Eric the Blue

I’ve been mincing around for about a week, ever since I read this headline–

“Mike Huckabee says Israeli settlers attacking West Bank homes are ‘terrorists’”

–out of concern that me agreeing with Huckabee, Trump’s ambassador to Israel, about something outside the realm of arithmetic could be a sign that we are living in the end times. If you read the interview linked to above, you’ll see that the case against the settlers is about as unambiguous as 3 + 2 = 2 + 3. Just the worst kind of naked thuggery.

It’s a little interesting that Huckabee should feel free to state the obvious. If Trump isn’t too far gone, he must by now resent Netanyahu for having pimped the Iran war to him. Talk about being played! It could be that Huckabee, being on the scene, accidentally blurted the truth, but it could also be that Netanyahu’s role in luring Trump into a huge blunder has lowered his stock to the point that Huckabee feels free to say that even in Israel 3 and 2 make 5.

The most chilling part of the interview relates to the role of the Israeli police. The settlers–the terrorists–are trying to force Palestinians out of their houses and off their land, and when the police are summoned, they arrest no one and pray with the criminals. It will be objected that that’s what the Palestinians say, but maybe Mike Huckabee can back them up. The settler movement on the West Bank is patently illegal, yet it has persisted for years, so it’s clear that the Israeli government tolerates, or abets, the lawlessness.

It will probably do me no good since I’m plainly an anti-Semite, but, being a dweebish book worm with no interest in hunting, fishing, or NASCAR, I feel like I could almost qualify as a Nordic, secular Jew. Moreover, it’s possible to find Jews who agree with me. The University of Minnesota recently had to pay an Israeli historian $250,000 after reneging on a job offer. The problem was that the historian, Raz Segal, had written an editorial in Jewish Currents in which he called Israel’s actions in Gaza “a textbook case of genocide.” After the offer was withdrawn, Segal obtained, through public records requests, copies of emails revealing that when state legislators, donors, and pro-Israel groups launched a campaign against his employment, the University at first defended its hiring decision but eventually buckled. In an article in The Guardian, Segal is quoted to the effect that he hopes the size of the settlement encourages others who have been fired, suspended, or investigated for criticizing Israel to “fight back.”