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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 agree, it is juust as bad as the horrendous practice of blood libel against the Jews.

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.”

Thank you for recounting the joke. It's a funny one, though I'd heard it before the General's rendition, too.

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

Everyone gets a bit of stereotyping and it can be decent and innocent. There are many Jewish merchants in history, just like there are many black American basketball players and many white Canadian hockey players. Cool. No harm, no foul, no one in the penalty box. (Hockey players rarely have to jump, after all.)

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.

Bugs Bunny humor. And who's to say he had any water? He might have been counting on going to his brother's restaurant soon, too. We sure know he had a tie, for it.

This man is an avowed enemy. But, the merchant didn't kill him, he offered to sell or him a tie, a proper thing to do, even an equitably kind thing -- and let the joke be on (are you seeing you have admitted it?) the nasty Taliban!

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.

Utterly wrong, IMHO, sorry -- and I've laughed a lot so I kind of know humor in my beholder's eye. The implied contest of the enmity of the two is the backdrop, the nastiness of the Taliban and the niceness but cleverness of the Jew are the hinges.

This joke could have been about a Sears Roebuck employee vs. a Montgomery Wards employee, for that matter. Beyond the Jewish or even the Taliban issue, it's essentially about getting the upper hand while being neighborly. The irony of the merchant's fair neighborliness, as it turned out, is the most core of the funniness!

IOW, anyone smearing this fine General as bigoted should get chips off shoulders! And the "greedy" comment is uncalled for -- and indicates excessive defensiveness.

Case dismissed.

BTW, in another thread, at this same time (about South Park) I've been speaking up for civility in humor, vs. maliciousness, so that irony is kind of humorous, too -- well, to me.

So long. Hm... maybe I'll have a Mai-Tai, later today.

Your glass is half empty, mine is half full.

I don’t see greedy uncaring merchants, I see smart Jews outwitting an enemy and the customer IS an enemy.