I don't think people are liberal for the sake of being liberal anymore than you're conservative for the sake of being conservative.
As to why not all Jews support Israel--
“The scariest thing for non-Jewish Americans in talking about Palestinian self-determination is the fear of being or sounding anti-Semitic. The people of Israel are suffering and Jewish people have a long history of oppression. We still have some responsibility for that, but I think it’s important to draw a firm distinction between the policies of Israel as a state, and Jewish people. That’s kind of a no-brainer, but there is very strong pressure to conflate the two. I try to ask myself, whose interest does it serve to identify Israeli policy with all Jewish people?”-- Rachel Corrie
"Israel is using jets against these defenseless little backwards terrorists."-- This is a grand misnomer. Israel is fighting Hamas and Hezbollah, but they are also slaughtering Palestinian civilians. A common misconception in the United States is that Palestine (and the Middle East in general) is filled with extremists. While I do not agree with Hamas, Palestinians are suffering just as much as Israel is suffering. See my argument on the "Should US continue sending aid to Israel" pick. I know people who have been there, and seen the carnage, and have lived with Palestinians. Believe me, they give me a much different story about who the Israeli tanks are killing.
"You cannot exclude from this the element of guilt, which pervades liberalism and perpetuates it" Hm, this sounds like Catholicism! I didn't know most liberals were also Catholics!
About your "a liberal is a liberal is a liberal" argument? I've heard the same made about conservatives. The truth is, everyone believes in what they do for different reasons. I classify myself as a liberal, but I might not agree with another liberal on the same issue. We are not something that's just cookie cut out of the same dough anymore than you are. We aren't sheep. Neither are you, I hope.
"They all think we need to negotiate with terrorists, that we should have a Manhattan Project for terrorists and so forth, that we need to examine what it is we're doing to cause these people to become terrorists." This is a bold-faced lie. Terrorism should not be tolerated, I agree, I do, but the important thing that (and I cannot speak for all liberals here, only myself, because I hate generalizing) I think should happen is that we define what the hell a terrorist is because no one in America seems to understand. If you're a Muslim, you're a terrorist. If you support Palestine, you must be anti-Semitic... and a terrorist. We can't just go around bombing countries with the excuse that we're fighting "terrorism." For every ten people we kill in Iraq, maybe one is a terrorist. These aren't real statistics, but they are damn close. The thing that "liberals" want is for the US to stop fighting terrorism with more terrorism.
"the United Nations demanding that we close our secret prisons around the world... who the hell are they? A bunch of liberals at the United Nations. The human rights committee, conference, whatever they call themselves up there, and don't forget, this human rights club at the United Nations can have as one of its leaders somebody like Saddam Hussein, or a country like Iraq under Saddam Hussein." All I can say to this is WTF and hope that the kiddies don't know what it means. Honestly, the United Nations has its flaws, as does the Human Rights Committee, as demonstrated over at the Human Rights Spot here on FanPop, but that does NOT mean they don't STAND for something. I strongly beleieve in everyone's basic human rights and Guantanamo SLICES them away. And THIS is EXACTLY what I meant when I said the US is fighting terrorism with terrorism!
I'm sorry, I'm getting a little heated, I'll try and calm down. I'm assuming you didn't write this. Is this Rush Limbaugh again?
Anyways, moving on... I need to get through this.
"The only competition liberals really have with other religions, is the religion of Gaya, which is the earth, a tree, whatever. They're a little conflicted there." I don't understand what this means but I think I'm offended.
"They associate Nazism with conservatism when Nazism is one of those horrible things that you get on the left: communism, socialism, Nazism, fascism. Those are all on the left side of center, but liberals have found a way to put it on the right. " You really cannot lump Nazism and fascism in with socialism and communism. I agree that a lot of people especially today don't understand them, but apparantly that includes this author, whether it was you or someone else. Please. Link the concepts together for me and then I will argue this point because right now it just does not connect in my head. To be honest, I don't link conservatives with Nazism at all, but then again I don't link liberals with Communism so maybe I don't know enough about these things either. "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist." -Dom Helder Camara
OK, I don't know much about the voting rights act, so I'm going to skip that for now. But can I take this time to ask what bashing liberals has to do with Palestine and Israel?
Ah, I see now. After the liberal bashing comes Deshowitz (please note I am writing this as I read your article). And Bolton. Oh Bolton is fun, isn't he? (Insert sarcasm there).
Our "effort" in Israel is aiding the world's fourth most powerful armies. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Israel hasn't fallen victim to terrorism, because it has, but what you don't hear about in the US is that SO HAS PALESTINE!
Jewish does not equal Israeli! That is my final statement. And I'm going to stop now before I say something I regret. Maybe I already have. I'll reread this later when I'm calm again.
