The last time Ali Abunimah graced the august pages of the Grey Lady, he was expressing limited satisfaction with Obama's ongoing efforts to detonate the US-Israel alliance. That was a few weeks ago.

But this tool has been all over the NYT for years. In 2001 he was writing op-eds describing Israeli actions as "relentless and without mercy." In 2002 the NYT was publishing his letters outlining "Palestinian Rights." In 2008 he was contributing quotes about Obama's pragmatism, which he'd learned about over the many years of friendship that the two had shared.

There's a reason the NYT keeps going back to Abunimah. It's because he's such a reasonable and levelheaded guy:

Accusing the Jewish state of "genocide," an anti-Israel Palestinian activist once commended by President Obama has predicted the end of Israel, which, he boasted, is "within reach, in our lifetimes." In a piece earlier this month titled, "Why Israel won't survive," Ali Abunimah, co-founder of Electronic Intifada, a pro-Palestinian online publication, accused Israel of war crimes and gloated, "Now, the other pillar of Israeli power - Western support and complicity - is starting to crack. We must do all we can to push it over." "It is Israel as a Zionist state, not Palestine or the Palestinian people, that cannot survive this attempted genocide. Its problem is legitimacy, or rather a profound and irreversible lack of it," wrote Abunimah.

That fantasy about Israel losing Western support has been a central eliminationist trope in the Middle East for decades. In fairness to Abunimah, he can be excused for thinking that it's actually true this time (h/t: MR reader CB).

References and previously after the jump...