I just want to say that Noah Pollak’s piece on Israel and liberal American Jews is one of the best things I have ever read on the subject, or, for that matter, any subject. Go here. Some pieces are simply bull’s-eyes — true as heck. This is one of them, in my judgment. (There’s a real WFB phrase: “in my judgment.” He used it a lot in later years.)

I was also interested in Fiamma Nirenstein’s piece on boycotts of Israel — this time, boycotts by Italian grocery chains. These boycotts of Israel are sickening, of course. And I have recently been taken with the notion of “buycotts”: deliberately buying from, or in, countries that others are unjustly boycotting. Of course, this applies to states, too — think Arizona. And buy Arizona!

On May 17, I celebrated Norway’s National Day with some conservative-libertarian types. This was in Oslo. My hosts were Norwegian. And they gleefully announced, “We will be eating Israeli potatoes!” You don’t know how un-PC this is in Norway — where things Israeli are of course vilified.

And the Progress party — Norway’s Reaganite-Thatcherite party — makes a point of having Jaffa oranges available at party conferences. This is an act of great defiance in the country’s political culture.

Also at this celebration I’ve spoken of — on National Day — were two people from the Taiwanese consulate. Like Israel, Taiwan is not a favorite country in Norway, or in Europe generally. Wouldn’t want to upset the PRC, you know.

Does it say something about the West that Israel and Taiwan — Israel and Taiwan, of all nations — are despised countries? What does it say? Nothing good, I can tell you.

By the way, if you’d like to see a much-circulated and -cherished video on boycotting Israel, go here.