Every time anti-semitism- or Israel-related threads degenerate into name-calling I am reminded of this Newsweek column dividing Jews into "cosmopolitan" and "tribal" camps. An excerpt:

"There are and have always been only two kinds of Jews: tribal Jews and cosmopolitan Jews. Tribal Jews love anything Jewish. Cosmopolitan Jews love anything but Jewish. Tribal Jews are not trying to pass, assimilate or deny their tribal roots, their attachment to Israel and their love of other Jews no matter who they are. Cosmopolitan Jews are trying to pass and assimilate and become an undifferentiated member of the majority culture. The problem with tribal Jews is that they have trouble loving non-Jews. The problem with cosmopolitan Jews is that they have trouble loving other Jews."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14308339/site/newsweek/page/2/

(Link is to p.2 of the article)

Posted at October 4, 2007 2:10 PM in response to New Republic: Congressman Jim Moran is No Anti-Semite

"Was war started before such declaration?"

No.

Posted at October 4, 2007 2:01 PM in response to New Republic: Congressman Jim Moran is No Anti-Semite

"'17, '36, '47, '67, '87 or '00."

The root of the situation lies much further back than the 20th C. Much of the problem festers in the belief among significant numbers of Israeli and American Jews that current-day Israel is just part of the Land of Israel, given to the Jews by God, and no arguments based on law, fairness, justice, or even human decency, can shake this tribal belief.

Posted at October 4, 2007 1:57 PM in response to New Republic: Congressman Jim Moran is No Anti-Semite

Please. The term is universally understood to describe anti-Jewish animus. Why are you publicly diddling yourself with the hope that the term will "change to reflect a more accurate meaning," when the trend in language is for words to fall away over time from precise and etymologically correct meanings toward commonly-accepted ones?

Who cares if it "makes no sense that it would be used to refer exclusively to Jews"? It is.

Posted at October 4, 2007 1:48 PM in response to New Republic: Congressman Jim Moran is No Anti-Semite

deleted

Posted at October 2, 2007 10:22 AM in response to Practically perfect in every way

What kind of human beings are these?

Tribal humans, not unlike tribal humans here.

Posted at September 28, 2007 5:55 PM in response to The Dead Children of Palestine

Your "point," if a soggy Q-tip picked up from the gutter can be considered to have a point, was that "major and minor Democratic candidates would that even consider expressing regret for of the murders of children by American military in Iraq and Afganistan or Serbia at all."

Not only have Democratic (and maybe the very occasional Republican) pols expressed such regret, but when the evidence cannot be spun, the military has frequently apologized for such casualties, altho they appear not to have changed they way they do business . . . . Finally, whether they constitute "murder" or negligence is probably beyond you.

Posted at September 28, 2007 1:47 PM in response to The Dead Children of Palestine

"Opponents of Bush are not in jail."

Former Alabama governor Siegelman is, and there are others.

http://harpers.org/subjects/NoComment

Posted at September 25, 2007 9:32 PM in response to Two Presidents Make Fools of Themselves at Columbia

What research would you propose to establish that the observed world is too complex to have arisen by chance?

Give it up.

Posted at September 25, 2007 9:22 PM in response to Two Presidents Make Fools of Themselves at Columbia

Not when you get that satisfying torque transmitted from your foot thru your ankle and leg to the rest of your body.

Posted at September 25, 2007 9:16 PM in response to Two Presidents Make Fools of Themselves at Columbia