Replies: 6 Comments

I wish to briefly address the final paragraph of Hume's post. The one which begins with the U.S.'s "tacit backing of Israel's settlements" and ends with "a mushroom cloud."

Excuse me, but I have to laugh. This reminds me of the absurd notion which the popular media picked up (about 10 years ago) from Chaos theory. Thus one would hear: "If a butterfly flaps its wings in California, there will be a hurricane in the Philippines." In the popular media, there would be the suggestion that somehow a butterfly's wing flaps were a CAUSE of hurricane X. Such hilarity. Two points.

First, such notions reflect what Freud termed "magical thinking." It reflects a confused, pre-modern, pre-scientific understanding of the world.

Second, in terms of logic, it can be characterized as a "non causa pro causa" type of argument -- also known as the fallacy of the slippery slope. The fallacy of the slippery slope suggests that if A happens (settlements are built in Israel), then by a gradual series of steps, eventually Z will happen too (that's atomic bombs going off in the United States). And, Z should not happen. Therefore, A should not happen either. Now that's an example of a fallacious slippery slope argument, perfectly illustrated by Hume.

I, for one, do not believe your peculiar theory of causation. In a nutshell, it's rubbish -- go back to the drawing board.

J.S., Tuesday, December 19th

Yes, let's stick to facts, shall we?

Even the most simplistic appraisal of Islam (the briefest, "read the headlines only" approach) should alert a person to the fact that Islam (as a religious imperative) teaches its followers to despise Jews. Thus, from the text "Why the Jews?" one reads: "Muslim antisemitism continued to be brutally expressed through the twentieth century" (p122). Morocco, 1907, "huge massacre of Jews;" Algeria, 1934, "massacre in Constantine;" Aden, Iraq. Go look up on the Internet Islamic pogroms against Jews, 20th century. How does one account for this? The State of Israel did not come into existence until 1948.

How does anyone reconcile such facts? How dare anyone blame "settlers" circa 1967?? What risible nonsense!

Karsh in his text, "Islamic Imperialism: a history" gives a much more detailed account of Islam's imperialist ambitions. It is Karsh's thesis that Islam is at heart an imperialist religion and it intends to spread itself world-wide, and subjugate the "non-believers."

So long as Israel is outside the Islamic realm (that is, not subjugated under Islamic rule), then Islam will be at war with Israel. The adage which is repeated continuously is "Islam dominates and must not be dominated." This is what fuels the current furor -- not "settlers."

J.S., Monday, December 18th

Robert, when where the first settlements built? I think that was 1967, shortly after the war. Do you really mean to say that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict started only by then? In 1948, Jordan captured East Jerusalem including the old city and put Arabs in the former Jewish quarter, demolished several synagogues and desecrated the Jewish cemetery, but that doesn't seem to bother you.
You are also saying that 9/11 and hatred of the USA are caused by the US support for Israel. So the Jews are to blame again. The USA supported and still supports many bad regimes, dictators, human rights violators, pursues its own interests in the world in a sometimes quite aggressive way, made a terrible mess in Iraq, but the only reason it is hated so much by Muslims is because of those damned Jews, correct me, Zionists. Of course, all problems in the Middle East, from the widespread corruption to the lack of freedom and women's rights, the lack of economic and scientific progress and persecution of minorities, it is all the fault of Israel and the occupation. If only those damned Zionists were forced to evacuate the territories everything would be fine. Right?

Ratna Pelle, Monday, December 18th

Robert, attacks against Israel (or Jews in the Middle-East in general) didn't start with the settlements, and I personally doubt that any events would mentioned above are related to the settlements.

Anon, Sunday, December 17th

Let's skip the ad-hominem and just stick to simple facts. The root of the problem is the settlements which are illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention which Israel signed in 1948. The Convention forbids settling your citizens in land conquered in war.

Protecting these illegal settlers has led to the inevitable conflict which afflicts democratic nations who occupy another country with troops on the ground of a different religion than the occupied. See Prof. Robert Pape of U. Chicago and his "Dying to Win."

The U.S. tacit backing of Israel's settlements has led to widespread hatred of the US, to 9/11, and to the war in Iraq. The settlements will cease or the US nation (and Israel and Tehran, etc.) will likely go up in a mushroom cloud.

Robert Hume, Saturday, December 16th

I think "reaching" someone like Carter is futile and pointless. Probably the best is simply to write the hate-filled moron off as just another antisemite.

I think someone could do a movie featuring the Peanut Farmer as Borat wanna-be, follow him around and document the antisemitism (in a sarcastic, comic way). Interestingly, Limbaugh did a quote comparison -- taking quotes from Peanut boy's screed and taking quotes from the KKKer David Duke (who was attending the Holocaust denial conference in Iran) and demonstrating the virtual word-for-word similarities. Now that would make for one hilarious movie!

J.S., Friday, December 15th

Constructive comments, including corrections, are welcome. Do not use this space for spam, publishing articles, self promotion, racism, anti-Zionist propaganda or character defamation. Inappropriate comments will be deleted. See our Comment policy for details. By posting here, you agree to the Comment policy.