Midnight Blue Eye Candy!

That's cool.

My good friend Tania Gail is featured in my other good friend Chris Muir's political cartoon, "Day-by-Day":

See beautiful Tania here: "Pennsylvania Conservative Council in 2010" and "Beautiful, Smart Conservative Women."

Renee Ellmers: Let's Stop the Obama Bullying Thug Congress

The Democratic Party is circulating a set of talking points in response to the Bob Etheridge college journalist assault --- Dems are making outraged allegations that a GOP "tracker or intern" maneuvered to "incite this very type of reaction."

But WaPo's Jonathan Capehart is having none of it:

It doesn't really matter what prompted it. By grabbing the arm of someone who said he was a student working on a project and then grabbing him by the neck after not being told where he went to school, Etheridge displayed thuggish behavior that must never be condoned. Not when it's done by rowdy Tea Partiers outside the Capitol, and certainly not by people who are elected to serve there.

The event is obviously a career-killer for Etheridge.

Renee Ellmers is the GOP challenger for North Carolina's 2nd congressional district. And my blogging colleague John Hawkins obtained an exclusive response for Ellmers on the incident, "Bob Etheridge’s Opponent, Renee Ellmers, Responds To His Assault On A Student Film Crew":

I reached out to Renee Ellmers' campaign and they have released their FIRST written statement about the incident to Right Wing News. Here's what Renee Ellmers has to say,

If a teacher or principal treated a student this way – it would raise serious questions and he would be suspended. This kind of behavior is equally unacceptable in a Congressman. Bob Etheridge needs to make a full, complete and candid public explanation for this behavior. His describing his behavior as “a poor response” is not adequate. Most important of all, Congressman Etheridge should apologize – in person – to the two students.

You can donate to Renee Ellmers' campaign here. Additionally, you can follow Renee Ellmers on Facebook and Twitter.

Gather Your Armies

“Now, I took an oath to defend that with my life, and I can’t stand by while these evils are perpetrated.” More at Hot Air:

UC Irvine Suspends Muslim Student Union for Disrupting Speech by Israel Ambassador Michael Oren

At Instapundit, " UC Irvine suspends Muslim student group for disrupting Israeli ambassador’s talk," and at LAT, "UC Irvine wants Muslim student group suspended":

The Muslim Student Union at UC Irvine should be suspended for one year for its involvement in repeated disruptions of a February speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren, according to a disciplinary report released by the university.

The Muslim Student Union has appealed the recommendation.

The speech about U.S.-Israeli relations was interrupted 10 times by students who got up and yelled out things like, "Michael Oren, propagating murder is not an expression of free speech."

And be sure to read the UCI administration's May 27th letter to the Muslim Student Union.

The Left's Reaction to Afghanistan's New Mineral Riches‎

Okay, NYT's got what's apparently a big deal, "U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan." I'm just now checking Memeorandum, and boy folks are excited. The Times' story is sensational. The mineral find is estimated at $1 trillion, and "Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world..."

The U.S. does not fight wars for treasure, of course (which is actually kinda dumb, when you think about it, considering how China's reaping the strategic-economic gains from America's military sacrifices). But my first thought upon seeing the headline is "Great, now all the netroots neo-communists will be attacking the Afghan deployment as an imperialist boondoggle all along, blah, blah, blah ..."

It's not, but that won't deter a new round of unhinged attacks from folks on the left who just a few short years ago argued that Iraq was distracting the U.S. from our real, more important war in Afghanistan. Michael J.W. Stickings pretty well sums up the left's cravenly antiwar political opportunism:

I will admit that, like many, I was an early supporter of the Afghan War. But I was a supporter specifically of the effort to topple the Taliban government and to remove al Qaeda from its safe haven. Since then, though, it has been a badly mismanaged war, largely because Bush shifted focus to Iraq, but also because the war, with the Taliban overthrown and al Qaeda pushed back into the mountains and the Pakistani border regions, lacks a compelling purpose, let alone any sort of realistic objective.

So, let's take a look around the 'sphere. What do we find?

At:

* AmericaBlog, "Without a strong environmental protection organization, chances are high that the dash for cash will lead to grabbing minerals in the fastest way possible without considering the environmental impact."

* Attackerman, "And now, naturally, someone’s telling [NYT'S James] Risen about the specter of great-power resource competition that just so perfectly implies a new rationale for extended war and post-war foreign influence."

