Another Obama advisor speaks his truth

Anti-semitism is all around Obama and yet even his aura is untouched by the evil.

The Nazi Cause of Islamism

Jew-hatred permeates Islamism as anyone paying attention knows. Paying attention is the problem. It seems everyone from the 9/11 commission to the United Nations doesn't want to know. The Weekly Standard's Matthias Küntzel has the most complete etiology of radical Islam.

The problem is not that the Islamists hide their goals. The problem is that the West does not listen. Osama bin Laden's chief reproach of the Americans in his "Letter to the American People" is that they act as free citizens who make their own laws instead of accepting sharia. The same hatred of freedom can be found in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's letter to the American president: "Those with insight can already hear the sounds of the shattering and fall of the ideology and thoughts of the liberal democratic systems."

Please, read the whole thing.

Are Illiberal Jews Anti-Semitic?--UPDATE Palestinian Failure

UPDATE: I note below the differences between Israel and the Palestinians. Siggy has a post so excellent you simply must go read it all. He says this:

An essay written by Carolyn Glick that appeared on the Jerusalem Post opinion page (given her presentation of the facts, it is hard to understand why her piece is opinion), that meshed well with our own post. Ms Glick notes that in the State of Palestine- replete with peace loving Palestinians fighting the dysfunctional Israelis- , a full

...88 percent of the public feels insecure. Perhaps the other 12 percent are members of the multitude of regular and irregular militias. For in the State of Palestine the ratio of police/militiamen/men-under-arms to civilians is higher than in any other country on earth.

In the State of Palestine, two-year-olds are killed and no one cares. Children are woken up in the middle of the night and murdered in front of their parents. Worshipers in mosques are gunned down by terrorists who attend competing mosques. And no one cares. No international human rights groups publish reports calling for an end to the slaughter. No UN body condemns anyone or sends a fact-finding mission to investigate the murders.

In the State of Palestine, women are stripped naked and forced to march in the streets to humiliate their husbands. Ambulances are stopped on the way to hospitals and wounded are shot in cold blood. Terrorists enter operating rooms in hospitals and unplug patients from life-support machines.

In the State of Palestine, people are kidnapped from their homes in broad daylight and in front of the television cameras. This is the case because the kidnappers themselves are cameramen. Indeed, their commanders often run television stations. And because terror commanders run television stations in the State of Palestine, it should not be surprising that they bomb the competition's television stations.

Welcome to the real world of Palestine, where simple racism, bigotry and hate no longer provide enough dysfunction. Whereas once only rabid anti semitism was the only world class achievement in which Palestinian and Arab societies and cultures excelled, it is clear that the Palestinians are now looking for yet another gold medal in dysfunctional behavior.

The Left has coddled this corrupt wretched excuse for humanity. Meanwhile, they condemn Israel? Yes they do. I, for one, am just glad we have a President who sees this degenerate group for who they are--nary a handshake from President Bush. At least that's something to be happy about.

**************************


From the New York Times today:

An essay the committee features on its Web site, ajc.org, titled “ ‘Progressive’ Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism,” says a number of Jews, through their speaking and writing, are feeding a rise in virulent anti-Semitism by questioning whether Israel should even exist.

Some Jews on the Left will insist that their criticism of Israel and Israeli policies are not anti-Semitic and fratricidal. Though not a Jew myself, I'm a person with great affection for all people who stand for freedom and Democracy wherever they live, and to me, much of the Jewish Leftist rhetoric seems anti-Semitic. I guess it's the asymmetrically applied moral strictures, that give it away.

Let's see:

• Israel is condemned for oppressing Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza, while Palestinians are giving a free pass for murdering Israelis.
• Israel gives away pieces of it's little bit of land and every time, violence by Palestinians increases.
• Israel obeys the rule of law, Palestinians use terrorism to coerce.
• Israel allows those who enable murderers to live, while Palestinians have made it absolutely clear that they want Israel destroyed (meaning all the Jews who live there) if they are given the chance.

When I read about Jews who want Israel abolished or the softer, gentler "shared state" solution, I can't help but to wonder what kind of self-loathing pathology has taken hold. It is very easy for an American Jew to opine about final solutions to the Israel problem. It sounds sophisticated and open-minded to be Jew and Israel-critical. It especially wins big points with white supremacists and Iran's mullahs.

Why do Jews espouse extreme anti-Israel views? Do they think it makes them smarter? Do they believe they will be spared hate and/or death? While it is difficult to imagine whole populations intend to kill all Jews, especially after it happened only sixty years ago, the fact is that whole populations do want Jews dead. Israel's existence is not fomenting these genocidal fantasies. Ahmadinejad and much of the radical Islamic world entertain murderous fantasies and they have a land to call their own. It is demented. It is soulless. It is irrational.

It is equally irrational to be Jewish and ignore this existential threat. Worse, it is irrational to believe there is anything rational about Iran's criticism of Israel. And Jews who believe that nearly all the critics aren't motivated by anti-Semitism choose to ignore that truth at their own peril.

Jewish progressives might profess love for Jews and still criticize Israel, those other elites and common people spouting anti-Israel rhetoric? There is no love for Jews in their hearts. They are anti-Semitic. By reinforcing their message, the progressives reinforce nefarious actions (like Iran acquiring nuclear bombs) while revealing their own anti-Semitism.

Paranoid Disorders in Politics & Elsewhere

Dr. Sanity has a great post examining the extreme Right and Lefts' psychological convergence regarding the war:

The tools of the politically paranoid--i.e., the paranoid style of the extreme right or left -- are denial, distortion, and projection. These psychological tools are almost always pathological when used to cope with the real world. For the user these three primitive psychological defenses permit a rearrangement of external reality (so that actual reality may be avoided); for the beholder, the users of these mechanisms frequently appear crazy or insane. These are known as the "psychotic" defenses, common in overt psychosis, in dreams, and throughout childhood.

These immature psychological manipulations work together to keep a person or a group insulated from reality. And it is reality that always has the ultimate say. Transiently avoiding reality may work for a time, but eventually, objective reality will defeat any attempt to pretend it doesn't exist.

