Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Anti-semitism is no trivial matter

I have refused to be dragged into this whole debate, and will only make this comment in response to a couple of emails I have received.

Anti-Semitism is no trivial matter, it is a serious issue and making jokes about it serves no useful purpose, and at worst is a disgrace to the entire debate.

I will not give the blog the satisfaction of mentioning their name, but their attempt to trivialize the issue is reason enough for any Jew or a supporter of Israel to boycott their site until such time as an apology is issued.

I can only suspect that since they have never been on the receiving end of this type of behaviour they have no clue how damaging it is.

"Consider the source" is appropriate in this case.

3 comments:

me said...

D.W.,

Conflating political discourse with anti-semitism also trivializes the matter.

Thus, the widespread criticism (what you term "debate") over the past several days of a certain supporter of a certain incumbent Congressman.

This, in turn, has resulted in additional criticism of those who choose to ignore such conflation in favor of continued finger-pointing, distraction, etc.

Religion and faith (and certainly any prejudice against such) ought not to be conflated with politics, especially in our great nation which is itself a vibrant community so many various faiths.

Best, Rob

Anonymous said...

Nixon was supposed to be "good for Israel" and when his tapes came out we found out he was one of the worst anti-Semites there was. On November 24 2006, Charles Krauthammer argued that it is ok to be anti-Semitic as long as you support Israel. What is this support if it comes from people who hate Jews? More arms. More tensions in the region. No success in bringing a lasting secure peace for over 30 years since Nixon, the anti-Semite who was good for Israel, started us on the foreign policy path we are now on. With friends like this, Israel does not need it's enemies and when all is said and done, American Jews are left with unchecked anti-Semitism in our own government.

Anonymous said...

The real problem is that Republican Jews are trivializing the issue of anti-semitism by agreeing to their unholy alliance with the Christian right and the Republicans who use them. And it is all for the allmighty dollar.