Multiple choice question:

(a) Jews (i.e., Israel); (b) Christians who support the Jews; (c) Muslims

You would think the answer would be “c”, but then you’re clearly not as sophisticated a thinker as Diarmaid MacCulloch, who, writing in the Daily Beast, thinks that the answer is (a) and (b) with only “an extremist militant minority of” ‘c’, “who betray their own religion by intolerance, and who make other Muslims ashamed of what is happening” also to blame.

That’s odd enough, but it gets odder. Apparently, American evangelical Christians who support Israel are especially blameworthy for not speaking up for their fellow Christians in the Middle East even though, as I understand it, these are exactly the Christians who are most likely to be concerned about the plight of Christians the Middle East. Apparently, what MacCulloch means is that these Christians have not tried hard enough to placate Muslims by denouncing Israel–even though it’s absurd to think that violence against, say, Copts in Egypt is really about Muslim hatred of American, Israel, or Americans who support Israel. I know nothing of MacCulloch other than this piece, but he should consider what sort of mentality leads people to think that Jews are at the center of, and to blame for, things that have little if anything to do with them and are beyond their control.

Hat tip: Steve Lubet