Although pundits have praised it as a courageous stab at bigotry, Franklin Foer says that Gore’s choice of Lieberman is safe, not bold, because “the more traditionally

Jewish you are, the less anti-Semitism you’re likely to

incur. ” He argues that there have historically been two strains of hatred for Jews in America. The first is an “elite bigotry” toward the unassimilated immigrants focusing on Jewish “clannishness, bad manners, and resistance to modernity.” The second strain is by contrast the “populist and envious” hatred of assimilated Jews who had shed the religious strictures and customs that had kept them separate and targeted them for their “secularism, capitalism, rootlessness, and disproportionate influence,” threatening community and tradition through financial or cultural power. The second strain, Foer states, is the one largely in sway today, especially among the economically displaced — he cites the demagoguery of America’s most prominent anti-Semite, Patrick Buchanan, as illustrative — and the one which Lieberman’s orthodoxy greatly deflects. He also says that Lieberman’s moral stringency undermines “another pocket of extant American anti-Semitism…, the anti-Semitism of Al

Sharpton and Louis Farrakhan and those who see Jews

as imperialists abroad and class oppressors at home.” Bizarrely, though, Foer labels this “the anti-Semitism of the left” because it appears to be informed by the rhetoric of class struggle, as if it might characterize most leftists… The New Republic

Greed in Research Dept. (1): Feds: Med Trials Need Disclosure: “Patients enrolled in clinical trials sponsored by drug companies should be notified that the sponsors have

financial interests in the outcome of the study, representatives from institutional review boards at various

universities said at a Department of Health and Human Services meeting on Tuesday.

One IRB representative suggested that it would make a difference in patients’ expectations if they knew

that they are not just participating in medical research but also in a commercial venture.” Wired

Greed in Research Dept. (2): Britain Endorses Embryo Cloning. Britain’s chief scientist Liam Donaldson called for an expansion in “therapeutic cloning” research to tap the exctiing therapeutic potential of embryonal stem cells. Opponents — including anti-abortion groups — favor development of uses for adult stem cells. Conceding other less rabid critics’ concerns, Donaldson suggested that implantation of clones into a human uterus for the purpose of gestation and delivery — so-called reproductive cloning — should remain a criminal offense. The push to loosen stringent British restrictions will allow British scientists to compete on a more equal footing, they claim, with less restrictive overseas endeavors. Wired

Arafat reconsidering Palestinian independence on eve of negotiations. Urged by the U.S. directly and through Arab proxies who may be included in the next round of summit meetings.

‘Unsafe’ levels of dioxin in gourmet ice cream; more dioxin in Ben & Jerry’s than gasoline refinery effluent, researchers report. “Levels of dioxin in a sample serving of Ben & Jerry’s brand ice cream are approximately 2,200 times greater than the level of

dioxin allowed in a “serving” of wastewater discharged into San Francisco Bay from the Tosco Refinery, according to a study

presented at the Dioxins 2000 conference today in Monterrey, California.”

Deep sleep may be key to youth, study says. Promoting deep stages of sleep, a reversal of age-related sleep changes, may delay hormonal mediators of aging Nando Times