I have a friend of a friend in the throws of delusion. A member of a cult that has gotten progressively insular and far more paranoid, not to mention delusional, he has lost his rationality. He has lost his mind. The way this and other groups maintain control is by projecting their authoritarian, controlling and despotic nature on the world around them. While not killing people literally, this group and others like it are vicious to their own to protect their special knowledge and place with God. Wouldn't want to be sullied by anyone "less than". It is hardly a loving environment. It is fear-based. Dr. Sanity has more to say:

Let's be honest. Sheehan's people are not really "antiwar". They do not stage protests about the killing of innocent people by Al Qaeda's or Hamas or Hezbollah. They never demonstrated against the 100 million or more people murdered by communism in the last century--they cozy up to 21st century communists. They do not express their rage at the mass graves of Saddam, instead, they reserve that rage for Saddam's execution, which they can blame on the US.

As for the religiously "righteous" protestors at soldier's funeral or the anti-semitism of a David Duke; or any of those who feel their belief in God--or Allah for that matter-- justifies uncivilized and even barbaric behavior on their part. Let us be equally honest about this variation of the paranoid style: their behavior serves to camouflage the unacceptable feelings of within that must be externalized to keep their own souls "holy" and "pure". You will notice that they also reserve their rage for America and its values and ideals.

And that summarizes the "root cause" underlying the behaviors of the two supposedly politically opposite groups. Both are rabidly, vehemently and unapologetically anti-American, and believe that America and its values are the source of all evil in the world.

But if they really wanted to understand the origins of human evil, all they need to do is look within; an extremely frightening proposition, requiring a degree of self-awareness, courage and honesty that is unlikely to be found in any who embrace the paranoid style.

I remember Daniel Goleman saying in his book Primal Leadership that the most important trait for any leader is Self-Awareness. When one's life is consumed with a certain dogma and limited socially by people who believe exactly the same or when surrounded only by preening sycophants, self-awareness is nearly impossible. The pain of isolation must eventually trump the security and self-esteem enhancing notion that special knowledge is held exclusively by only the enlightened few.

Mama Explores the "Roots of Leftist Anti-Semitism"

Whoo! Excellent post, this one. (Yoda speak.)

ASIDE: I'm ending here tonight. It's amazing how tiring being in a hospital can be. It's always surreal. It's always enervating. Before I launch, here's the update--Ellen is stable for now. The doctors are trying to wean her from oxygen and blood pressure medication. So far, it's not going great, but she's not crashing, either. Steve's cousin Brittney is doing better--coming out of the ether. Exploratory surgery yesterday revealed no internal bleeding. As she wakes, she's in horrible pain. No decision yet on the shattered legs. Amputation still a possibility.

Back to the nasty business of anti-semitism. Here is what Mama starts with:

Jeff (who sparked the original post) replies:

If there truly is a god, he’s a total asshole for letting billions of people suffer throughout history due to conflicting beliefs. All-knowing and all-powerful…but for the last 2,006 years he’s been stuck in a Verizon commercial, i.e., “Can you hear me now?” Waiting for his only cellphone (Jesus) to fall from Heaven so that He has someone to talk to who can send all non-Christians to an eternity in hell fire while whisking believers up to a magical fairyland hidden in the sky. Nothing could be more violent, BTW.

That's religious atheism in a nutshell. It's less a matter of a determined disbelief in God than a deep inability to envision a loving God who would allow people to behave badly. Beth had already responded quite logically to this argument in her post:

HUMANS are divisive, not religion. You know the line, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people”–it’s the same thing, amplified. It’s not religion that causes wars or discord, it’s fallible humans that do it. The Soviet Union, to use them as just one example once again, was officially atheist and they certainly had no shortage of violence, discord, or war.

So much for the logic of religious atheism. Their problem is really that they don't accept the doctrine of original sin or free will; they want to blame God for our sorrows. It really comes down to that. If there is a God, they think God should force us all to behave correctly, and if God won't, then God must be evil, therefore they won't believe in God under the rubric of plausible deniability.

I'll share where she ends, but you must promise to go read the middle. I think this may be one of her best posts ever.

Leftists seem to want the outcomes of good behavior to appear miraculously without humans having to behave well, and that is not going to happen. The code of moral law contained in the Judaic tradition is the most direct threat to this fantasy, and so I think they find themselves constrained unwillingly and even unconsciously to anti-Semitism.

This is the most rational explanation for Leftist Anti-Semitism I've read yet. It is disturbing. More people are casting all religion in doubt. I think one of the biggest legacies of 9/11 will be the spiritual and religious abandonment by those who see religion and not men as the problem.

Multiculturalism simply will not allow a Leftist to hold an individual responsible, therefore, some institution is to blame. Blaming religion is just a substitution for blaming God. And why not? The only thing between most mis-behavior and happiness is God and his oppressive rules, except the result of breaking the rules isn't usually happiness--it's usually death, destruction and a whole lot of pain.

Anti-Semitism in All the Easy Places

What would have happened if Sacha Baron Cohen of Borat fame had interviewed some of his fellow British citizens? Or, what if he had gone to France to talk to a "youngster" in one of the 183 no-go neighborhoods around Paris? Or, what if he had sang "Throw the Jew Down the Well" or how about "Kill the Jews" just about anywhere around Europe or Arabia? But he didn't. He came to America's heartland and found all the violent Christian Jew-haters/sarcasm.

Charles Krauthammer takes the artist to task (via Ace):

Sacha Baron Cohen, the creator of Borat, revealed his purpose for doing that in a rare out-of-character interview he granted Rolling Stone in part to counter charges that he was promoting anti-Semitism. On the face of it, this would be odd, given that Cohen is himself a Sabbath-observing Jew. His defense is that he is using Borat's anti-Semitism as a "tool" to expose it in others. And that his Arizona bar stunt revealed, if not anti-Semitism, then "indifference" to anti-Semitism. And that, he maintains, was the path to the Holocaust.

Whoaaaa. Does he really believe such rubbish? Can a man that smart (Cambridge, investment banker and now brilliant filmmaker) really believe that indifference to anti-Semitism and the road to the Holocaust are to be found in a country-and-western bar in Tucson?

Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world.

