A
1.
Daily Kos is one of the most popular blogs and websites on the Net. It is a Democrat stronghold with a vibrant membership that is influential because of its size and ability to mobilize an energetic Democrat base.

2.
Juan Cole did not receive an appointment to Yale despite being short-listed for the job.

3.
Juan Cole has been a vocal critic of the Iraq War, of the Bush Administration and its Middle Eastern policies.

4.
Cole is also a critic of Israel, sympathetic to the Palestinians and particularly critical of Israel’s supporters in the US whom he often calls “Likudniks.”

5. The Bush Administration has been heavily influenced by Neo-Cons, who have a large number of Jews among them. The media, while often stressing this information, also neglects to mention some of the more prominent non-Jewish Neo-Cons. You know, like Dick Cheney.

6.
A writer at Daily Kos decided that #2 and #4 and #5 above are directly related, and #3 is tangentially related. S/He, supposedly an academic at some university out in Texas, therefore commissioned a cartoon, posted a second cartoon about “IsriYale” and wrote a “diary” (entry), that includes the note, “I have a problem with the fact that Yale decided not to hire someone because a bunch of Israel-first, rightwing flacks went and scared Yale’s Jewish donors, and they in turn scared administrators at Yale…That’s three groups of people right there who need to reconsider what country they live in.”

B
I would like to remind everyone that 75% of Jewish voters in the US vote Democrat and that Jews represent one of the three largest donor groups to Democrats along with attorneys and unions. Needless to say, Jews are well represented among legal professionals as well, so they may be 1.5 of the top 3 donor groups to the Democrats. Daily Kos is, without question, a voice of the Democrats. If you have some time, read the lengthy discussion that follows the comment. For the most part, a handful of self-identified Jewish regulars at Daily Kos eloquently express their frustration and anger at the tone of the diary and the cartoon, but find themselves under attack. Of course, you’ll note that the author, as his first comment, shields himself from any attacks by claiming that he has been holding back this entry because of his fears that he’ll be accused of antisemitism. Classic.

You can read this beauty here. If you have some time, read the comments. I read them over a couple of days at intervals because there are so many.

About the author

themiddle

36 Comments

  • daily kos and other netroots sites of the sort are considered the radical fringe of the democratic party, advocating views that extend beyond the interests of the vast majority of american democrats. they’ve been great for causing a ruckus in the media, but the fact of the matter is, most democrats have never heard of it and are completely uninfluenced by it.

    that said, i am also pained by this sort of thing. you may have noticed my recent post on jewschool about left-wing antisemitism.

    i will be posting it to kos shortly.

  • Hmmm, I seem to recall writing a comment on your blog about Left-wing antisemitism a while back. Nice to know you’re finally taking notice. I’d visit your post, but you know how it is when sometimes you want to get into a conversation but you have a sense that an administrator of the blog will have a hissy fit for no reason and threaten you with banning and then erase what you write and insert kindergarten level jokes in their stead?

    By the way, Daily Kos is definitely mainstream these days. John Kerry wouldn’t be posting comments there otherwise.

  • I love reading the conspiracy-driven drivel of privledged Ivy League WASPs about how the Israeli influence in American politics. Psychologically it is fascinating to observe white, Christian, trustafarians displace their own guilt (whether it be of privledge, racist parents, etc…) onto us. It is no different than the country club anti-semitism of a generation earlier; only it has been intellectualized and turned on on its head.

  • I participate in most all Israel discussions, even having made my own diary on DailyKos. The attitudes of people that I politically identify with towards Israel are incredibly problematic. This particular diary had some absurd amount of comments by the time I got to it, and I think that the discussion is proof that there is not an institutional anti-semitism in the democratic party or even that it is the norm in the further left wing of the party. Most of the people writing these blatantly anti-Israel and often anti-semetic diaries are the same 7 or 8 people, hardly a majority of one of the largest blogs on the planet.

    That being said, I do find myself battling with my friends about Israel, and my friends are mostly liberal.

  • yawn … you mean the same john kerry who voted in favor of israel in the senate 100% of the time?

