tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-95738970217731354.post7727374291557852235..comments2023-12-28T02:52:31.067-08:00Comments on Went 2 the Bridge: Fiscally Responsible Idea Of The Week: #FreeBradLisa Savagehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06319699936783253064noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-95738970217731354.post-14539430211340353542012-12-10T11:08:50.596-08:002012-12-10T11:08:50.596-08:00Addiction is a pallid term to apply to the habit o...Addiction is a pallid term to apply to the habit of racism even if you apply all the Madison Avenue panoply of "Reefer Madness" sorts of ill-effects. Racism is the act of the mind before it is the effects on the body. Someone chooses to praise Israel because, as Leon Wieseltier wrote in the New Republic this week (Haaretz called him the most influential Jew in the US in trumpeting this essay), the loss of a Jewish state would be bad: "for Israel not to be a Jewish state would be a Jewish catastrophe, and for it not to be a democratic state would be a human catastrophe..." What's wrong with civil rights and personal faith and heritage commitments, Leon? I read that effort, and Haaretz's praise for it (even though he ends up saying there's no hope for peace--but isn't that the premise for racism?) as a refusal to engage the question. What is the perennial complaint from the Israeli political elite: "we have nobody to negotiate with". I.e., everybody they talk to wants rights, and that's the one thing they can't give. Why not?<br />Racism's an expensive habit.chrisrushlauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11432949074147807503noreply@blogger.com