Reply #13: We don't disagree on the predisposition thing...

[Violet_Crumble]

..but without those other factors as well, the Holocaust wouldn't have happened. My understanding of Germany between the wars was that anti-Semitism wasn't a thing to be ashamed of and kept to whispers - it was an ingrained thing that the German population treated as a matter of fact. All but the most vitriolic of them would cringe at the vulgarity of the most extreme anti-Semites, but if laws were made that made the persecution of Jews 'above board', they were all for it...

Of course the Patriot Act is a really dangerous thing when we look back at Nazi Germany and what happened there, but Jews aren't being targetted by it as far as I'm aware...

I think using yr elderly German in-laws as an example of how US liberals think is a bit flawed. Elderly Germans who lived through WWII would be carrying heaps of guilt, shame, remnants of the anti-Semitism that thrived in that era, and denial that Americans and even younger generations of Germans wouldn't carry around...

As far as I'm concerned, Israel is a state with the same rights and obligations as every other state. It shouldn't get a free pass on things because people *love* it. So what? People everywhere feel nationalistic fervour towards countries of all kinds. That's fine up to the point that those same people support the oppression and mistreatment of another group of people in order to maintain their *love* of their beloved country of choice. As for those folk you claim are afraid to visit this forum cause of the anti-Semitism, I'm calling bullshit on them. While there are unfortunately some posters who arrive here and leave anti-Semitic posts (I notice those timid little DUers don't seem to be concerned about the anti-Arab/Muslim posts that also get dropped in this forum), the mods are quick and those folk don't last at DU. Of course I suspect that these timid folk classify criticism of Israeli policy towards the Palestinians as anti-Semitism, in which case their absense probably saves the collective IQ of this forum from dropping a shitload of points. For that I thank them :)

I'm not sure what you mean when you say well-meant criticism of Israel slops over into anti-Semitism. Maybe some examples would make it clearer, I think...

Violet...