# Israel is developing a weapon targeting Arabs **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 2, 2006, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146 "2006-09-02T01:33:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146/61 "2006-09-02T13:08:46Z")
Well, to be fair to Wired, they **were** just pointing out an article that was currently being featured in the London _Sunday Times_. Which is what they do: point out news-y things that are currently being featured in other media. IOW, they weren’t reporting, “Hey, the Israelis are making an ethno-bomb!”, they were saying, “Hey, the London Sunday Times says that these ‘undisclosed sources’ say that the Israelis are making an ethno-bomb at their sooper-seekrit laBORatree.” Maybe they should have had a big “Uh huh” rolleyes in there somewhere… ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146/62 "2006-09-02T13:12:21Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo] Well, it might upset Allison Hannigan for one. [/QUOTE] More likely, it would upset Alexis Denisof. Alyson probably thinks “The more guys who think about boning me, the more job security I have!” ---
**Author:** ![Idlewild](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8491ac/32.png) [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146/63 "2006-09-02T13:16:52Z")
[QUOTE=FriarTed] More likely, it would upset Alexis Denisof. Alyson probably thinks “The more guys who think about boning me, the more job security I have!” [/QUOTE] I volunteer to think about Alexis Denisof enough to make up for it. Mmm. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146/64 "2006-09-02T13:20:41Z")
Also, I went back to see what else was going on in November 1998, that would lead Wired to feature such an obvious smear/UL: November 16, 1998 was the day that [Netanyahu abruptly announced the suspension of troop withdrawals from the West Bank.](http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/meast/9811/16/mideast.01/index.html?eref=sitesearch) So that made it more timely than if they had featured it during a more optimistic Mideast time period. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146/65 "2006-09-02T14:42:31Z")
SQUINK – > [@](#): > > Well, you might be able to work out something based on dietary or behavioral differences between the two groups, eg design a bug with a toxin pathway that’s only switched on in the presence of lectins from the fruit of a Baghdad date palm cultivar or some such. It’d be a lot of work, but perhaps not truly impossible. You still have the problem of how to get them to eat it. I’m pretty sure neither Jews nor Muslims eat bugs. Shoot, as a Christian without dietary restrictions, _I_ wouldn’t eat a bug. Bugs weren’t on ASTRO’s list. I bet Allison Hannigan wouldn’t eat a bug either. Unless it’s for her “craft,” y’know, some Lifetime movie where she plays the girl who’s mother is sleeping with her boyfriend, the same boyfriend who beats her, so she runs away and gets lost in the woods, where she has to survive on just her wits with nothing more than a tube of lip gloss and an eyelash curler, and so she has to eat bugs. Even then I doubt it would be a real bug. Probably a chocolate stunt bug. Which I would eat, too. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146/66 "2006-09-02T14:55:34Z")
[QUOTE=Jodi] I bet Allison Hannigan wouldn’t eat a bug either. Unless it’s for her “craft,” y’know, some Lifetime movie where she plays the girl who’s mother is sleeping with her boyfriend, the same boyfriend who beats her, so she runs away and gets lost in the woods, where she has to survive on just her wits with nothing more than a tube of lip gloss and an eyelash curler, and so she has to eat bugs. [/QUOTE] Oh, I saw that one–_Fearful Love: Not Without My Lip Gloss_. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146/67 "2006-09-02T15:10:29Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] IIRC South Africa at one point was trying to make a bioweapon targeted at blacks, but gave up. David Drake wrote a novel where such a bioweapon was a central plot point; don’t recall the title. Wing Commander IV ( I think that’s the one ) had a programmable bioweapon that could be used for for that IIRC, among other things. [/QUOTE] It was indeed _Wing Commander IV_, but if I remember correctly, it was actually a bioweapon that tried to rewrite DNA. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146/68 "2006-09-02T15:23:34Z")
[QUOTE=asterion] It was indeed _Wing Commander IV_, but if I remember correctly, it was actually a bioweapon that tried to rewrite DNA. [/QUOTE] According to my somewhat vague memories, it targeted people according to their DNA and/or body chemistry and/or body structure and killed them; meant as a eugenics weapon to kill off “inferiors”. I remember some scientist making a comment about how you could use it to kill everyone who was, say, too short or too tall or according to their percentage of body fat. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146/69 "2006-09-02T15:54:05Z")
[QUOTE=devilsknew] I’m circumsiced… I long for my for my foreskin. [/QUOTE] Jack? ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146/70 "2006-09-02T23:43:00Z")
[QUOTE=Xan] Ok I was wrong but it still worries that any nation would even consider such a thing. [/QUOTE] What would worry me is that any nation is thinking about it, and other nations weren’t. If it were even possible to do such a thing, I’d want the US on the forefront. Because if it’s even remotely feasable, some other country is going to be working on it. Before you go off on the Iran nuke issue, keep in mind the US hasn’t just gone willy-nilly with the warheads. 2 have been used. 60+ years ago. And we did a seemingly good job at building that country up beyond expectations. You need a new hobby. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2006, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146/71 "2006-09-02T23:58:31Z")
