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Today's
Stories
February 23, 2004
Gary Leupp
A Misguided Attack, The Passion,
Rabbit Lerner and the Gospels
February 20 / 22, 2004
Cockburn / St. Clair
Kerry:
He's Peaking Already!
Derek Seidman
Chasing
Judith Miller from the Stage: Watch Her Run!
Ghada Karmi
Sharon is not the Problem
Vanessa Jones
This Week in Redfern, a Boy Dies, Chased by Cops
Ben Granby
Anatomy of a Night Raid on Balad, Iraq
John Holt
An Air That Kills: Greed, Apathy, Dead People
Saul Landau
Entry from a White House Diary
Tom Jackson
Why They Couldn't Wait to Invade Iraq
Frederick B. Hudson
Slave Power and the Constitution: Jefferson, Slaves, Haiti and
Hypocrisy
Roger Burbach
Argentina Fights Back
Kate Doyle
Lessons on Justice from Guatemala
Mike Whitney
Operation Enduring Misery: the Afghanistan Debacle
Greg Moses
What Gives Texas A&M the Right to Trample the Civil Rights
Act?
David Krieger
US Elections: an Opportunity to Debate Nuclear Weapons
Sam Bahour
Palestinian Issue Riddles Bush's Budget
David Grenier
You Could Get 10 Years in Prison Just for Reading This
Charles Sullivan
Corporatism vs. Single Party Politics
Poet's Basement
Hilda White, Larry Kearney & Stew Albert
Website of the Weekend
The Rumsfeld Fighting Technique
February 19, 2004
Cecilie Surasky
Anti-Semitism
at the World Social Forum? That's Not What I Saw
Ray McGovern
Iraq
Hawks and Deceptive Intelligence: Did They Really Think They'd
Get Away With It?
Tariq Ali
How Far
Will Bush Go in Iraq?
Ralph Nader
Whither
the Nation?
Wayne Madsen
Would Kerry Purge the Neo-Cons?
Norman Solomon
The Collapse of Dean's Cyber-Bubble
Christopher Brauchli
Cheney, Halliburton and the NYT
Mike Whitney
Bush's Iraq Strategy: "I Hope They Kill Each Other"
Lewis Carroll
Bush the Mighty Helmsman from Yale
Website of the Day
Sex Toy Horoscope
February 18, 2004
William Wilgus
Bush:
AWOL and Dereliction of Duty
William Blum
Mush-Minded
Liberals
Dave Lindorff
Bush's China Syndrome
Greg Weiher
Why
is Kerry Getting a Pass?
Mike Griffin
Killing the Messenger: the AFL-CIO's Attack on Harry Kelber
Mark Hand
Kerry Tells Peace Movement to "Move On"
February 17, 2004
Mike Ferner
The
Countryside Murders in Iraq
Mokhiber / Weissman
Corporation
as Psychopath
Marjorie Cohn
DrakeGate:
a Victory for Free Speech
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's
Endgame: a Review of Chalmers Johnson's "Sorrows of Empire"
Greg Bates
Nader Ambush: a New Low for The
Nation
Ximena Ortiz
A Bush
Doctrine, of Sorts
Gary Leupp
Whatever Happened to Gen. Khazraji?
Sen. John Kerry
"The Cause of Israel is the Cause of America"
Steve Perry
Kerry
1, Drudge 0
February 16, 2004
James Johnston
Huddling
with the Cheeseheads in a NASCAR World
Sara Eltantawi
To
Wear the Hijab or Not
Bruce Anderson
Kevin
Cooper and the Midnight Needle
Elaine Cassel
Feds
on Campus: the Drake Subpoenas
Rahul Mahajan
Bush,
Is the Tide Finally Turning?
Kevin Cooper
The Ritual of Death
Stan Cox
Goodbye, Howard Dean
Larry David
My War
Steve Perry
Bush and the Guard: the Cover-Up's the Thing
Website of the Day
Prison Patriots: Help This Vital Film Get Made
February 14/15, 2004
Alexander Cockburn
Milk Bars, Hollywood and the
March of Empires
Jeffrey St. Clair
Oil Grab in the Arctic
William A. Cook
Faith-Based Fanatics
Stan Goff
Beloved
Haiti
Dave Marsh / Lee Ballinger
Rock, Rap & the Election
Hughes / Weiher
Tupac, the Patriot Act and Me
Michael Colby
Bush v. Kerry: the Power Elite's Dream Ballot
Mickey Z.
