Further proof of how liberals and progressives fall within Empire’s parameters of acceptable critical discourse and hence serve to legitimize imperialism and Zionism with their policy-confined critiques:
“The Reut Institute, an Israeli think tank with connections to the Israeli government, recommends in one of its reports: “Broadening the tent to include liberal and progressive circles: Reut maintains that in order to effectively challenge delegitimization [of Israel], the pro-Israel community must broaden its base by increasing its tolerance for legitimate criticism of the country’s policies and seeking the support of progressive and liberal circles….
Reut contends that broadening the tent is the pro-Israel camp’s opportunity to drive a wedge between those whose ultimate goal is Israel’s demise and those who principally support the legitimacy of its existence regardless of policy disagreements. In this context, we specifically emphasized the need to harness the support of liberal and progressive circles. Their denunciation of delegitimization is particularly potent because they hold the banner of universal values and human rights –the same tenets that delegitimizers falsely claim to defend.
Critically, a broad tent is not an open tent. There are boundaries between legitimate criticism and acts of delegitimization. For this reason, becoming part of the tent should require a commitment to an acceptable code of conduct regarding discourse on Israel, delineated by ‘red lines.’ “
Source: http://reut-institute.org/data/uploads/PDFVer/20120101%20ReViews%20-%20Deleg%20in%202011%20-%20issue%2017_1.pdf
