re: #12 Bob Levin

No, that’s not what I mean.

I don’t see how focusing on Mr. Adler in this instance minimizes the problem. Are you saying that any time we focus on the bad words or actions of one person we’re minimizing the widespread nature of this human failing, or just this time? If just this time, then why not other times? I’m sorry, but what you’re saying just doesn’t make sense to me.

Is his paper a small community one of little consequence? Yes, but we now live in an era of instant, nearly real-time communications. He publicly proposed the assassination of the President of the United States as a viable option for creating a more Israel-friendly government. That’s not an inconsequential thing.

Mr. Adler is the owner, publisher, and (now resigned) editor of his paper—where were his journalistic ethics? Should he not be bound by such simply because his paper is small? How in the world could he not realize that such an reprehensible public statement would surely attract attention and create a major shitstorm upon hitting the internet and major news networks? It’s not as if he was unaware of the internet—the paper has a website.

As I’ve already stated, I feel badly for him, for the love-induced myopia that led him to bring such misfortune down upon his own head, but that doesn’t mean I think he’s taking an unfair amount of heat or that he shouldn’t be singled out for doing something singularly foolish. Do you know of any other newspaper editor who has done something similar? I don’t. Do we all share a his human weakness to some degree? Of course we do, but most of us know better than to pull such a stunt.

I’m sorry if you dislike my answer, but that’s how I feel about it. I’d feel the exact same way if he had been a Muslim newspaper editor proposing the same option as a path to better relations with Saudi Arabia.

Since we’re on the subject: What, I wonder, would Abraham (a.s.) have thought? He became a great & powerful leader, no? How would he have reacted if someone from his own camp had proposed assassinating him, or even some lesser (but still important) personage of the tribe? Would he have instructed everyone to just let it go and focus on self-vigilance and improvement?