Michael Moore's Lesser Party: the General and the Lieutenant
Josh Frank
Dean's Demise No Big Loss for the Left
Peter Wolson
The Politics of Narcissism
William James Martin
Clean Break with the Road Map
Daniel Estulin
Religious Extremism in Africa
Standard Schaefer
The Privatization of Culture: an Interview with Michael Hudson
Dave Zirin
Maurice Clarett Gets Off the Plantation
Tracy McLellan
Oprah's Birthday Greedfest
Poets' Basement
Holt, LaMorticella, Guthrie, Subiet and Albert
Website of the Weekend
Progressives Scorecard: Where Do the Dems Rank on the Issues
That Matter?
February 13, 2004
Alan Maass
Kevin
Cooper's Fight to Live
Karyn Strickler
McCarthyism in the Sierra Club
Annie Higgins
On
a Street in America
Adam Federman
Democratic Snipers Target Nader
Mike Whitney
George W. Faces the Nation
Brian Cloughley
Our Imperial Leader Has Spoken
Website of the Day
Lying Action Figure Doll
February 12, 2004
Ray McGovern
George
Tenet's Spin Cycle
Robert Jensen
Bush's
Nuclear Hypocrisy
Saul Landau
Elegy to the Salton Sea
February
11, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Hail, Kerry: Senator Facing-Both-Ways
Steve Perry
Bush
v. Bush?
February
10, 2004
Kurt
Nimmo
Inquisition in Iowa
Ron Jacobs
Politics and the Beatles: Don't
You Know You Can Count Me Out (In)
Elizabeth
Schulte
The Many Faces of John Kerry
Mickey
Z
Meet the Oxmans: "The Rich
Shouldn't Sleep at Night Either"
February
9, 2004
Michael
Donnelly
Will Skull and Bones Really Change
CEOs? Inside John Kerry's Closet
Chris Floyd
Smells Like Team Spirit: the Bush
B-Boys Replay Their Greatest Hits
Bill
Christison
What's Wrong with the CIA?
Dr. Susan
Block
Janet Jackson's Mammary Moment:
Boob Tube Super Bowl
February
7/8, 2004
Kathleen
Christison
Offending Valerie: Dealing with
Jewish Self-Absorption
Jeff Ballinger
No Sweat Shopping
Dave
Lindorff
Spray and Pray in Iraq: a Marine
in Transit
Alexander
Cockburn
McNamara: the Sequel
February
6, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
Are the Kurds in the Way?
Joanne
Mariner
Anita Bryant's Legacy
Saul
Landau
Happiness and Botox
Kurt Nimmo
Horror Non-fiction: A How-To Guide
from Perle and Frum
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
The Real Intelligence Failure:
Our Own
February
5, 2004
Benjamin
Shepard
Turning NYC into a Patriot Act Free
Zone
Khury
Petersen-Smith
A Report from Occupied Iraq: "We Don't Want Army USA"
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
The 10 Worst Corporations of 2003
Teresa
Josette
The Exeuctioner's Pslam? Christian Nation? Yeah, Right
David Krieger
Why Dr. King's Message on Vietnam is Relevant to Iraq
Christopher
Brauchli
Monkey Business: Of Recess and Evolution in Georgia Schools
Norman
Solomon
The Deadly Lies of Reliable Sources
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Presenting President Edwards!
February
4, 2004
Brian
McKinlay
Bush's Australian Deputy: Howard's
Last Round Up?
Mark
Gaffney
Ariel Sharon's Favorite Senator: Ron Wyden and Israel
Judith
Brown
Palestine and the Media
Frederick
B. Hudson
Moseley-Braun and the Butcher: Campaign for Justice or Big Oil's
Junta?
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's Independent Commission: Exonerating
the Spooks
M.
Junaid Alam
Philly School Workers Fight for Fair Contract
Fran Shor
Whose Boob Tube?
Kevin
Cooper
This is Not My Execution and I Will Not Claim It
February
3, 2004
Alan
Maass
The
Dems' New Mantra: What They Really Mean by "Electability"
Nick
Halfinger
How the Other Half Lives: Embedded
in Iraq
Rahul
Mahajan
Our True Intelligence Failure
Neve Gordon
The Only Democracy in the Middle East?
