Thursday January 29, 2009, 4:09 pm
"A bad day for Hamas is a day in which its rockets fail to kill or injure any Israeli civilians and Israel kills no Palestinian civilians."

Thursday January 29, 2009, 4:19 pm
14 Israel casualties to 1300 Gazans....tell me about how victimized Israel is again.

Thursday January 29, 2009, 4:23 pm
Let's hear some more about how Israel is the fault of everything going on. In particular their disregard for children and the Palestinian civilians overall.

Thursday January 29, 2009, 4:25 pm
Okay Judy, Israel is the victim of terrorists as are the Palestinian people.

Thursday January 29, 2009, 4:42 pm
I heard Jimmy Carter interviewed this morning on CBC. Hamas kept up their end of the terms of the cease fire and Israel didn't. Israel continued to restrict food, water, electricity and medicine to Gaza.

According to Carter, Hamas has agreed to a referendum on the terms of any peace agreement, which means they recognize the democratic rights of Palestinians. Ideally, they would like to go back to the 1967 borders, but they would not stand in the way of something less if the people want it. That is not unreasonable.

Thursday January 29, 2009, 4:45 pm
www.wanted.org.il

Thursday January 29, 2009, 4:48 pm
The Palestinians have not honored the cease fire.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090127/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/3275426/hamas-breaks-ceasefire-britain-ignores-it.thtml

Thursday January 29, 2009, 4:53 pm
Israel was attacked by three different countries in 1967/ They won the war in 6 days. To the victor belongs the spoils. Jimmy Carter? He's hardly a credible source.

Thursday January 29, 2009, 5:59 pm
Thanks Lindsey--noted!
Judy still doesn't get that numbers of casualties on each side have nothing to do with being in a state of terrror. If it's your house that gets hit by missiles with you in it, now that's terror. If it's your neighbors' homes, now that's casualties!

Thursday January 29, 2009, 7:13 pm
Maybe if they stopped dwelling on the events of over 60 years ago, they wouldn't be so jittery and could maybe make peace. But first they are going to have to withdraw from Palestinian territory and they are going to have to stop dropping 1 ton bombs on everything in sight.
Israel promises immunity to war criminals
On July 22, 2002, Israel dropped a one-ton bomb over the al-Daraj neighborhood in the Gaza Strip and assassinated Salah Shehadeh, a leader of the Palestinian Hamas.

The incident killed 15 Palestinians, including Shehadeh, eight children and three women, and wounded more than 150 others.

"The minister intends to fight vigorously against the accusations in Spain and do everything possible to get the investigation dismissed," reads the statement.

The Spanish National Court on Thursday began assessing charges that were brought against the former Israeli authorities by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR).

A court order on Thursday confirmed that initial evidence suggests that the bombing "should be considered a crime against humanity".

The court says it has asked Israel for information, but "as of today, Israeli authorities have not complied with the request for international judicial cooperation".
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=84077§i

Thursday January 29, 2009, 9:43 pm
Hamas doesn't want peace, they want to kill Israelis and destroy Israel. It has already been shown that the 1300 casualties is a highly inflated number and like Cal said it isn't the casualties that matters its the terror. How would you feel if the people across the street from you used your house for target practice?

Friday January 30, 2009, 8:40 am
Since 2005, Hamas and its affiliates in Gaza have launched thousands of rockets and mortars into southern Israel.
Their goal is to kill and terrorize defenseless Israeli men, women, and children as they go about their daily lives. Hamas assiduously tries to upgrade its weapons to raise the number of casualties caused by each attack. Hamas’ larger goal, stated in its founding document, is to murder Jews, “obliterate Israel” and replace it with a medieval Caliphate. Hamas incites hatred and violence, liberally quoting from the anti-Semitic forgery, Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Hamas terrorizes other Palestinians, forcing them to obey its radical interpretation of Islam, using them as human shields and embedding their terrorist infrastructure in Gaza’s civilian neighborhoods. Hamas has tortured local Christians and murdered its political rivals in Fatah along with their children. It denies Gazans due process, the rule of law, and personal freedom. It uses international aid for weapons, not for humanitarian and civic projects.
It targets Israeli civilians yet cries human rights abuse when Israel responds and injures the human shields that Hamas intentionally puts in harm’s way.
This pattern of conduct constitutes war crimes, collective punishment, and grave violations of international law and of civilized behavior. We call upon the world community to
condemn and denounce Hamas and its supporters for the pathological behavior that has made them pariahs.
Those who excuse or justify Hamas are themselves abusing all civilized standards of
conduct.

