Jew-spotting

So Michael Scheuer has a debate with Alan Dershowitz about Israel. Scheuer names some prominent neocons: Feith, Wolfowitz, Perle. Dershowitz's response? "Listen to the ethnic names Scheuer is using! He is a bigot, a bigot."

Scheuer writes, "As the name-caller from Harvard Yard railed on, I said that the names James Woolsey, Victor Davis Hanson, Andrew McCarthy, and the two evangelical preachers mentioned above could be added to the list but I suspect the words were drowned out by my opponent’s contemptible but effective theatrics."

Of course, Scheuer probably knew all three men's biographies well and knew they were Jewish, but it was clear he never gave it a thought and had no anti-Semitic intent.

Someone help me. Most of my grade school years were spent in Canada. Do American schools teach kids how to spot a Jewish name?

If there was a "spot the Jew" quiz with the above list of names, I would have picked Wolfowitz. I already knew that Perle is Jewish, but couldn't tell by the name. I had no idea that Feith is Jewish.

If the last name has an in "itz" or a "stein," I might guess Jewish. I know of celebrities named Goldberg, Goldwater, and Silverstone who are ethnic Jews. I know someone named Silverberg who isn't. I have no clue how to spot a Jew.

Not that it makes any difference to me what someone's name or ethnicity is. But the fact that Dershowitz resorts to the anti-Semitism card is just further evidence of the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of those who believe the Israeli government is entitled to American taxpayer dollars.

What I resent is people like Dershowitz insinuating that those who support an America First foreign policy, as opposed to Israel First, are anti-Semitic. I wonder why blood spilled in Israel or Palestine is supposed to matter to me as an American more than blood spilled at 10-100 times the rate in Sudan or Congo.

Frankly, it doesn't. The U.S. should stop subsidizing Israel's failed social democracy by ending its aid and declaring neutrality in the region, and should cut off aid to all other foreign governments as well.

We shouldn't tell Israel what to do. We shouldn't coerce it, or encourage it to engage in proxy wars on our behalf. And we shouldn't fund her military, and shouldn't be blamed for Israel's errors.

Providing aid to Israel makes America and Americans less safe. And any citizen who's primary concern is another nation's interests is, by definition, not a patriot.