Memory of the stetl and Yiddish-speaking grandparents does not justify keeping membership in the increasingly racist and supremacist tribal entity that modern Jewish ethnicity has become.

And what that secular "Jewish" identity ever had to do with ultra-orthodox religious fanatics or Arabic speaking "Oriental" Jews is only the acceptance of Zionism as a unifying ideology.

I think it critical that you report on this from Pat Lang's Web site. I will quote in full here because it's relatively short:
link to turcopolier.typepad.com
/>

Even though there is no central authority that speaks for Islam, there are times and places when an authoritative Doctor of Religious Sciences (of Islam) speaks for Islam; i.e. his legal opinion becomes the de facto position of Muslims everywhere.

Ayatollah Khamenei's statement of 12/28/2008 is one such case. You can find the text @ link to english.khamenei.ir
His statement characterizes the Israel-Hamas War as the analogue of the wars of the Prophet against the idol-worshippers of Mecca. With a few words, Mr. Khamenei has shaped the Muslim view of the Israel-Hamas War for years, if not decades, to come.

No Muslim political leader can challenge his statement , for doing so now will be tantamount to going against Islam. No religious leader – Shia or Sunni – will dispute his statement.

Here is Prince Turki al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia (a moderate according to the common US-EU usage of that term) in a speech at the opening of the 6-th (Persian) Gulf Forum on January 6th, “The Bush administration has left you (with) a disgusting legacy and a reckless position towards the massacres and bloodshed of innocents in Gaza…Enough is enough, today we are all Palestinians and we seek martyrdom for God and for Palestine, following those who died in Gaza.”

In my opinion, Israel has now blundered into an implicit war with Islam. Mr. Khamenei’s statement has closed the door to any peace plan along the lines of Oslo, Taba, the Quartet, Tony Blair, etc. All that is now even theoretically possible is a Hudna – a long cease-fire. A separate Syria-Israel peace track is no longer possible since the Alawite Elders will not go against the rest of Islam by having Syria conclude a separate peace treaty with Israel.

Which brings me to my final opinion: even a Hudna will presently require the formation of a Concert of Middle East or some such.

Babak Makkenijad
Why is this critical? Israel didn't "blunder." It set the US up. It has really endangered us by this action.

The only position that Neocons and Judeofascists have to take to get useful idiot liberals into bed is one anywhere to the left of authentic Christians, Muslims and anyone else who believes in a wholesome, simple, traditional way of life. It’s particularly ironic, given that liberals also pose as anti-corporatist, anti-consumerist, anti-crass capitalist environmentalists.

I guess it’s just another in a long line of internal contradictions that demonstrates why establishment left-liberalism is such a pathetic “foe” to Neocons and Judeofascists. In fact, it is no “foe” at all, even though it poses as one. At best it is neutral, because it completely falls for the Neocon pretext of bringing feminist and homosexual rights to the Mideast. I’ve heard that a lot of Nazis were queer, too. I bet many left-liberalis would have fallen into bed with Nazism if the Nazis and Communists hadn’t ended their partnership.

What a despicable collection of flakes. Easy pickings for the Neocons and Judeofascists, that’s for sure.

AW, c'mon Mo. What do you think we are … INTELLECTUALS?

The average American believes in baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet. And 'shop till you drop.' Anything more abstract than that is just way too taxing. — BURP –

Immediately after reading Ed's comment, I stumbled upon a perfect illustration of his thesis –

————

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – The first openly gay Episcopal bishop will offer a prayer at the Lincoln Memorial at an inaugural event for President-elect Barack Obama.

The selection of New Hampshire Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson for Sunday's event follows weeks of criticism from gay-rights groups over Obama's decision to have the Rev. Rick Warren give the invocation at his Jan. 20 inauguration.

Robinson, 61, said both Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden will attend the event, and Obama is expected to speak. As for himself, Robinson said he doesn't yet know what he'll say, but he knows he won't use a Bible.

"While that is a holy and sacred text to me, it is not for many Americans," Robinson said. "I will be careful not to be especially Christian in my prayer. This is a prayer for the whole nation."

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D95LLG5G0&show_article=1

————

This is so Clintonian, such a collection of cliches, that one hardly knows where to start.

A token gay bishop, delivering a harmless, feel-good non-sectarian prayer, in a temple solemnly dedicated to a syphilitic mass-murderer, striking an anodyne bipartisan note, while at the same slyly appealing to the deluded millions who improbably believe that one party is kinder, gentler and more 'liberal' than the other.

Oh Jeebus, I don't know whether to laugh, cry or take a dump. What did I do to deserve getting thrown into this demented comedy show from hell? May I please be excused?

Then all of sudden we went from one extreme to the other. It was this overnight adaptation of my own very ideas that made me suspicious at first. Dear Ed, I love authentic Jews, Christians, Muslims and anyone else who believes in a wholesome, simple, traditional way of life. That's why I oppose ideological atheism. I don;t advertise my atheism and I am very supportive of those who use religion as a shield against the excesses of capitalism consumerism and the hedonistic tendencies of the global culture.

I only agreed to being published here because i respect Philip more immensely and if he thinks a few words by me are worth of this valuable blog, who am I to disagree?

dear Jim, maybe by westerners I am not referring so much to joe the plumber, but the educated masses of the west, those with a bachelor degree and higher who really think they "know" and that they are "smart" and that they have transcended beyond ideology. Otherwise I agree with you abouyt the masses.

But even on the mass level, people are easily manipulated through the use of science, history and philosophy as these discourses or disciplines are flow downwards from the elite to the average person. For example, people are comfortable to consume because they heard is somewhere credible (Tom Friedman) that their country's prosperity has to do with a liquid consumer economy. But most of the time my theory refers to people like Tom Friedman who really think they get it. And yes. he definitely considers himself an intellectual.