  • Mobius, you missed my point. You claimed Kos isn’t mainstream and I’m pointing out that it’s mainstream enough that Kerry posts there.

  • TM,

    Many of my friends who consistently vote Democratic on a national level but don’t consider ourselves “far-left” do not feel conmfortable at all when reading Daily Kos. The fact that John Kerry may decide to print something there does not change that fact. Many of us will take the opportunity to have our content printed on sites that are widely read even if not usually representative of our views. For instance, I am writing a comment on your post right now. And for anyone to suggest that means we agree on most things would be horribly wrong. I would possibly threaten to kick their ass, as long as they were very far away from New York.

  • the real problem is that people have turned en masse to blogs as if they were somehow the same as true hardcore fact based journalistic news sources or even worse as if there were truly peer reviewed! Because I say something, put it on a web pages make it true! Give me a break. You should be (as you often seem to) snipe at real new sources for becoming low brow and try to make blogs (as you do) as citation happy as good academic work should be. As for Democrats, I don’t know a thinking person alive who doesn’t have a lot to say about the ineptness of either side of the aisle. Here in NY Democrats are seemingly cringing over Hilary, yet she grows scarier and more unstoppable by the day. Given a real alternative, I think people would flock…oh yeah and this unserdcores a point I hear from my Israeli pals all the time: America has been good to Jews, but so were all the other places we were kicked out of in their time!

  • Now, now, Kelsey, calm yourself right down and make sure you take care of Mobius so that he doesn’t have a heart attack too soon, you know how he gets.

    I didn’t tell people to vote Republican. I didn’t tell people to stop voting Democrat. I didn’t tell people to vote Green and I didn’t tell people not to vote Libertarian. In fact, I didn’t advocate for anything except that we should all be cognizant of what is being said in a mainstream Democrat blog where a clearly insidious entry became a “recommended” entry and while a few determined Jewish voices debated whether it was offensive or not, far more people agreed with the initial post and cartoon. In fact, many saw nothing wrong with it. IsriYale? Sure. Jewish cabals? Why not!

    The point is that you should be aware of what is being said and how it’s being said. You should be aware of how the Democrats are allowing Leftist elements influence them to the degree where except for primarily Jewish-self-identified members of a prominent Democrat community, an entry such as this was given a pass and in fact supported.

    I think it’s telling, however, that Mobi feels comfortable preferring Cole to Horowitz. I mean, did I say anything about Horowitz? I also find it amusing to watch him scramble to protect the Democrats. Why do we need a Kelsey or a Mobi to defend the Democrats? They already have significant majority Jewish support but also seem to have many members – you among them, Kelsey – who also believe this Jewish conspiracy cabal crap. Or did I miss what you’ve said in previous posts about Jewish neo-Cons?

  • TM,

    I most certainly did not claim a “cabal.” That is absolutely idiotic, TM. Quote, please? Where is the quote, TM? Oh wait, nowhere. There is no such statement. Or you would have brought it, not just referenced some post (who knows which one — hopefully there was one somewhere, right?) where I criticized Neocon thinking, which is quite different isn’t it? Your straw man bullshit and false accusations of comspirational thinking are going to escalate things very quickly, TM, so you better cut the “crap” and shut your anonymous foul mouth before you really piss people off for no sake except that of your fragile ego.

    And again, Daily Kos is indeed a Democratic blog, but it is a popular LEFTIST Democratic blog, NOT a mainstream one. There is a difference. No matter who is guest posting on occasion.

  • I hate to attempt to be a reasonable voice here…but seriously, if we amongst our own people can’t have a congenial, reasonable back and forth about these issues, can we expect that to ever happen in the mainstream? All my point is that just because there is disagreement doesn’t mean someone has to feel like their own p.o.v., or person for that matter, is threatened. Ever think that the “Powers That Be” (no matter who they are) are much more comfortable when we are quabbling amongst ourselves rather than uniting among our commonalities?

  • Umm and for the record, yes, I just did make-up the word quabbling. I think it is a combination of squabbling, quibbling and quarraling?

    Huh. Apparently I am not the voice of reason.

