This is really discouraging. It goes way beyond the usual anti-Israel ranting and attacks Judaism and Jews per se. It's also come full circle: in Europe we're told to return to the Middle East, in the Middle East we're told we have no roots there. We came then from where - a spaceship?

In Baghdad there are left 8 Jews, not enough for a minyan; the rabbi has no wife, because there are no women. But yet, is Judaism dead? Perhaps this is what they fear - faith, faith and ideals, and the binding power of love that lives though cities have fallen and empires lie in ruins.

Our legacy is in the world of ideas, not monuments, and our country was repeatedly and deliberately destroyed in the past, so we wouldn't necessarily leave many traces - though of course many such traces DO exist. And not just remains - but music, poetry, and languages that live still. And how can we explain that our most precious possessions are - books? Or more properly - the ideas that burn through the words?

In terms of monuments - one can see, today, what's happening to the Temple Mount itself. We saw what happened to Joseph's Tomb. Our physical world has crumbled around us many times - but yet - here we are, the ancient language living still.

So where is Persia now, Babylon with her gardens, the Hittites with their bulls, the Assyrians, Romans, Phoenicians and Greeks, and Egypt with her beautiful gods?

This is really scary. I've previously heard the claim that the Jews are desperately looking for signs of their roots in the region. Nadia Abu El-Haj made that claim, and there is a Palestinian woman, a doctor, based in Britain, who is the author of many books on the ME and who makes the claim, as well. The implication is that the Israelis aren't finding any evidence, whereas they're apparently finding plenty. Maybe that's what worries Arab commentators.

This guy in the video is cracked. When would the British ever cooperate with an Israeli attempt to plunder Baghdad, bringing the loot back to Britain? Is he crazy? When would the Israel ever plunder archeological findings? When and how would Jews in any number would ever get into Baghdad to do the work? This guy might as well have been talking about Martians and pixies. He's nuts.

But it seems that so many people think like that in the Arab world. Really, I have a fantasy that Israel--people and buildings--could be airlifted up and settled in the South Pacific somewhere. I know that's crazy, but the ME isn't just undesirable because it's hostile; it's just undesirable, period, in spite of its rich culture and beauty.

As to where we "came from," the answer you'll get is that we're not a people but "just a religion," so we don't belong together as a nation. An easy answer, an easy way to deny our peoplehood. So frustrating!

Oh, and since many on the left (Tony Judt, for instance) think "nations" are racist concepts that belong in the past, they can deftly oppose any nationalism they don't approve of as "racism." Some nationalisms or expressions of nationalism can indeed be racist, but not all by definition. And don't waste your time waiting for Judt, et.al. to denounce Palestinian or Arab nationalism in the same terms, even though it often is racist.

One other point: How well do the Arabs respect Jewish tombs and monuments when they're under Arab control? Like in East Jerusalem before 1967. Hmmmmm. And were those Americans, Brits, and Jews robbing the main museum in Baghdad just after the invasion or were they local Arabs?

The Arabs/Muslims call anyone they don't like "Jews". The call the US Army "Jews".

NO amount of reasoning will work with the mental illness called "Islam".

What idiocy, what mendacious, malevolent idiocy. Yet the guy is apparently educated and holds a position of note.

Compare him to Wafa Sultan in the adjacent post; one appeals to the mind, the other is entirely disdainful of rational, cogent content - in order to forward his anti-Israel ideology. Pure, idiocy.

Otoh, talk with ideologues of a different stripe and kind and it's much the same thing, excepting it's cloaked in a different vernacular and pretense and the objects of hate and disparagement are different.

"The Jews are trying to find any trace that they ever existed in this region, but so far, they have been unsuccessful."

If the Jews never existed in the region, why are Jews mentioned in the Q'ran?

Does that mean the Q'ran is a book of lies?