* Balloon Juice, "Maybe it’s just my sour nature and dim view of humanity, but I fail to see why the discovery of trillions of dollars of minerals in Afghanistan is Good News for America®."

* Daily Kos, "We have no need to worry that Afghanistan is suddenly going to transform itself in a stable, China-friendly minerals exporter any time soon. After we leave, it will probably collapse into civil war, which is none of our business. These discoveries are no reason to stay in Afghanistan."

* Democracy Arsenal, "The only thing this story shows is the desperation of the Pentagon in planting pie-in-the-sky news stories about Afghanistan and trying to salvage the lost cause that is our current mission there."

* Digby's Hullabaloo, "As if people and nations never fought to the death to possess humongous mineral resources."

* Kevin Drum, "I have a very bad feeling about this. It could quickly turn into a toxic combination of stupendous wealth, superpower conflict, oligarchs run wild, entire new levels of corruption, and a trillion new reasons for the Taliban to fight even harder."

* Matthew Yglesias, "In general, though, waging war for control of natural resources makes a lot of sense for third world bandits & militias or would-be coup leaders, but doesn’t cost out for citizens of a developed market oriented democracy."

* Marc Ambinder, "The general perception about the war here and overseas is that the counterinsurgency strategy has failed to prop up Hamid Karzai's government in critical areas, and is destined to ultimately fail. This is not how the war was supposed to be going, according to the theorists and policy planners in the Pentagon's policy shop ... What better way to remind people about the country's potential bright future -- and by people I mean the Chinese, the Russians, the Pakistanis, and the Americans -- than by publicizing or re-publicizing valid (but already public) information about the region's potential wealth?"

* Melissa McEwan, "I don't know what the perfect word is to describe the reserved happiness I feel on behalf of the many average people of Afghanistan who just want a functional country with a modern infrastructure bought by a stable economy, shot through with a steely bolt of panic that the very discovery which might allow that very thing will instead bring a whole new fresh hell for them as colonialists and warlords and corrupt members of their own government stake out positions around the vast reserves of minerals which have been discovered in Afghanistan by Pentagon officials and US geologists."

* Naked Capitalism, "This vastly ups the stakes. It now isn’t hard to see that we will continue to pour resources and young men’s lives into Afghanistan to make sure we control these riches, just as we continue to throw money and personnel into Iraq to hold the prize of the second largest oil reserves in the world."

* Newshoggers, "When the NYT published Risen's story to the web last night, I tweeted "What a convenient time to find $1 trillion, eh?" and "Just as McChrystal's in big trouble, liberal thinktanks starting to shift anti-war, Pentagon publicizes $1 trillion Afghan treasure trove," because this is a zombie story, resurrected yet again for political purposes."

* No More Mister Nice Blog, "If anything, this will further alienate Obama's onetime supporters from the anti-war left, just in time for 2010 -- blood-for-treasure is a recognizable narrative -- and it means Ralph Nader will have to do very little rewriting of his old campaign speeches when he runs in 2012. (An Obama defeat in 2012 isn't going to reverse this course, however -- do you really think Mitt Romney or Sarah Palin will reject the opportunity to get sanctimoniously choked up at the noble sacrifice of young men and women dying in Afghanistan for niobium?)"

* Political Carnival, "We’re never leaving now, never..."

* Prairie Weather, "You can forget about socially-awkward burqas and Taliban insurgents as viable reasons for war and occupation. The capitalist market demands Afghanistan's mineral deposits. Who does mining better than the US?"

* Steve Benen, "As a growing number of observers, here and around the world, raise questions anew about whether Afghanistan's future offers any hope at all, along comes a carefully leaked story about nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits, which could fundamentally improve the country's economy, stability, and long-term prospects."

* Talking Points Memo, "Afghanistan's a pretty out of the way place. But it's not like it hasn't gotten a good bit of attention from great powers in the past. First the Brits, then the Russians, now us. So no one else ever looked or they didn't find anything ... And with so much in play right now about the future of the US mission in the country, the timing of the revelation is enough to raise some suspicions in my mind."

* Taylor Marsh, "Instead of pushing for people to help Afghanistan and offer troops, Afghanistan could end up being the poor girl at the prom who just won the lottery. And we all know where most lottery winners end up."

