Dennis Prager, God's Chosen Asshole

Evil Targets God's Chosen

Could someone explain to me exactly what Michael Kinsley is doing, or am I too late in askin'?

[Mr. Prager's comments in blue, for fear someone would confuse them with my own.]

Addressing the ball: "If the west understood the meaning of the Muslim terrorism against Israel and of contemporary Muslim anti-Semitism, it would be far better prepared to fight the sort of terrorism that struck London last week."

Words and phrases I take issue with it the above sentence: "west", "understood", "meaning", "Muslim terrorism", "Israel", "contemporary Muslim anti-Semitism", "would", "far better", "prepared", "fight", and "sort of terrorism that struck London". I'll grant the "last week" part.

For "if" the Dennis Pragers of this country would understand that modern day Israelis are not the Israelites of their Bronze Age fantasies, if he would stop picking and choosing which political/ethnic/religious/epithetical designation best fit his argument at the moment, then perhaps we could begin to discuss what real-world solutions might somehow make us more secure. Or quit pussyfootin' and call for a religious war, already. You guys have been practicing political camouflage for so long you can't find the forest or the trees.

You know, Dennis, the State of Israel was founded by groups which, by anybody's definition, used terrorism to further their aims, including blowing up a large building with innocent people inside. Their idea of why God chose them seems to differ somewhat from yours.

The Anti of my anti-semitism is an anti-semite: "However, as almost always happens, too many dismiss anti-Semitism as the Jews' problem or even the Jews' fault, when in fact it is the most accurate predictor of an evil that humanity will have to fight."

Words and phrases I take issue with it the above sentence: "almost always happens", "too many", "dismiss anti-Semitism", "Jews' problem", "Jews' fault", "in fact", "most accurate predictor", "humanity", "will", "have to", "fight".

The Anti of my anti-racism is a racist: "...the claim of Jewish chosenness could not be racist because a) The Jews are not a race. There are Jews of every race. And b) Any person of any race, ethnicity or nationality can become a member of the Jewish people and thereby be as chosen as Abraham, Moses, Jeremiah or the current chief rabbi of Israel. "

Declining the old "I don't own a dictionary" gambit: What, exactly, do you do with your time, Mr. Prager? The idea that there is some genetic Ideal which can be defined as "race" in some meaningful way was finally overthrown about the time you learned to read.

The A Word: "As for the claim of chosenness being irrational or even bizarre, it is so only to an atheist. But anyone, even the atheist, must look at the evidence and conclude that the Jews play a role in history that defies reason. "

Brief rebuttal: No.

End simple hallucination, begin hallucinating in color: "Without the Jews, there would be no Christianity (a fact acknowledged by the great majority of Christians), no Islam (a fact acknowledged by few Muslims) and nothing that developed in those cultures that was based on belief in the God the Jews introduced to the world — such as science and the abolition of slavery."

There may be a slight exaggeration or two in the above: Like, fer instance, the implication of religious intolerance in the made up statistics of the first clause, or the idea that science grew out of monotheism (are you guys planning on writing the Greeks out of high school geometry texts next? I see an investment opportunity). As for the abolition of slavery, while I'm tempted just to say, "Eat shit, Prager," and be done with it, I'd like to mention something that bothers me. It's not that slavery as an institution was tolerated in the West from the beginnings of Christian hegemony until the end of the 19th Century (1888, Brazil, Mr. Prager; US and Western history are not the same thing). It's not that the Christian Bible was used in defense of slavery, and then of racial separation. It's not even that the Christians who played such a large role in the abolition of institutional slavery in the US were not Biblical literalists. It's the simple fact that following the 14th Amendment, a mere 140 years ago, slavery was replaced with an institutionalized racism which by most measures was at least as odious as slavery had been. Those were good white Christian crowds lynching black men and boys for looking at white women, Mr. Prager. With all due respect to the many Christians who fought, and died, for racial equality, the end of institutional racism in this country is the work of activist judges and liberal politicians, the ones you insult on a daily basis.

Tell me again why the Times prints this crap: "The Muslim world is obsessed with the Jews and with annihilating the one Jewish state, an obsession analogous to that of the Nazis. "

Final word, Mr. Riley? I should have stopped at "Eat shit, Prager."