As a group, Jews don’t generally have drinking problems. But clearly, this Jew’s mother did while she was pregnant with him:

[Hebrew University Political Science Professor Shlomo Avineri] noted that any attempt made to draw parallels from the Kosovar situation to other regions in the world is deeply influenced by the “Serb propaganda machine”, which he believes is attempting to make the world forget about the greatest tragedy to befall Europe since World War II.

“NATO only intervened after the sweeping ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the Serbs, who displaced and killed nearly a million Albanians. Now the Serbs want the world to forget this tragedy, and so they want to make the world believe that Kosovar independence has grave implications for the rest of the world, which is decidedly not the case,” said Avineri.

And only because he decided that’s so.

Since Kosovo’s Declaration of Theft on Sunday, about 38 times a day I’m seeing sentences in articles to the effect of, “Serbia lost its right to Kosovo when it tried to ethnically cleanse the ethnic Albanians.” Despite the fact that this never happened. But if one were to admit that much, it would dissolve the case for Albanian secession. (Not that there would be a “case” in the first place, given that there is no international law stating that ethnic cleansing means you lose land.)

But how would Avineri like it if someone wrote that Israelis killed or displaced a million Palestinians? How many letters would be sent in to the newspaper publishing such defamation? Then again, Israeli leftists probably wouldn’t be among the letter writers.

As for that “Serbian propaganda machine,” does that mean this other Israeli professor who was interviewed for the same article is speaking merely from a deep intoxication by “Serbian propaganda?” —

Is Kosovo’s independence applicable to the Palestinian situation? According to [Bar Ilan University Professor Gerald] Steinberg the parallels to the Palestinian question are plainly evident. Professor Gerald Steinberg, Chairman of the Political Science Department at Bar Ilan University

“This is the same exact strategy that Former Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat had championed back in the day,” said Steinberg. “He wanted UN forces to come into the Palestinian territories in order to pave the way for a unilateral declaration of independence…”

Oh that Serbian propaganda — coming out of the woodwork, just spilling out onto the streets and drowning us, convincing us to…repeatedly bomb the Serbs and gift their lands to Albanians, Croats and Bosniaks.

Here’s what a genius this Avineri is. Last month this Fetal Alcohol Syndrome case wrote for the Jerusalem Post a “Letter to a Serbian Friend,” as follows:

Dear A - I am writing this because some of my best friends are Serbs, and because of the historical links between Serbs and Jews.

Did you catch that? Some of his best friends are Serbs! Normally, that line would hang its author right there. But nothing that applies to the rest of humanity applies to Serbs, and so no one would even bat an eyelash at his use of it. As for those Serbian friends, did I mention that the only people more self-loathing than Jews are Serbs? No wonder they’re friends!

…[A]s Jews, who have been stateless for such a long time, many of us understand and support [the Albanian] quest for self-determination and independence.

In other words, as a Jew whom 52 Muslim states aren’t allowing to have one state, he can understand the Muslims’ desire for a 53rd state. A 53rd state to eventually oppose the Jews having the one state.

…[O]ne cannot draw 21st century borders according to historical links which overlook the wishes of the present population. The question is not territory, but people. It is for this reason that most Israelis today are willing to give up claims to the historical regions of Judea and Samaria, even willing to consider Palestinian rule over parts of Jerusalem…I KNOW you claim that for centuries Serbia has been a bulwark of Christian Europe against Islam.

Uh, it has been. And to translate the rest of Shlomo’s paragraph: “Why can’t you just be suicidal wusses like we are?!” Note also this Israeli’s use of the word “claim” — the mainstream media’s favorite verb to use against Israel in describing Israelis’ everyday realities as “claims”, while promoting Palestinian-terrorist propaganda as fact.

I leave aside the unpleasant “clash of civilizations,” if not racist overtones, of this claim. But - let’s again be realistic: after all, you lost the battle of Kosovo in 1389 to the Ottomans, so you were not that successful in defending Europe against Islam (whatever this may mean).

Translation: You didn’t manage to save civilization against barbarism last time, so why bother now? Not that there’s anything superior about civilization over barbarism, unless you’re a racist…Since as an Israeli Jew I have no idea what you mean about there being anything to defend against in Islam.

As I blurted out to Zvi Rav-Ner of the Israeli Foreign Ministry last May, suicidal Jews make for homicidal anti-Serbs.

Since Shlomo Shmuck Avineri prefers to listen to enemies and future enemies, here is what they have to say:

Hamas founder Ahmad Yassin reacting in 2005 to Israel’s planned evacuation of Israeli towns in Gaza Strip:

Today [Sharon] says: “The day is near when we will leave Gaza.” That’s it, it’s lost, Tel Aviv is gone. They are defeated, they have no words left…When this process will end, they will become a state with no ability, helpless. They established a state to protect the Jews from death and murder. If death and murder chase them in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Netanya and everywhere among them, then they will say: “What am I doing here? I founded a state to protect me from death, and if death chases me, I want to flee and go back to Europe and America.”

PRISTINA, Serbia (AP, September 20, 2006):

[Agim Ceku] on Wednesday dismissed Serbia’s fierce opposition to the province’s drive for independence, insisting that decades of bloodshed in the Balkans are over and Serbs will never dare to invade Kosovo again because they have “no courage.”

On a side note, here are the photos that accompanied the first article cited above:

The first shows the rather benign, UN-selected, Euro-flavor Kosovo flag, while the second photo shows the one that the rest of the Albanians were waving — the Albanian flag. Just to spell things out, the yellow and sky-blue flag ain’t gonna stick. I mean, if you were a former Nazi running a narco-terrorist gangster state, which would you go with? Sky-blue and sunshine?