General Wesley Clark on MSNBC. He gets it.

[JDPriestly]

61. Ray McGovern is very insightful, intelligent and honest. In my opinion, however,

he has a blind spot when it comes to Jewish people and Israel.

I suspectg that if asked to explain his point of view on Jews and Israel in the light of history, he would claim that the State of Israel is unnecessary. Where in the world he thinks Jews could feel safe and live according to their laws and traditions, he would not be able to say, but he would probably say they could be safe in the US. Sorry, Mr. McGovern. That is not so. The Evangelicals profess to support Israel, but they also want to convert Jews and cannot be trusted to respect the fact that most Jewish people will probably maintain their cultural and religious values and never convert to Christianity.

McGovern sees Palestinians as the only victims in the area that was for centuries a part of the Ottoman Empire and then was the British Protectorate. He ignores centuries and centuries of persecution of Jewish people -- virtually since the destruction of the temple by Rome in somewhere around 70, 72 A.D. as well as the fact that Jews were for all purposes and intents brutally expelled from Europe during and after WWII and that most of them had no place to go other than to Israel.

I attribute McGovern's insensitivity to the precarious situation of Jews around the world to the fact that he is a devout Catholic. To acknowledge the centuries of suffering that the Catholic Church and European governments under the influence of the Catholic Church inflicted on Jews would make it impossible for a man of his intelligence, who is so proud of his integrity and who tries so hard to be true to his conscience to continue any affiliation whatsoever with the Catholic Church.

Truly a blind spot. One that seriously diminishes the value of McGovern's otherwise exemplary character and understanding.