  • tm, why don’t you read the post before you presume that i’m “preferring cole to horowitz”?

    and i reiterate, daily kos is not a mainstream blog. it is a hub for a specific type of very loud, very active far left democrats.

    and i’m not defending the democratic party, because i hate the democratic party just about as much as i hate the republicans. i’m simply speaking a truth which you refuse to acknowledge while trumpeting that john kerry’s lone post 4 months ago, appealing to the far left to move towards the center, could be construed as evidence of the site’s mainstream quality.

    jewschool has 50,000 readers monthly. would you consider us the jewish mainstream? we have a good showing. we act as a hub for a specific community. that doesn’t make us mainstream. it makes us a player.

  • Though one naturally recoils in disgust at the thought that Amir and the Gila monster to whom he’s married might actually breed, what’s even more disturbing is the possibility that Amir is being afforded rights that are not extended to all other inmates in Israeli prisons. I recently read an article stating that there is some formal distinction between Amir’s inmate status and those of leading Palestinian terrorists (with only the latter designated “security risks”), and claiming that Palestinian prisoners have not been permitted to reproduce only because none has formally sought such permission.

    How is it remotely conceivable that any prisoner in Israel is deemed more of a security risk than the sole individual that has ever managed to assassinate an Israeli prime minister? In my view, the only explanation for such a transparent fiction is the gross institutional racism of which Israel is so often reflexively accused. Moreover, I can’t help but wonder at what appears to be the absence of social ostracism of those from whom Amir continues to draw support. Though such twisted fanatics should unquestionably be afforded the same human rights guaranteed every other resident of the State of Israel, they should made to feel as welcome as would be Ayatollah Khomeini, Louis Farrakhan, Mordechai Vanunu, David Duke, and the charming Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (The only difference, of course, being that Amir is worse than one of them, given that he is guilty not only of murder and terrorism, but of treason against his own country as well.)

    Also perplexing is the seeming lack of condemnation of Amir and his supporters on purely religious grounds. It strikes me that we should be asking precisely the same question we see posed by the Orthodox when addressing the practices of Conservative Judaism; to wit, isn’t there a point beyond which “innovations” deviate too far from the traditional values of mainstream Judaism to be toelrated. I’d submit that there is, indeed, such a point, but that the line should be drawn at the point where fanatics are permitted to pervert halachic standards such as “rodef” into ideological cover for murder, rather than that at which Jews are permitted to eat swordfish or use rechargeable razors on shabbos.

  • Sorry about that. This isn’t eveidence of psychosis, just a misplaced attempt to comment on the Amir post below. Well, at least it’s like to be seen by more people, anyway.

  • I’m guessing that there’s probably no mention of the “old days” about how Jews couldn’t get into Yale. The joke was that if you could read the logo, then you couldn’t go there.

  • daily kos and other netroots sites of the sort are considered the radical fringe of the democratic party, advocating views that extend beyond the interests of the vast majority of american democrats.

    Yeah, daily kos often espouses the -gasp!- view that Democrats (warning: shocker alert!!!!1!1!1) should win elections.

    Anyone need a defibrillator?

  • David, thank you for adding some lighthearted banter to the discussion.

    Adam, thank you for trying to be the voice of reason and peace. I have no idea who the “powers that be” who seek to divide us are. Then again, Mobi pulled a childish stunt with me on a site he controls, so he’s the “power that be” over there.

    Kelsey, we’ve had a number of discussions about this subject and sadly our search engine isn’t bringing any up. What I recall are two: one where you claimed the Jewish neo-Cons were duped as a group by others (presumably the non-Jews in their movement and Administration); and another where an article was quoted that claimed it was fine to group the neo-Cons in such a way that their Jewish backgrounds took a prominent front seat and that doing so and stressing that their Zionist, Jewish backgrounds contributed to their policy decisions, did not allow others to say that one was accusing them of being a cabal. You agreed.