With anti-Semitism reemerging in Europe and rampant in the Islamic world; with Iran acquiring the ultimate weapon of genocide and proclaiming its intention to wipe out the world's largest Jewish community (Israel); with America and, in particular, its Christian evangelicals the only remaining Gentile constituency anywhere willing to defend that besieged Jewish outpost -- is the American heartland really the locus of anti-Semitism? Is this the one place to go to find it?

He continues with this:

Yet, amid this gathering darkness, an alarming number of liberal Jews are seized with the notion that the real threat lurks deep in the hearts of American Protestants, most specifically Southern evangelicals. Some fear that their children are going to be converted; others, that below the surface lies a pogrom waiting to happen; still others, that the evangelicals will take power in Washington and enact their own sharia law.

This is all quite crazy. America is the most welcoming, religiously tolerant, philo-Semitic country in the world. No nation since Cyrus the Great's Persia has done more for the Jews. And its reward is to be exposed as latently anti-Semitic by an itinerant Jew looking for laughs and, he solemnly assures us, for the path to the Holocaust?

I haven't seen the film, yet, but I heard about the bar scene. Never mind that the vast majority of conservative Christians whole-heartedly support Israel.

The young Baylor grad at our dinner table on the cruise said,"We should just move all of Israel and Britain to America, take over Canada and build a huge wall. Screw the world." (I would add that I'd like to see Australia included, too.) His point, of course, was--bring all the Democratic and free nations under one roof and let the rest of the world figure it out.

It's easy to pick on Conservative America. It's scary to contemplate the real enemy rising. Again.

More anti-semitism--UPDATE

Here.

Frankfurt, 80 km (50 miles) east of Berlin on the Oder river, is in Brandenburg, one of three ex-communist states where far-right parties won enough votes for state parliament seats.

The federal government has called a rise in anti-Semitic violence worrying. Police said last month attacks by far-right groups rose 20 percent in the first eight months of 2006.

In July, extremists in the neighbouring state of Saxony-Anhalt burned the diary of Holocaust victim Anne Frank.

In another incident, teens in the same state last month forced a 16-year-old classmate to parade round school wearing a sign with an anti-Semitic Nazi-era slogan.

UPDATE: And looky here! The Neo-Nazis are wearing, what's this? Palestinian scarves. Do you see how the future is looking?

Are you looking?

One thing everyone can agree on: It's the Jews fault.

Reproductive Determinism

The Anchoress discusses Mark Steyn's book America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It which sits next to me as I type this and can be found through linkage at right on my "bookshelf". (This was one of the books I was supposed to receive before my cruising, but I digress.) The inside front flap blurb says in part, "The future, as Steyn shows, belongs to the fecund and the confident."

Anyway, The Anchoress points to this Human Events interview with Steyn about the "Threat of Islam". He says humorously:

Well, the publicist is a genius because that is the kind of endorsement you can’t get. I don’t know how he got a copy to President Ahmadinejad but I’m glad that the president of Iran has digested the main lesson, which is, if you don’t have people, you can’t have any influence in the world.

His idea is that population, reproduction determines destiny. Civilizations rise and fall on numbers. The Anchoress notes further:

The Brussels Journal piece ends thusly: “If faith collapses, civilization goes with it,” says [Tom] Bethell. That is the real cause of the closing of civilization in Europe. Islamization is simply the consequence. The very word Islam means “submission” and the secularists have submitted already. Many Europeans have already become Muslims, though they do not realize it or do not want to admit it.

People, particularly the hardline secularists, do not want to admit it but America is going to be forced to play things out on both a secular and supernatural stage, if she is going to stay alive, and not just alive but comprehensively American. Those, like Rosie O’ Donnell, who would lump the Taliban and American Christians into the same boat do not realize that in doing so they are consigning themselves to Europe’s fate. And Europe is dying. Europe will not fight.

I have been giving these ideas some thought. In a world where one nut-job with nuclear rocket launcher (does such a beast exist?) can level a town, why do population numbers matter? Look at what Saddam and his minority minions did in Iraq. The oppressed the majority, easily, I might add.

Editor's Note: Half-way through the post the Tigers game came on, then an Texas storm washed through and all important electronics got turned off (the beloved iMac is included in the "important electronics" category), so I'm just finishing this post today, this afternoon.

Back to the topic at hand. While the aforementioned storm raged, I read about 3/4's of Steyn's book. It's a fast read. I'll finish it tonight, if all goes as planned. Anyway, he has more to say about the fact that Europeans are converting to Islam. Europeans are pretending to be Islamic to be safe (women wearing hijabs--they do solve clothes choosing dilemmas). Europeans are old and philosophically fat and simply haven't got the energy to fight the young, angry masses, says Steyn.

But here is, the most important quote of the book (the first half anyway):

"In a democratic age, you can't buck demography--except through civil war. The Serbs figured that out--as other Continentals will in the years ahead: if you can't out breed the enemy, cull them."

That, friends, will be Europe's choice. I'm not convinced that Steyn is right about which way Europe will go. The one thing about Europeans, is they are entitled and tend to externalize the blame. And why not? The government is usually the one screwing them because the government is the one controlling so many aspects of their lives. In the past, though, the government while causing the misery, wasn't blamed. Remember who was?

Ah, yes. Europe knows how to get her groove back. She has done it before. The one thing Europeans agree on is this: they are superior in every way to every one. Their secularism, multi-culturalism makes them the smartest people on the globe. While Steyn believes that might be the death of 'em, I think that it will be their rallying cry, ultimately.

Anti-Semitism grows among the discontented youth--and not just the Muslim youths. Far-right parties are making themselves known again. The elites might be fiddling, but should the plebes become frustrated enough and they find a leader who represents them............

So will the barren wombs of "Eutopia" be suicidal? Time will tell. If Europe decides to stay a "Eutopia", most definitely. Culling, though, has been used before. Will it be used to again?

Mark Victor Hanson: The New Anti-Semitism

I have written over and over ad nauseum about my concern for the anti-semitism growing throughout Europe and even in America ..... on the far Left side of the spectrum. My concern in Europe, at least, is that the too smart by half crowd at the top emboldens the simmering far right crowd with their tacit agreement to look the other way at Islamist thought-tyranny and actual terror. While the far Right agrees with the Muslims about hating Jews (it's something everyone can agree on, it seems) the far Right also hates the invasion by the Muslims of their superior culture. The far Right is gaining traction even as the far Left fiddles, enables and tacitly approves through wrong-headed moral equivalence and multi-culturalism.

