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Israel at 60: The Cost of US Support
Israel's 60th anniversary is an opportune occasion to question why the U.S. government offers unlimited support to a country that persistently and routinely violates principles that Americans hold sacred.
The U.S. government finances an illegal military occupation in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip. Since October 1973, total direct U.S. aid to Israel amounts to well over $140 billion in 2003 dollars. What does this aid buy? Illegal Jewish-only settlements built on confiscated Palestinian land. Palestinian towns and villages encircled by walls more monstrous in most places than the Berlin wall. Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks between Palestinian towns that bring the normal movement of people and goods to a standstill and constitute daily humiliations. Gaza sealed and under siege, with food and fuel withheld. Since the second intifada started in September 2000, at least 4,719 Palestinians have been killed and 32,213 wounded.
Israel's strategy seems to be to make life so unlivable for Palestinians that those with options will leave, and those without options are controlled by the Jewish state. Is this a strategy that Americans can support?
Israel's supporters excuse Israel's appalling violations of international law and human rights by insisting that it is a democracy and thus shares a lot with the United States. But that is not true.
Israel distinguishes between citizenship rights, such as the right to vote, which is available to non-Jewish citizens of the state, and nationality rights, which are reserved for Jews. This is not a feature of democracy as we know it.
Several laws have been enacted in Israel whose intention is clearly to maintain Jewish numerical superiority and to reinforce the Jewish character of the state, all of which belie the claim that Israel is a democracy. Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, has identified more than 20 laws in Israel that discriminate against Palestinian citizens of Israel by working the Jewish character of the state into the text of the law. Israel defines "public good" in ethno-religious terms; lands expropriated from Palestinians for the "public good" benefit Jewish citizens only. The 20 percent of the population that is Muslim and Christian are regarded as a demographic threat. Obsession over the ethnic and religious composition of a country is also not a typical characteristic of democratic societies.
Support for Israel is garnered under false pretenses and enforced through coercive tactics. Americans should consider the effect of these strong-arm tactics on our public life.
A small but powerful lobby has had an inordinate influence on the executive and legislative branches of the government, on the media, and on our public culture. Neither a former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner like Jimmy Carter, or establishment professors from prestigious universities like John Mearsheimer (University of Chicago) and Stephen Walt (Harvard University), are immune from charges of anti-semitism if they question Israel's policies.
These assaults on the personal integrity of people who express non-mainstream political views has had a profoundly corrosive effect on free speech and public debate.
Members of Congress of both parties accept pro-Israel political action committee money and in return, they support and initiate legislation in support of Israel.
Both the public and the media have been trained to accept without question the unseemly spectacle of presidential candidates and elected officials who swear allegiance to a foreign country, as though this should inspire the trust of U.S. voters.
Israel's illegal policies toward Palestinians and its neighbors have been the subject of more than 65 U.N. resolutions. Israel routinely ignores General Assembly and Security Council resolutions, and its intransigence is defended by the United States. Supporting Israel puts the United States at odds with most of the people of the world, and it also means that the U.S. government grows accustomed to defending violations of international law. Yet neither Israel nor the United States is above the law.
Pro-Israel organizations and individuals have led the campaign promoting anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry in this country. Generalizations and smears that would be easily identified as bigotry if African Americans or Latinos were the subject trigger no objections when they are made about Arabs and Muslims.
Palestinians in growing numbers are demanding equal rights for all residents of Mandate Palestine.
Americans can hardly oppose this demand while at the same time claiming to be a beacon of freedom and democracy for all peoples.
Ida Audeh is a Palestinian who grew up in the West Bank and now works as an editor in Boulder.
© 2008 The E.W. Scripps Co.

77 Comments so far
Show AllIsrael itself is a crime against humanity. This is a truth that Europe and the US can't bring themselves to face, at least openly, because they were the ones responsible for the crime in the first place.
Vote as my name says only pro AMERICAN in Nov. Stop the Liebermans and the rest then go after the lobbyist who support non American interests then maybe then America will get back to the great nation it was.
"Members of Congress of both parties accept pro-Israel political action committee money and in return, they support and initiate legislation in support of Israel."
Interesting racket.
Every year American taxpayers give Israel $Billions while they enjoy a European standard of living along with national health care and affordable higher education which are unavailable to millions of Americans.
In return for this "foreign aid" the Israelis then corrupt our democratic process by dumping large sums of dirty money into our political system. Freedom of speech in our media and various institutions are also devastated.
