"Since the whole liberal-left establishment of the Western world is as unsympathetic to Israel's plight as you are, you may wonder why I'm singling you out for criticism. The answer, obviously, is that you are not a liberal. After all, when liberals and leftists engage in moral equivalency and seek to appease the forces of evil, when they make spurious denunciations of Western "oppression" and sympathize with Third-World liberation movements, when they side with savagery against civilization, that is only to be expected; they are expressing the leftist belief in the overthrow of traditional institutions and traditional morality. But when a conservative such as yourself adopts the same set of leftist attitudes, that is a mystery that cries out for explanation. Why, Pat, when it comes to Israel, do you make such a shocking exception from the conservative principles that you apply elsewhere? Why do you—who have always stood for strict morality and old-fashioned law and order—call terrorists "venerable"? Why do you—who throughout your career have opposed every left-wing national liberation movement—give aid and comfort to the one national liberation movement that is aimed at murdering Jews?
In fairness to you, it could be argued that your anti-Israel stand is motivated by a patriotic desire to keep America from becoming entangled in foreign conflicts that are none of our concern, and in imperial burdens that will diminish our liberties and exhaust our national strength. There is nothing wrong with believing that America should be a republic, not an empire, to quote the title of your excellent book on the subject. But your opposition to American empire, no matter how sincere and principled it may be, cannot account for your tortured attempt to legitimize Muslim terrorists. It cannot explain, or excuse, your brutal demonization of a fellow Western country at the moment of its maximum mortal peril. Sadly, therefore, I am left with only one plausible explanation for the ugly and uncharacteristic positions you have been taking on Israel: a profound, unspoken—and perhaps unconscious—animosity toward Jews.
That animus must run deep, indeed, Pat, for look where it is leading you. It is leading you to betray almost everything you've ever believed in. It's leading you to embrace utopian hopes for a blatantly fraudulent "peace." It's leading you to sign on to the "root causes" theory of evil and to use moral equivalencies that would make a Sixties liberal blush. It's leading you to erase the distinctions between terrorist killers and their victims, to justify monsters who blow up and dismember women and children, to promote the political aims of the people who celebrate such maiming and dismemberment, and to deny a brave and embattled nation's right to defend itself against these monstrosities. And it is leading you to align yourself with the European left, whose aim is not just the disappearance of the Jewish state but also the abolition of all sovereign Western nations, including our own."
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=3341
anti-Israel or anti-Semitic, what's the difference?
I don't know why you addressed this to me. I said I do not agree with Buchanan's isolationism and I do not see American policy toward Israel as the horrible death of us all that he does. But I do think he's quite right about the immigration problem (though I don't think we have enough culture left to assimilate anyway, so holding out the possibility of assimilation after the borders are closed doesn't make me very optimistic)--I like some of what Buchanan says and disagree with some. So why are you taking out after me?