it can’t happen here

David Margolick is a blithering, empty-headed, ignorant idiot.

Reviewing David Mamet’s new book Anti-Semitism, Self-Hatred, and the Jews (which I haven’t read, and which sounds pretty muddled from Margolick’s description—which is disappointing, since Mamet has a place of honor in the “reference room” of this blog for a fantastic essay he wrote in the Forward in December 2002), Margolick writes breezily:

On Israel, Mamet’s problem isn’t timing but oversimplification. That Israel represents so much of what he admires in contemporary Jewish life, that he has become the lineal descendant of another Hollywood figure — Ben Hecht — should not blind him to its faults, nor lead him to caricature its critics. Not all Jewish criticism of Israel is self-hatred, and not all gentile criticism is anti-Semitic. Jews who sympathize with the Palestinians are not necessarily neurotic. Few Jews consider Zionism “criminal,” and are there any who condone suicide bombing? And, by the way, not all Israeli crimes are “imaginary.”  …

It’s hard to be a Jew. But in this day and age, it’s also easy: one gets little if any flak for it, and there are many, many ways to honor Jewish tradition, every bit as lovingly as Mamet does. Open-mindedness and tolerance are two.

Right.

We should be especially tolerant of those fellow Jews whose special mission it is to separate American liberals from their attachment to Israel. (And of those who kiss the feet of that brave lone warrior against Israel.)

We should be open-minded toward two eminent professors who, in the name of American interests (and hiding behind the figleaf of their academic stature) have launched a subversive attack on American Jews who support the cause of a Jewish Israel, whom they accuse of dual loyalty and of manipulating American foreign policy.

Furthermore, we should forget about the appalling anti-Semitism that is flaring up all over the world (way too many links), and just go about our business in our little cocoons. Right?

Wrong, of course. But I’m not in the mood to expound today.