P.S. Hey there Holly, how have you been? I haven’t heard from you since the Brian Bosma “2% Solution” blogswarm.

Pure rubbish…
Israel during the 1960’s and 1970’s had many US Lefties living on kibbutz’s. What side did they take?

Yup. Israel’s very founding was largely a grand secular socialist experiment in it’s execution. France, yes Fwaaaance, played a critical role in the nurturing of nascent Israel. In the US, many many Jews of of European heritage held socialist/communist/unionist sympathies. But the Israel of today is a very different place, as is the global political landscape. The US is a poor lens through which to view worldwide antisemitism because by and large things here are now quite good and the radical left (as exists overseas) really doesn’t have much practical power here. If you look to Europe, on the other hand, you see strong antisemitism (even if some of it is just spillover from the en vogue antiIsrael stance) and it very much emanates from groups that take common cause with the left. Traces of that are seen in the US — such as any anti-Iraq War rally that has taken place in NY or DC.

One of the great discomforts many socially liberal Jews, whether they be card-carrying Democrats in the USA or European leftists, is that such elements are at best tolerated by the left.

“I suspect some of the anti-Semitic leftist sentiment is due to politically-correct hatred of Israel.”

That is a huge overgeneralization, as antisemitism is just as prevalent on the right.

I said “some,” not “all,” or “nearly all.” And on the far right it’s usually straightforward, unadulaterated anti-Semitism, rather than Israel-bashing all the time.

* * *

“We all know which side the Left favored in the Cold War.”

Pure rubbish…

Vietnam protests, anti-[US-Western-Israeli]-nuclear activism, “freeze” movement, “nuclear” and “peace” education, anti-[US]-military activism…

We all know which side the Left favored in the Cold War.

Pure rubbish…
Israel during the 1960′s and 1970′s had many US Lefties living on kibbutz’s. What side did they take?

A little perspective on the Lefties. While one of them I read very few “Liebrul” blogs. This incident put things inperspective about dKos I didn’t follow.

You know you’ve gone ’round the bend when even the Kosbots have thrown you overboard. Go nutroots!

Some on the Left think Kos is a sell out, so the LGF’s ranting like this are meaningless. The creator of MLF and may contributors left dKos as his site became mainsteam, they consider him a sell out, even to LGF types.

This even now the case at MLW, a radical element want to have the site as “wild west anything goes”. Some FP’s were barred and others left due to tin-hat thoughts that stepped over the line. This rant by MM did go over the line, but it started debate like this, From another at MLF:

Anti-Semitism: Two Perspectives (both by me)
by: Nonpartisan
Sun Dec 23, 2007 at 15:16:41 PM PST

( – promoted by weeping for brunnhilde)

Per Prox’s request, here is the text of the essay I wrote, then deleted, last night. First I’ll post the unedited text; then I’ll explain why I deleted it.

Anti-Semitism and What We Are Fighting For

Nonpartisan, 12/23/07, MLW

I come out of essay-writing retirement to comment on the issue of anti-Semitism. This will be a flame diary; so be it.

I am a strong supporter of Israel in the current I/P conflict. Others are not. I know people both on and offline who hold the conflicting belief and nevertheless do not engage in anti-Semitism. There is absolutely no question in my mind that anti-Semitism and anti-Israel sentiment are two entirely different and wholly separable things.

Anti-Israel sentiment, in my opinion, is wrong. It is a legitimate viewpoint with which I disagree. Anti-Semitism, on the other hand, is evil. It is a non-legitimate viewpoint that must be stamped out, with all the violence social opprobrium can muster.

Anti-Semitism — along with similar viewpoints such as racism and sexism — is a viewpoint which has been responsible for massive evil in human society. Racism has created massive inequalities, slavery, and genocide. Sexism has created similarly massive inequalities and turned countless human beings into second-class citizens. Anti-Semitism caused, among other things, the Holocaust.

Hannah Arendt has commented on “the banality of evil” in connection with the ordinary perpetrators who carried out the day-to-day murders of the Holocaust. In his book Ordinary Men, Christopher Browning has extended this argument, showing cases of individual Poles who went about murdering Jews without any remorse at all because they had been infected with the germ of anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism is not a rational viewpoint like gun rights or environmentalism — it is a cancer that infects ordinary human beings and turns them into evil killers. It must be stamped out, not tolerated.
more

W should say what we find objectionable in reasoned terms,and not resort to the sort of hateful speech she used. This has been one of my concerns about the blogisphere and the media for a long time. The tendency to ‘look the other way’ when the person making hateful remarks is one of our friends, or someone whose views we agree with may give legitimacy to hateful views by allowing the author to say “everyone else does it, so why can’t I?” Nasty remarks about anyone’s unfitness to be part of society because of their religion should be beyond the pale, unless their religion is actively harmful to others. I mean harmful in the sense of conducting human sacrifice, like the Maya, not simply failing to believe as I believe. As a relatively conservative Christian, I don’t share Romney’s or Obama’s religious views, but I don’t think those have any place in the discussion of their fitness for the presidency. The same applies to the religious beliefs of Huckabee, Edwards, Clinton, McCain – all of whom have different religious beliefs from my own. The matter that I am concerned about, and should be of concern to everyone is not where (if) they worship, but how well will they govern should they become President?

Thanks, Joe, for sharing. I guess I would not have found this dreadful anti-semitic spew on my own. Still, it’s a reminder that what we think of as civilization is a very thin veneer, and under it is a lot of ugly behavior like this. As a Christian, I would say this woman needs to remove the log from her own eye before she protests about the speck in another’s eye. I am disgusted. She certainly does not speak for me! I agree with Mark Daniels – I am deeply sorry to see such trash offered as political comment.

Orson Buggeigh

As a non-Jew, let me express my deep sorrow over this junk.

Mark Daniels

My point is this is an incredible opportunity for people. It doesn’t really matter if you went to journalism school as I did or NOT. You can write, analyize report and make mistakes (as I have done in this comment) and you take the credit OR blame. Perhaps I am oh too much 20th century but I cannot understand the attraction of getting bogged down in blogs with comment wars or wars against bloggers or groups. Now, politicians? THEY are fair game (of both parties).
Thanks for you thought-provoking comment!

But on this note:

(3) The weblog is an INCREDIBLE info/communication tool. Anyone can be his/her own editor, publisher and reporter and by clicking “PUBLISH” share their thoughts with the world. It has incredible potential. Shouldn’t everyone who has a weblog try to realize at least some of that potential?

Call me jaded for not being shocked by this. As you said, anyone can put words on the web. With virtually zero barriers-to-entry, this marketplace is bound to be cluttered with a lot of, ummmmm, variety… Being “a blogger” means nothing in of itself.