* Unqualified Offerings, "For my part, I would be content to leave Afghanistan alone and say that if somebody there somehow finds himself in control of minerals and manages to dig them out of the ground, we are willing to pay cash on delivery. We are NOT, however, willing to do our own pick-up or provide armed escorts for those who do the pick-up or the mining. The terms are cash on delivery ... Some will say that it is ruthlessly amoral to not do anything to ensure that the extraction is done by “good guys” rather than “bad guys” but I say that going in with force to ensure that the mining is done by (and profits are received by) some particular government, company, warlord, or whoever is by far a greater evil in practice than simply paying cash on delivery to whoever manages to show up with the minerals."

* Wonkette, "If you thought Afghanistan was only profitable for opium wholesalers and the defense industry, think again! According to some convenient new geological study of the mountainous, wild land that has broken the backs of so many empires, the whole place is chock full of precious metals..."

BONUS: Steve Saideman offer a thoughtful political science take on the story, "Resources in Afghanistan!?"

**********

UPDATE: Linked at Andrew Bolt, Instapundit, Shout First, and Where Are My Keys. Plus, at Right Truth, "Problems With Afghan Mineral Deposits."

Thanks!

Sunday in San Francisco

Looks like unusually good weather in San Francisco. Below is the Bay Bridge. More great pics via TigerHawk:

Change! Near-Record 49% Say Democratic Party 'Too Liberal'

At Gallup:

In the past two years, Americans have become increasingly likely to describe the Democratic Party's views as "too liberal" (49%), and less likely to say its views are "about right" (38%). Americans' views of the Republican Party, on the other hand, have moderated slightly, with a dip in the percentage saying the GOP is too conservative from 43% last year to 40% today, and an increase in the percentage saying it is about right, from 34% to 41%.

The recent increase in perceptions of the Democratic Party as too liberal could be a response to the expansion in government spending since President Barack Obama took office, most notably regarding the economic stimulus and healthcare legislation.

The 49% of Americans who now believe the Democratic Party's views are too liberal is one percentage point below the 50% Gallup measured after the 1994 elections, the all-time high in the trend question first asked in 1992.

*****

In their efforts to attract widespread voter support in general elections, parties and their candidates generally want to avoid being perceived as too ideologically extreme. Indeed, a common strategy in U.S. electoral politics is for Republican candidates to try to paint their Democratic opponents as too far left, and Democratic candidates to try to convince voters that their Republican opponents are too far right. Currently, by 49% to 40%, more Americans perceive the Democratic Party as too liberal than say the Republican Party is too conservative, giving the Republicans an advantage in an important election year. With Election Day more than four months away, however, the Democratic Party has an opportunity in the 2010 campaign to try to alter voters' perceptions of the party's ideology.

IMAGE CREDIT: iOWNTHEWORLD.

Democrats Are Thugs

A metaphor for ObamaCare itself.

A couple of points: First is that YouTube [initially] pulled the video from its site, which means someone threatened them, not the least of these being this congressman's staff. Second is a response to those who say "they all do it": Well, I guess so, but only Democrats beat young college kids asking about ObamaCare. This congressman might as well be a rep for SEIU. The report's at Big Government, and Ed Morrissey adds this, "Video: Rep. Etheridge assaults student on street; Update: Video restored" (via Memeorandum):

His opponent is Renee Ellmers, who works in the health-care industry and is a staunch opponent of ObamaCare, opposes the bailouts and Obamanomics, is pro-life, wants to try terrorists in military courts, and demands immigration enforcement. It doesn’t appear that Ellmers is a big fan of assaulting students on the street, either. Perhaps this R+2 district might be ready to exchange their current Congressman for someone who understands the proper relationship between elected officials and their constituents — and the laws regarding assault and battery.

UPDATE: The jerk apologizes, kinda, "Etheridge Statement on Viral Video." Meanwhile, Mediate blames the young videographer.

Flotilla Sickness and the 'Progressive' Mind

From Melanie Phillips:

We have endured the fabricated claims of Israeli massacres in Jenin, the 2006 Lebanon war and Cast Lead; the charge that Israel is an ‘apartheid’ state, that it has committed genocide, ethnic cleansing and is starving the people of Gaza; that it is the aggressor in the Middle East.

How is it possible that so many believe all these lies? How can so many Jews believe them? As I have described in my new book, The World Turned Upside Down (please forgive the commercial) the witch-hunt against Israel is the pivotal example of the West’s repudiation of reason itself, leading to a widespread inversion of truth and lies, justice and injustice, right and wrong.

