I meant what Derbig noted a few days ago. People like WinSmith come in here and tell everyone that it is perfectly ok for his team to commit acts of violence against the other team because the other team is incapable of making what WinSmith perceives as correct decisions. Since the other, according to WinSmith, has forfeited its right to make decisions for itself, its security is of no importance, because, after all, the other always brings everything onto itself due its inability to rationalize.

But what is really annoying and grating to me about WinSmith is his lack of detail when describing the sources of the global antisemitism and conspiracies that he constantly invokes and then rails about. Global Antisemitism is just there, like the big bang of Jew Hating that continues to grow, it is an axiom that requires no proof. These conspiracies and antisemites he rails about, they are everywhere and permeate everything regarding Israel, including Glenn's thoughts and Glenn's blog. But who are they? Why do or would they hate Jews?

He complains about antisemitism and grand conspiracies, but doesn't want to talk about what causes antisemitism, attributing it all to his Axiom of Jew Haters Exist. Like Mr. Jefferson said on South Park, it is because their hearts are full of greed and they have... doodoo in their soul.

From reading his letters, it seems that all WinSmith really wants to do is deflect criticism of Israel onto other groups like Catholics, Christian evangelicals, Russians, Arabs, etc. and not talk about the real causes of worldwide causes of antisemitism, such as cowardly American politicians and journalists who will go on the record and put the security of Israel over the security of the United States for fear of getting targeted by AIPAC. In WinSmith's world, AIPAC is benign, neoconservatism is anything but Jewish in origin, and everyone criticizes Israel because their favorite book is The Protocols.

The Two Minutes of Hate against Israel, or Bill O'Reilly's Two Minutes of Hate against George Soros, all come from the same place. It is a rage that the hater him or herself cannot understand.

This "Two Minutes of Hate against Israel" sounds interesting? Got a link? Maybe on AM or FM radio? TV?

I mean, there is such a thing, right? I mean you are not being dishonest, are you?

You mean outside of Israeli lefties trying to gain some seats in the Knesset by showing their toughness? Last I heard it was something like 50 dead Palestinian children per seat. Surely the death/seat ratio has grown since I heard that a few days back.

If Israel has goals other than that, perhaps they ought to be relayed to the Israeli Government? Quick, put down your letter to the ADL and get to emailing the Israeli Government!

the real causes of worldwide causes of antisemitism, such as cowardly American politicians and journalists who will go on the record and put the security of Israel over the security of the United States for fear of getting targeted by AIPAC.

The idea that these things "cause" anti-Semitism is, in my humble opinion, stupid.

Anti-Semitism - real anti-Semitism - is prejudice and racism. Pure and simple. Its cause is ignorance and self-hatred directed outward. Dumb policies and war crimes may exacerbate pre-existing prejudices, but they no more "cause" them than MTV causes teen pregnancy.

Unless you're defining anti-Semitism as WinSmith does - opposition to Israeli government policies - then that was a fucked-up thing to say.

I had the honor of meeting Robert Fisk once, he is small ruddy faced man, quite unremarkable looking, but he is a bulldog, a fighter and a seeker after the truth. When the first American tanks arrived in downtown Baghdad, Mr. Robert as they call him there, was there to take their picture. He met Bin Laden not once, but twice, speaks Arabic and as they say he's been there, done that. A truly remarkable man. And make no mistake, he knows what's going on.

This is what he has to say...

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/

According to the Guardian, there are hints that the incoming Obama administration will be taking a different, more even-handed policy on the Israel-Palestine issue:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/08/barack-obama-gaza-hamas

The few comments that Obama has made on the current situation have made me very apprehensive, as correctly mentioned in the article: "Obama has frustrated and confused those who had been looking for a more evenhanded approach..."

I'm just hoping the hints mentioned actually represent something substantial and the administration bucks Congress's cheerleader mentality. If the U.S. is serious about solving the problem once and for all, it has to approach the situation as a mediator, not a cheerleader. It's time to put an end to this so that the world can focus on other major issues.

The right uses every propaganda tool at its disposal, depending on the argument. They claim to be the great defender of Israel when it means getting to kill Arabs, then they turn around and cry about the "war on Christmas" held by the secularists in the big cities (coded: Jews) who refuse to acknowledge America is a "Christian nation."

That's why I don't particularly care what someone like John Bolton says on any specific issue -- they are frauds on every level. The Iraq War apologists should never be allowed to opine in public again. The fact David Broder still has a job is a disgrace. The idea that Bill Kristol isn't shouting from a crate on a street corner means our entire entertainment-media empire is broken. Glenn's critique of this broken system is why I generally hold him in such high regard.

That being said, there is rampant anti-Semitism on the left, much of it from the notion that Jews are the one minority in a position of hegemony or cultural dominance. Sadly, this ties into the age old myths of Jewish money fostered in Europe for hundreds of years by Christians hoping to prevent the proles from rioting/revolting by giving them "The Jew" as their enemy (thus the Goldstein hate in 1984).

Where the left goes wrong, and where Glenn becomes this wilfully disingenuous Bush-like code talker, is on the issue of Israel. Israel allows the age-old Jewish narratives to take root, where they explode under cover of "legitimate criticism." Glenn claims his critics claim *all* criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic, but this is just like saying *no* crtiticism of Israel is anti-Semitic. Even more crucially, claiming your opponent's critique of you conflates to *all* is the very some=all leap that Glenn claims his opponents are making.

Glenn claims his critics claim *all* criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic. But by making this claim, Glenn conflates the specific with the general. Glenn now speaks for *all*. The singular becomes the general. By expanding the specific to an all/nothing binary, Glenn conflates his own argument into the 0%/100% binary he claims to be opposing.

This is what I meant by Glenn's double standard, and why 0% and 100% are two sides of the same coin. Glenn attacks his critics by invoking the very either/or binary he claims they apply on him. By reducing a specific critique (when Glenn's opponent says X is mmotivated by Z, not Y), Glenn makes X = any letter in the alphabet.

The reason the logic system breaks down is Glenn requires a textual-only, linguistic based understanding for those he agrees with -- Glenn's motivations are what he says his motivations are -- but his critics are using codes and should be critiqued semiotically and psychoanalytically -- their motivations are emotional, biased and subjective.

This is logical incoherency.