    Of course, what you were agreeing to was that it’s okay to claim that Jews dominate that movement, that their Zionism and Jewish background took a front seat in policy decisions that put the US in a war with Iraq and that they could be criticized on this basis. Call me stupid, but you were essentially saying that it’s okay to criticize a group of policy makers based on their ethnic backgrounds and that it can be noted that in this case, their ethnic backgrounds did lead to their policy decisions. Even if I combine it with your dupe theory, I still end up with a group making decisions on an ethnic basis. So: group; Jews; Zionists; decision-makers; US ends up in war. Isn’t that the definition of a cabal, even if you want to claim that it isn’t? And isn’t it no less of an intrigue to claim that their backgrounds led them as a group to shill for the Administration or other powers?

    It’s okay, though, Kelsey, if you want to suggest that I’m reading too much into what you’ve said. If you don’t think they’re a cabal, just a group of dumb Jews among other smarter, manipulative non-Jews who have escaped blame while getting everyone else to focus on the Jewish neo-Cons, that’s fine. From now on, we’ll assume that’s what you believe. I certainly prefer it to the cabal theory.

    Mobi, I guess I could visit your site but why should I? From the trackback, I see an attack on me instead of the owed apology, and it arrived as a response to this post.

    Anyway, in response to your comment about where Daily Kos stands, allow me to point you to the 20 million monthly visitors they were getting recently.

    You want to call 20 million visitors in a month “far left” or “fringe?” Go ahead.

    By the way, here’s an incomplete list of prominent Democrats who post on there and their total number of posts (are Pelosi, Reid, Kennedy and Kerry on the fringe?):

    Birch Bayh [13]
    Chris Bell [14]
    Barbara Boxer [15]
    Debra Bowen [16]
    A. Whitney Brown [17]
    Jack Carter [18]
    Jimmy Carter [19]
    Wes Clark [20]
    John Conyers [21]
    Jon Corzine [22]
    Russ Feingold [23]
    Bart Gordon [24]
    Paul Hackett [25]
    Jane Harman [26]
    Ted Kennedy [27]
    Bob Kerrey [28]
    John Kerry [29]
    John Laesch [30]
    Ned Lamont [31]
    Jim McDermott [32]
    Eric Massa [33]
    Brad Miller [34]
    Lois Murphy [35]
    Barack Obama [36]
    Frank Pallone [37]
    Nancy Pelosi [38]
    Harry Reid [39]
    Ciro Rodriguez [40]
    Michael Schiavo [41]
    Brian Schweitzer [42]
    Sam Seder [43]
    Jeff Seemann [44]
    Cindy Sheehan [45]
    David Sirota [46]
    Louise Slaughter [47]
    Ted Strickland [48]
    Jon Tester [49]
    Tom Vilsack [50]
    Mark Warner [51]
    Henry Waxman [52]
    Jim Webb [53]
    Anthony Weiner [54]

    DNC Chair, Howard Dean, was supported by Daily Kos and in fact, Kos founder served as a consultant when he ran for the nomination for President.

    If you feel better claiming that this is on the fringes, good for you.

    As for Jewschool being a player, also good for you, and if you had this type of hateful shit on your site – you know, crap like calling Israel an apartheid state or a war criminal state – you would be called on it and rightfully so. Oh wait…

  • TM,

    You didn’t find what you were looking for because it isn’t what I have been saying. It is what you have been pretending I have been saying. I used to think this sort of behavior was employed just towards me and others at Jewschool, but then found out you did it to your own site’s members. It is not your most endearing trait, TM.

    As for The Neocons — indeed, they were duped as high-ranking individuals, and as a political school of thought. But a cabal it was not. There was no PLOT. And they were anyways more important (as individuals) at articulating a defense (“selling” the war) for those in charge than making the decisions, because some of those in charge have a hard time with these things called words, which Jews are not exactly untalented at, no matter what their political affiliation. Why have Rummy or (Dear God, no) Bush write an essay when you can have Seth Lipsky do it for you?

    Or I am I being a conspiracy theorist by saying we have a propensity to be good at something? Shit. I really AM like David Irving, huh?