Laura
Carlsen
Mexico: Two Anniversaries; Two Futures
Terry
Lodge
An Open Letter to Michael Powell from the Boobs & Body Parts
Fairness Campaign
Hammond
Guthrie
Investigating the Meaningless
Website
of the Day
Waging Peace
February
2, 2004
Gary
Leupp
The Buddhist Nun in Tom Ridge's Jail
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Manners of Their Deaths: Capital Punishment in a Smoke-Free
Environment
Tom
Wright
The Prosecution of Captain Yee
Winslow
Wheeler
Inside the Bush Defense Budget
Lee Ballinger
Janet Jackson's Naked Truth
Leonard
Pitts, Jr
For Blacks, the Game of Justice is
Rigged
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Hollow Candidate:
The Trouble with Howard Dean
Website
of the Day
Resistance:
In the Eye of the American Hegemon
Jan. 31 / Feb 1, 2004
Paul
de Rooij
For Whom the Death Tolls: Deliberate
Undercounting of Coalition Fatalities
Bernard
Chazelle
Bush's Desolate Imperium
Jack
Heyman
Bushfires on the Docks
Christopher
Reed
Broken Ballots
Michael
Donnelly
An Urgent Plea to Progressives: Don't Give in to Fear
Rob Eshelman
The Subtle War
Lee
Sustar
Palestine and the Anti-War Movement
George
Bisharat
Right of Return
Ray
McGovern
Nothing to Preempt
Brian Cloughley
Enron's Beady-Eyed Sharks
Conn
Hallinan
Nepal, Bush & Real WMDs
Kurt Nimmo
The Murderous Lies of the Neo-Cons
Phillip
Cryan
Media at the Monterrey Summit
Christopher
Brauchli
A Speech for Those Who Don't Read
John
Holt
War in the Great White North
Mickey
Z.
Clueless in America: When Mikey Met Wesley
Mark
Scaramella
The High Cost of Throwing Away the Key
Tariq Ali
Farewell, Munif
Ben
Tripp
Waiter! The Reality Check, Please
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Guthrie, Thomas and Albert
January 30, 2004
Saul
Landau
Cuba High on Neo-Con Hit List
Michael
Donnelly
Bush's Second Front: The War in
the Woods
Elaine
Cassel
Worse Than Jacko: Child Abuse at Gitmo
David Vest
More Halliburton News, Brought to You by Halliburton
Mike
Whitney
The Kay Report: Still Defending Aggression
David
Miller
The Hutton Whitewash
Sam
Husseini
How Many People Must Die Because of This "Mistake",
Senator Kerry?
January 29, 2004
Patricia
Nelson Limerick
John Ehrlichman, Environmentalist
Ron
Jacobs
Homeland Security and "Legalized"
Immigration
Rahul Mahajan
New Hampshire v. Iraq
Greg
Weiher
Bush Calls for Preemptive Strike on
Moon and Mars
Norman
Solomon
The State of the Media Union
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Does NH Mean Anything?
January
28, 2004
Kathy
Kelly
Bearing Witness Against Teachers of
Torture and Assassination
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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February
23, 2004
A Misguided Attack
The
Passion, Rabbi Lerner and the Gospels
By GARY LEUPP
I'm included, for some reason, on the email list
of Tikkun Magazine, edited by Rabbi Michael Lerner, whom I respect
for his involvement in the antiwar movement, including the Not
In Our Name Coalition. On the other hand, I sometimes find his
pronouncements bizarre, and his February 19 statement on Mel
Gibson's film The Passion of Christ particularly so. I
myself commented on this film,
(or rather, since I haven't seen it, the controversy surrounding
it) six months ago; I tried to be dispassionate in my discussion,
whereas the rabbi is riled up indeed. And not just about Gibson.
Lerner begins his piece by quoting Gibson
as telling a television audience "the Jews' real complaint
isn't with my film but with the Gospels." Thus, the rabbi
avers, "Mel Gibson unlocked the secret of why Americans
have never confronted anti-Semitism" I expected Lerner to
develop that point, and to identify that "secret" as
the irrational essentialization and vilification of whole ethnic
groups or other communities that pervades American culture. I
thought he might note that, if Gibson indeed said that, he deserves
criticism for conflating all Jews. Gibson knows that the film
actually has won applause from some Jewish critics, and so "the
Jews" are certainly not issuing a collective complaint against
it. If he suggested that they were, he is encouraging polarization.
There are indeed folks out there who would like to believe that
"the Jews" are conspiratorially obstructing the presentation
of God's truth to the people, and Gibson should not play to that
audience. If Gibson had in his remark replaced "the Jews"
with "some Jews" or "some critics, including some
Jews," he would have accurately expressed reality.
