Kesher Talk

Lock up the Jews - the JDL, I mean: Jonah Goldberg, editor of National Review Online, says "Lock 'em up." The "two criminal members of the Jewish Defense League, a fringe group of zealots rejected by the overwhelming majority of Jews" deserve "the stiffest punishment allowed by law."

In fact, my feelings about hate crimes notwithstanding, I'm hoping the United States will be extra tough on these guys — because they're Jews. In the chaotic realm of public opinion at home and abroad, Jews have a hard enough time. In the United States, Jews still face the charge of "dual loyalty" to Israel. Abroad, they are pilloried for being "no better" than the terrorists of the Middle East. The last things Jews should be doing is helping either of these slanders.

That's why I have no sympathy for Jonathan Pollard, the convicted spy who gave classified U.S. materials to Israel. Pollard betrayed his country, and for that alone he should rot in jail. But he also betrayed the hard-earned trust Jews have earned in the United States, and for that American Jews should denounce him.

Similarly, these twisted yutzes in Los Angeles seek to tear down the one thing on Israel's side: moral authority. For Israel's critics, Jews everywhere are, in effect, Israelis. And when these morons plot to blow up mosques and possibly kill civilians, they make all Jews guilty by association in the eyes of much of the world. Israel and its defenders have a hard enough time combating the notion that Israel's military attacks on legitimate military targets (e.g. terrorist cells, bomb-making factories, etc.) aren't "terrorist" acts akin to the deliberate murdering of teen-agers in pizza joints and discos.

The recently released videotape of Osama bin Laden reveling over the murder of innocent Americans is obvious proof of what happens when a religion or cause gets hijacked by murderers. There's little chance that the Jewish community would ever follow the lead of the likes of Mr. Rubin, but even unsuccessful hijackers should get the book thrown at them.

posted by Howard @ 12/18/2001 10:32:54 AM