As to why not all Jews support Israel--
“The scariest thing for non-Jewish Americans in talking about Palestinian self-determination is the fear of being or sounding anti-Semitic. The people of Israel are suffering and Jewish people have a long history of oppression. We still have some responsibility for that, but I think it’s important to draw a firm distinction between the policies of Israel as a state, and Jewish people. That’s kind of a no-brainer, but there is very strong pressure to conflate the two. I try to ask myself, whose interest does it serve to identify Israeli policy with all Jewish people?”-- Rachel Corrie
"Israel is using jets against these defenseless little backwards terrorists."-- This is a grand misnomer. Israel is fighting Hamas and Hezbollah, but they are also slaughtering Palestinian civilians. A common misconception in the United States is that Palestine (and the Middle East in general) is filled with extremists. While I do not agree with Hamas, Palestinians are suffering just as much as Israel is suffering. See my argument on the "Should US continue sending aid to Israel" pick. I know people who have been there, and seen the carnage, and have lived with Palestinians. Believe me, they give me a much different story about who the Israeli tanks are killing.
"You cannot exclude from this the element of guilt, which pervades liberalism and perpetuates it" Hm, this sounds like Catholicism! I didn't know most liberals were also Catholics!
About your "a liberal is a liberal is a liberal" argument? I've heard the same made about conservatives. The truth is, everyone believes in what they do for different reasons. I classify myself as a liberal, but I might not agree with another liberal on the same issue. We are not something that's just cookie cut out of the same dough anymore than you are. We aren't sheep. Neither are you, I hope.
"They all think we need to negotiate with terrorists, that we should have a Manhattan Project for terrorists and so forth, that we need to examine what it is we're doing to cause these people to become terrorists." This is a bold-faced lie. Terrorism should not be tolerated, I agree, I do, but the important thing that (and I cannot speak for all liberals here, only myself, because I hate generalizing) I think should happen is that we define what the hell a terrorist is because no one in America seems to understand. If you're a Muslim, you're a terrorist. If you support Palestine, you must be anti-Semitic... and a terrorist. We can't just go around bombing countries with the excuse that we're fighting "terrorism." For every ten people we kill in Iraq, maybe one is a terrorist. These aren't real statistics, but they are damn close. The thing that "liberals" want is for the US to stop fighting terrorism with more terrorism.
"the United Nations demanding that we close our secret prisons around the world... who the hell are they? A bunch of liberals at the United Nations. The human rights committee, conference, whatever they call themselves up there, and don't forget, this human rights club at the United Nations can have as one of its leaders somebody like Saddam Hussein, or a country like Iraq under Saddam Hussein." All I can say to this is WTF and hope that the kiddies don't know what it means. Honestly, the United Nations has its flaws, as does the Human Rights Committee, as demonstrated over at the Human Rights Spot here on FanPop, but that does NOT mean they don't STAND for something. I strongly beleieve in everyone's basic human rights and Guantanamo SLICES them away. And THIS is EXACTLY what I meant when I said the US is fighting terrorism with terrorism!
I'm sorry, I'm getting a little heated, I'll try and calm down. I'm assuming you didn't write this. Is this Rush Limbaugh again?
Anyways, moving on... I need to get through this.
"The only competition liberals really have with other religions, is the religion of Gaya, which is the earth, a tree, whatever. They're a little conflicted there." I don't understand what this means but I think I'm offended.
"They associate Nazism with conservatism when Nazism is one of those horrible things that you get on the left: communism, socialism, Nazism, fascism. Those are all on the left side of center, but liberals have found a way to put it on the right. " You really cannot lump Nazism and fascism in with socialism and communism. I agree that a lot of people especially today don't understand them, but apparantly that includes this author, whether it was you or someone else. Please. Link the concepts together for me and then I will argue this point because right now it just does not connect in my head. To be honest, I don't link conservatives with Nazism at all, but then again I don't link liberals with Communism so maybe I don't know enough about these things either. "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist." -Dom Helder Camara
OK, I don't know much about the voting rights act, so I'm going to skip that for now. But can I take this time to ask what bashing liberals has to do with Palestine and Israel?
Ah, I see now. After the liberal bashing comes Deshowitz (please note I am writing this as I read your article). And Bolton. Oh Bolton is fun, isn't he? (Insert sarcasm there).
Our "effort" in Israel is aiding the world's fourth most powerful armies. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Israel hasn't fallen victim to terrorism, because it has, but what you don't hear about in the US is that SO HAS PALESTINE!
Jewish does not equal Israeli! That is my final statement. And I'm going to stop now before I say something I regret. Maybe I already have. I'll reread this later when I'm calm again.