In America, the Right (except the very fringy of the fringe) overwhelmingly supports Israel in particular and Jews in general. The bastions of so-called enlightened thought--the academy, the art and literary world, journalism, and government--have become havens of hate. The hate is delicately prepared and presented with a sophisticated flair. Many people eating the delicacy, delight in believing they are trying something new and demonstrating their worldliness (not to mention being so "in" because it also involves hating Bush) not realizing they are chomping on good old anti-Semitic garbage.

Victor Davis Hanson over via Real Clear Politics calls this anti-Semitism, post-anti-Semitism.

We're accustomed to associating hatred of Jews with the ridiculed Neanderthal Right of those in sheets and jackboots. But this new venom, at least in its Western form, is mostly a leftwing, and often an academic, enterprise. It's also far more insidious, given the left's moral pretensions and its influence in the prestigious media and universities. We see the unfortunate results in frequent anti-Israeli demonstrations on campuses that conflate Israel with Nazis, while the media have published fraudulent pictures and slanted events in southern Lebanon.

The renewed hatred of Jews in the Middle East - and the indifference to it in the West - is a sort of "post anti-Semitism." Islamic zealots supply the old venomous hatred, while affluent and timid Westerners provide the new necessary indifference - if punctuated by the occasional off-the-cuff Amen in the manner of a Louis Farrakhan or Mel Gibson outburst.

The dangers of this post anti-Semitism is not just that Jews are shot in Europe and the United States - or that a drunken celebrity or demagogue mouths off. Instead, ever so insidiously, radical Islam's hatred of Jews is becoming normalized.

It is with growing unease that I watch this phenomenon. The blithness with which the Left disparages the Jews at the same time approving of those who murder Jews is disconcerting. What I find even more disconcerting is the cognitive dissonance I see in some Jews.

It defies imagination, as a non-Jew, seeing this toxic brew bubbling again, but it is bubbling. As a Jew, it must feel inconceivable that the notion "never again!" is being tested. It is my fear that the testing has only begun. If the enemy cannot even be named, if the enemy cannot be identified (you were my friends) how can action be taken? I am talking of America now. And I'm not talking about military action.

Have you heard the voices of protest? When the protesting does happen, if media silence ensues, does it really happen? While a big contigent went to the UN to protest Iran's sociopathic ruler's hate mongering, the press didn't acknowledge it. Jewish suffering isn't newsworthy, but the Palestinians is newsworthy. Hezbollah's losses are newsworthy.

And the voices of protest are protesting the wrong thing: the intellectual elites, some Jews, are selling the Jews out by giving everyone a voice--even murderous thugs. In their supreme betterness, they somehow believe that allowing everyone to spill their feelings, all feelings are valid. It's psychobabble of the worst kind--humanizing the inhumane.

We can kill jihadists. Hezbollah fighters can be wiped out (and if we didn't worry so much about collateral damage would be), but the real trouble are the stooge foot soldiers doing their master's bidding. Even Iran's neo-Nazi leader isn't the root of the problem. The root is right here in America and at the top of the European rulership. In a vain search for fairness, the Left is selling the Jews and ultimately their own cherished freedoms away. The Left is identifying their own perceived oppression with that of another group of indulged malcontents.

Who ever thought that leaders of free thought would become the very embodiment of oppression?

Democratic Party No Longer Hospitable Jewish Home

I've beat this drum fairly consistently and chronicled here a conversation with a Jewish Democrat neighbor who said "I'll always vote Democrat." My response was along the lines "have you spent any time actually paying attention to what Democrats are doing and saying starting with Clinton friend of terrorist scum Arafat?"

No, she hadn't been looking. Let's look, shall we? First via Instapundit, a fantastic post at The American Thinker that is a must read. Must. Read.

Cartoons more suitable in Iranian street protests calling for the destruction of Israel, have graced the pages of Daily Kos (the leading, by page views, Democratic blog) . Other greatest hits on Daily Kos include entries extolling the benefit to the world if Israel did not exist, another praising “the Iranian President” for being “absolutely right to suggest that Israel cease being a sovereign state as is”, and others suggesting Israel commits terrorism on a daily basis.

Lest these commentators be dismissed as a lunatic fringe, national surveys show a very clear decline in support for Israel among all Democrats. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll in late July showed a strong gap between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to support for Israel. Among Republicans, an overwhelming 84% say they sympathize more with Israel than Arab states (which 1% of Republicans sympathize with) compared to just 43% of Democrats who do so (12% sympathize with Arab states).

These declines are confirmed by a separate Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll regarding views towards Hezbollah, the genocide preaching terror group that launched yet another attack on Israel two months ago leading to a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah. Regarding whether America should align itself with Israel, Democrats support neutrality over alignment, 54% to 39%. By comparison, Republicans strongly supported alignment with Israel, 64% to 29%.

While it may be true that netizens within the Democratic Party harbor more extreme views than Democrats, their extremism seems to be shifting the Democratic Party toward their more extreme views. In a superb Weekly Standard article (“Bad Company: Is the left-wing blogosphere a growing political force or an electoral burden?”), Dean Barnett analyzes the dynamics behind this pull on the Democratic Party by bloggers and their activist fan clubs.

The pernicious "fringes" have done their best to sabotage certain Democrat races in favor of a more "progressive" candidate. See a theme?

Is it a sign of the times, that Kos took pride in sabotaging two campaigns in particular: those of Martin Frost (the moderate – and Jewish – Democrat from Texas who had hoped to become the DNC Chair) and Senator Joe Lieberman – perhaps, America’s most widely respected Jewish Senator?

And how is the tide being turned? In Poliitics, as in everything, follow the money. The Web lead by "intense" political supporters has been an excellent fund-raising institution (something the Rightroots are just now waking up to--find out more and donate). Thanks to McCain-Feingold, the Incumbant Guarantee Act, 527s have proliferated and funded anti-Israel candidates.