  • I suppose that my point, at the risk of sounding just as paranoid and conspiracy crazy, is that little philosophical squabbles like these often make it very easy for the ruling class (dems, republicans, really are they at all any different?? Rich, white protestants versus rich, white protestants) to ignore those issues that we all surely agree on. So while nothing is done about, say, poverty, hunger, disease, etc…we (the royal we, American public) smile and ask for heaps full of Teri Schiavo or Scott Peterson. I suppose my point is this; worrying TOO much about the Juan Coles of the world distracts us and takes away our resources from fighting for those things that we surely agree upon (no, obviously there is no monolithic Jewish p.o.v., but there is a commonality that, say, we don’t want Jesus shoved down our throats…umm, I would assume?). So, yes, it is good and important to get pissed off about the ridiculous drivel that comes out of Cole’s blog, and to try to debunk it as being crappy scholarship, if we get all worried about political affiliations above what unites us, our vision becomes so cluttered that the big picture becomes impossible to view.

    I think that makes sense? Maybe?

  • “B
    I would like to remind everyone that 75% of Jewish voters in the US vote Democrat and that Jews represent one of the three largest donor groups to Democrats along with attorneys and unions”

    Is there a link to this stat? Is it recent? I had been wondering how Jews tended to vote, because I have just became aware of seriously anti-semitic messages coming from the left.

    I’m WASP Libertarian/Conservative and was really shocked to see typical skinhead type crap showing up at leftist protest rallies.

  • i am on the “leftist”/Democratic blogs a lot (I usually call them liberal – I prefer not to call them progressive) – not a huge fan of kos but appreciate what they represent. There is some definitely a feeling some of the US actions are generated by assumed pro-Israel political influence from neocons like Perle, Krisol and Wolfowitz. Is that true? I don’t know. I do know I’m not a fan of Israel politics since Begin anymore than I’m a fan of American politics since Clinton. I’m curious if anyone feels that makes me anti-Israel or anti-Semitic. Because, I’m not and, if you’ll check a lot of the posters you are talking about, I believe there are the same sentiments.

  • Guy, see here.

    Rosie, the point is that even if US actions are taken that seem as if they’re pro-Israel (and it’s dubious to believe that going to Iraq would have been beneficial to Israel or that the Israelis even cared until the US Administration asked them for support – the Israelis had and have a problem with Iran, not Iraq), the assumption that Jewish Administration members bear the brunt of the blame is false. It clearly ignores the senior, non-Jewish members of the Administration including Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney. Also, to accuse them of being responsible for the war and to have taken us to war because of their affinity for Israel is a doubly spurious and indefensible position. It plays well when one is looking for a scapegoat, and it especially plays well if you are seeking to find fault with Israel or the Jewish community because this one explains all of America’s problems neatly: Jews; Israel.

    Kelsey, you are tiresome. Okay, here, I actually wasted my time searching for one discussion:

    No, TM. The Neocons think they know better than Israeli leaders about what’s good for her. Just look at their support for the Iraq War! They were quite sure this was going to help Israel, and I have the old Commentaries to prove it when you accuse me of making this up. Most Israelis weren’t as optimistic nor as outspoken as the Neocons were about imposing Democracy in Iraq. I wonder why…

    Comment by DK — 5/13/2006 @ 8:03 pm |Edit This

    Um, DK, we happen to agree that the neo-Cons think they know better about what’s good for Israel than the Israelis. Which, of course, flies in the face of one of the Mearsheimer and Walt claims…which was the point of my joking comment to which you’re responding.

    We also agree that the neo-Cons were far more enthusiastic about the Iraq war than the Israelis who didn’t really care. The Israeli government supported the war more as a show of support for and unity with the US administration than anything else. They actually went on a campaign to convince Israelis that the war would be a good thing because the public was not on board or completely indifferent.

    Of course where we disagree is about the Big Bad Lobby part…

    Comment by themiddle — 5/13/2006 @ 9:22 pm |Edit This

    Well, agreeing on 2 out of 3 is more than we do usually…

    Comment by DK — 5/14/2006 @ 2:38 am |Edit This

    Later, you adjust your comments somewhat, but that seems pretty straightforward, doesn’t it? I found that with the Search working poorly. Imagine what I could find if the site wasn’t suddenly slow as mollasses and the Search worked.