But rather than chide Gibson for positing
a uniform response of Jews to the gospels, the rabbi proceeds
to fuel Gibson's argument by actually urging Christians
to reject those books, or at least the content therein he finds
offensive. Of course he doesn't see himself as anti-Christian.
He welcomes the "Christian spiritual renewal movement
which rejects the teaching of hatred in the Gospel by allegorizing
the story" (generously suggesting that Christianity is acceptable,
if allegorized). He gives honorable mention to the "few
Christians [following World War II] willing to take responsibility
for the devastating impact of the hateful representations of
Jews that suffused the Gospels" And he even expresses "hope
Christians will take the lead in organizing people of all faiths
to leaflet every public showing of Gibson's film with a message
that runs counter to the anger at Jews that this film is likely
to produce"
Couldn't Mel validly observe that Lerner's
complaint is indeed less with his film than with the gospels
themselves? Now, I'm not saying it's wrong to subject
those four humanly authored works to criticism. On the contrary!
As a non-believer, secular humanist, and historical materialist,
I see these texts as products of the human imagination, reflecting
all kinds of religious influences (from Babylonia, Persia, Greece,
etc.) that we can objectively identify. I find literal belief
in scriptures (of any tradition) both foolish and dangerous.
But I find religious intolerance, and the deliberate insulting
of religious sensitivities (such as calling texts revered by
maybe one-third of humanity in any sense "hateful"),
dangerous as well. In my comments on the Passion controversy,
written six months ago, I suggested that those protesting the
film "clarify whether [or not] they find the New Testament
itself anti-Semitic, and hence dramatic treatments of it inherently
objectionable," adding, "Some scholars have effectively
made that case." My unstated point was that even if that
case against Christian scripture is valid, trashing a film and
trashing a religion are two different things. Politically speaking,
the latter is of course far more serious.
Seems to me that religion---something
so deeply touching the human mind, often sentimentally imprinted
on it at a very early age, its inculcation never the fault of
the child inheriting it---has to be treated very carefully. It's
one thing to write an article in an academic journal examining
the treatment of Jews in the gospels, and alleging (as many such
articles do) "anti-Semitism," especially in the Gospel
of John. It's another to undertake a mass campaign to tell Christians
that writings that, for better or worse, they have been raised
to regard as the Word of God "teach hatred" of Jews,
whether or not the believers realize it. When you do that, you
call Christians (most of whom, in this country, are fundamentalists)
to either rethink their relationship to the Bible or, accepting
Lerner's thesis, to more closely embrace the hatred of
Jews that the rabbi finds integral to Christian scripture as
the price for maintaining their faith.
In my own view, the whole question of the gospels' "anti-Semitism"
is highly problematic. The gospels were of course written by
Jews, suffused with contemporary Jewish concepts. The Jesus
they celebrate, in Rabbi Lerner's words, is a "Jewish Jesus,
the Jesus who retains hope for building love right here, the
Jesus who unabashedly proclaims that the Kingdom of Heaven has
arrived." He was also, in the minds of the Jewish gospel
authors, the long-awaited Messiah. But most of his Jewish compatriots
had (in their view) not realized who Jesus was, and not accepted
en masse his messiah-hood, miraculous virgin birth (a
very un-Jewish concept, by the way), and function as divine savior
to all sincerely "accepting" him. Through their rejection,
or (reasonable) skepticism, the non-Christian Jews drew Christian
ire. But that ire cannot be separated from the gospel writers'
(very Jewish) concept of a people nurtured very specially by
the creator of the universe, as a "chosen people,"
"light to the nations" who, having time and time again
in their relationship with Yahweh rebelled against his will (this
being a key theme in the Old Testament, the Jews inclined to
indulge in more heartfelt self-criticism than any other people)
now screw up monumentally by not recognizing Jesus for whom he
was. Henceforth, the early Christians felt, they themselves (of
whatever national background, in Christ there being "neither
Greek nor Jew") were the Chosen, supplanting in that position
the biological descendents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The
Christian categories of "chosenness" and "God's
people" obviously emerge from prior Jewish thought.
