Perhaps you would feel differently about all this if Phil was obsessed with Larry Silverstein and impugning his character on his blog while thinking out loud instead of American Jewry. Phil might question whether Larry Silverstein had ever really abandoned his Soviet communist leanings that he so energetically advocated for as a young man. He might also question whether Larry Silverstein ever contemplated sexually violating a women against her will. He would not be claiming that you did of course, but he would be just raising the issue since you’re a man and many men fantasize about this and he has no proof that you haven’t ever considered it, and you may have even unconsciously been considering it and you don’t even know it. While it is true that many men don’t fantasize about raping women, many do, and you’re a man, so it’s not crazy to imagine that you have at some point fantasized about commiting a felony of this sort. Turning his fantasies into reality is a different story, but it’s fair game for Phil to consider out loud. And if scores of man-hating feminists were to pick up on Phil’s lead and post commentary on the oppression of women in today’s society and Larry Silverstein’s complicity in this and his supposed, or potential, fantasies about sexually violating women, well that may mean that there is something to this argument. And if you were to post arguments in his defense, well that may mean that either you are unaware of his own impulses to violate others or you are a liar. Now, Phil would question and predict that you are likely to want to deny any of these accusations since the consequences for these becoming public are not good for Larry Silverstein. his friends who comment on his behalf on his blog will be written off as useful Larry Silverstein idiots or co-conspirators simply in on the oppression of women and therefore not to be trusted. Even those of his friends who agree that women have been historically oppressed and that many men in fact due engage in such sexua fantasizing will be written off. In fact, they are the worst – effeminate little men who try to suck up to women and acknowledge female oppression while at the same time furthering it. They deserve a fate worse than the male pigs that at least are up front about their desire to physically, sexually, and politically oppress women. Indeed, these ERA supporting male feminist friends of hiss are part of the problem, not the solution, and they are the reason that none of us have realized these awful things about you. Larry – the jig is up and Phill Weiss is on to you. You’ll have to stay tuned for the book for the full story, but in the meantime, should his entire life come apart as a resul of this thought exercise by Phil Weiss, well don’t you agree that this is a small price to pay for free speech?

Lester,

I want to personally apologize to you about the whole Iraq thing. Who knew it was going to work out so badly? We got ourselves all worked up with this crazy idea that democracy would be a good thing for the Arab states and the nasty dictators that we'd been supporting and enabling all these ears (e.g., Saddam Hussein, Hosni Mubarak, Assad, etc) were actually slowly killing us because they were not allowing their own people to develop viable economies. We were very concerned that the same sort of terror the Israelis were facing would await the West. 9/11 made our concerns all that more relevant and since no one had any other good ideas about what to do about the situation, Shrub latched on to our ideas. It didn't hurt that the oil people and the military weapons people were also for it. I'm guessing you'll take your revenge on them as well, yes? Sure.

Look Lester, I have no doubt you will expend all of your energy seeking to blame this whole thing on the Jews. I mean, truth be told, a bunch of us neo-cons are Jewish and we do think a lot about Israel, but given their predicament and the forces aligned against them, it would be hard to ignore them and their situation. It is very much in the USA's interest to have Israel not attacked and forced to respond with its military capability. Now the fact that the majority of US Jews were against this War, and the leaders of the anti-war movement were often Jews, should in no way affect your dearly held belief that this was a Jewish conspiracy. My god, Lester, without that core conspiracy theory what would you be? A shmuck? Heaven forbid such a thing.

I fully agree with Alex that Israel really needs to be proactive and take the lead on driving for a negotiated two-state solution with the Palestinians. I'm not sure exactly how they do this with Hamas in so much control and Iran and Syria seeking to destabilize that particular war theatre, but it is in their interest to come to an accomodation rather than have one shoved down their throats. One might say the same for the Palestinians as well.

It's true that the majority of American Jews were against the Iraq War but it's even more true that the leaders of organized Jewry were for it. What I believe Phil is trying to do is get ordinary American Jews to take some responsibility for what orgainized Jewry did on their behalf (and largely with their acquiesence). We goyim can complain about Bush and Cheney and Rumsfield all we want. The one thing we can't do though is complain about the support of organized Jewry for the war. The FIRST thing that comes back when we do are hateful email messages referencing anti-Semitism, Hitler and the final solution. It's only ordinary Jews who can discredit this notion that American self-interest and Israeli self interest are the same. So more power to Phil and people like him. May their numbers grow.

What country are you talking about? Certainly not the U.S.A. Here the anti-war movement was boycotted by Jewish groups because they wanted to avoid any discussion of Israel. And they were right — you can't discuss the lies that got us into this war unless you're prepared to face the truth.