  • Rosie,
    there is a clear difference between criticizing Israeli policy and being anti-semetic. With that said, in our times it is acceptable to denounce a government while it is not so socially acceptable to denounce a religion. In that sense, many of the anti- Israel arguments you will hear seem to be vailing the authors thinly disguised anti-semetic beliefes. Of course, some critics are quite justified in what they have to say. I’m not advocating ignoring issues people may have. But I’m hesitant to legitimize some people opinions as ‘criticism’ when it is clearly a way to unfairly bash Israel on many issues and events that often did not even accurate to begin with (uh Jenin ‘massacre’, Gaza ‘massacre’, seriously, it’s all over the news that Israel has committed atrocities and then when it turns out, surprise! it wasn’t Israel but possibley, gasp! Hamas, theres a blurt on cnn.com for 15 minutes about it)
    All I’m saying is you don’t don’t have to be worried or defensive that people will think you are anti- Israel or anti-semetic because you ‘aren’t a fan’. However, I would start raising an eyebrow if you were blatantly unreasonable and obviously had alterior motives behind your opinions.
    On a different note-
    Laya, Ck, I hope Jewlicious is as awesome as it was last year!

  • First of all, these are comments, not a “post.” I don’t post on Jewlicious.

    But regardless, what do actually think this proves? Where in this quote did I say they (Neocons) were a cabal responsible for starting this war? I said they SUPPORTED the war. So why are you bringing this as proof? It backs everything I just said, and contradicts everything you claim I said.

    And yes, there are lobbies. I said it. You got me.

    Except that this is FACT. That is different than a “cabal.” Nor is a lobby a conspiracy. A lobby “lobbies” for specific legislation and policies.

    What exeactly do you think they do?

    But if you want to go down Memory Lane, would you also like me to bring your statements comparing Jewschool to Stormfront, and comparing me to David Irving, the notorious Holocaust denier? Statements you never retracted, never mind apologized for, even as you demand Mobius apologize for putting silly statements attached to your name that absolutely no one actually believes are your own in the first place?

    What are you doing? What the hell is wrong with you? Why don’t you just retract your foolish and horrible slander that I am a conspiracy theorist who perceives a “Jewish conspiracy” and a “cabal” and shut the fuck up already?

  • Themiddle: Democrats are pro-israelis, give me an evidence them being anti-israeli.

  • Good responses, and no, no ulterior motives except that people need to be able to criticize governments – Israel’s or the U.S.’s – without being accused of saying something you haven’t – i.e. anti-Semitic or anti-Israel or anti-American.

  • “What are you doing? What the hell is wrong with you? Why don’t you just retract your foolish and horrible slander that I am a conspiracy theorist who perceives a “Jewish conspiracy” and a “cabal” and shut the fuck up already?”

    Because I’ve debated this issue with you in the past. Am I allowed, after debates with you on the topic – even if the Search is not functioning – to point out things I believe you’ve said? I’ve already given you an “out” above in comment 20, paragraph 5 where I explicitly say that if your views as expressed in our discussions mean something else other than a cabal or conspiracies as I’ve understood, then I will accept this view. That wasn’t enough for you and you challenged me again. I came up with a quote and that’s still not enough. You want me to find the other quote I recall as well? Why? I’ve given you an out. I also gave you an out in the last sentence of comment 11 and you came at me again. That was a clear out and look at your reaction.

    I accept your present contention that you did not mean there was a cabal or a conspiracy but rather instead a group of well-placed Jews that have been hung to dry simply because of their involvement. I may disagree, but I accept that this is your view and that you strongly reject these conspiracy ideas. That should be enough for you to finally relax so we can get back to the discussion. I really would rather discuss the Daily Kos instead of you. Take note, this is yet another “out” for you to simply accept what I say and concentrate on the post above.

    As for the rest of it, I invite you to email me and I will respond away from here. If I answer in the open, some wounds that have partially healed over a period of many months – one of the reasons I resent what Mobi did the other week – may re-open. That is something I’d rather avoid, especially because there are other posters and friendships involved.

