A reader writes:
Foul ball! Saying "Israel doesn't seem to be helping them out much" is egregiously unfair. Blaming Israel for Turks taking out their anger at Israel on local Turkish Jews is equivalent to blaming Islam when Americans commit Islamophobic hate crimes out of anger at foreign Islamist terrorists, or to blaming the American gay rights movement for homophobic violence in Uganda. It's not quite blaming the victim, but it's certainly not blaming the perpetrator either, and it is letting the perpetrator pick who gets the blame. How bizarre.
In drawing these parallels, I'm not comparing Israel to Islamic terrorists, nor to the American gay rights movement for that matter. That part actually doesn't matter in this discussion. Blaming Jack for Jill's crimes is foolish whether Jack is a villain or a saint. Whatever one's opinion of Israel or its actions, it is irrational to blame Israel for other people's lashing out at third parties! Would you respond to hypothetical reports that Israelis were abusing local Arab-Israeli citizens by saying that the Palestinian Authority "doesn't seem to be helping" Israeli Arabs? Of course not; the Israelis doing the abusing would be to blame. Goose, meet gander, and you know the rest about sauce.
The Dish 