In the Arena

Maureen Dowd

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Maureen Dowd didn’t write a particularly rigorous column about the role of neoconservatives in misleading Republicans over the past decade, but she is no anti-Semite. I don’t think she was at all conscious of the the snake metaphors and other vestiges of Jew hating from the Middle Ages that her critics are now raising. Why should she be? It seems to me — do I have to say, As a Jew? — that this is the least anti-Semitic moment of my many decades of life on this planet. The evangelicals who used to think we had horns and didn’t want their sons and daughters to marry us now think we’re just peachy keen. The Catholic church has apologized to us for the Crusades and a whole bunch of other things. There is a fair amount of Jew hating in the Islamic world, particularly among the leaders of countries like Iran (but not, in my experience, the people of Iran) and among Islamic extremist groups like al-Qaeda and among a minority of politically incorrect Europeans, who are rendered incompetent by their lack of power in the world. But anti-Semitism really isn’t a big deal among Americans any more, and certainly not among American columnists, and certainly not Maureen Dowd.

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This is, in fact, a silly diversion from the fact that Bibi Netanyahu tried to interfere in our election last week, was slapped down for it and tried to cover his tracks on television this morning.