Moreover, the increasing proliferation and importance of so-called 527 groups may play a roll in the increasing anti-Israel attitudes within the Democratic Party base. These are groups that can engage in partisan advocacy campaigns about the “issues”. While purportedly forbidden from targeting individual candidates, they have in fact been used in this manner.

They are also a useful means to skirt federal laws limiting the amount individuals can give to federal campaigns. However, they can also utilize another loophole: donors to these 527 campaigns do not have to be disclosed and they can also be foreigners. Are anti-Israel governments funding these advocacy groups? Arab oil billionaires have certainly found the means to influence public opinion by purchasing stakes in media properties and paying lavishly for news service feeds to their own networks and publications, endowing universities, and hiring former government officials with a view to influencing current policies. The logical step would be to cover all the bases: including those of the Democratic Party.*

Like the article states, it's not just the idealogues in the party swinging it to official anti-Semitism.

There are those who rejoice at the turn in the Democratic Party. The Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs is easily the most anti-Israel publication in America. Based in Washington, D.C., its pages are filled with screeds against Israel and it lobbies for the end of US support for Israel. Anti-Semitism has also appeared in the pages of the magazine. In the current issue, the magazine has published its annual “Hall of Fame” that honors Congressmen it considers to be anti-Israel. At the top of the list among Senators, is Senator Robert Byrd (Democrat), aformer Ku Klux Klan Kleagle, Democratic baron, and the holder of one of the most anti-Israel records in Congress. In terms of the House, 29 members hold this dubious distinction - all of them Democrats (including Abercrombie, Conyers, David Obey, Jesse Jackson Jr., McDermott).

Contrast this record with a much-maligned Republican: John Bolton, American Ambassador to the United Nations.

Bolton has not only served America ably in representing our interests over the years, he has also been a friend to the Jewish people. He single-handedly took it upon himself to have the UN repeal the noxious “ Zionism is Racism” resolution by Herculean efforts (for an inspirational account, see this). He also was instrumental in the creation of the Proliferation Security Initiative, a very effective measure in curbing the spread of the very type of weapons of mass destruction that are an existential threat to Israel (the program helped to uncover and stop Libya’s nuclear program). He has been a firm supporter of the American-Israel friendship. He also has the enmity of many in the Democratic Party.

And speaking of Republicans, the party clearly has no problem with Jews. Ari Fleischer (former President Bush Press Secretary) and Ken Mehlman, Republican National Chairman, to name just two.

Conversely, the Republican Party has never been more welcoming to Jews nor as supportive of Israel. The party has welcomed an increasing number of Jews to its ranks, and its candidates garner an increasing number of votes from Jewish voters. While Democrats demagogue the rise of evangelicals in America (and in the Republican Party) and demonize them as a threat to the Jews, such mythmaking does not reflect the fact that evangelicals cherish the Jewish people, for reasons having absolutely nothing to do with end-of-days scenarios. Indeed, Jews have assumed leadership posts in the Republican Party. While Democratic National Committee head Howard Dean joyously dances with a keffiyah draped over his shoulders, Republican National Chairman Ken Mehlman waxes nostalgically and publicly about his Bar Mitzvah.

This is important. My neighbor defensively asked why I thought President Bush so supported Israel. My answer was a rhetorical question, "Why wouldn't we all love Israel? She is a strong democracy, values freedom and our ideologies co-mingle. We are friends." Here is more on Evangelicals and Israel, an interview with David Brog author of the book Standing with Israel: Why Christians Support the Jewish State (buy this book!) at The American Thinker:

In addition, I think there is a second reason why this philo-Semitic theology flourished so richly in American soil. Unlike Europe, America did not have a history of popular anti-Semitism. True, many European immigrants brought anti-Semitic ideas with them to America. But from the start these ideas ran counter to the prevailing culture and never took root. The American Founding Fathers were free of this hatred, and instead had such reverence for the Bible and the Jews that they seriously considered making Hebrew the official language of the new nation. George Washington wrote his famous letter to the members of the Touro Synagogue warmly welcoming their civic participation and condemning bigotry in the strongest terms. Thus in America, the philo-Semitic theology of the evangelicals fit easily into the broader civic culture that surrounded them.

There is so much more in that interview. Please read it. These topics are of vital importance to the future of American politics and to the future of Israel's survival itself.

Whether conscious or not, the Jews are feeling the rumblings anti-Semitism. It is terrifying. Jews beat in France, synogogues defaced in Germany where the far right is rearing its ugly head, Iran and Hamas dedicated in their goal of a world without Israel--a message right at home in the Democratic party.

American conservatives find the rise of anti-Semitism repugnant. And I, for one, cannot believe what I'm seeing and hearing half the time coming from the far corners of the political spectrum. Have the Democrats lost their mind?

The short answer: yes.

35,000 Jewish Person Protest Outside the U.N.

Did you hear abou the huge, peaceful, 35,000-strong protest yesterday outside the U.N. when Iran's President Good Hair spoke? Nope, I didn't either.

I checked AP. Nothing. Reuters. Nada. I checked Google News. Nothing. 1010WINS. Nothing. I checked WABC, NY1, all the New York media sites. Gridlock alerts are the only thing you can find about the march. After all, it’s not newsworthy. The fact that 2,000 people marched a day earlier to protest the Iraq war? Oh, yeah, that made the news.

35,000 people protesting against a man who wants to “wipe Israel from the map”? Not newsworthy at all. John Bolton speaking? Who? Elie Wiesel? George Pataki? Who?

And there are those who don't believe media bias exists. Oh, and there is no such thing as anti-semitism alive and well. Oh, and it's not the Leftist promoting these hateful beliefs these days. A Code Pink protest can have five people and the press is all over them like roaches on poop.

My solution? Since the press won't ever cover any diversity in thought (or religion) for that matter, every single Leftist get together must be attended by those who are more ideologically diverse (Read: sane). Lots of signs. Lots of marching in circles. Lots of bull horns.

Maybe then there would be equal time.

H/T Instapundit

Getting Fired: The Best Way to Advance Your Career

Tom Cruise is finding out what many others have to: that the courage it takes to leave a less-than-great-but-okay gig sometimes eludes us and a kick in the butt can help. The hook needs to pull us off-stage to find a better one down the road. Looks like he found a better stage.

