Saturday, July 22, 2006

"Finally, on a subject that hits close to home for me, Professor David Gelernter asks why so many American Jews hate the president who stands by Israel: "When will they ever learn..." Professor Gelernter suggests that the answer has something to do with the phenomenon that we dubbed Chaitred -- the generalized, irrational hatred of President Bush articulated first by Jonathan Chait in a September 2003 New Republic article. We linked to Chait's article and our series of posts on it in "Thoughts on Chaitred." My answer to the question explored by Professor Gelertnter, slightly different from Professor Gelernter's, is that the true religion of the American Jews within Professor Gelernter's sights is liberalism, and that this liberalism represents an intelligence failure of another kind."