You are all amazing!!

As I was debating publishing my last post, Howard Jacobsen's article in the New Republic, I debated the wisdom of it.

Anti semitism is a difficult topic, and despite appearances here, it is not something I focus on. Certainly not to the exclusion of the million other big political/historical questions of the day.

And in fact, as the article points out, it is a difficult topic to discuss, particularly with regard to the current discussion of Israel.

People often ask me, "Is criticizing Israel anti semitic?"

My response is always the same. Of course not. Israel, like any country, does things that are wrong, and should be addressed.

For example, for years, in the 1970's, South Africa was a key trading partner and ally of Israel. This was an incredibly morally repugnant situation. I understood it because Israel had NO allies at the time, nevertheless, it was impossible to defend dealings with the last great openly racist regime in the world.

BUT, and this is a big but, I tell people, criticism's of Israel that are not parallel to criticisms of other countries CAN usually be explained by antisemitism.

A prime example of this, is the discussion of the "fence" mistakenly called a wall by Israels enemies.

There are several HUNDRED such fences in the world, yet Israel is the only nation brought to the international court of justice with regard to it. There is simply no other explanation for this.

Or the criticism's of Israel defense policies. It is a nation that is SO absurdly moral in the conduct of it's self defense that NO nation, not even the US, comes close to the type of behavior expected of their soldiers, and the pained, strained and nationally difficult, discussions that are held internally, when these codes of conduct are violated.

OK, too much here.

The larger point of this post was this. My blog is clearly not the typical Adult FriendFinder blog.

I discuss difficult and complex political topics.

It is why I say upfront, that you really do need to go back into my blog and follow the history of discussions to fully understand many of the issues.

BUT, I want to congratulate everyone who has ever participated here.

Flashing back to the beginning of this post, it is why, when debating whether to put of the Jacobsen article, I decided that all of you were sophisticated, and intelligent enough, to have this, and all the other nuanced, conversations that are held here.

I do have this debate constantly. In the next few days, in fact, I will do a few posts more clearly elucidating my political positions - because I am so often mislabeled - and discussing why, historically, this Presidency is such a disaster, and so dangerous.

And if it were not for all of you, I would not be able to do this.

Frankly, the only reason I am still here on this site, is because of the wonderful relationships that have developed through the blogs.

The fact that I can even have this type of blog here, with the often highly sophisticated, and intelligent discussions about the topics, even with those with whom I vehemently disagree, speaks volumes about those that choose to comment. As well as those that just stop by and don't comment, but simply read.

Unlike others, I have no issue with that. I know, and it is demonstrated each time I put up a non political post how many comments I get, that I could be more "popular" if I didn't do this type of blog. But I am happy that as many read it, in it's current state, as do.

So... thank you, sincerely, to all of you.