Quote:
Originally Posted by George De Vaus
I haven't finished reading it yet but it is full of interesting information.
An excerpt from page 15: "Shortly after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, sixteen commandos from the U.S. Army's elite "MET Alpha" unit, under the command of Col. Richard R. McPhee, were dispatched on a mission to search Baghdad in order to locate rabbinic antiquities, including "one of the most ancient copies of the Talmud in existence, dating from the seventh century."
So much for the separation of synagogue and state.
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I wouldn't recommend much of anything by Hoffman the man certainly doesn't know what he's talking about in regards to Judaism (he also as far as I am aware doesn't speak the languages that he quotes in (i.e. Yiddish for example) and nobody seems to know where he gets his translations [I'd presume translation services?]) and his work is a poor man's Eisenmenger (or at a stretch McCaul). I am also pretty sure he deliberately lies (e.g. the Dragonsky issue in his 'Judaic Communists' article let alone Hoffman's getting caught by amazon apparently lying about being called a Talmid Chacham [Torah Scholar] by a Conservative rabbi Shaul Praver [who is apparently still trying to sue Hoffman]).
As for the MET Alpha issue: I looked this up on another thread. Hoffman's spin is a touch dodgy as the article he references actually suggests that it wasn't an order, but rather the idea of said McPhee and his Chaplain (denomination and name not given). It also seems likely, given the intelligence they were searching for, that they had an Israeli liason or two with the [although they would be dressed in US uniforms to prevent them being specifically targeted], which might further explain this rather unusual use of military personnel. Hence the probable origin of the mission as the article almost directly states the mission wasn't authorised or approved of by the Pentagon. I also am inclined to think said McPhee has been mothballed by the Pentagon for using military personnel on an unauthorised cultural mission in war time that could have been easily undertaken by contractors or the jews.