I think Iran hosting a holocaust deniers convention is as repugnant as:

[muntrv]

1) Mel Gibson's anti-semitic rants against the arresting officer.
2) Hutton Gibson (Mel's father)denying the holocaust on conservative talk radio.
3) Billy Graham, on the Nixon tapes, complaining about "Jewish control of the media."
4) Richard Nixon, himself on those same tapes, calling Jews "disloyal."
5) Pat Buchanan's saying the U.S. shouldn't have apologized to France for hiding Klaus Barbie, the butcher of Lyon.


Conservatives are outraged about Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's anti-semitism, yet the right wingers have anti-semites in their own ranks.

[fujiyama]

1. Hard to see anti-semitism

as soley a RW thing anymore.

There is a virulent strain among leftists as well, even though it goes against everything progressivism is about. Fortunately, the mods on this board do a pretty good job of deleting antisemitic posts.

And I've seen far too much defending of Ahmed-jad (or justifying his rants as "mistranslations" even on this board.

[SlipperySlope]

3. Where does it come from?

I think sometimes people confuse progressivism with being simply being opposed to the status quo.

The thinking goes; the current administration supports Israel, therefore we should oppose Israel. But siding with the opponents of Israel leads to dubious friends.

In the end, the question is simple; does Israel have a right to exist, as a Jewish state, in the historical homeland of the Jews? Clearly, Ahmadinejad thinks not.

I agree with the OP here; there is a sad tendency for DU to quickly tip into ugly antisemitism, and the moderators due a good job contraining it.

[Dorian Gray]

4. Anti-semitism is a huge problem

on all sides of the political spectrum.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

6. anti israel does not automatically make it antisemitic

i know a lot of progressives who are anti israeli not anti semitic though

[fujiyama]

9. This is not about being critical of Israeli policies

The right does a disservice when it claims all criticism of Israel is antisemitic.

It's a matter of consistency and many on the left have little with regards to their views of Israel and human rights in general. I've seen many leftists that claim to be great champions for human rights and are very critical of Israel, but when it comes to other nations commiting even worse actions, they bat an eye, deny it, or simply ignore it. Sudan is a great example. The threads on this forum sink like a stone. Of course, it deals with Islamic-Arab militias killing blacks, so it's of little interest to them.

I suppose, in the end, it's all a matter of what "anti-Israeli" means. Does it mean opposing the existence of Israel? Or opposing certain policies of the nation?

[cali]

2. Your comparisons

are spurious. Let's take them one by one:

Mel Gibson- not affiliated in any way with the government. Drunken, albeit disgusting tirade.

Hutton Gibson- Private individual.

Billy Graham- Yes, the Nixon tapes are disturbing, but this was a man, in a private (or so he thought) moment, exposing his own prejudice.

Richard Nixon- Same as Graham, albeit even more disturbing as he was President, but this was hardly a public announcement.

Pat Buchana- Yep. Another anti-semite. All countries have 'em.

I'm a liberal, and I'm disgusted and outraged by Ahmadinejad's conference. It's entirely different than the examples you listed. Iran is officially- let me stress that- officially and publically sponsoring what is quite simply, a hate-fest.

And guess what? There's anti-semitism on the left in this country, too.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

5. Well, then there's the Iraq War...

held on the historically inaccurate idea that Iraq had WMDs, but this was just mainly an excuse to hate muslims.

[cali]

7. No, the Iraq war was not

about an excuse for hating Muslims. Nor was it about WMDs, which were indeed, an excuse. It was about bushco's delusion that they could remake the mideast. And why did they so desire to do this? Oil.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

8. yes but i think the support they got was based on hating muslims

or fearing that they are all terrorists

[NNN0LHI]

10. Canada has oil too. Why didn't Bush invade them?

They are a lot closer.

Don

[cali]

11. Why should he?

The U.S. has and will have no problem getting oil from Canada, and of course, much of Canada's oil is in the form of shale. The ME still has the most important known reserves of oil on the planet. You can't seriously be suggesting something as simple minded as bushco going to war simply because he/they don't like Arabs. There's too much evidence to refute that. The bushs and the Saudis have long been buddies. No, I think bushco truly did have the delusional idea that he could reformat the ME, thus making it friendlier to U.S. interests. And those interests, of course, are oil.