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Dear Norman Goldman:

Being against the state of Israel does not mean -- DOES NOT MEAN -- you are an anti-Semite.

Country/government != people. Remember? Guy named Bush? Had this country doing things that maybe everyone didn't like?

Moron.

Love,
Jenny.

SLICE

ETA: I explain myself very slightly better in a comment to a comment to this post, so if you do find yourself wanting to draw a tiny mustache on me, you might want to read it before making your final decision. I guess what it boils down to is, are there really exactly two points of view on the subject? Do I really either have to be in full support of this particular country or else I hate it and desire its end? Can I really not be against its current governmental and political actions and climate without also hating the people who live there, even though you'd never accuse a guy who hated Parliament and the Queen with bitter bitter loathing as hating all British or Anglican people? Why? Just because you feel that way? Who wrote that particular rule, was there a vote, and are we just not allowed to ever again discuss it?

Now back to the actual post.

Ouch. Why did no one tell me that TxtLJ chops your posts into tiny pieces? Fixed now.

Explanation for previous post: I wanted to record this commercial on the Mike, so I decided to suffer through the Ed Schultz show instead of switching back to my mp3s right after Stephanie Miller finished up. This guy Norman Goldman was subbing. At one point a twelve-year-old girl called in, making a fairly confused point about I think the government wasting money on things like illegal wars? Goldman was with her until she said we should stop giving aid to Israel, and then when she said that Israel shouldn't even exist he called her an anti-Semite, declared that she needed to get a lot more education before trying to talk about these things, and hung up on her.

Israel shouldn't be there, though, not really.

Look. You probably have a home. Chances are you like this home, at least a little. Now see this guy here? This is Bob. Bob has been oppressed all his life. He's had a horrible time of it, through no fault of his own. Some asshole even threw him in a concentration camp, can you believe that? He barely escaped with his life.

From now on, the southeast corner of your living room belongs to Bob.

What, you say you were there first? You say that was YOUR living room, goddammit? Well, sure, but Bob has a right to exist too. Bob's suffered more than you ever will. Are you some kind of anti-Bobbist?

Yeah, the Jews have been putting up with assholes for centuries, and they absolutely did not deserve it. But kicking other people off their land to make up for it? That's your answer? You've decided that two wrongs make a right? Really?

The Jews should exist, absolutely. They're people, and once we've determined that much, any further modifiers probably aren't needed. But a COUNTRY is not PEOPLE, and being against Israel DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE AGAINST THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE THERE. And I just can't get behind a government that sends armored bulldozers into the residential neighborhoods of their slightly browner neighbors, folks. I just can't.

Just like for eight years, so very many Americans kept pointing at Washington, D.C. and saying "I swear I'm not with them."


So there you go. Norman Goldman is an idiot, and the nation of Israel can bite my shiny metal ass.

Swastikas, anyone?