Mark Murray writes at First Read:
When McCain made a foreign policy gaffe in Jordan on Tuesday, it was Sen. Joe Lieberman who quietly pointed out the mistake, giving McCain an opportunity to correct himself in front of the international press corps. In Israel yesterday, NBC's Lauren Appelbaum reports, Lieberman once again intervened when McCain made an incorrect reference about the Jewish holiday Purim -- by calling the holiday "their version of Halloween here."
Yglesias describes this as "more ignorance" from John McCain. Not really. Having just returned from Israel, I can assure Murray and Yglesias that the sight of little kids running around in costumes is explained to Americans with a simple, "this is their Halloween." Are they actually engaging in some ancient Jewish form of trick or treat? No. And of course Lieberman is an observant Jew, so no big surprise that he didn't love the comparison. But this is a pretty desperate game of gotcha. And if you don't believe me, here's a recent post by an Israeli on the Purim holiday--it's titled "Our Halloween."
Update: John Podhoretz slams Yglesias with a 'get thee to shul and learn something.' Yglesias's commenters are giving it to him pretty good on this as well.
