Menachem Rosensaft, in his Opinion piece, “The Sins of Pat Buchanan” (Feb. 24), provided a succinct, informative summary of why Pat Buchanan should be regarded as an anti-Semite.
I would disagree, however, that Buchanan should be regarded as an “arch-conservative.” Thanks to the work of the late William Buckley, anti-Semitism has largely been removed from the right, whereas anti-Israel rhetoric that far exceeds the normal criticism of any other country is almost exclusively the domain of the left. Colleges routinely sponsor anti-Israel hate fests with durations of several days. And attorney Alan Dershowitz, the most articulate Jewish defender of Israel, has been harshly critical of the leftist group Media Matters because of its anti-Israel bias.
Buchanan’s fixation on white America, which was part of the problem, is characteristic of liberal politicians who routinely focus on race. The term we often hear, “the end of white America,” is equally inconsistent with American values, whether used to blame or praise whites. His criticism of free trade also puts him in the leftist camp. At most, one could say his views represent those of the right of the 1950s, but not modern conservatism.
Manhattan