Friday January 30, 2009, 2:50 pm
YouTube - Burning Conscience: Israeli Soldiers Speak Out ....Apparantly even these guys have more conscience than Aipac supporters ....

As for the UN schools attacked by Israel...which one?? 17.1.09 or 7.1.09??
UN Relief and Works Agency spokesman Chris Gunness reported this evening that the Israeli army is privately briefing diplomats on the fact that its previous claims about their attack on a UN-run girls’ school in the Gaza Strip, which caused over 100 civilian casualties, were baseless.

The attack occurred yesterday, when Israeli mortars deliberately fired three shells at the school, which was filled with hundreds of displaced civilians at the time, killing at least 46 and wounding 55 others. As international outrage began to well over the enormous civilian toll of the attack, Israel declared the killings “according to procedures” and claimed Hamas had fired rockets from the school’s courtyard, making the attack on hundreds of innocent civilians self-defense.

Much was made of the claim, including reports that Israel was mulling filing a formal complaint to the United Nations about Hamas’ use of the facility. But as the United Nations poked holes in the official story, Israel is now backing off those claims.

And while Israel had previously claimed to have had proof to back up its story, Gunness says the military is now conceding that the mortar fire they previously claimed came from the school came from elsewhere in the refugee camp. Though Israel is trying to keep its admission of guilt relatively quiet (far more quiet than its allegations that the killings were justified) it will doubtless pay a further price in the court of international public opinion for having once again deliberately targeted a building full of innocent civilians.

And don't forget "Israel Bombs Hospital and UN BuildingThe UN General Secretary has condemned Israel and at least three of its workers have been wounded. Defence Minister Ehud Barak has admitted "a grave mistake." A hospital was also bombed."

Friday January 30, 2009, 3:10 pm
Hamas is a terrorist organization and they do what terrorists do. Lie and kill. If they don't want Israel to declare war on them, then they must stop lobbing missiles and sending suicide bombing children into Israel. Are they so stupid that they think they can continue such actions and that Israel will not fight back, especially after 3 years of it? It wouldn't take America that long to fight back, you can be sure of that! Hamas is just spreading propaganda now to generate hate with their hatemongering. Well, Americans don't hate each other and we won't allow their crappy propaganda to influence our Intelligence. They attacked Israel several times first, before Israel declared war. I have no sympathy for terrorist organizations, nor do I support their crappy actions.

Saturday January 31, 2009, 7:15 pm
Killing people is bad. Especially when it just encourages even more killing.

Sunday February 1, 2009, 12:17 pm
The peace activists managed to stop the war in Gaza. These rockets are equivalent to spitting in our face, not to mention feeding the Israeli propaganda machine. How can we get through to the people firing these rockets that they MUST STOP? We can't help them, or the civilians in Gaza if they keep shooting themselves in the foot. Do we have to wait for the F-16's and smart bombs from Israel before we protest this violence?

Sunday February 1, 2009, 12:41 pm
Thanks Lindsey: it looks like more of the same unfortunately.
I read an amusing post on another site this morning which clearly demonstrates the double standards which so many on the pro Hamas side regularly display.
" Israel continues to violate the ceasefire by being on the receiving end of the Gaza terrorists' rockets."

Sunday February 1, 2009, 1:17 pm
Sounds like something out of the novel "1984." Doublethink.

Sunday February 1, 2009, 2:28 pm
Il faut tourner la page et penser au futur. Penser comment avoir une paix juste et correcte sans combines et sans magouilles au moyen orient? Comment aboutir à une paix durable? car on ne peut pas avoir une paix en cachant la haine et surtout pour nos enfants. Laissons Monsieur George Mitchell faire son travail et je suis sûr et certain que la politique de Monsieur le Président Barack OBAMA de la main tendue et d'écouter les autres va conduire aux résultats escomptés dans la région mais avec des concessions dures

Sunday February 1, 2009, 4:18 pm
It's intriguing how people like "stan b" call anyone critical of Israel "pro-Hamas". That is a grossly inaccurate characterization with no factual basis.