The Gibson film follows the quasi-historical
narrative of Jesus' last hours, and reportedly sticks to the
script, according to which Jewish authorities alarmed by Jesus'
dramatic attack on the money changers in the Temple in Jerusalem,
and the potential of such behavior to produce general disorder
and prompt a Roman crackdown with further loss of Judean local
rule, press Pontius Pilate, the Roman procurator, to put him
to death. There are contradictions in the gospel accounts, but
the general picture is clear: the high priests, Sanhedrin, and
a mob mobilized and paid for by the former, pressure the Roman
governor to order the crucifixion. Pilate does so reluctantly,
assured by Jesus (John 19:11) that his death fulfills God's will,
and that Jewish authorities bear greater guilt in that death
than does the Roman. This telling of the tale may be true, in
its essentials, but we can't know. Every so often we unearth
new texts and make archeological discoveries that shed light
on the historical Jesus, but we really can't know for sure what
specific mix of charges (the Jewish charge of blasphemy, the
Roman charge of sedition) figured in Jesus' death; some (unwarrantedly,
I think) see Jesus as a Zealot revolutionary who wanted to take
on Roman military power and was executed for that reason. In
any case, the gospels make it clear that while Roman authority
put Jesus to death, local authorities obstinately urged that
punishment.
So back to the question: should this
death be made into a very graphic movie, following the gospel
script? Lerner thinks it shouldn't. But isn't his rejection of
the depiction also an appeal to the Christian not to believe
the story as rendered in the gospels? And isn't that an appeal
to the Christian not to be Christian? Not, in this case, because
Christianity is a flawed approach to reality, like religion in
general, but because Lerner thinks those sections of Christian
scripture "focused on cruelty and pain" threaten both
Jews and (inexplicably) "all those decent, loving, and generous
Christians who have found in the Jesus story a foundation for
their most humane and caring instincts." One has a feeling
the latter are thrown in merely for good measure, to suggest
that not only Jews but all humanity is threatened by those gospels.
Christian teachings threatening Christians?
Perhaps. But only in the same manner that the Torah (cited by
West Bank settlers as they usurp Palestinian rights) threatens
the moral position of Jews, or Hindu texts like the Ramayana
(if used to justify the leveling of Muslim or Sikh temples) threatens
the moral position of Hindus, or the Qur'an (if used to validate
attacks on non-Muslims) threatens the moral position of Muslims.
Scriptures that can be interpreted to privilege or demean whole
peoples, potentially threaten all of us. But given the complexity
of the religious appeal, our response to them should be careful
and measured, not condescending or sweepingly condemnatory.
Karl Marx (a German Jew passionately
committed to human liberation, who jettisoned his religious convictions
in adolescence) wrote some of the most perceptive comments ever
composed about religion. He appreciated its dual
nature: "Religious suffering is at one and the same
time the expression of real suffering and a protest against real
suffering. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the
heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions."
Marx and his colleague Friedrich Engels,
who had a nuanced view of religion's role in history (and high
appreciation of the historical role of some religious figures,
such as Martin Luther), parted from some of their colleagues
in objecting to the exclusion of religious believers from the
nascent workers' movement. They considered it an opiate, a medicinal
drug, but felt it better not to make it a dividing-line issue
within that class movement.
Lerner in contrast is in effect telling
the Christian: to be "decent, loving, and generous,"
you must abandon your religion, as you know it. You must not
only repudiate the notion that Caiaphas and the Jerusalem mob,
as depicted in gospels, obliged a reluctant Roman to kill the
Savior, but reject the broader theological idea that the ancient
Judeans, by failing to generally enlist in the Jesus movement
and accept Jesus as the Messiah, resisted God's plan. But who
is Lerner (or my atheistic self for that matter), to tell Christian
believers how they must reform their own religion? It's one thing
to say: "You shouldn't believe in Christianity, period."
This is a very reasonable position. It's another to say, "I
don't mind you being Christian, in fact, I acknowledge lots of
good things about you folks. But please change your Christianity
by rewriting those texts that are at the very heart of your belief
system, because they spread hate." This has to strike the
sincere, decent, loving, believer as supercilious.
Rabbi Lerner is obviously and justifiably
concerned with the prospect that emotions generated by this film,
which Christian evangelical bodies are hyping big-time, will
produce anti-Semitism in a society where, actually, incidences
of anti-Semitic violence have of late been few. But the Christian
fundamentalists most eagerly anticipating this film tend towards
uncritical support of Zionism, and are not interested in beating
up on dudes in yarmulkes. The "rekindling of hatred"
Lerner predicts will not come, if it comes, from the Pat
Robertson crowd but from others. Of course conditions elsewhere
in the world vary, for various reasons.