Readers of my blog know that I'm no Cruise fanatatic. But I don't hate the guy either. He's just another weird Hollywood actor. More than the couch-jumping episode (definitely weird), I think his derision for antidepressants pissed off the 50% of brain-addled Americans using them to make it through the day thus his declining popularity.

Give me a break. He's young and still cute. He has a good long career ahead of him. Same with Mel Gibson. He is so NOT done. A good shave, some rehab, a better attitude and old Mel will ride the success train again. As far as he goes, I think that Hollywood was irritated/alarmed more at the fact that he made a crap-load of money outside of their inbred, old-school system with an avante-guard movie that was more documentary than special effects. The anti-semitism was secondary. Hollywood, as we have seen over the past few years, hasn't seemed particularly concerned with anti-semitism--at least when its delivered by Muslims who hate Bush as much as they do.

Andrew Sullivan Points to More European Anti-semitism

Surrender Jews.

Fear for the Muslims

Shrinkwrapped fears for the Muslim world where "the only thing that unites them is hatred of the Jews". Here is more:

Nations that must appeal to the most base instincts of their populations, using envy to fan hatred and mindless rage, will find that once the demon of anti-Semitism is unleashed, it will prove to be rather more difficult than they imagine to contain. Once you have convinced your people that all of the evil in the world, all the failings of your own people, are caused by others, the options become very limited.

Perhaps Islam will manage to finally destroy the Jews. Then what? They will sink into their own fetid morass of despair with no one left to blame except America. Perhaps in their emboldened and rage-filled state they will go on an orgy of destruction against the weak appeasers of Europe. Eventually, since their failures stem from themselves, they will be forced to confront their own shortcomings, but by then, many millions will have died. Furthermore, if they ever are to achieve modernity, the stain of their shameful genocide will need to be addressed; I doubt they can ever afford to do that. Their only other option is to focus on America, the "Great Satan" and attack us in a final apocalyptic spasm before they turn on each other and tear themselves apart.

And if despite their weight of numbers, and vast riches, they fail to destroy Israel, then their problem is even worse. Rather than the shame of genocide, they would once again be enmeshed in the humiliation of failure.

Either way, their rage will find an outlet.

This kind of hatred, once unleashed, must spend itself in death.

This hatred, I fear, has already been unleashed. Right now it is spreading like cancer throughout the Muslim world. While God has used multiple peoples to punish Israel for her sins, He has spared no wrath for the punishers. Ultimately, they lose. Usually, everything. The funny thing is, the Muslim countries seem to believe that with Israel gone they gain everything even if they ultimately lose. There is no rational discourse to be had with those whose only motivation is to finally triumph even if that means death.

Shrinkwrapped implies that Israel's demise is a foregone conclusion. Is it? Is Israel at the threshhold of destruction? And in turn, will Israel lay waste to its many neighbors? Or will she take genocide and death rather than destroy the destroyers? And will this cause a worldwide conflagration? And who can stop it once it starts? Because unlike other wars, where Nuclear warheads were not an option, every crazy Muslim who wants one, has the ability to blow just about any city off the map. I have a feeling that the moral equivalence crowd won't believe it until they see it. I'm afraid these folks will have the opportunity to see for themselves their errors and then, as always, it will be too late.

As an aside, I don't believe the Muslim goal is modernity. The goal is domination. That can be had and crudely, at that.

Proportional Response To Mel Gibson's Drunken Tirade

Sigmund, Carl and Alfred has a very nice post about how out-of-whack the media's response to Mel Gibson's drunken snafu compared to the continual, unrelenting, extreme and dangerous anti-semitism among Muslim Arabs and radical Islamists. How is that for a mouthful of a sentance? Deep breath. So, go read his post and get some balance, already. It's about time the media learn a proportional response.

Berlin: Defacing the Holocaust Memorial

More of these things will happen folks. You watch. The mask and charade will drop as Israel asserts itself. Not only is anti-semitism politically expedient because it salves the European Muslim population, the ancient deep well of Jew-hatred still houses plenty of nasty water. In addition, people sick of feeling guilty about WWII and sick of their lack of national pride, let go of the former and asserted the latter during this last World Cup.

Nationalism is back in Europe. It is not the same kind of thing that Americans view as patriotism. U.S. patriotism does not translate into fevered displays of craziness. Others have talked about it before, but because the U.S. is big and has regions and states, there are internal rivalries that mean far more to us than any other national rivalry. Showtown verses Motown. East and West. North and South. Blue State-Red State. Different. Diluted. Everyone is American. Yet everyone has their own identity. E Plurabis Unim. It's the "many" that dilutes the "crazy". It is different in Europe.

That's not to say that America doesn't have her own problems. The biggest: denial. The Seattle attacks once again, reinforce the notion that there are those among us who don't love us. It's hard to imagine, I know. America is such a big teddy bear (or murderous monster depending on your political views) that it couldn't possibly have terrorists getting groomed and ready to go here.

Because America has been relatively safe, or saved in the nick of time by an alert government, since 9/11, some believe no threat exists. And yet all the evidence shows that view to be patently absurd. The press, either purposefully trying to rob the administration of any glory or because they just don't deem the news important or through some social betterment view, hardly report the terrorists in our midst (not to be confused with the gorillas in the mist). I think that they inadvertantly help the future fight: terrorists love press. They use the press to deliver their terror, to propagandize the public and to invoke more fear. But the press finds it politically incorrect to impugn someone for their crazy beliefs and actions and so they don't cover the actions at all. It's uncomfortable to pass judgement against clearly reprehensible behavior 'cuz there is no right and wrong--just feelings. (Okay there is right and wrong, but these terrorist "aberations" conflict with pure progressive dogma so it gets less play.)

Because the press doesn't cover the terrorism, the affect is diminished. The press does this with teenage suicide because of the known pattern of copy-cats that happen after almost every incident. So, to save kids and families, the press doesn't cover these horrible deaths. Now, I don't think the press' motivation is nearly as pure when it comes to terrorism, but the effect may be the same. Reduced copy cat craziness.

