re: #16 Bob Levin

More often than not the ‘shift to the right’ is an excuse for people to trot out The Protocols of the Elders of Zion—for its truthiness.

It’s just total extremist whackjobs who do that. Fuck them. There is a whole world of criticism and debate out there that doesn’t have any connection with that garbage.

One should support Israel because, selfishly, one is going to need an Israeli innovation at some point in their life—and they will be more grateful for this innovation than they are for oil. These reasons are sufficient.

That’s one reason why for many people, both within Israel and outside, supporting Israel means supporting it against the right wing and growing anti-enlightenment forces within Israel. I was alarmed to discover very recently that anti-scientific attitudes - especially creationism - has been gaining ground there especially in the last few years, with the rise of the ultra-orthodox.

failedmessiah.typepad.com

From the article:

Senior haredi rabbis, gedolim, banned books written by Rabbi Nosson (also known as Natan) Slifkin. Rabbi Slifkin was also labeled a heretic by them.

This saga, which began in January 2005 and continues to this day (January 2008), saw haredi gedolim adopt the Creationism of Christian fundamentalists.