It shouldn’t be surprising that this mindlessly “pro-Israel” president says these things.

Why?

The Economist magazine recently reported an odd correlation between pro-Israel politics and anti-Jewish attitudes.

For example: opinion surveys show that Eastern Europeans are much more “pro-Israel” than Western Europeans, in the sense of tending to take Israel’s side and blame the Palestinians for the troubles in the Mideast — yet Eastern Europeans are also much more likely to hold various unflattering stereotypes about Jews.

Similarly, Americans are much more “pro-Israel” than Western Europeans, yet Americans are also more likely than Western Europeans to agree with statements like “Jews have too much influence.”

Think about this next time you hear the neocons or the right-wing Israel lobby screaming that their antagonists are “anti-Semitic”.

Hey, fellows, I think you’re mistaken about the context of that. What Bush was doing there was poking fun at the statement he made in ‘93, that got him heat. You can tell he was referencing it, because he was speaking to the same reporter. As such, since he said previously that only christians go to heaven or something along those lines, he was basically bashing himself and his foolishness, saying “yer, you know, when I get there, I’m going to say they’re going to hell”, as paying reference to his comment in 1993.

I think you guys are mistaking anti-semitism with Bush poking fun at his own ignorance, there, and his being upset about something he said earlier that got him in heat, that he later laughed at and felt was nonsense. Just remember, fellows, there’s a way to go about it, and if you’re reducing yourselves to the same misuse of facts as your opponents, then you’re setting yourselves up to wind up just like them.

That can get you power, but not integrity.