Newsweek's Eleanor Clift got a bit of a tongue-lashing from US News and World Report's Mort Zuckerman on this weekend's McLaughlin Group.
After Clift predictably praised President Obama's press conference last week, Zuckerman aggressively shot back, "That's nonsense to say the Israelis don't think through the consequences of war! That’s ridiculous!" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
JOHN MCLAUGHLIN, HOST: Do you realize what Obama has done by going with this press conference in which he gave really a probably the best speech of his career at that press conference, his explanation of this, the way he moved through it was simply brilliant. And perhaps truth telling, I think quite truth telling. Don’t you?
ELEANOR CLIFT, NEWSWEEK: He also framed it as a matter of U.S. national security. It's not only about Israel's interests. And he pointed out that he has moved himself from thinking about a policy of containment to a policy of prevention. And his message for the last week is we've got Israel's back, but Israel, please do not act on your own because you have to think through the consequences, you have to think through the consequences of war, and the Republicans have been getting away with a lot of loose talk.
CLIFT: The only difference…
ZUCKERMAN: That's nonsense to say the Israelis don't think through the consequences of war! That’s ridiculous!
Nicely said, Mort.
Bravo!
