In a Nutshell:

Michael

...a weak spot for Jews has been dealing with situations where hatred for them and an effort to destroy them as a community has been coupled with seemingly humanitarian, progressive rhetoric. - Professor Barry Rubin of Rubin Reports

The above quote is part of a comment that our friend Daniel Bielak posted.

I would say that Dr. Rubin's remark is as concise an iteration of the problem as I have ever read.

This is precisely the situation that we find ourselves in.

But I wonder if it really is so different from the anti-Jewish rhetoric that came out of Nazi Germany? I mean, obviously there are differences and today's progressives are not Nazis. Nonetheless, just as progressives see themselves as idealistic reformers (and their political opponents as beneath contempt), so the Nazis also saw themselves as idealistic reformers (and their political opponents as beneath contempt).

In both cases, then and now, Jews are singled out by a large group of western idealists who convince one another that we are moral monsters and often in the very same terms. Just as Nazis saw Jews as behind the scenes, pulling the strings, for the benefit of the Jewish community at the expense of the German community, so many progressives see Jews and Israelis as behind the scenes, pulling the strings, for the benefit of the Jewish community at the expense of the United States, if not the world.

This is the message of Walt and Mearsheimer, after all.

For two thousand years they've been telling us this kind of thing, and even though they have always been wrong, they continue to make the case. In the 1930s it was the Nazis telling themselves (and the world) that the Jews are immoral and now it is progressives telling themselves (and the world) that the Jewish state is immoral.

It just never ends.

One difference, of course, is that the Nazis were prepared to use massive violence against the Jewish people while progressives are not. When and if the Jews of the Middle East every really get their clock cleaned by whomever in that part of the world, many progressives will turn around and blame us for our own genocide, but that's nothing new, really.

Of course, even Nazis did not expect Jews to support their movement. Progressives, however, do expect Jewish people to support them. How's that for chutzpah? If it were not so tragic, and potentially murderous, it would be absolutely hysterical.

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