Most American political analysts concerned with the Middle East would probably say that I am a right-winger.How I suddenly became a right-winger is a mystery to me, particularly given the fact that most American political analysts concerned with domestic politics would consider me a man of the left.
It has something to do with the fact that I objected - strongly and in public - to left-leaning support for anti-Semitic anti-Zionism within venues allied with the Democratic Party.
Volleyboy1 is someone that I have known for years.
He is an intelligent guy and I respect him, although we have significant criticisms of one another.
It is not everyone who would have the courage to come onto what he must consider hostile territory and speak the truth as he understands it.
This is VB's initial criticism:
How can one call themselves a Liberal and yet actively support (through voting and advocacy) "Conservative" political forces that enforce entirely non liberal solutions to issues when they make policy. Not only that, but that those forces that are not Liberal are not ever criticized or mentioned when often times they engage in similar behaviors.This is his follow-up:
One of my biggest criticisms for instance of the Useful Idiot, is that he calls himself "Pro-Israel" yet all he does is criticize Israel and engage with anti-Semites. YET how can one be "Pro-Israel" when one does not contextualize and balance criticism or point out what the other side is doing. In David Harris Gershon's case, all he does is provide fodder for anti--Semites and anti-Zionists.I like this criticism because it is honest and straight-forward.
It is a fair question.
How can one consider oneself liberal, in the contemporary American sense of that word, while abandoning liberal political venues and actually voting for a Republican? That is an entirely fair question and I did, in fact, vote for Mitt Romney in the last American presidential election.
Romney is the one and only Republican that I have voted for in the past, but he may not very well be the last. I am considering voting for other Republicans, but they have not yet made the sale.
In order to answer VB's question we need to separate American domestic policy from its foreign policy. The world is getting smaller and smaller and I therefore, now, take foreign policy to be at least as important as domestic policy.
In truth, I am far more concerned about Obama allowing a Iranian bomb than I am about the possibility that Evangelicals will take over the American government and overturn Roe v. Wade. That is, I am far more concerned about American foreign policy, at this moment in time, than I am about American domestic policy.
The Islamic State recently captured Ramadi, Iraq, about 75 miles outside of Baghdad.
The Jewish people in the Middle East remain a tough-minded and self-defended minority in that part of the world, but they remain a people under siege from Arabs within their own borders, Arabs and Muslims from without, and European alleged "liberals" who turn a blind eye to ISIS while continually castigating Israel.
Given the pressure that our Israeli friends and relatives are under, I think that it is imperative that we stand with our friends.
