More on anti-semitism and foreign policy

Gen. Wes Clark, former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, is mad about America's Iran policy and, according to Arianna Huffington's account of a conversation they had, he blames the "New York money people":

At the packed-to-the-rafters brunch preceding Nancy Pelosi's formal swearing in, Melinda and I ran into Wes Clark.... "How can you talk about bombing a country [Iran] when you won't even talk to them?" said Clark. "It's outrageous. We're the United States of America; we don't do that. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the military option is off the table -- but diplomacy is not what Jim Baker says it is. It's not, What will it take for you boys to support us on Iraq? It's sitting down for a couple of days and talking about our families and our hopes, and building relationships."

When we asked him what made him so sure the Bush administration was headed in this direction, he replied: "You just have to read what's in the Israeli press. The Jewish community is divided but there is so much pressure being channeled from the New York money people to the office seekers."

At one point Melinda reminded him that she was taking down everything he said (a fact that would have been hard to miss, since she was taking notes on a not-inconspicuous legal pad). His response: 'Yes, I know."

Two things are notable about this. One is that it is now acceptable for prominent Democrats to use Jewish stereotypes. The other is that Gen. Clark seems to belong to the "it-must-be-only-a-misunderstanding" school of foreign policy. Iran Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad thinks that nuking Israel will help to hasten the return of the twelfth imam and Clark wants to counter this by "sitting down for a couple of days and talking about our families and our hopes, and building relationships"!

More here and here.