The long term policies resulting from this twisted system have now resulted in deadly "blowback" such as 9/11.
And it was none other than pro-Israeli hawks within our DOD that led the charge into Iraq which has all but destroyed the American economy while placing our international standing and future in doubt.
And if you are wondering what "God" would have to say about all of this, just ask McCain and John Hagee.
After reading this article on the Guardian in UK:
http://www.guardianweekly.co.uk/?page=editorial&id=583&catID=9
I am very sickened by what happened in 1948. After all the atrocity found in Germany, how could the World allow this travisty to take place? Displacing innocent people from their homes for Jewish people? Why was this even allowed?
It is sick to say the least. Imagine, giving up your own home to a Jew who thinks they are better than you. They do think this way by the way. Gods chosen. Always remember that Catholics,protestants, lutherans..the jewish people are BETTER Than you. This terrible atrocity that was forced on the Palestinian people could have happened in the US, after all, you are GENTILES, and not God's chosen, most blessed people.
Interesting web page to look at is
IF Americans only knew....
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/
Perhaps this will open someone's eyes !!!
criticalthinktank,
the same atrocity has been happening here in the USA for the last 500 years. Just ask the Native Americans
Thank you ladybug for pointing out the obvious:
The author is not telling the truth when she says,"...U.S. government offers unlimited support to a country that persistently and routinely violates principles that Americans hold sacred."
Au contraire, we have the same principles!
"Just ask the Native Americans"
Alison Weir ex-editor of an American newspaper in Northern California created http://www.ifamericansknew.org/
A person who through her intellect and curiosity for the truth has created a web page to try and expose the truth to anyone who cares to know it and is unafraid to speak the truth...
Please look an an interview done by and available on You tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDHNNtyjfts
For the life of me, I can't understand what would warrant such lop-sided support for a country that offers us nothing in practical terms, like oil. In addition to spying on the U.S. & attacking a U.S. warship, that resulted in casualties.
The Jews understand their own history perfectly well; they are roundly disliked and even hated in most places where they are. They may be tolerated . . . but not really liked and certainly not admired. The question the Israelis had better start asking themselves ASAP is this: given the staggering and ultimately unbearable price Americans are paying to support Israel, do you seriously think this will go on forever? At some point, say, the economic collapse of this nation, the gentile majority in this country will instantly bid the Israelis farewell; and the politicians of the Republican and Democratic parties, almost all of whom are opportunists and sociopaths, will flash their shit eating grins and say ta-ta, Israel. I got my next election to think about. AIPAC will not be able to pull any more rabbits out of Uncle Sam's red, white and blue top hat. Are you paying attention, Israel?
My message to "Isareal" on it's 60th "anniversary". Happy birthday you land stealing jerks! May you not see 61!
Ladybug, Yes, we did the same to the Native Americans but what is your point? It is justified? That others should 'Steal' land? So, what is your point? Is it justification for Israelis actions and the world sanctioning it? Why not have given half of Germany to the Jews for their New Israel, that would have been more justified.
Did the nazis create this monster? Or did this monster create the nazis?
Criticalthintank you said: "This terrible atrocity that was forced on the Palestinian people could have happened in the US"
My point is that it happened in America way before than in Palestine. And please, how am I going to condone those actions? Come on now, we are on the same side, don't get all upset with me.
And how did you infere I was justifying Israel's actions? By pointing out the immorality of how this country was founded?
forextrader
"My message to "Isareal" on it's 60th "anniversary". Happy birthday you land stealing jerks! May you not see 61!"
At least forextrader isn't afraid to say it - Genocide against Palestinians, bad. Genocide against Jews, good. Is that what this board has come to?
I see a whole lot of whining about how evil the Jews are but no serious solutions offerred. Is there anyone here who realistically expects that the Israelis are just going to march into the sea just to please you?
I think what the Israelis are doing is a crime. I also think that the Palestinians shoot themselves in the foot at every opportunity. Is there no two-state solution? Are we just going to keep repeating the same old useless polemics over and over?
Perhaps the solution is to create a Union of the Middle East, like the European Union. This will never happen while the oil lasts, of course, because there are far too many greedy people on all sides who would not hesitate to start a war if there were profit in it. When the oil is gone, a Union may be possible. It may even be necessary if the region is to avoid fighting over its dwindling supplies of fresh water.
