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I don’t think this was a very prudent thing to do at this setting, but this was manifestly not a joke about any greedy individuals of any kind.

It was a joke (perhaps to get those very Muslims laughing) at the expense of the Taliban.

Think Taliban => Yosemite Sam

Think foresighted Jewish Merchant willing to assist the Taliban => Bugs Bunny

To say this was about “greedy Jewish merchants” is a horrible and perhaps prejudiced thing to say about this esteemed member of America’s honored military.

"Think Taliban => Yosemite Sam"

I guess that's where our thinking parts. From post # 37:

"The Taliban started as a Sunni-Islamic movement in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan in 1996. It was stared with Saudi money and by 1997 Al Qaeda fighters were welcomed to form the backbone of their army." And for a very uncartoonish visual display of what the Taliban has been up to since here's a...

...Google link for an image search on "taliban justice"

I answered before seeing the rest of your reply:

"Think foresighted => Bugs Bunny. To say this was about “greedy Jewish merchants” is a horrible and perhaps prejudiced thing to say about this esteemed member of America’s honored military."

This twist of yours is pathetic!

Did the General portray a "Jewish Merchant willing to assist the Taliban", by telling of 2 Jewish brothers gaming a Muslim desperate for water by bouncing he back and forth between them?

No, it was not my interpretation that introduced the "greedy Jewish merchant" theme nor the prejudice to the joke.

And it is not my honest view of the General's telling of that version of that joke before that audience that will adversely damage his "esteem." The General should be aware of the old adage "lie down with dog, get up with fleas."

A Taliban militant gets lost and is wandering around the desert looking for water. He finally arrives at a store run by a Jew and asks for water. The Jewish vendor tells him he doesn’t have any water but can gladly sell him a tie. The Taliban, the jokes goes on, begins to curse and yell at the Jewish storeowner. The Jew, unmoved, offers the rude militant an idea: Beyond the hill, there is a restaurant; they can sell you water. The Taliban keeps cursing and finally leaves toward the hill. An hour later he’s back at the tie store. He walks in and tells the merchant: “Your brother tells me I need a tie to get into the restaurant.”

This “joke” and it's subject did not spring into existence yesterday. It plays upon millenia of stereotype regarding Jews.

Moreover, in the joke the Jew is a man with capital and ease (he MUST have water or he himself would be searching for water) who turns away a bedraggled sufferer, to his own Jewish brother, who then turns away the sufferer on (nudge smirk) a sartorial technicality. The sufferer is trapped and helpless between the two powerful Jews who merely play with him.

If the two Jews AREN'T selfish, uncaring and greedy then there is no “joke”. Greed is the tiny jewel upon which the big “joke” turns.

I totally thought of Yosemite Sam and Bugs Bunny for this joke, and that would have worked. The trouble is, this joke in a sense commiserates with the hapless Taliban and reinforces their belief that Jews/Israelis deserve to be on the receiving end of their wrath.