Both sides are guilty of killing innocents.

Only one of those sides is supported with US dollars, though, and therefore open to scrutiny from US citizens not interested in financing murder.

I am equally against arming and training Hamas with US dollars, but that has yet to occur.

Sunday February 1, 2009, 4:20 pm
14 dead vs 1400 dead.

One side with no access to food, water,or medicine.

The other side still able to go out for coffee, groceries, take their kids to school, ride the bus...


14 dead vs 1400 dead.

Who's guilty of war crimes? Anyone who kills civillians and violated international law. that is, both Israel and Hamas.

Sunday February 1, 2009, 8:20 pm
Say it straight. The law does not say anyone that kills civilians. There are many complexities to those laws including if firing is coming from a civilian area. People have not yet invented a war where civilians don't get killed. It's kind of sad to say that it doesn't involve a fire bombing of Dresden or a Hiroshima and Nagasaki anymore and in a weird and horrible way that's progress. The score card of how many dead on a side also does not determine that fact either because numbers can be manipulated. Maybe making rules for war so it can be more civilized is wrong also. Maybe if we can't get it right and continue to make war then the Union General Sherman may be correct in saying that war has to be so horrific that people will lose all will to fight again. Sad, sad, sad.

Monday February 2, 2009, 2:28 am
Oh no the HASBARA are at it again:
SNIFFSNIFF Poor innocent, defenseless Israel [armed to the teeth with F-16 fighter jets, F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, Apache helicopters, C-130J military transports, 100,000+ tactical missiles, a wide bevy of assault weapons, a variety of tanks, and a wide array of munitions, et al] is brutally savaged by the "evil" Hamas, [armed only with light assault weapons and small rockets], were magically able to destroy large swaths of Israeli targets and people! IRLMAO A person would have to be stupid to believe that crap!

Israelis, AIPAC and their demented apologists fingered Hamas as terrorists because they themselves are guilty of over 60 years of atrocities against the Palestinian people, stealing their lands and citrus groves, blew up their homes and stole their valuables, performing countless acts of sabotaging, murdering hundreds of thousands of Palestinian old men and women, younger women and small children, in cold blood...and on and on and on and on and on....

Here's something to ponder: Israel was founded by the combined TERRORIST STERN and IRGUN GANGS, i.e., hoodlums, thugs, gangsters, cutthroats, murderers

Monday February 2, 2009, 2:56 am
"...The elections were a sham, but the SIEGE of of Palestinian villages is very real. Soldiers who can't find enough demonstrators for TARGET PRACTICE, shoot at passenger cars. Gaza is awash with a newer "mystery" gas. Israeli tanks BARRAGE suburbs of Bethlehem...Naive outsiders remain in the dark about how Israel has gotten off scot-free of war crimes and in the process receives the blessings of the US Congress as a bonus...We Israelis enjoy full immunity, and have no doubt, if and when our government turns the Palestinians into canned meat, the New York Times will celebrate their nutritional value!..." Israel Shamir 23 Feb 2001

Monday February 2, 2009, 3:36 am
The Palestinians in the West Bank go out for coffee, groceries, take their kids to school, ride the bus... And they don't shoot rockets into Israel.

Monday February 2, 2009, 5:58 am
You're quite right, Haudeno - Israel is indeed armed to the teeth.

Surprising then, isn't it, that Israel has not over all these years chosen to destroy every Palestinian man, woman, and child in order to have full control over that region. Israel certainly has the military firepower to wipe out the Palestinians utterly - they've had that power for many decades.

And yet Israel has not chosen to do so.

Monday February 2, 2009, 7:19 am
Jimmy Carter is an extremely credible source when criticising Israel - as a U.S. president, he supported Israel against the people of Palestine. If even *he* gives information of Israel committing abuses, then we can be pretty sure that Israel is committing them. I rest my case.