[QUOTE=Idlewild] I volunteer to think about Alexis Denisof enough to make up for it. Mmm. [/QUOTE] Thank you! I have my wingman! 😃 And yes, I meet the physical. Well, at least in that area. I’m sure Allison isn’t into pasty-white, married, fat white goys. (If I am mistaken about this, will someone forward this thread to her. Thanks.) ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146/72 "2006-09-03T00:06:44Z")
I nominate this thread as the alltime lamest pitting ever. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146/73 "2006-09-03T00:52:11Z")
[QUOTE=Xan] Fine, it’s impossible to do. But isn’t anyone concerned that someone was even thinking of doing it? [/QUOTE] The reason that you are receiving so much abuse on this point is that a knowledge that such an act would be impossible means that most likely the story was so much nonsense, to begin with. It would be like periodic stories that pop up claiming that the U.S. is studying ways to harm black citizens or Russians or something. It simply makes no sense. If there was a way to target one of two very closely related groups (that we already know are very diverse inside the groups), how would such a weapon be controlled to prevent killing Arab Israelis (and there are many) or visiting dignitaries from other countries? Such an (already impossible) weapon would cause far more problems than it would solve, meaning the very claim for the story is probably a lie. (We also do not know what the original _Times_ story said. Was it a claim by a serious reporter that thought there really was such a program? Was it an Op-Ed piece by someone with a grudge against Israel? Was it a planted story in which the _Times_ simply repeated a rumor off an Arab wire service?) All in all, most posters recognized the original story as nonsense and reacted against you having taken it seriously. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146/74 "2006-09-03T01:09:26Z")
[QUOTE=Cisco] Pardon me in advance for appearing as such a common simpleton in front of an audience full of such infallible sages, but are there not genetic differences between ethnic Jews and your typical Palestinian, just as there are between white, blacks, Asians, and yes even Aleuts? Something has to say: two ethnic African gametes produce offspring with dark skin, dark eyes, wiry hair, two Asian gametes produce almond-eyes, straight dark hair, etc. I know they are not 100% accurate but there are genetic tests to determine one’s heritage. [/QUOTE] You should have paid more attention to the SDMB “race” wars of 2001 - 2003. 😉 The differences we see in appearances among groups are due to different _expressions_ of the alleles of the _same_ genes, not to separate genes. When Noah Rosenberg _et al._ set out to identify genetic populations (as reported in _Science_, in December, 2002), they were, indeed, able to identify the geographic origin of most people, but that was based on a statistical analysis of clusters of genetic markers. No single group was found who all shared the actual genetic markers, rather clusters of different markers showed up in statistical analysis of the various groups. In fact, in the Middle East, where population migrations have ranged back and forth across the region from Africa to Asia to Europe and back again, the number of individual markers needed for statistical analysis to identify general groups was the greatest required in the entire world survey. Picking out a “group” from the Middle East, genetically, would be an exerecise in utter futility. ---
**Author:** ![Nic2004](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/4491bb/32.png) [@Nic2004](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nic2004)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146/75 "2006-09-03T01:22:46Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] No there aren’t. I asked if there were any Chinese Jews at a Chinese restaurant one time. The waiter told me there was orange jews, apple jews, grape jews and pineapple jews, but no Chinese Jews! [/QUOTE] :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146/76 "2006-09-03T01:26:04Z")
[QUOTE=tomndebb] It would be like periodic stories that pop up claiming that the U.S. is studying ways to harm black citizens or Russians or something. It simply makes no sense. [/QUOTE] I’m sure someone mentioned this already > [@Tapioca Dextrin](#): > > In related news, [Tropical Fantasy](http://www.snopes.com/racial/business/tropical.asp) contains a special ingredient that will render black men sterile. > > Hey it’s from 1991, so it trumps 1998 😉 ---
**Author:** ![parrot\_recipes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/439d5e/32.png) [@parrot\_recipes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parrot_recipes)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146/77 "2006-09-03T01:59:57Z")
[QUOTE=Xan] Fine, it’s impossible to do. But isn’t anyone concerned that someone was even thinking of doing it? [/QUOTE] Yes! Now that you’ve brought it up, it has **completely** ruined my night! I am so pissed. Thanks a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146/78 "2006-09-03T02:35:50Z")
[QUOTE=tomndebb] You should have paid more attention to the SDMB “race” wars of 2001 - 2003. 😉 [/QUOTE] This is the first I’ve heard of them - can you provide any links? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146/79 "2006-09-03T02:45:39Z")
Given the religious conservatism espoused by a preponderance of Israel’s enemies, I’d suggest that rather than producing complicated, and doubtless extremely expensive, genetic-polymorphism-specific biological agents, they should instead follow our lead and develop [TEH GHEY BOMB!!1!!!1!!11!!!1!!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_bomb) ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2006, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146/80 "2006-09-03T03:00:24Z")
[QUOTE=Cisco] This is the first I’ve heard of them - can you provide any links? Thanks. [/QUOTE] Do a search for ‘race’ by username Collounsbury. That’ll pull up many of the threads. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/israel-is-developing-a-weapon-targeting-arabs/371146.md?page=5)