You’re what Grammy Hall would call a real Jew.

Zbigniew Brzezinski says that the pro-Israel lobby in the US is too powerful:

Presenting a solution for the Middle East, he listed historical compromises that had to be made by Israelis and Palestinians but accused the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) – the largest and most influential Jewish lobby group – of obstructing peace efforts.

He said: "AIPAC has consistently opposed a two-state solution and a lot of members of Congress have been intimidated and I don’t think that’s healthy."

[...]

Mr Brzezinski said "it’s not unique to the Jewish community – but there is a McCarthyite tendency among some people in the Jewish community", referring to the Republican senator who led the anti-Communist witch hunt in the 1950s.

"They operate not by arguing but by slandering, vilifying, demonising. They very promptly wheel out anti-Semitism. There is an element of paranoia in this inclination to view any serious attempt at a compromised peace as somehow directed against Israel."

Which unleashes the little yappy-type dogs Brzezinski was talking about:

Silly me – I didn’t even know Joe McCarthy was Jewish!

Anyway, who are these Jews with McCarthyite tendencies? And is the “Jewish community” the only one in America so plagued, or are Italians, Irish and African-Americans saddled with their own McCarthyites? Perhaps Zbig could identify some Greek-American McCarthyites, just to satisfy my curiosity. Of course, Brzezinski does allow that other groups have McCarthyites, but I still can’t help but wonder how come Jews got singled out for special observation in this regard.

I’m guessing it’s because Brzezinski was talking about the Middle East and how influential AIPAC has been in the United States with regard to Middle East policy…. but then I read the whole article and not just the summary at Commentary, so you’ll forgive me for not being as delightfully nitwitty as Dean Barnett.

Then again I can’t imagine anyone thinking like Brzezinski, nor can I imagine why anyone would think that way.

On Friday, Israeli security forces, Shin Bet, detained Norman Finkelstein when he tried to enter Israel, kept him in an airport holding cell for 24 hours, ordered him deported from the country, and then imposed a 10-year ban on his entry. Finkelstein, the son of a Holocaust survivor, is a Jewish-American author and academic who has frequently criticized the Israeli Government and provoked extreme animosity among right-wing factions in the U.S. He had flown to Israel 15 times previously without incident and was never charged with, let alone convicted of, any crime.

Go figure…