Monday February 2, 2009, 7:43 am
"Surprising then, isn't it, that Israel has not over all these years chosen to destroy every Palestinian man, woman, and child in order to have full control over that region."

Surprising to people who don't know about politics, or who simply don't use their brains, perhaps. But we who actually leanr about politics, or simply THINK ABOUT these issues, we understand that if Israel went that far, the repercussions for Israel would be terrible (and for its supporters - mainly the U.S. government, which maintains Israeli military might by giving $3-$4 billion military aid to them each year). The nations of the world would place extreme sanctions on Israel (like they did against South Africa for much less serious actions), and the supporters of Palestinian resistance (e.g. Iran) would be seen as justified, and other countries would allow them to give massive backing to Palestine's resistance. The people of other Middle Eastern countries might also change from merely supporting the Palestinian resistance, as they do now, to actually forcing their leaders to go to war against Israel. If Israel's genocide against the people of Palestine became that massive, such a war against Israel would have the kind of backing that no war against Israel ever had before, and the USA would might end its support for Israel in the face of world opinion (the same way it stopped supporting South Africa) - and the USA would be unlikely to hinder war efforts against Israel in such a case, and would be exremely unlikely to enter on Israel's side in such a war, because the genocide by Israel would be too obvious, and that would severely harm the relationship between the USA and other countries, and would also probably result in the kind of internal U.S. dissent that ended the Vietnam War.

Thus, if Israel carried out its genocide in such a massive and obvious way, it would be itself conquered... and the USA (whose support maintains Israel's military dominance of the Middle East) would lose its main colonial beachhead in the oil-rich Middle East. Neither country wants such an outcome, so Israel merely pushes the envelope of apartheid and expansion within pragmatic limits. Sometimes Israel has gone too far, though, and some international relations experts even believe that these 2 recent invasions against Lebanon and Gaza, on top of Israel's other actions, are the beginning of the end of world's de facto acceptance of Israel's colonialism in the Middle East.

Monday February 2, 2009, 7:50 am
Judy wrote: "14 Israel casualties to 1300 Gazans....tell me about how victimized Israel is again."

I totally agree, Judy :)

Monday February 2, 2009, 7:51 am
When Israel stops its military terrorism, war crimes and other oppression against the people of Palestine (e.g. ends its occupation of Palestine's West Bank, and ends its blockade of Gaza), and when Israel and the USA agree to the 2-state solution (which Hamas and the rest of the world agree with), including the right for the millions of Palestinian refugees to return, then there will be a lasting peace.

When the USA stops supporting Israel (e.g. ends the annual $3 billion military aid to Israel), then Israel will be forced to end its aggressive, expansionist and genocidal policies.

Monday February 2, 2009, 8:19 am
But Israel is damned no matter what it does. This war of attrition has caused massive world protest against Israel - which will only continue to worsen.

A profound pity that the Palestinians did not accept the two-state solution at the time of partition. Perhaps by now they could have had a thriving and peaceful state.

Monday February 2, 2009, 8:28 am
So are you guys saying war is OK if Hamas had the same weapons as the Israeli's? That it would be more acceptable if the number's were more even? Show me in the Hamas charter where they talk about a 2 state solution? Isn't the negotiations with first the PLO and then the PA about a 2 state solution? I also find it amusing how you complain that when we bring up the Holocaust that "we should get over it" because that happened 50 years ago" but then we need to remember the war of Independence which happened 40 years ago. I guess if you say a lie often enough you just believe it. How come there was no Palestinian movement when Jordan "occupied" the West Bank and Egypt "occupied" Gaza? Did anyone mention that it is against the UN Charter to advocate for the destruction of a member state?

Monday February 2, 2009, 11:33 am
Dear Cal and Ralph,

The figures are: 1300 dead and more than 5300 wounded. Most of them are civilians and the majority are kids. Two days ago there was a report form an independent medical source that 70% of the 5300 will be handicapped. So please do not tell me that numbers does not count!

Let us define terrorism. Imagine that you have a farm and only because the mayor has the power, he send his son to take 80% of your land and surround your house, build a wall around you, control all entries and exits, cut all living needs and make you begging for food, medicine and gas. If you try to shout out or if throw a stone your house will be bombed and your wife and kids will be killed.
By law and by Geneva agreements it is allowed to defense your life and land. Terrorism is taking others land and on top of it killing them.