The ‘progressive’ left-wing intelligentsia now subscribes to a world-view that, over a wide range of issues, subordinates truth to ideology. This manifests itself in utopian creeds that hold that the world would attain a state of perfection if only it wasn’t for capitalism/America/ industrialisation/men/the nation state/those damned Jews.

Since these creeds are axiomatically the embodiment of virtue, all who dissent must be treated as moral outcasts and their views stifled.

From this Manichean mindset, which decrees that all who are not the left are a) the right, and b) intrinsically evil, it follows that anyone who challenges the lies generated by ideological dogma is by definition right-wing and evil. As a result of this knee-jerk name-calling, people dismiss such inconvenient truths even when they stare them in the face.

This terrifying mindset is the left’s default position. That is why this madness towards Israel is not confined to gentiles. Indeed, even Jews who consider themselves to have the interests of Israel at heart sometimes tragically end up believing the lies and supporting positions that would destroy it.

Hey, no problem on the commercial. Buy the book here, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power.

Sarah Palin's For Real (IYKWIMAITYD)

At People's Cube:

We need to shine the headlights of truth on this issue. Why can't these boobs get a handle on this. I personally don't give a hoot er whatever. People are simply trying to rack up points. Get back into the fields comrades. What has this to do with the price of melons.

And at Hot Air, "Palin: No, I haven’t had implants":

Daily Kos on Helen Thomas: Jews Back to Poland Just 'Human Nature'

Hey, when the whole of society is irredeemably racist, sexist, and homophobic, who cares about a little anti-Semitism among the left-wing media elite.

At Daily Kos, unsurprisingly, "Helen Thomas and the Veneer of Civilization":

Bigotry lies just below the surface in many of us. Below the level of consciousness. Strip away the veneer of what we consider civilized deportment, and it will appear in more of us than most people realize. It occasionally shows itself in flickering glimpses. Romanticizing the Confederacy. Attempting to forget the internment of the Japanese during the Second World War. Ignoring the continuing suffering of the descendants of those that survived the genocide of this continent's native peoples. Omission can be every bit as revealing and damaging as commission.

Bigotry reveals itself when the GLBT community is criticized for demanding basic rights, and people are shouted down and told to be patient with what is characterized as their special agenda. When immigrants are blamed for lost jobs or increased crime, despite statistics proving they are responsible for neither. When people confuse Israel with Jews, or call AIPAC, which enjoys support from but a minority of the American Jewish community, the "Jewish lobby." The ease with which the Bush Administration used a terrorist attack executed by a small band of Saudis and Egyptians, and planned in Afghanistan and Germany, to foment a pandemic hatred that ended up directed at a nation of Arabs and Muslims that had had absolutely nothing to do with that attack. The welfare "reform" signing ceremony that used black women as props for the photo op. The irrational fury unleashed by the election of this nation's first black president ...

The lesson of Helen Thomas should not be taken as a statement only about Helen Thomas ...

RTWT. It's. Just. Really. Sick.

Kinda like the KKKos-kiddie's virulently anti-Semitic diary, "Eulogy before the Inevitability of Self-Destruction: The Decline and Death of Israel."

And no matter if it's a front-page essay, deep-buried diary, or hate-filled comment thread: Hey, the entire Kos community adds values. It's all one big happy commentocracy of hate. According to Kos editor Susan Gardner, "They’re giving community what the community wants, which is different than the outside world."

RELATED: Jeff Dunetz at Big Journalism, "How the Media Got It Wrong Re the Helen Thomas Affair."

Iran's Green Movement Protests at Foreign Policy

A photo-essay at Foreign Policy. (The picture below captures the essence of power. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gets the blessing from Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.)

Plus, "'Even the Regime Hates the Regime': Don't be fooled by Tehran's show of strength. The revolutionary rot runs deep."

The Veil and the Challenges

I recently saw a woman with a full-length black burka at the bank. My response was a bit of surprise (although it shouldn't be), and I wanted to take a picture.

Anyway, at New York Times, "Behind the Veil." Photo slide-show is here. (And notice how the staff cover the windows with paper when Sarah Ahmed works out.)

And recall previously at Sissy Willis, "Exposed: What really goes on beneath the burka."

Flashback Obama: 'My Muslim Faith'

Follow-up to yesterday's post, "Obama Tells Egyptian Foreign Minister: 'I am a Muslim'."

But Althouse warned at the time, "let's not stoop to portraying "Muslim" as the equivalent of evil. That's ugly and destructive."