    Rosie, there is nothing wrong with being critical of governments. The questions relate to the form which the criticism takes.

    Adam, I don’t disagree. I think TV takes on pretty much the same role of hypnotizing us and keeping the population generally silent. Even what would have been polarizing once, namely the reporting of bad news such as, say, fighting a war in a far away place and watching many die as a result, has taken on pablum-like features because the last place open to debate – the news – has been caught up in this strange universe where they often seek to be even-handed. That is, they aren’t objective and truthful as much as they seek to give both sides equal time as if they each speak the “truth.” Alternatively, the news is affected by PR as much as anything else. A Democrat provides evidence that the Republicans stole Ohio in 2004? Sounds like a good story…unless the Democratic leadership is afraid to pursue it. Uh, okay, but where are the reporters? Do they need approval of either party leadership to determine what they cover? The WMD story – or non-story, whichever version you prefer – suggests that is exactly the case.

    As a result, there is no more truth, just bland, half-assed reporting combined with mind-numbing sitcoms and reality shows. Thank god for HBO, at least we can watch some people swear while we sit there and let the “Powers That Be” get richer while leaving us the crumbs. 😉

  • LOL – “but but but us Jooos vote for Democrats 100% of the time, how can they turn on us like this??”

    Ah my fellow tribe members – a little confused? Unsure of how or why your party has become a haven for raving anti semites and Israel haters? It’s OK, keep on pulling the lever “D” and remember you will always have a job as the house jew under the gentle hand of your Democratic overlords as long as you are a good little kike, donate and vote often and don’t mind the occasional pogrom.

  • Um, the article seems to be not as big a deal as it is being made out to be:

    (1) The main source for the article is “The Jewish Week”
    Thats hardly an anti-semitic rag is it?

    (2) Juan Cole was up for a position at Yale.

    (3) Some people launched a campaign against him based on the political views expressed on his blog.

    (4) Some of those people contacted some of Yale’s donors.

    (5) Some of those donors contacted Yale.

    (6) Cole was denied the position.

    All of this is according to “The Jewish Week.”

    (7) A dKos poster was outraged by this and made a diary about this.

    OK, so where is the anti-semitism?

    Link: http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=12578

  • I hope people don’t lose sight of the fact that we must get rid of this devil bush and his gangsters in the next election.

    I wish the Democrats would grow up and get this.

  • I am disgusted with daily kos. I dont care if they have problems with people forcing their opinions on yale’s hiring policies-if thats what they did. what i care about is how fucking antisemitic the post/blog/article was that this guy put up. one line specifically drives me nuts: “because a bunch of Israel-first, rightwing flacks went and scared Yale’s Jewish donors, and they in turn scared administrators at Yale. ..That’s three groups of people right there who need to reconsider what country they live in. ”

    I assume he is saying those people should go live in Israel and not the US. yeah, thats not antisemetic at all..reminds me a bit of Bill O’Reily telling a jewish caller to go live in Israel if he doesnt agree with him.

    i have lost all respect for daily kos and cant bring myself to read it anymore.

    I cant believe people arent disgusted specifically by that line.

  • Um, Steve, did you read the hundreds of comments to that entry? If you did, then presumably you would have seen quite a few objections to the entry on the grounds of its bias.

    Now it’s always nice when somebody who wants to say something about the Jews uses a Jewish source and says, “You see, Jews are saying it too.” Come to think of it, Walt and Mearsheimer, that fantastic duo, did the same thing thinking that they could replace scholarship by inserting sources from Ha’aretz or indirectly from revisionist historians like Benny Morris (who then ripped their article apart in The New Republic). The fact this article came from the Jewish Week is meaningless if what you’re trying to tell us that because it’s a Jewish publication, it allows anybody to write whatever they want about Jews.

    Let’s assume, however, that the reporter is a good one, did his research properly and wrote in his article about what is implied in the Daily Kos entry. If you re-read what he wrote you will find the following:

    But university insiders say that the uncharacteristic rebuff may have been influenced by several factors, central among them the political commentary Cole writes on his blog, “Informed Comment.” They also contend that Cole’s nomination was torpedoed mainly by senior professors in both departments who were concerned with Cole’s controversial persona.