During the last six months of the ceasefire agreement before the war, one Israeli was killed because of Hams’ missiles while 24 Palestinian were killed because of Israeli army attacks. 350 Palestinians died because of lacking of the medicine during the siege.

Dear Ralph, do not do anything if your beloved kid you are holding in your arms is crying for milk, food and medicine and your neighbor does not allow you to bring him anything. Otherwise you will be a terrorist and will give them the excuse to bomb you!

If I may, I have some comments on the Professor Alan article (Hamas war crimes);

- He is worried about the injured child near Tel Aviv – which I fully appreciate and agree- but he ignored the hundreds of children turned into pieces on the other side
- He is accusing Hamas of using civilian as human shield. This is not true. The professor should know that they are -like any resistance among the whole history- street fighters. They are not traditional army. They are fighting against the 5th powerful army in the world with very basic weapons. So they cannot fight like a traditional army and they have to hide.
- The UN chief in Gaza has clearly several times declared that there has never been any kind of any firing action from the UN buildings. Provided that if the Israelis are aware that this is the Hamas tactic to gain world sympathy why the Israeli is bombing these schools!? It means that they are ignorant and they are falling in the Hams’ claimed trap by their own welling.
- What is said about Ryan is a complete fouls. There were three previous attempts to assassinate him in the last two years. Investigation proved that there were no rockets in his home. Then what would Prof. Alan say about the ex Hamas leader Ahmad Yaseen who was assassinated with a rocket on the street on his wheelchair?
- “… they love life and we love death” this is misleading and half of the sentence. Nasrallah said “ we are going to win because they love life -in Arabic, if you are in a war and somebody told you that you love life it means you are a cowered so the right translation to English would be because they are cowered- we love martyr –not death- and we prefer martyr for freedom rather than humiliating life”
- This example about the bank is nonsense. Hamas is not taking Palestinians as hostages. Hamas was democratically elected by the people and the whole world –including Israel and USA- admitted that elections were clear and clean and after this war Hamas has even gained more support form the people (according to the CNN and BBC reporters)
- “ when Israel accidentally killed civilians”!!!!!! wow, I am wondering what would have happened if they would have intentionally killed civilians!!!!!!.
- In spite of the well known Israeli propaganda and powerful media control Prof. Alan is clearly calling to close Gaza in order to hide the massacre.

Monday February 2, 2009, 5:46 pm
Alan M. Dershowitz is a professor of law at Harvard University. He is the author of many books, including, most recently, "The Case Against Israel's Enemies.

No mention of his previous work of fiction 'The Case For Israel'? I wonder why...

Alan Dershowitz Exposed: What if a Harvard Student Did This?

http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/article.php?pg=11&ar=1

Wednesday February 4, 2009, 4:00 pm
In the US and Britain, there is a campaign to smear anybody who tries to describe the plight of the Palestinian people. It is an attempt to intimidate and silence – and to a large degree, it works. There is now nobody these self-appointed spokesmen for Israel will not attack as anti-Jewish: liberal Jews, rabbis, and now even Holocaust survivors.

My own case isn’t especially important, but it illustrates how the wider process of intimidation works. I have worked undercover at both the Finsbury Park mosque and among neo-Nazi Holocaust deniers to expose the Jew-hatred there; when I went on the Islam Channel to challenge the anti-Semitism of Islamists, I received a rash of death threats calling me “a Jew-lover”, “a Zionist-homo pig” and more.

Ah, but wait. I have also reported from Gaza and the West Bank. Last week, I wrote an article that described how untreated sewage is being pumped from illegal Israeli settlements onto Palestinian land, contaminating their reservoirs. This isn’t controversial. It has been documented by Friends of the Earth, and I have seen it with my own eyes.

The response? There was little attempt to dispute the facts I offered. Instead, some of the most high profile ‘pro-Israel’ writers and media monitoring groups – including Honest Reporting and CAMERA – said I an anti-Jewish bigot akin to Joseph Goebbels and Mahmoud Ahmadinejadh, while Melanie Phillips even linked the stabbing of two Jewish people in North London to articles like mine. Vast numbers of e-mails came flooding in calling for me to be sacked.

