Zionists, Jews and Israel: Are they different for Israel-bashers?

[JoeyT]

40. I don't know who Gilad Atzmon is,

or at least I didn't until today, but he's just as much an idiot as the "ALL MOOSLIMS IS TERRISTS!" crowd. Bigots rarely make a whole lot of sense. Same reason you don't look to the Klan for rational policy discussion.

As for actual honest-to-goodness Zionists, I think they're much rarer than is frequently claimed. Although I'm also less inclined to think of them as a grand powerful organization and more along the lines of the equivalent of that guy that pastes so many American flags on his car that no one can tell what the original paint looked like. Every country and most groups have their right wingers. I hope like hell all of Europe doesn't think all Americans are the Get A Brain Morans guy.

It always takes years to kick a jerk out of an organization they've dug into. They've always built a well of supporters to draw from and it always causes a grand wailing and gnashing of teeth. It's never as simple as walking in and saying "Hey Gilad, see that rock? Try kicking it up that road, you asshat."

If it didn't cause massive splintering and infighting to kick him out, he probably didn't have as much support in the organization as everyone thought, or the people in the organization as a whole weren't particularly susceptible to arguments that amount to "Hey guys, I have an idea, let's hate the Jews. Like, ALL of them. I bet no one has ever tried that before!".