Re: Jewish Left Wins, Jews and Israel Lose -

In this article Dennis Prager exposes several of sad elements of his public persona.

Firstly Prager uses his religion as a wedge rather than a link to his fellow believers. He rarely talks about the commonalities of faith between people of different beliefs but often talks about differences.

Secondly why he regularly taunts others who express their beliefs through public demonstrations, he gives himself and his friends exaggerated credit for public demonstrations. In this case he promotes a demonstration against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech in front of United Nations as moment of import for Israel and the Jewish people. However Ahmadinejad's position is largely ceremonial. I can easily imagine the scorn the Prager would pile on a liberal demonstration against political leader who actually determines his countries foreign policy.

Thirdly though conservatives loudly proclaim their support for Israel it is hard to argue that these protestations have actually lead to a brighter future for Israel. Over the years that the Republicans have controlled the foreign policy of the United States and perhaps influenced Israel's foreign policy Israel has gone from a hairs breath of cementing its regional hegemony with a permanent peace with the Palestinians to facing demographic disaster at home a nuclear annihilation from Iran.

By attacking Iraq Bush strengthen Iran's hand incredibly. By constantly threatening Iran with attack, Bush made the aquisition of a weapons of mass destruction and imparitive. The presence of United States troops in Iraq put them in dire danger of a weapons of mass destruction responce to an Israeli attack on Iraq. Because the United States has sole control of Iraqi airspace any attack upon Iran by Israel would have to be viewed as an attack from the United States.

Worst of all many conservative commentators continue to push Israel to take an agressive position rather than seek a general regional piece. The sad reality is that the result of Bush's attack on Iraq will almost certainly be the profigation of weapons of mass destruction thoughout the Arab ponensila. And, despite star wars dreams, a nuclear arsenal can not stop a nuclear attack. And Israel can be effectively destroyed as a nation with one device. If Isreal does not obtain a comprehensive peace with the Arab and Persian worlds it will not survive. Conservatives are making this one hope much less likely.

Re: Liberals Warnings About Obama Loss May Prove Self-Fulfilling

There are many things that I would like to reply to in this article.  However, I will limit my response to just one aspect.

Prager accuses liberals of being isolated within their own circles.   While it true that American society has become more cloistered into like thinking groups.  But conservatives have been much more active in choosing isolation amongst there own kind than liberals.

They are much more likely to chose a school at any level for political an or religious reasons.  They are much more likely to homeschool with the expressed aim of controlling what kind of information their children receive. Conservatives are much more likely to walk out of class where they feel challenged.  Conservatives are much more likely to refer to everyone who opposes them uniformly as liberals than liberals are to do react similarly.

But more importantly Conservatives are much more prone to dismiss liberals out of hand for their politics or their religion.   There closed loop of information makes them susesepitable to horrible mistakes.

Liberals are of course guilty of similar flaws.  In fact the rise of the conservative movement could not have occured if liberals had not remained so aloof from people with whom they are uncomfortable   But what is dsiturbing about Prager and many conservative religous commentators is that they have so devided the world into us and them that they have totally lost the ability for self reflection.

On a slightly different thought is the fact that conservative commentators are focussing almost solely on Obama.  It is getting really rare to see a Pro-McCain commentary.