The following comments are
reportedly from Brooks:
For what its worth, that neo being short for Jewish was meant as a joke. Nothing more. Most of the people who get labeled as Neocons are Jewish, so I was just sort of playing off that.
As for me accusing anybody who accuses neocons of being anti-Semitic, there are a few issues here. First, I wasn't saying anything about people who criticize neocons' ideas. The column wasn't about that at all. It was about people who imagine there is a shadowy conspiracy behind Bush policy. Second, I explicitly say that only a subset of the people who talk about the shadow conspiracy find Jewishness a handy explanation for everything. I have no idea how large a subset that is, but judging from my e-mail it is out there.
So I was careful not to say that Bush or neocon critics are anti-Semitic. I was careful not to say that all conspiracy theorists are anti-Semitic.
I am still on the learning curve here, and I do realize that mixture of a crack with a serious accusation was incredibly stupid on my part. Please do pass along to readers that I'm aware of how foolish I was to write the column in the way I did.
I agree that he was careful not to say that all critics of the neo-cons are anti-Semitic. But he did imply that they were - and I don't think that was accidental, particularly after reading his rebuttal. His explanation makes his comments about anti-Semitism extraneous to his editorial. Why, then, did he include them?
His claim that he was joking when he suggested that "neo" meant "Jewish" would be more convincing had he not just expressed, "
To hear [those who overstate the influence of the neo-cons] describe it, PNAC is sort of a Yiddish Trilateral Commission". His supposed qualification, "
Still, there are apparently millions of people who cling to the notion that the world is controlled by well-organized and malevolent forces. And for a subset of these people, Jews are a handy explanation for everything" relates to all conspiracy theorists, and in no way mitigates his earlier comment.
I'll give Brooks some latitude for being on a "learning curve", but his response makes him appear to be a slow learner.
