as being in Israel”.
But this saga also highlights the publishing industry’s biases. In 2021, Yossi Klein Halevi told me about helping Jewish writers find publishers for “very well written, reasonable, thoughtful, even profound, books [about Israel] that even as recently as a couple of years ago would have no problem getting published.
“Something is changing...I can’t pinpoint what the source is except broadly the obvious anti-Zionist tilt in growing parts of progressive discourse.”
Talented Jewish writers struggle to be published – especially after October 7 – but a Penguin Random House imprint backed Coates’ book, which simplistically projects American racial politics onto Israel.
Coates is incurious, intellectually unimpressive and “contextualises” barbarism. Publishing his amateur anti-Israel commentary discredits his publisher’s thoughtfulness. And CBS’ behaviour illustrates why most Americans mistrust the media.
Anti-Zionist propaganda animates a wide swathe of the left. That should concern all thinking Americans, because self-government requires shared facts, not preferred narratives.
Melissa Langsam Braunstein is a writer based in the Washington DC area
@slowhoneybee
