If you weren't convinced that Joe Klein was a meshugener
after reading yesterday's
post, check out his
follow-up tirade:
Then, what can one say about Jennifer Rubin, who accuses me of
antisemitism? I must say that's rather thrilling coming from the
Commentary crowd.You want evidence of divided loyalties? How about
the "benign domino theory" that so many Jewish neoconservatives
talked to me about--off the record, of course--in the runup to the
Iraq war, the idea that Israel's security could be won by taking
out Saddam, which would set off a cascade of disaster for Israel's
enemies in the region? As my grandmother would say, feh! Do you
actually deny that the casus belli that dare not speak its name
wasn't, as I wrote in February 2003, a desire to make the world
safe for Israel? Why the rush now to bomb Iran, a country that
poses some threat to Israel but none--for the moment--to the United
States...unless we go ahead, attack it, and the mullahs unleash
Hezbollah terrorists against us? Do you really believe the mullahs
would stage a nuclear attack on Israel, destroying the third most
holy site in Islam and killing untold numbers of Muslims? I am not
ruling out the use of force against Iran--it may come to that--but
you folks seem to embrace it gleefully.
Furthermore, as a Jew, I find it offensive that the American
Jewish Committee would support such an ideologically unbalanced
publication as Commentary, one that spouts a Likudnik bellicosity
that is out of sync with the beliefs of the vast majority of
American Jews.
I have a few points, but first I want to note that I'll hereafter
refer to Joe Klein simply as "Joe," because I don't want to
besmirch the legacy of my great-grandfather, an honorable man who
had the same name.
Joe continues to question the patriotism of Jewish supporters of
the Iraq War, and now he says that the "divided loyalty" smear is
true because anonymous Jewish conservatives told him (off-the
record!!!) that invading Iraq would be beneficial to Israel's
security. Even if I were to take Joe at his word, something I am
not fully prepared to do, his assertion doesn't prove anything.
Just because some people who happened to be Jewish and conservative
supported the Iraq War and also thought it would be beneficial to
Israel, it doesn't mean they supported the war because they thought it would help Israel. It's not
clear from Joe's account how this came up in conversation anyway.
Did he ask his anonymous focus group of Jewish neocons why they
supported the invasion of Iraq, and they responded that they
supported the invasion because it was good for Israel? Or did he
pointedly ask the neocons how the invasion would affect Israel? And
even if he did speak to a few Jews who held this view, how could he
make the leap that it was those very people who determined U.S.
policy in Iraq? And what does Joe think about the majority of
Americans, of all religions, who supported the Iraq War? Were they
just dupes of the Jews?
Joe writes, "Do you actually deny that the casus belli that dare
not speak its name wasn't, as I wrote in February 2003, a desire to
make the world safe for Israel?" It would be nice if he offered any
evidence to back up his fringe claim that the U.S. went to war with
Iraq for Israel's sake. Instead, he merely notes that he also made
the charge more than five years ago, as if the fact that he keeps
repeating it gives it more credence.
He goes on to assert that Iran, which has been a hostile regime
toward the U.S. for nearly 30 years, which holds parliament
sessions in which members chant "Death to America," which
slaughtered American servicemen in the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing,
which is currently sponsoring terrorist groups killing U.S. troops
in Iraq, is not a threat to the America, and the only reason
anybody would have any skittishness toward an Iranian nuclear
program were if they were a Jewish conservative who put Israel
before their own country.
Then Joe has the temerity to say that, as a Jew, he's offended
that the American Jewish Committee supports Commentary magazine.
Well, as a Jew, I'm offended that this hack thinks he can play
chief Rabbi and declare that the only acceptable set of political
beliefs for Jews is his brand of radical liberalism.
topics:
Religion, Islam, Iraq, Iran, Israel
