As we all know, many, many people who infest the illegal settlements are a peculiar breed of "tough Jew" from Brooklyn.

Seeing their actions towards others (how they treat each other within the settlements is not good either, but that's not my problem) as much as I detest what they are doing over there, I have to wonder, maybe I should be glad that crew of machers and paskudniks are not here in the good ol' USA. They would be a problem, a constant source of violent criminality, child abuse and domestic violence. They would be in and in of jail (for what they do, you don't get let out) and they consider a shoot-out with police to be a rip-roaring shabbos evening.

Why, a person could even say, hey, why not? "they are fighting a war with modernity"!!

And why on earth would he do that? After all, old Mr. Moustache really called 'em all correct through the Bush years, didn't he.

Listen Pubby, you can read as much Friedman as you want, but do yourself a favor, don't brag about it.

It's like saying, with your patented brand of obnoxious pretension; "Again, if you were more familiar with the Penthouse Forum" or "Again, if you were more familiar with L Ron Hubbard's masterpieces" or "Again, if you had the exhaustive knowledge of the Osmond ouvre"

I mean, you know, that Friedman almost has the gift of prophecy, donne'!

Anyway, let me condense, for those without your deep insight into the fried man chronicles, what Tommy has said: "Yeoow! The Muslims (sorry, "Islamists") are going to kill us all! This is the existential fight between civilisations, between good and evil even, that all of us must fight! Here, I'll hold your coat"

"And Islamists - including Hamas - are indeed in a war against modernity."

Derbig: "If I am not mistaken (as I so often am) that is a perfect, in fact the classic, example of what's called "Orientalism".

You are mistaken, as you say you so often are.

Derbig: "So what the hell do you call a culture, or rather, an ideology, that seeks to return the Jews to their supposed Biblical glory- Futurist?"

I regard any and every fundi-religious agenda that seeks to impose their fundi-religious ideology as a form of government as being a "war against modernity." That includes the agendas of Hamas and the Salafists (and yes, I am well aware of the distinctions in Islamist ideologies between the two), and the theocratic agendas of the Israeli fundi-Jewish right as well, including the fundi-wingnut Israeli religious settlers. And those of, for example, Christian Reconstructists as well.

Derbig: "What do you call an ideology which posits that Jews cannot live fully with anybody else except jews, and must be ruled by a hodge-podge of religio-legal mish-mosh and corruption dispensed, of course only by Jews- post-modernist?"

No. I call that ideology racist and anti-modernist.

Derbig: "Gee, and what can we say about all those Christian Dominionists, and Rapturists, and Evangelicals? That they are eagerly embracing modernity?"

No - especially the Dominionists and their ilk, who are the Christian version of the Islamists.

Derbig: "What about all those "social conservatives" in the US? Are they embracing the latest information?"

Again, no.

Any more questions?

"I don't defend Friedman's "Suck. On This." declaration, which I find indefensible. Again many of his writings and declarations are far more nuanced that that, however - indeed so much so that when initially he made his "Suck. On This." declaration I was surprised since it was so out of character with respect to so many other things he has said and written."

This is the point where you completely lost credibility, when you put that statement in the same sentence as "far more nuanced". I don't think I'm reading anything into your statements that you don't keep proving with your casual defense of Friedman's indefensible racism. To scratch your head and wonder, 'gee, that's not like the Friedman I know'...truly mystifying to me how you expect to be taken seriously.

You keep repeating yourself with the same normative statements about "islamism vs. modernity" and "terrorism vs. settlement building", and complain that they are being misunderstood. So that you may understand where that's coming from: "African American agitation for equality was equally at fault for slowing the advance of civil rights legislation as Jim Crow". This is what you sound like to me.

By the way, From Beirut to Jerusalem was written a quarter of a century ago. Friedman's views about the Arab world are widely understood to have drastically changed since then. I'm surprised a fan like you was unaware of that.

Derbig: "Again, if you were more familiar with Friedman's writings...

And why on earth would he do that?"

Um... so when he's claiming to know what Friedman thinks with respect to Arabs and the impact of Israeli settlements on the peace process that he actually knows what he's talking about?

Derbig: "Anyway, let me condense, for those without your deep insight into the fried man chronicles, what Tommy has said: "Yeoow! The Muslims (sorry, "Islamists") are going to kill us all!"

Friedman doesn't say that either, and if you were more familiar with Friedman's writings then you too would know that, and you too would know what you are talking about here.

"so when he's claiming to know what Friedman thinks with respect to Arabs"

Your ability to overlook Friedman's public pronouncements is alarming. Not only did he never retract or apologize for that comment, he also said:

.. and sometimes it takes a 2-by-4 across the side of the head to get that message.

"If they [the Sunnis] won't [come around], we should arm the Shiites and Kurds and leave the Sunnis of Iraq to reap the wind."

He continues to call for violence against Arabs so that "Arabs can embrace the future", no matter what their current political situation may be. His casual calls for violence against the Islamic world for their own good, inundate his columns and his public appearances. Enough. You're really starting to piss me off.