I suggest that if Yglesias and similarly-situated bloggers want to address the root causes of R. Bernstein’s obviously painful decision to denounce the organization he founded and nurtured, they read this comprehensive report by NGO Monitor. If Yglesias and other HRW defenders haven’t read it, they are in no position to claim that criticism of HRW as anti-Israel is “nonsense.” But I won’t hold my breath because Yglesias, at least, still seems to have no interest in seriously examining why HRW has been on the receiving end of so much obloquy.
And who exactly is NGO Monitor, said authority on such matters? Here's Wikipedia. You guessed it. Do they really think we can't see past vague acronyms or market-tested names? And here's Kevin Jon Heller from a few months ago:
Bernstein bases his recent posts on “reports” issued by NGO Monitor, an organization that unlike HRW makes absolutely no effort to be critical of both sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict:
NGO Monitor’s objective is to end the practice used by certain self-declared humanitarian NGOs’ of exploiting the label universal human rights values’ to promote politically and ideologically motivated anti-Israel agendas.
NGO Monitor at least gets credit for truth in advertising: every single report it has issued in 2009 has attacked an NGO or state or other organization that criticized Israel.
Heller's more recent response to the Robert Bernstein editorial is here.