Patriot Games

Since when did being a critic of Israeli government policy tantamount to anti-semitism? Oh yeah. Since Israeli independence. I guess that means if I criticize U.S. policies I must hate America.

I had one fool tell me that as much as I criticize U.S. policies I would never want to live in a third world country, as if he were trying to unveil some deeply inherent hypocrisy. If I love a country why would I want it to act out on behalf of the worst representatives of itself? Why should he expect so less from his country that he raises onto so high a pedestal. There is as much logic in that as your child thinking you hate him because you don't want him taking crack.

Here are two fantastic patriots: Eliana Johnson and Mitch Webber. Their article in The New York Sun vilifies a professor, Juan Cole who specializes in Middle Eastern modern history. They disagree with his radical anti-Israeli stance saying things like:

Mr. Cole's most frequent public statements and writing - many of which appear on his blog, Informed Comment - have deviated considerably from his areas of expertise.

Maybe I'm the delude one here. I thought I learned somewhere in geography or world civ or some such class that Israel was in the Middle East. How is Juan Cole speaking out of his area of expertise in this case? Of course, Johnson and Webber aren't experts at anything right now. They are still in school. One could gather that with deductive skills like those shown above they may never be experts at anything.

Another worthy American is John Fund who doesn't seem to like Juan Cole either and apparently denies the existence of the "American Israel Public Affairs Committee [who] effectively controls Congress and much of U.S. foreign policy. In an article titled "Dual Loyalties," he wrote, "I simply think that we deserve to have American public servants who are centrally commited [sic] to the interests of the United States, rather than to the interests of a foreign political party," namely Israel's right-wing Likud..."

The idea that a pro-Israel lobby exists implies that money is being given to our United States congressmen to support policies that benefit a foreign nation.

And if there isn't a strong pro-Israel lobby, as many right wing pundits contend, then why has the FBI been investigating AIPAC for the last five years?

I can't tell who's trying to fool whom.