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The Foiled Yemeni Bomb Plot and Anti-Semitism

(Tablet) Lee Smith - British security officials, with some support from the White House, introduced the theory that the bombs weren't going to go off in America at all. Instead, they were going to blow up the planes carrying them in mid-air. This narrative is mostly substantiated by the fact that a UPS cargo plane crashed in Dubai two months ago - even if there is no evidence that this crash was an act of terror. Yet the mid-air explosion thesis needs to explain why the two bombs had already been transported by two air-carriers and failed to explode. What we do know is that the bombs were addressed to American synagogues - not churches or mosques (or financial institutions). Yet no one denounced the attempted murder of American citizens based on their faith. Had a mosque been targeted, we can be sure that the president, rightly, would have denounced not only the act but the idea that it had singled out a particular section of the American people. Anti-Semitism is not just about Jews; it's not a Jewish idea, any more than the Holocaust was. I am interested in anti-Semitism not just because it sickens me, but because it poisons American society as a whole. Anti-Semitism is the essential test of our character. Our current failure to recognize it and denounce it proves that our enemies have taken our measure.
2010-11-02 11:18:24
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