I have never heard evidence that as a group they were anti-semitic or sought to exclude Jews from the united states

First, the number of Jews in the U.S. in the 18th century was infinitesimal. While it is true that George Washington wrote the wonderful letter to Truro Synagogue which embraced religious tolerance, we simply don’t know how Washington & the other founders would’ve reacted to hundreds of thousands of unwashed Russian Jewish immigrants coming to our shores by the boatload as happened from 1890-1925.

We should keep in mind that these founding fathers were more than willing to declare a Black 2/3 of a human being and refused to emancipate them for 80 years after the founding of the Republic. And it might be reasonable to assume that they might have problems with hordes of immigrants flocking to our shores and muddying the homogeneity of American society as they knew it.

Don’t get me wrong. I think the founding fathers were by & large brilliant men in what they accomplished and in their level of foresight. But I am deeply troubled by Yerushalmi’s misty eyed embrace of the notion of returning to some idealized notion of the original intent of founding fathers. As if the founding fathers themselves would’ve wished for the U.S. never to have changed fr. the nation they knew. A truly far sighted founding father would’ve embraced the changes to our polity which Yerushalmi decries so virulently.

Where did you discover that Yerushalmy was a Ukrainian immigrant. According to this article of his on Mel Gibson he was born, raised and educated in the United States.

My informant wrote to me that he was a “Ukrainian Jew” which I took to mean that he immigrated to the U.S. Actually, Yerushalmi’s ancestors emigrated from the Ukraine to this country, not Yerushalmi himself. I regret the error. But even this information speaks to the irony of Yerushalmi’s embrace of the white Christian men who founded this country and refused to allow women or Blacks to vote (all principles of which Yerushalmi approves). No doubt those white Christian men, were they running the country when Yerushalmi’s grandparents were fleeing Ukrainian pogroms, would’ve shut the door on them. And had they somehow succeeded in getting to this country those same white Christian men would’ve prevented his ancestors from becoming citizens.

Read the absolute hatred in Yerushalmi’s site for immigrants and compare that with what you know of his own family history in this country. Isn’t it ironic?

MERETZ is still primariy MAPAM and HaShomer HaTzair, as Jeff pointed out. Thus, in my mind, this inclination towards totalitarianism makes it natural for them to identify with Arafat.

You have accused Meretz of “an inclination towards totalitarianism” w/o a shred of evidence. This after I took you to task for claiming Meretz has a soft spot in its heart for Stalin. I could delete yr comment since it clearly violates my comment rules which I invite you to examine.

Instead, I will ban you from posting comments for a week. You may criticize the left in my blog but only if you do so with facts. Your opinions about what the left is are empty unless you speak of facts. And I simply will not publish any more attacks by you bereft of facts.

And another thing, I am absolutely bored to tears by people who spout ancient history in my blog or who seem to have a need to refight battles that were fought long ago. You have some sad obsessive need to do that. I’m sorry about that but it doesn’t mean I or my readers want you to rehash it there. So stop doing it.

When Stalin died in 1953, the headline in the MAPAM newspaper, Al-HaMishmar, written by Yitzhak Ben-Aharon who died not long ago was “The Light of the Nations is Extinguished”. As I clearly pointed out, this was after it was clear to EVERYONE what sort of leader he was and what sort of regime he ran. We are entitled to an explanation of how they justified this.

Regarding Sharansky, I don’t see how he is any less a “democrat” than Shulamit Aloni or Yossi Sarid, both of whom identify as Zionists and thus negate the Arab claim to “equal rights” within Israel regarding Israel’s “Law of Return” which favors Jews over Arabs and other matters.

You owe Judy an apology

Nothing of the sort. Mapam has not existed for over a decade & renounced a pro-Soviet inclination over 50 years ago. What is it with you people? Besides, she claimed that Meretz worshipped Stalin AND that Mapam did. That is a lie and calumny. Pls. provide me any credible evidence that anyone within Meretz is a Stalinist.

MAPAM, the main faction inside MERETZ, was indeed Stalinist for many years.
http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/mideast/toi/chap2-06.html
http://www.knesset.gov.il/faction/eng/FactionPage_eng.asp?PG=28

let me also say that I was born, raised and educated in America, maintain my principle residence in America and I know, as an American, that America is the most divinely blessed nation-state on the planet and the reason for that is the fact that Christian America, with all of its warts and imperfections, has been the most righteous and productive people to have founded a country in the modern era. There isn’t even a close second.