Well, don't blame me. Egypt's Ahmed Aboul Gheit started it (at page 3):

Obama Bails Out Public Sector Unions While Deficits Spiral Out of Control

At WaPo and Memeorandum:

President Obama urged reluctant lawmakers Saturday to quickly approve nearly $50 billion in emergency aid to state and local governments, saying the money is needed to avoid "massive layoffs of teachers, police and firefighters" and to support the still-fragile economic recovery.

In a letter to congressional leaders, Obama defended last year's huge economic stimulus package, saying it helped break the economy's free fall, but argued that more spending is urgent and unavoidable. "We must take these emergency measures," he wrote in an appeal aimed primarily at members of his own party.

But see Heritage Foundation, "Federal Spending by the Numbers 2010."

Videos c/o Blog Prof and Nice Deb:

Electronic Armageddon: Nuclear Explosion in the Sky

At Fox News, "Electronic Armageddon? Congress Worries That Solar Flares Could Spell Disaster." And National Geographic:

What do future presidents need to know about existential dangers this country could face? Explorer investigates the science behind the dangers of a high-altitude electromagnetic pulse, or HEMP. Picture an instantaneous deathblow to the vital engines that power our society, delivered by a nuclear weapon designed not to kill humans but to attack electronics. What could happen if an electromagnetic pulse surged to earth, crippling every aspect of modern society's infrastructure?

All About That Personality Crisis...

At New York Dolls, a couple of live clips, "Personality Crisis":

And you're a prima ballerina on a spring afternoon
Change on into the wolfman howlin at the moon hooowww

All about that Personality Crisis you got it while it was hot
But now frustration and heartache is what you got...

RELATED: "Charles Johnson's Latest Bid for Relevance." And, "Ace of Spades Smacks Charles Johnson in a Post Every New* Blogger Should Read."

Charles Johnson's Latest Bid for Relevance

Charles Johnson picked up one of my throwaway tweets the other day:

CJ's been making a schizophrenic bid for relevance of late. He attacks so-called wingnuts and slanders his old nemeses Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer. Meanwhile, he's been trying to regain some of the Dan Rather mojo of yore, which hasn't turned out too well, considering how he stole his Reuters "scoop" from other bloggers. AOSHQ masterfully takes him to task, "Charles Johnson Whines: Why Isn't The Story About Me Anymore?", and "Blog Drama":

As to whether he grabs credit and swipes stories: This is a bit of complicated issue, involving blog courtesy and such. Since the rest of this post is so inside-blogball, I guess there's no harm in going further down this rathole.

Let me talk about "swiping stories." Johnson believes that if he throws in a lame hat-tip at the end of a post, he hasn't "swiped a story," because he's given you attribution.

That's not the case. A lame hat-tip at the end of a post covers one's ass, I suppose, in terms of attribution, but it fails to do what a proper link is supposed to do: Throw some traffic.

Some blogs are deliberately "gateway blogs," throwing out traffic wide and far in general furtherance of good-guy blogger boosterism. is deliberately, and most famously, this kind of blog.

Instapundit looks for excuses to link blogs -- not media stories, though he links them too of course; but his primary goal is to call attention to other blogs and "share the wealth." He has a very good reputation along these lines; the only problem with an Instapundit link is that it doesn't throw as much traffic as you'd think it would, but that's largely because he's linking so many blogs during the day that you're just getting a small slice of his readers.

Crucially, if a blog mentions, say, a Reuters story, Instapundit tends to link the blog which tipped him, rather than the Reuters story itself; anyone interested in that story, then, has to at least go through the blog to get to the story. They'll end up at Reuters, but they go through the tipping blog first.

On the other hand, some blogs are very jealous and ungenerous about throwing links and traffic to "competitors." Some blogs fancy themselves not "gateway blogs" but "destination blogs," and attempt to set themselves up as the only blog you need to read.

Not a portal, then, but a terminus.

It has always been my belief that Charles Johnson fancied his blog as that...

It's all goodness, so more at the link --- and I don't know if I'm throwing Ace much traffic, LOL!

Heidi Klum in German GQ

At Germany's GQ, "Aber Heidi!"

And be sure to check out my good friends for some "Rebel 5" action!

* Another Black Conservative.

* Astute Bloggers (Honorary).

* Blazing Cat Fur.

* Bob Belvedere.

* Classical Liberal.