    Later, the article concludes:

    One university insider familiar with the case said that there may be several reasons why the tenure committee shot down Cole’s appointment.

    First, according to the source, most of Cole’s scholarship pertains to the Baha’i faith and is limited to the 18th and 19th centuries, a liability for a professor charged with teaching about the contemporary Middle East.

    Second, the source continued, Cole appears to lack in collegiality, as his penchant for combative blog entries and personal spats with detractors might make him an unnerving fixture on Yale.

    Finally, Cole’s politics may have played a role, though a less important one than the other two factors, said the source.

    So even in the article which elicited this entry on Daily Kos along with its conspiracy cartoon, nowhere does it say that some sort of cabal, conspiracy, or donors quashed the hiring of Cole. In fact, it says something else altogether. Certainly, nowhere does it mention Jewish donors. In fact, the only place Jews seems to be represented is with the names of a couple of columnists and in the name of the publication, “Jewish Week.”

    Furthermore, if you read the article carefully, you will learn that the reporter heard from unnamed faculty members that some of the decision-makers on the final committee had heard that four donors to Yale responded to Conservative columnists’ exhortations to take action and had called Yale to express disenchantment with Cole.

    No evidence, no names, not even a first or SECOND hand source to the information. If these calls were indeed made by donors, we don’t know their faith or backgrounds and it seems their input had little if any influence. Certainly it seems that 13 yes votes versus 7 no and 3 abstaining votes did more to hurt his candidacy than anything else. It might also be that his divisive visibility was something Yale didn’t want in these times when campuses are seeing significant battles over the Middle East.

    The thing is that this Texan writer at Daily Kos didn’t see any of this. Nope, he gives us the following gem,

    “I have a problem with the fact that Yale decided not to hire someone because a bunch of Israel-first, rightwing flacks went and scared Yale’s Jewish donors, and they in turn scared administrators at Yale.

    That’s three groups of people right there who need to reconsider what country they live in.

    Ever hear of dual loyalty, Steve?

    How about this?

    Juan Cole, for instance, has opposed attempts to shut up Israeli academics, but the Israel-first lobby over here isn’t going to return the favor.

    Huh? Where were these “Israel-first lobby” faculty members? where does he come to the conclusion it’s just Cole’s Israel position that’s problematic for many of the Conservative commentators who wrote about this? Cole writes far more about Iraq and this Administration’s problems there. Oh wait, to understand that, I need to go to the cartoon and see what he means. Neo-Cons. And Gefilte Fish. Hmmm, neo-cons, gefilte fish, neo-Cons, gefilte fish, neo-Cons, gefilte fish. Oh wait! Jews! Jews! Jews! I get it.

    That’s right, without more than a couple of named columnists as his basis for information, along with an article from a Jewish publication, the author from Texas tells us about a Jewish neo-Con conspiracy and proceeds to suggest that they might have a preference for another state over America.

    And as if that’s not enough, the Texan adds,

    “The behavior of Yale’s administrators doesn’t surprise me. Threaten the money and they’ll cave, I could have told you that. But what they need to consider is what precedent they’ve set. What? Will the Likud be vetting Yale’s curriculum? That was not a door than an American should open. The donors also don’t surprise me. There will always be people with more money than sense. But if the quality of education at your alma mater is less important to you than how you feel about a country you don’t live in, spend some of that money on personal help. Or a one-way ticket to Israel.”

    Hmmm, so we have a cartoon identifying a particular ethnic group, we have accusations of using money to manipulate one of the better-known academic institutions in the US on behalf of a political party in another state which happens to be the Jewish state and, helpfully, a suggestion to reconsider one’s priorities and loyalty to the US or to accept instead a flight to the country with the manipulative political party, that Jewish country. All this without a single mention of the ethnicity of the supposed donors who were supposedly leaning on Yale or even evidence of such leaning or that it had any impact.

    There are plenty of relevant comments on the relevant entry at Daily Kos. Check them out.