Managing to keep two issues separate in one’s mind

David Brooks (in the New York Times) on anti- semitism:

“On college campuses, many young people have been raised in a climate of moral relativism and have no experience with those with virulent evil beliefs. They sometimes assume that if Israel is hated, then it must be because of its cruel and colonial policies in the West Bank.”

Well, yes.  Epicurus would have no difficulty in recognising that David Brooks and the born-again christian right are either naive or are burying their heads in the sand.   An ethically sound observer can find it perfectly possible to abhor anti-semitism (which is crude, violent and vulgar) and still oppose the actions of the Israeli government and its supporters, often of  Russian origin, who are the mirror image of the thugs who threaten Jews in Europe and elsewhere.

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