Well, this was a rambling post: from European nationalism to American stick-your-head-in-the-sandism. Both Europe and America have problems. I think where they part is on the solutions.

To understand Europe more, go to RightWingNews and read this interview with Claire Berlinski.

Spain: Anti-Semitism Is Back

Have you thought that after the atrocities of World War II that nothing like this could ever happen again? And yet, in Spain, the "menace in Europe" as Claire Berlinski describes it, rises again. If you haven't read her book, you need to.

A few months ago, I wrote an article stating that European Jews may want to start looking into a different home. (More here and here .) This view was resoundly renounced by German nationals and some German American citizens here through private e-mails to me. I stand by the assessment. Europe is reverting to type, but the manifestation looks and feels different, so it is more insidious. That is, overt anti-semitism is cloaked by dismissing Muslim aggression against Jews. White Europeans use a Pro-Arab stance to hide their anti-Jewish discrimination. All this does not bode well for Jews.

As the hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah/Syria/Iran become more pronounced, expect other "moderate", "sophisticated" European leaders and the general population to reveal their true beliefs.

The "Israel Lobby"

Australian Broadcasting Company publishes the transcript of American professors who believe that U.S. foreign policy is being driven by the "Israel Lobby". Before I get into this further, what country doesn't have a lobby? The U.S. is the Super Power that everyone, if they are smart, wants to befriend (or at least not tick off). The fact that Israel has a lobby in Washington D.C. is hardly noteworthy. Not to mention, we are allies. These professors would argue that this is a chicken-egg question. Would we have such a close relationship if it weren't for the insidious Lobby? No, not according to them.

MARGOT O'NEILL: Since the Six Day War in 1967, the key to American foreign policy in the Middle East has been Washington's relationship with Israel. The problem is that there's no longer any compelling moral or strategic reasons for such a policy, or so argues John Mearsheimer - a West Point graduate, former air force officer and now a senior professor of politics at the University of Chicago. But his argument is considered so controversial that when he and Professor Stephen Walt - the academic dean of the Kennedy School of Politics at Harvard University - tried to publish a critique of the Israel lobby in the United States, they were forced to go to England instead.

PROFESSOR JOHN MEARSHEIMER, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: We couldn't get the piece published, it, therefore, had to be published outside of the United States.

MARGOT O'NEILL: The article, entitled The Israel Lobby, first appeared in March this year, in the London Review of Books. Professor Mearsheimer says he wasn't surprised that he and Stephen Walt were almost immediately attacked by leading American lawyer Alan Dershowitz as being anti-Semitic.

PROFESSOR JOHN MEARSHEIMER: Well, we referred to charge of anti-Semitism in the piece as the 'great silencer'. What happens is that when individuals criticise Israel or organisations criticise Israeli policy, what almost axiomatically happens is those individuals are called anti-Semitic or if they're Jewish, they're labelled 'self-hating Jews'.

MARGOT O'NEILL: The article argues that because of the Israel lobby, US-Middle East policy is unbalanced and has undermined American and Western security.

PROFESSOR JOHN MEARSHEIMER: Well, the fact is, in the American political system, it's very easy for well-organised interest groups to penetrate the American political process and to influence particular policies. This is true if you look at an organisation like the National Rifle Association. Most Americans are in favour of gun control but the NRA, which is a rather small organisation in terms of the size of its membership, is very effective at lobbying Congress and lobbying the Executive Branch to get its way. And the same basic story applies to the Israel lobby.

MARGOT O'NEILL: Former US ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, is named as being part of the loose coalition making up the Israel lobby, but he vehemently rejects what he says is Mearsheimer and Walt's implication of a Jewish conspiracy to subvert American foreign policy.

MARTIN INDYK, FORMER US AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL: People say, well, if they're positing this kind of conspiracy, then they're really verging on anti-Semitism because of the way in which conspiracy theories have been generated to - like, in particular to the protocols of the elders of Zion - to generate anti-Semitism.

MARGOT O'NEILL: But Martin Indyk acknowledges the power of the lobby in Congress.

MARTIN INDYK: Yes, they do have influence in Congress, and yes, congressmen, in particular, because they're up for re-election every two years, do think twice about whether they're going to cast an anti-Israel vote because they don't want to have the wrath of this powerful lobby come down on them.

My question: if Isrel shouldn't be our biggest ally? Then who should be?

"I Am A Jew"

WARNING: LONG RANT

I read this essay by nyceve at Daily Kos. Why, oh why, did I go over there? Argghhh! The maudlin prose would have choked me up--if it weren't utter clap trap. Oy vey.

Here is what she says:

First, imagine for a moment, how out-of-whack everything is when I hear extremist Republicans embracing Israel. Do you think nyceve could possibly welcome such an event? It hurts, dear friends that these depraved souls are always among the first to step up and champion the right of Israel to exist whenever it is threatened.

That Israel is aligned with the people I most despise forces me to recognize that Jews are at best tolerated, mostly unwanted by pretty much everyone--except that is, Christian evangelicals who voice support for their own misguided and nefarious reasons. [emphasis added, -ed.]

This sad reality is still true many years after eight million were murdered. Anti-semitism is flourishing throughout the world. We escape the sting of it in the United States. But to deny its existence and that American Jews are blessed to live in a country that still treats us with relative decency, is to deny the obvious

I live in New York, a city where I don't feel as if I need to conceal my identity. But when I leave New York--an hour in any direction, even in the United States of America--I often recognize that though I am an American, being openly Jewish might engender an unwelcome encounter

Notice that nyceve says "people I despise" not people whose ideas she despises. Oh no! She despises evangelicals, those "depraved souls" who support Israel for their "own nefarious reasons." And what are those, exactly? She doesn't spell those out.

She admits that she is "blessed to live in a country that still treats us with relative decency", but worries that "being openly Jewish" an hour outside of New York might "engender an unwelcome encounter." What? My dear girl needs to travel a bit. Lessee, I live deep in the heart of Texas, a (gasp!) conservative, whose very close friend, a Long Island Liberal, or should I say Progressive, Jew (gasp!) is my son's namesake. Double gasp! I live approximately 30 hours outside of New York City. My neighbor two doors down is (gasp again!) Jewish. My neighbor across the street is (double gasp!) Muslim. (To round things out we have Catholics, Methodists and Sabbitarian Christians, for good measure. Ethnically--Mexican, Tighty-Whitey, Italian, Indian, Black, Pakistani.) Yes, it's a scary neighborhood for minorities.

