14 Comments

Thank you. Israel is a country like any other. It is neither uniquely evil nor uniquely good. But easy to love, flaws and all.

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Thank you.

The big difference between the Jewish people and the Islamists is that the Jewish people can look at themselves critically and see both sides….all the flawed thinking, actions etc AND they admit they are not perfect

The Islamist, Muslim Brotherhood in fact Muslim will never do that

That is what makes the Jewish people honourable human beings….their self admitted imperfections

And I am Christian……my opinion

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Thank you, Peg.

Some of us do that.

Not all.

I think it's important to create a culture in which self criticism is OK.

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I wondered what had happened to Spencer Ackerman. You have confirmed my impressions.

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You mean you remember him from the NY Press also??

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Not that far back, TBH.

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So where do you remember him from?

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Probably Twitter during the Obama era. I think he was critical of the US use of drones. But I didn't realize how much internalized antisemitism he was trading in. (I have also shifted toward the center since that time, so maybe my present self would have spotted it.)

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OK, thanks. Yes, he became quite prominent then. I was gobsmacked by the fact that a cute little twit from an alternative paper had become an authority (of sorts). I was astonished, thought I shouldn’t have been. That’s how it goes.

I get the point about viewpoints changing - I was far more sympathetic to the “anti-drone” attitude then than I might be now. Again - a long story for another time.

I checked out his current website and read some articles about current stuff and you know what? I had totally overrated him. He wrote a piece of dreck about the Daniel Penny trial. I might write something about this.

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The perspective shifts of various writers can be weird, but I reserve the right to change my own mind, so I shouldn't be surprised. I've been reading an excellent book about Arab politics called The Strong Horse by Lee Smith that had the misfortune of coming out right before the so-called Arab Spring (which kind of made people disinterested in analyzing the failures of Bush 2 foreign policy). When I looked for more recent writing by Smith, it was all deep MAGA stuff, to the point that I'm not sure it's even the same Lee Smith. But maybe it is.

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Israel is a country. It is neither uniquely evil nor uniquely good. I love it like I love my family, flaws and all. That is the type of love that stays strong.

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Yes, a country. Not a cult. Let's act that way.

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Amen sister. Forgot to say Thank you for the article.

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