Israel planning ‘ethnic’ bomb: ‘In developing their “ethno-bomb”, Israeli scientists are trying to exploit medical advances by identifying distinctive genes carried by some Arabs, then create a genetically modified bacterium or virus.

The intention is to use the ability of viruses and certain bacteria to alter the DNA inside their host’s living cells. The scientists are trying to engineer deadly micro-organisms that attack only those bearing the distinctive genes.” Sunday Times of London I’m no geneticist but this seems to be an absurd claim whose promulgation serves only racist ends. (Parenthetically, I found the pointer to this on the increasingly lost, rabid Robot Wisdom.). There are no absolute genetic differences between races; in fact, most geneticists are adamant about the fact that race is a social and not a genetic construct at all. Even if one could develop ethnic-specific pathogens, they are not likely to be selective enough to distinguish Arabs from Jews, especially Semitic ones, given their ethnic similarities. Perhaps we ought to target an isolated and racially homogeneous population like the Inuit or the !Kung bushmen…