She continues:

It's even more difficult to be Jewish on Daily Kos these days because opinion is clearly running against Israel. But that's okay, I love this place. I love that we speak openly here, that's why I decided to write this inarticulate diary. In truth, I'm not the right person to be writing this because what is playing out is so terribly complex. I don't understand all that is going on, so all I can contribute is a simple explanation from my heart about how an assimilated American Jew views the world.

So as unsafe as the world ouside NYC and LA are for Jews, it's even tougher being on Daily Kos. Now THAT, I believe. That would be because, honey, the anti-semites have taken up residence among the moral-equivalence crowd. Yup, suicide bombers are equal to Israelis defending their nation.

When she plays the baby girl I want to hurl: "I don't understand all that is going on, so all I can contribute is a simple explanation from my heart". Oh, puhleeeze. Read some history, honey. And don't watch the news or read the New York Times for that knowledge. Your purdy little head will spin even more than it already is. She continues:

I'd like to tell myself that the survival of Israel is not relevant in my life. But this wouldn't be true. I'd like to believe that I can divorce myself from my historic identity--but I cannot. This is why I know that as much as I try, I must stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Israel and pray that Israel will be victorious but never cede the moral high ground. And as I write these words, I recognize just this thought alone will enrage many of you. You will likely repond, Israel ceded the moral high ground years ago with its inhumane treatment of the Palestinians. All I can answer is, yes, this is true.

All she can say is "yes, this is true". All I can say is "what kind of Jew are you?" Are you so ignorant of your history that you've bought the relativistic garbage spewed forth? The Palestinians have suffered, true. But their plight didn't sprout in a vacuum. Israel has never ceded the moral ground. Most other countries would have wiped out the cause of consistent agitation. Israel has gone above and beyond. The only thing worse than White Guilt is Jew Guilt. I find it repugnant. Your blood has worked too hard to have intellectually vain and utterly vapid American Jews call for morality from the comfort of their hybrids.

I believe as a Jew, and of course I am speaking for myself, that I am a "guest" in America. As long as things are okay, so am I. But when events get ugly as they are today, then I must pray that the better side of humanity will prevail and the world will be kind to us.

If it isn't, I tell myself that as long as Israel exists, a country the size of New Jersey--I will have a safe haven, a refuge, if necessary.

I'd like to deny it, but I know my destiny is linked to the survival of Israel. When an El El 747 touches down at Ben Gurion Airport, the tradition is for the cabin to be filled with the plaintive, mournful sound of the Israeli national anthem. Even, nyceve, a very assimilated American Jew, sheds a tear or two when I hear that music and I am reminded of our terrible history.

Nyceve, you can pray that the world will be kind to you, but your fears are well-founded. The world won't be kind. It is simply not Politically Correct to love Israel, as your sad, rambling, apologetic tone suggests. Jew bad. Palestinian good. That's what is politically correct. And even worse, America (and the vast majority of Americans) stand with Israel. That makes Israel even more hated, if that were possible.

Let me clarify something for you, naive one. America stands for Israel because Israel stands for freedom. Alone in the Middle East, Israel is a bastion of safety and democracy and freedom. Where else is there? There are nice places to visit but they are controlled by tribes and families and mullahs and dictators. That is NOT what Americans aspire to. Americans hold out hope that Arabs and Persians can embrace a system that benefits humanity like Israel has done. THAT's why America loves Israel. One of the reasons.

Another reason: Israel has made something of herself after being on the receiving end of non-stop persecution. The fiery culmination being Nazi extermination chambers. Americans sympathize because we are a country built on religious freedom. Our nations founder's were persecuted because of how or what we believed. READ SOME HISTORY! We are brothers in arms, as it were. Our founders gave up everything for freedom. They sacrificed fortune and family and life to create a country that all people, regardless of creed could call home--including Jews. That you still view yourself as a "guest" speaks volumes about 1) your ingratitude 2) your ignorance.

Finally, the Evangelicals who you so eagerly demonize believe, even if you are too "reformed" to admit, that God views Israel as His. Evangelicals have the sense to know not to get between God and His people. You may find this repugnant. What is it? That these people show more devotion to the Jews and to Israel's plight than do many American Jews, themselves? Does it bother you that they may be right, even if you're sick of hearing about it--sanctification, a special people, a Holy Nation. Are you worried because, all that just might be true and you're not doing one damn thing, besides crying at Israel's national anthem, to be a dedicated Jew? Are you sick of the "specialness" thing because that's why everyone hates you? Get over it. Christians have. Evangelicals who believe the Bible believe you are chosen by God. You have a special mission. And if you were a good Jew, you'd know that the story isn't finished yet. Get back to Temple and learn something.

The same Bible that calls Jews God's people condemns gays, adultery and basically every other achievement of the sexual revolution. That's the problem. Those dumb, literal believers make progressive's skin crawl. The same thing protecting Israel is the thing that stops gay marriage. It's the same thing that calls abortion an abomination.

It's also the thing that throws churches into action after Hurricanes. It's the thing that welcomes thousands of visitors into a community. It's the book that Bush believes. It's the book that a huge percentage of the U.S. believes.

And all that can make a progressive feel dirty. It is also more than a tad uncomfortable for a Jew. Ewww, the nerd wants to be my friend. I'm sooooooo embarassed!

What irks me, is that the notions put forth by the evangelical movement were what the founders considered the "self-evident" stuff. Not today. Pornography is protected. Abortion is observed with the religiousness of a feminist sacrament. Every vile thing from illegal drug use to terrorism is excused. I am quite sure the Founders didn't have all this in mind.

And this is why a mealy mouthed New York Jew must simper when declaring herself to stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel. And she simpers to a liberal, progressive crowd who would be the first to let Israel fall. Unbelievable.

Anti-semitism: Jews as Targets in France

Anti-semitism rises at the hands of Muslims in France. Will it be stopped? Read more in the Boston Globe.