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Having now seen a couple of clips of #WhoIsAmerica its greatest achievement could be surfacing the antisemitism of American conservatives who "support Israel". It is the only explanation for them accepting

@SashaBaronCohen

's cartoonish caricature of an Israeli, "Erran Morad".

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David Frum

@davidfrum

Jul 15, 2018

I'm really really not loving this game where @sachabaroncohen repeatedly takes advantage of people's affection and respect for the State of Israel to deceive and humiliate them. twitter.com/WalshFreedom/s

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"the only explanation," tho? Or they've met dozens if not hundreds of gung-ho IDF guys exactly like that during the course of their careers

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My point exactly. If one has met a lot of Israelis and cannot distinguish them from Cohen’s minstrel show version, there is something wrong with the eyes one is looking with.

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If you're saying there's no Israelis like that, I have to disagree. Christ, I have in-laws who are almost that far gone.

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I recognized the type he was spoofing. Doesn't make it any less a minstrel show. If one cares about Israel, one should be able to recognize the difference.

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Sort of in the middle on this one. Yeah, the caricature was extreme, but the difference is not so great when you consider what the IDF actually is. I know some, too... Which has zilch to do with Israelis or Jews. You get similar talking points from US cops, as you well know.

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It's not just what he said, it's the whole performance of it.

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And I suspect they *are* racist towards Israelis, but in much the same way as a Nazi is racist towards me, with my overly Norwegian features.

9:21 PM · Jul 16, 2018Twitter Web Client

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The twistiness of American conservatives' "philo-semitism" is how it is a love for Jews as we are or Israelis as they are but rather a lot of their fantasy of what the imagine Israelis to be ... an invention that emerges from their anti-semitism.

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Not sure if I can follow your priors for that final clause. I do understand what you mean about fantasies, of course. I've had creepy racial traits projected on me by "well-meaning" fascists more times than I'd like.

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