In reply: It isn't anti-Semitic to disagree with something the State of Israel once did or is doing now, any more than it's anti-American to disagree with past or present US government policy.

In reply to this off-topic comment by Donald Douglas (largely repeated in my reply) at the American Niiiiihilist post What're We Supposed To Call These Folks... bin Ladeners??
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What's with you and using comment sections like a mailbox? Do the words "off-topic" really mean nothing to you?

"From the AmPow comments on the LGM thread..."

Well, if Grant says it...

LGM's commenters are the both the dumbest and most demented. Awful people.

Your opinion too, is noted.

And Repsac3, you idiot, when have I ever alleged you a Jew-basher?

Do I not comment at LGM? Am I not a progressive? When you generalize about folks in the course of making an accusation, you accuse all the folks you generalize about. (That's one of the things that makes generalizing such a stupid thing to do.)

A racist, yes, for your white-supremacist views reared during the Pale Scot affair. You yourself said you judge people first by the color of their skin. That's bigoted and racist.

I'm pretty sure I didn't, but I invite you to cite it, rather than just make this random claim...

"And everyone distanced themselves from those views at the time, except you. I don't care personally. It's not about me. It's your hypocrisy."

Saying it doesn't make it so, Donald... Put up or shut up.

"And this is the key point about progressives, which is precisely true:

"When you hold the State of Israel – a nation in a struggle for its survival from the beginning, a target for the misogynist, racist, anti-western, dictatorial regimes which surround it – to a standard you would hold no other nation under normal circumstances, let alone under such exigencies – and when you spew libel against our sole regional democratic ally for “crimes” concocted by delegitimizers, you are an anti-Semite."

Sorry Donald, but the quote doesn't sound any better (or more correct) the 3rd (or is it 4th?) time you repeat it.

Israel's a fine country, but it isn't perfect... It's not above any/all criticism. They're kinda like America, in that regard... Some very questionable things done in their past, and differing opinions about government policies, from within and without, even to this day. They, (like us, in America) are held to a higher standard than these misogynist, racist, anti-western, dictatorial regimes because they, like us are viewed on the world stage as actually having a higher, more enlightened set of values and ideals. People expect more of Israel and the US because we demand more of ourselves. I'm surprised that you and Wiesenfeld fail to understand that.

It isn't anti-Semitic to disagree with something the State of Israel once did or is doing now, any more than it's anti-American to disagree with past or present US government policy. And because of the history of the Jewish people and anti-Semitism, it's as ugly an accusation to make as it is a false one.

There is straight up anti-Semitism in the world, Donald, but these kinda specious accusations cheapen the term and will in time make it meaningless from overuse. When every disagreement with any Jewish person or policy of the State of Israel is being called anti-Semitic, the term loses it's actual meaning.

I urge you to at least consider it, Dr Douglas...
Posted at American Nihilist May 8, 2011, 7:10 AM
Also submitted for moderator approval rejected for publication, for reasons I leave for the reader to determine (though I know what I think), at Dr Douglas' American Power: Scott Lemieux Backs Anti-Semitic Tony Kushner at Lawyers, Guns and Money post on May 8, 2011 4:05 AM (AmPow blog time). Hopefully, Dr Douglas won't be too cowardly to allow it to appear there at the post where it actually belongs, but knowing Dr. Douglas as I do, I'm not holding my breath.