dagblog - Comments for "Sapping Assad’s strength: Israel stirs the pot in Syria"

No, you won - I'm floored.

PeraclesPlease — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 23:32:42 +0000

In reply to I don't consider anything

No, you won - I'm floored. Savor it.

I don't consider anything

Bruce Levine — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 17:07:24 +0000

In reply to You win, I'm speechless.

I don't consider anything about the train wreck thread above a win. I'm ill.

You win, I'm speechless.

PeraclesPlease — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 16:59:37 +0000

In reply to This responds specifically to

You win, I'm speechless.

Oh, I can't use the term

PeraclesPlease — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 16:32:30 +0000

In reply to Stopped reading after you

Oh, I can't use the term "whiney" because that's anti-Semitic? I'll have to inform my kids that incessant sobbing is now acceptable, and that to call them out on it is ethnically intolerant. You're really a joke. Forget it.

This responds specifically to

Bruce Levine — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 15:45:27 +0000

In reply to Sapping Assad’s strength: Israel stirs the pot in Syria

This responds specifically to one of the many names that Peracles has determined to call yours truly. This is about "whiny". I say that is an anti-semitic stereotype, which Peracles just levied at me. He has and presumably respond and say I'm defensive, or paranoid, or bonkers, or . . . whiny, that whiny was just coincidental having nothing to do with me being a Jew.

I did not make this up and Peracles can call me what he wishes, but here's just corroboration that I'm hardly the first to notice the propensity of many folks to call Jews whiny. That is what Peracles, a product of the same society all of us are, just called me.

Here's a teachable moment for all good and decent people, with a tad of a tongue in cheek. This is a snarky but real list of anti-semitic tropes listed by someone other than this defensive, paranoid, bonkers writer [sorry about formatting below]:

What you’re doing to the Palestinians is no better!

The Holocaust was years ago, get over it!

Where’s the prussian blue?

I’m talking about Zionists, not Jews!

You’re so whiny! [Peracles' jingle is moving up on the chart!]

The real Holocaust is/was….

Hitler was just misunderstood!

The Jews run Hollywood!

A real Jew would….

But anti-semitism technically means hatred of Middle Eastern people!

Jews aren’t white, they’re not like us!

Jews are white, so they’re not oppressed!

This is by no means a complete list. Feel free to reblog if you have anything to add.

You aren’t Jews, you’re Khazars.

You aren’t Jews, you’re Talmudists.

Well, you’ve been kicked out of every country…have you considered that the problem might be you?

I’m not antisemitic—I hate all religions!

I’m not antisemitic—my Messiah was a Jew!

My friend is Jewish and he laughs at my jokes!

I don’t mean like, you in particular, but you know Jews in general.

Not Jews like Jews, but you know…Jews.

It’s not like you “control the world,” but Jews are smart and good with money, so…

Look, I grew up in a town with mostly Jews, so I know what Jews are like.

I’m not antisemitic, I love Israel.Wait, aren’t you not allowed to eat pork?

Not necessarily my list, because I'm more concerned about the tropes like Cooks, which turn the bloodbath in Syria into another example where "meddling" by the Jewish State will put our boys and girls in danger overseas--as in Iraq, a Cook favorite, and of course World War I and World War II.

In what world other than consideration of what Jews think, are history and context treated as so meaningless, or worse, as a ruse, or raised as the product of paranoia?

And now I'm done.

Stopped reading after you

Bruce Levine — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 15:26:12 +0000

In reply to Nor will whiney protestations

Stopped reading after you called me "whiny" a personal slur and a stereotyped characterization of Jewish people. PP, you are a product of your upbringing--you can't help it, just like the rest of us. Look inward. Reply on Whiny below.

Nor will whiney protestations

PeraclesPlease — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 14:33:47 +0000

In reply to I reply to this continuous

Nor will whiney protestations about "hate speech". Try explaining yourself for once rather than latching onto words as the end of the world. What specifically gets your goat about Cook? He gives some of his analyst's names, it's not unusual for reporters to have scuttlebutt from insiders they don't name, and even the Israeli general Itai Brun who started the accusations of Syria using chemical weapons didn't have anything but photographic evidence - that some were foaming at the mouth and had dilated pupils so that must mean sarin poisoning, so we must arm the rebels & strike chemical supplies et al. There still haven't been tests on the ground, no physical tests for chemicals. Obama notes the Russians are still skeptical that chemical weapons were used. But Bruce has a monopoly on "truth".

I reply to this continuous

Bruce Levine — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 13:57:05 +0000

In reply to Time headline: The

I reply to this continuous non response below. That Israel reported something in April that is then challenged bears zero relation to what Cook wrote. Insults won't change truth.

I stopped reading after

Bruce Levine — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 13:53:44 +0000

In reply to How is it "hate speech"?

I stopped reading after bonkers. And I just read yet another non response above. Questioning evidence is hardly accusing the Jeqish State of unilaterally pushing America into another war with false claims about chemical weapons.

How is it "hate speech"?

PeraclesPlease — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 13:32:56 +0000

In reply to Peracles, I believe it is

How is it "hate speech"? You're bonkers. Read the damn thing.

"The answer can be deduced in the unappealing outcomes for Israel whoever emerges triumphant. Israel stands to lose strategically if either Assad or the opposition wins decisively." - controversial? or simply states Israel's predicament

"Assad, and before him his father, Hafez, ensured that for decades the...line between Syria and Israel... remained the quietest of all Israel’s borders." - as the American saying goes, "He may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch " - anti-Israeli?

"A taste of what might happen should the Syrian regime fall was provided in 2011 when more than 1,000 Palestinians massed in the no man’s land next to the Golan, while Assad’s attention was directed to repressing popular demonstrations elsewhere. At least 100 Palestinians crossed into the Heights" - point Israel, real reason to worry

"Briefly the opposition forces captured Quneitra, offering a reminder that any void there would likely suck in Palestinian militants and jihadists keen to settle scores with Israel." - point Israel, real reason to worry

"Israeli military is reported to be considering two responses: invading ...or covertly training and arming Syrian proxies inside the same area....indications ...that Israel is already pursuing the second track." - that's the more legal & less explosive route & lines up with what the US is doing - anti-Israeli? hate speech?

He goes on to describe Hizbullah as probably Israel's bigger worry, with Israeli strikes to prevent their arming - point Israel, real reason to worry

Concern about Assad upgrading its missiles - point Israel, real reason to worry

Israel’s much vaunted ambition to engineer an attack on Iran [to prevent a bomb]...would probably come at too high a price to be feasible." - may sound negative, but isn't that fairly accurate?

"According to some well-placed Israeli commentators, the best Israel can hope for is that Assad holds on but only just. That would keep the regime in place, or boxed into its heartland, but sapped of the energy to concern itself with anything other than immediate matters of survival. It would be unable to offer help to Hizbullah, isolating the militia in Lebanon and cutting off its supply line to Iran." - the crux of the biscuit, sounds like a good plan if Israel can get it. Is Israel doing anything unreasonable in pushing this option?

Cook paints 2 possibilities - that protracted battle would sap Hizbullah strength - advantage Israel - or that Hizbullah would gain if they handled the conflict well. Nowhere does Cook condemn Israel in this scenario.

So I simply don't get where you think of this as hate speech or puts Israel in bad light, aside from coming out of its shell and deciding to push the conflict to its own advantage - something that Michael noted 10 other countries are doing.