Dave Palm…

…on The Boy Who Cried Anti-Semite.

There are real anti-semites in the world. The problem is that the word get tossed around with such ease that it becomes radically devalued. When everybody is an anti-semite, then nobody is. People stop believing that anybody is an anti-semite when fools like Abe Foxman label somebody like Rush Limbaugh (about a zealously philosemitic as you can get) an “anti-semite”. Likewise, the habit of labeling anybody who cocks an eyebrow at Israel an anti-semite is one of the cheapest tricks in the book. Currently, there is some crazy push to hurry Andrew Sullivan into the camp of anti-semites because he is not all that thrilled with everything Israel does. Some guy from The New Republic puts on his decoder ring and exegetes some stray remarks for anti-semitic code. I recognize the pattern since the same cheap trick was pulled on me once in an effort to silence me (a quite silly effort that happily afforded me a chance to stroll down memory lane with reminiscences about Animal House. Good times. Good times.). Over the years, I’ve seen so many people charged with anti-semitism where what is reall meant is “Shut up, you.” that I am now forced to take the charge with a grain of salt.

And that’s dangerous because, as Dave points out, there really are anti-semites out there, who can now hide behind the cheap frequency with which people lob this mudball.