Any attempt to accurately describe the situation for Palestinians is met like this. If you recount the pumping of sewage onto Palestinian land, ‘Honest Reporting’ claims you are reviving the anti-Semitic myth of Jews “poisoning the wells.” If you interview a woman whose baby died in 2002 because she was detained – in labour – by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint within the West Bank, ‘Honest Reporting’ will say you didn’t explain “the real cause”: the election of Hamas in, um, 2006. And on, and on.

The former editor of Israel’s leading newspaper, Ha’aretz, David Landau, calls the behaviour of these groups “nascent McCarthyism”. Those responsible hold extreme positions of their own that place them way to the right of most Israelis.

**Alan Dershowitz ** and Melanie Phillips are two of the most prominent figures sent in to attack anyone who disagrees with the Israeli right.

Dershowitz is a lawyer, Harvard professor and author of ‘The Case For Israel.’ He sees ethnic cleansing as a trifling matter, writing: “Political solutions often require the movement of people, and such movement is not always voluntary… It is a fifth-rate issue analogous in many respects to some massive urban renewal.” If a prominent American figure takes a position on Israel to the left of this, Dershowitz often takes to the airwaves to call them anti-Semites and bigots.

The journalist Melanie Phillips performs a similar role in Britain. Last year a group called Independent Jewish Voices was established with this mission statement: “Palestinians and Israelis alike have the right to peace and security.” Jews including Mike Leigh, Stephen Fry and Rabbi David Goldberg joined.

Phillips swiftly dubbed them “Jews For Genocide”, and said they “encourage” the “killers” of Jews. Where does this come from? She says the Palestinians are an “artificial” people who can be collectively punished because they are “a terrorist population.” She believes that while “individual Palestinians may deserve compassion, their cause amounts to Holocaust denial as a national project.”

Honest Reporting quotes Phillips frequently as their model of reliable reporting.

These individuals spray accusations of anti-Semitism so liberally that by their standards, a majority of Jewish Israelis have anti-Semitic tendencies. Dershowitz said Jimmy Carter’s decision to speak to the elected Hamas government “border[ed] on anti-Semitism.”

A Ha’aretz poll last month found that 64 percent of Israelis want their government to do just that.

As US President, Jimmy Carter showed his commitment to Israel by giving it more aid than anywhere else and brokering the only peace deal with an Arab regime the country has ever enjoyed. He also wants to see a safe and secure Palestine alongside it – so last year he wrote a book called ‘Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid’.

It is a bland and factual canter through the major human rights reports. There is nothing there you can’t read in the mainstream Israeli press every day. Carter’s comparison of life on the West Bank (not within Israel) to Apartheid South Africa is not new.

The West Bank is ruled in the interests of a small Jewish minority; it is bisected by roads for the Jewish settlers from which Palestinians are banned. The Israeli human rights group B’tselem says this “bears striking similarities to the racist Apartheid regime”. Yet for repeating these facts in the US, Carter has widely called “a racist”. Several leading Universities have even refused to let the ex-President speak to their students.

These campus-battles often succeed. Norman Finkelstein is a political scientist in the US whose parents were both Jewish survivors of the Warsaw ghetto and the Nazi concentration camps. They lost every blood relative.

He made his reputation exposing a hoax called ‘From Time Immemorial’ by Joan Peters which claimed that Palestine was virtually empty when Zionist settlers arrived, and the people claiming to be Palestinians were mostly impostors who had come from local areas to cash in.

Finkelstein showed it to be scarred by falsified figures and gross misreading of sources. From that moment on, he was smeared as an anti-Semite by those who had lauded the book.

But it was when Finkelstein revealed two years ago that Alan Dershowitz had, without acknowledgement, drawn wholesale from Peters’ hoax for his book ‘The Case For Israel’, that the worst began.

Dershowitz campaigned to make sure Finkelstein was denied tenure at his university. He even claimed that Finkelstein’s mother – who made it through Maidenek and two slave-labour camps – had collaborated with the Nazis.