My concern about rekindled anti-Semitism
differs from the rabbi's. As Lerner knows, the U.S. war against
Iraq was and is a moral outrage. It was promoted by a systematic
campaign of lies. And integral to that lie-spreading effort were
the "neocons," who as the Israeli progressive press
(Haaretz, April 4, 2003) has matter-of-factly noted, happen
to be overwhelmingly Jewish and often dual (Israeli-U.S.) nationals
who see the interests of the two nations as inseparable. Douglas
J. Feith, David Frum, John Hannah, Michael Ledeen, I. Lewis Libby,
William J. Luti, Richard Perle, Abraham Shulsky, Paul Wolfowitz,
David Wurmser. Elliott Abrams, Kenneth Adelman, Josh Bolton,
Eliot Cohen, David Kay, Edward Luttwak, Daniel Pipes, Michael
Rubin, James Schlesinger, Dov Zakheim, etc. Several of these
men are now confronted with legal problems, and some having deliberately
spread disinformation in pursuit of their campaign to transform
the Middle East in Israel's interest (an effort so far taking
about 550 American lives) they may in the near future find themselves
objects of widespread hostility. They deserve strong criticism
(and maybe prison sentences), although nobody ever deserves anti-Semitic
vilification. But it could happen, tragically mirroring the vicious
anti-Arab, anti-Muslim feelings they have encouraged in pursuit
of their goals, baldly stated in the recent idiocy penned by
Frum
and Perle.
The antiwar movement here has been led
to a significant extent by Jews. Maybe half of the activists
I've worked with are Jews. Obviously the ongoing war on Iraq
is not the product of a Jewish conspiracy, any more than the
progressive anti-imperialist left is a Jewish enterprise. Jews
hold as many viewpoints as does the society at large. But because
this is a racist society, with a deep-seated cultural
proclivity to conceptualize in ethnic terms, I think it quite
possible that as the criminal assault on Iraq takes its toll,
some will say (intelligently): "Iraq was never a threat
to us! Why are our kids dying there? For oil?" And (unintelligently):
"It's those Jews! Sending our kids over there to
die for Israel!"
In that context, for progressive Jews
to attack the foundations of Christian faith (however intellectually
insupportable those foundations may be) strikes me as a grave
political error. You don't want aggrieved Christian families
declaring "My son died in Iraq because of those neocon Jews.
They lied about Iraq, and now they're even trying to cover up
what the Bible tells us about how they killed Jesus!" But
anticipating that possibility, I urge the rabbi to take care
to apply his fire where it will do most good, and leave the critique
of the gospels for another day, lest its expression, right now,
serve a wave of anti-Semitism that might target Perles and Lerners
alike.
Gary Leupp
is Professor of History at Tufts University, and Adjunct Professor
of Comparative Religion. He is the author of Male
Colors: The Construction of Homosexuality in Tokugawa, Japan,
Interracial
Intimacy in Japan: Western Men and Japanese Women, 1543-1900
and Servants,
Shophands and Laborers in in the Cities of Tokugawa, Japan
He can be reached at: gleupp@granite.tufts.edu
Weekend
Edition Features for February 20 / 22, 2004
Cockburn / St. Clair
Kerry:
He's Peaking Already!
Derek Seidman
Chasing
Judith Miller from the Stage: Watch Her Run!
Ghada Karmi
Sharon is not the Problem
Vanessa Jones
This Week in Redfern, a Boy Dies, Chased by Cops
Ben Granby
Anatomy of a Night Raid on Balad, Iraq
John Holt
An Air That Kills: Greed, Apathy, Dead People
Saul Landau
Entry from a White House Diary
Tom Jackson
Why They Couldn't Wait to Invade Iraq
Frederick B. Hudson
Slave Power and the Constitution: Jefferson, Slaves, Haiti and
Hypocrisy
Roger Burbach
Argentina Fights Back
Kate Doyle
Lessons on Justice from Guatemala
Mike Whitney
Operation Enduring Misery: the Afghanistan Debacle
Greg Moses
What Gives Texas A&M the Right to Trample the Civil Rights
Act?
David Krieger
US Elections: an Opportunity to Debate Nuclear Weapons
Sam Bahour
Palestinian Issue Riddles Bush's Budget
David Grenier
You Could Get 10 Years in Prison Just for Reading This
Charles Sullivan
Corporatism vs. Single Party Politics
Poet's Basement
Hilda White, Larry Kearney & Stew Albert
Website of the Weekend
The Rumsfeld Fighting Technique
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