For those able and willing to follow this contentious subject, Glenn Greenwald has an account of the most recent flare up:"Also strictly prohibited, according to the ADL, is minimizing or rationalizing the Iranian threat. This means that not only are the American intelligence agencies which produced the 2007 and 2010 NIEs guilty of anti-Semitism, as are Israeli officials who believe Iran has not yet decided whether to translate these capabilities into a nuclear weapon, but so too isTamir Pardo, the current chief of the Israeli Mossad, who recently rejected the claim that Iranian nuclear weapons would pose an existential threat to Israel; ex-Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy ([Iran is] far from posing an existential threat to Israel; instead, domestic radicalization in Israel poses a bigger risk than Ahmadinejad because ultra-Orthodox extremism has darkened our lives; he added: The State of Israel cannot be destroyed. An attack on Irancould affect not only Israel, but the entire region for 100 years); ex-Mossad chief Meir Dagan (a future Israel Air Force attack on Iranian nuclear facilities was the stupidest thing I have ever heard); and Israeli Defense Minister Barak (Iran does not constitute an existential threat against Israel)."But remember: as an American citizen whose country may be involved directly or indirectly in a war with Iran, you are not allowed to express any opinions that constitute minimizing or rationalizing the Iranian threat. Youre presumably also not allowed to question the wisdom and justness of sanctions against Iran even though their principal Congressional sponsor has acknowledged, proudly, that they will take the food out of the mouths of the citizens.If you do question any of that, then you are an anti-Semite, pronounces the ADL."Whole analysis here: Greenwald at Salon.

Margaret O’Brien Steinfels is a former editor of Commonweal. 

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