The campaign worked. Finkelstein – a distinguished scholar, lauded by some of the leading figures in Holocaust historiography – was let go by De Paul University, simply for speaking the truth.

Are the likes of Dershowitz and Phillips and ‘Honest Reporting’ becoming more shrill because they can sense they are losing the argument?

Liberal Jews – the majority – are now setting up rivals to the hard-right organisations they work with, because they believe this campaign of demonisation is damaging us all. It damages the Palestinians, because it prevents honest discussion of their plight. It damages the Israelis, because it pushes them further down an aggressive and futile path.

And it damages diaspora Jews, because it makes real anti-Semitism – which is growing: my Jewish nephews go to a school with bomb-proof windows – harder to deal with.

To respond to this new McCarthyism, we need to look the witch-hunters in the eye and say, as Joseph Welch said to Joe McCarthy himself: “You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”

http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=1299

Thursday February 5, 2009, 8:46 am
Pete, James made a comment at a new site just last night addressing the accusation of antisemitism as a tool of zionists.
The subject of the article was the South African Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Fatima Hajaig's alleged statement ‘The control of America, just like the control of most Western countries, is in the hands of Jewish money and if Jewish money controls their country, then you cannot expect anything.’ This, as you can imagine, caused the 'anti-semite' label to fly.
James' comment...

"James Hovland February 5th, 2009 3:16 am :
I have never seen that accusation actually argued to any extent. The issue of Jewish money controlling Western Media is never actually addressed. Every time it is mentioned, in any context, who ever said it is attacked as antisemitic. In all fairness, the Jewish people don’t control the media, it’s the Zionists you need to be looking at. Nearly every time anyone says anything negative about Israel or Zionism, they are accused of being antisemitic. The issue raised is never addressed. This is clearly a very effective technique for avoiding criticisms and getting away with whatever you want. It gets even more complicated, you can not accuse a them of anything the Jewish people have ever been accused of, because that would be “classic antisemitism”, which “proves” that you are either antisemitic, or you are getting your information from an antisemitic source. So because the Jewish people have been accused of controlling the media, even if they actually do, the accusation of antisemitism prevents it from being addressed."

We need to talk about the difference between Jews, many of whom are peace activist, and Zionists, who may or may not be Jews at all, and make clear in any comments we make, who, or what ideology, exactly, we are criticizing. As with all propaganda, pointing it out and explaining it (in this case, the use of accusations of antisemitism to shut down discussion, and broaden resistance) goes a long ways toward disarming it.

Friday February 6, 2009, 2:26 am
Lindsey O:

No Lindsey whenever they lusted after more Palestinian lands, citrus groves and their water, the Israelis grabbed their weapons and laid waste to entire villages, murdering every man woman and child...those victims not so murdered were severely beaten and thrown out of homes and off their properties (which was then immediately confiscated by the Israelis for their own use).

BTW Lindsey, it was principally that same massive firepower that was responsible for the Israelis theft of Palestinians properties and lands. But then you're not interested in dealing with the truth.

Friday February 6, 2009, 2:39 am
How much more evidence of Hamas war crimes do we need?
The following link is to a PALESTINIAN website.
They are cold-blooded murdering thugs and BTW Lindsey, those of us who know and respect you, know you always tell the truth in spite of what less informed people might think.


http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=35387

Friday February 6, 2009, 5:29 am
Haudeno, I have agreed many times on this forum that Israel sits on stolen land. There is no doubt about that. Most nations sit on stolen land. I have also agreed numerous times that Israel has not always had clean hands. Again true of all nations.

What I dislike is the view of some that Israel is a uniquely evil entity bent on the deliberate destruction of the poor, innocent Palestinian people whose leadership only wants to live in harmony with its neighbors. And that when Israel stop its "aggression", the two peoples will be in perfect accord and peace will reign over the land......

Israel is a nation. Recognized as such by the United Nations and the world. And fighting throughout decades against an enemy whose leadership specifically and vocally believes it has no right to exist - and backs up that belief with suicide bombs and rockets.

In order for there to be peace Israel must stop the illegal settlement building (yes - there are indeed illegal Israeli settlements - undeniably) - and Hamas must be taken out of power. And the attacks on Israel from Gaza must end.