Dept. of Bloviation

Billmon writes: But I also know that firebreathing rhetoric about destroying the “Zionist entity” has been a staple of Middle Eastern political hate speech since Nasser’s time if not before – just as talk about nuking Mecca has become an occasional feature of American political hate speech.

Very occasional, Billmon, as in hardly ever by obscure congressmen who are then subject to ridicule by everyone in sight. The statements about “wiping Israel off the map” were made repeatedly by the President of Iran and not contradicted at all by the mullahs. Moral equivalency? Perhaps to you but not to me, I’m afraid. It makes me suspicious of everything else you wrote.