* Daley Gator.

* POWIP.

* The Other McCain.

* Reaganite Republican (Honorary).

* Saberpoint (Honorary).

* Serr8d (Honorary).

* Snooper's Report (Honorary).

* Stormbringer.

* Theo Spark.

* Washington Rebel.

* WyBlog.

BONUS: Don't forget Instapundit.

Obama, Israel & American Jews: The Challenge

At Commentary:

We asked 31 prominent American Jews to respond to this statement:

The open conflict between the Obama administration and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu has created tensions between the United States and Israel of a kind not seen since the days of the administration of the first President Bush. And those tensions are placing unique pressure on American Jews, who voted for Barack Obama by a margin of nearly 4-to-1 in 2008 after being assured by Obama himself and by his supporters in the Jewish community that he was a friend and an ally of the State of Israel despite his long association with, among others, the unabashedly anti-Israel and anti-Semitic Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

We argue that American Jews are facing an unprecedented political challenge, and at a crucial moment, with the need to address the existential threat to Israel—and by extension to the future of the Jewish people as a whole—from a potentially nuclear Iran. How will American Jews handle this challenge? Can Obama’s Jewish supporters act in a way that will change the unmistakable direction of current American policy emanating from the White House? Will American Jews accept Barack Obama’s view that the state of Israel bears some responsibility for the loss of American “blood and treasure” in the Middle East? Will they continue to extend their support to the Obama administration and to Barack Obama’s political party?

And the 31 respondents:

Elliott Abrams, Morris J. Amitay, Peter Berkowitz, Kenneth J. Bialkin, Matthew Brooks, Mona Charen, Alan M. Dershowitz, Nathan J. Diamentis, Ira Forman, Abraham H. Foxman, Jonathan Gurwitz, Jeff Jacoby, Jeremy Kalmanofsky, Jonathan Kellerman, Ed Koch, Martin Kramer, William Kristol, Michael Medved, Aaron David Miller, Tova Mirvis, Daniel Pipes, Norman Podhoretz, Dennis Prager, Gary Rosenblatt, Jonathan D. Sarna, Robert Satloff, Dan Senor, Tevi Troy, Ruth R. Wisse, David Wolpe, and Eric H. Yoffie.

I poured over the essays for a couple of days. It's hard to pull out a favorite. I'll leave Jonathan Kellerman, but the whole thing's worth your time:

The only surprise about the tension between the Obama administration and Israel is that anyone is surprised.

While President Barack Obama was less than frank about his intentions to govern from the center, he never projected himself as a supporter of Israel beyond a few bland campaign clichés. There were certainly clear indicators of what to expect: he palled around with Palestinian scholar and Israel-basher Rashid Khalidi and sipped Chardonnay with “reformed” domestic terrorists who’d been overtly hostile to Israel for decades. He admired Edward Said. He sat in a church pew for years and blithely ingested anti-Israel and frankly anti-Semitic rhetoric without a word of protest.

The greater issue isn’t that Obama is no great friend of Israel and never will be. The fascinatingly perverse tendency of Jews to vote against their self-interest is. Even with my psychological training, I don’t understand it. However, it is nothing new. Our history is rife with fractiousness and the tendency to over-intellectualize and to complicate simple issues of self-preservation. To some extent, our ability to promote an infinite array of opinions has contributed to the richness of our culture. Often, however, it has lead to tragedy. Let’s not forget that it was a certain group of Jews that invited the Romans into Jerusalem.

My personal opinion—and I’ve written about this before—is that the bifurcation of Israel and Judaism is structurally fallacious. The Land of Israel is an essential ingredient of Judaism practiced fully. Thus, it is impossible to be anti-Israel and not be anti-Jewish. And in fact, the war being waged against Israel by the Muslim world is, at the core, a religious dispute. Radical Islamists no longer talk about Zionists; they come right out and broadcast their goal of eradicating worldwide Jewry. The same squarely theological cast informs Islam’s struggle against “Western values,” which is really a buzzword for Christianity. Failure to recognize any link between Israeli and Jewish survival is the same old pathological denial that has informed the most tragic chapters of Jewish history.

No doubt there are many people who will disagree, ranging from the pseudo-Zionists of J Street to the Satmar Hasidim. Hostility toward Israel engenders fascinating levels of Jewish “pluralism.”

Obama will come and go. Jewish antipathy toward Israel and Judaism itself will endure. And that is the challenge.