The Union could well be a pipe dream, considering all the ages-old tribal and religious conflicts riving the region. However, if we could somehow raise everyone there to First World living standards, the influence of tribe and religion may fade as much as it as faded in the West. If that happens, a lasting peace may be possible.
Mordechai Shiblikov - I think you have it right, though the problem is time. While I too predict Americans will eventually demand Israel be removed form the tit, it may not happen soon enough to save the Palestinians.
As for kendpotter's claim that no serious solutions are offered, I have to say this sounds like typical Israel-speak and is just another way of saying there are "no partners for peace."
Aside from the fact that this issue has already been adjudicated and Israel is in violation of international laws delineating their boundaries, they ignore these.
The Arab states have offered peace — full peace and recognition — several times, based on Israel returning to its original borders. Israel has consistently refused.
I'm sure this means nothing to you, no more than the fact that Palestinians have been offering truces regularly, only to have those turned down as well.
No, I'm sure that you will continue to say none of the Arabs can be trusted. This has been Israel's theme song, and will continue to be. Prop up a Palestinian leader, then knock him down and claim there's no one to negotiate with. Then do it again. And again. Meanwhile, continue to expand illegal settlements, kill anyone who arises as a leader, etc.
There are simple solutions. Israel must obey international law. Israel must return to it's pre-1967 borders.
It's not complicated. But of course that has nothing to do with it. Israel wants all the land. Period.
America as an empire "has to" give unqualified support to the world-as-conceived in the Jewish Old Testament because "unqualified" is the magic word: there is no question possible of what we are doing and who we think we are, period. It has been underwriting the criminal imperialism of the last 500 years: only we matter, only we have a right to be violent on behalf of "God and progress," everybody wants to be like us or they should at least have the decency to "disappear" and stop contradicting our truth with their own happiness. That is the soul of "Monogenesis," the establishment doctrine since before Columbus stumbled into America, that there was only "one Creation," ours by our god, and all the rest are either malformed versions of us or longing to be us. This sanctimonious shell-game helped and still helps too many people feel good about doing evil and is still the glue-and-tar that holds the world's last empire together. WELCOME TO THE POST-COLONIAL PLANET, AMERICA AND ISRAEL---Now we'll really see how "moral, free and brave" you are....
critical - it would be nice if, for once, people stopped lumping all Jews together as if were some monolithic block who all think alike and act alike and feel the exact say way about everything. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised since there are only about 13.3 million of us in the world and people in this great country of ours routinely do the same to about a billion Muslims.
Many Jews are openly critical against the State of Israel and work tirelessly to try and work for a just solution to the issue. (Most of the Jews in Israel are against the current actions of Israel for God's sake, but oh no, to you were just a bunch of elitist assholes who walk around lording our "chosenness" over the rest of you gentiles.) Many of us also believe what countless of rabbis have taught us: that being the "chosen people" of God means simply that WE chose to enter into a covenant and receive a message from God. Many rabbinical sources will tell you that the true meaning of the concept of the "chosen people" has little to do with God supposedly choosing us, but has everything to do with US choosing God. Lumping us all together in some Likud-loving mass does nothing to actually solve the problem and insults those of us who want to help the situation.
Tbaltic - please tell me you are not suggesting that somehow Jewish actions brought about the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust?
The Middle East must be decalred a Nuclear Fee zone and lsrael must be made to give up the bomb in return for recognition and a non-agressve treaty by it's neighboring states.
BreeMass,
As an ardent anti-Zionist, let me be the first to agree with you. We can not lump all Jews together and blame them as a unit for what Israel does. Millions of us Americans oppose our government's actions, yet look where we are.
Daily I receive correspondence from Gush Shalom, B'Tselem, Jewish Voices for Peace, and a several other Jewish peace groups. I reiterate that some of the most passionate and eloquent voices for Palestinian rights belong to those in the Jewish (both American and Israeli) community.
That being said, we rarely hear these voices in our American Zionist controlled (yes, controlled, not over-represented) media. When did you last see Uri Avnery on TV here? Me neither. Neve Gordon? Amira Hass?
On the other hand, I think it is possible to cut the Jewish community a bit too much slack. We must remember that Sharon, already labeled a war criminal by none other than Abba Eban, won by a landslide. Israelis knew he opposed any and every peace plan or conference, and that he would continue his brutal and murderous policies. They overwhelmingly chose him to represent them. All major Jewish organizations here did as well.
Jews in America too seldom raise their voices, although that is changing. Still, it is difficult to name very many high-profile Jews in entertainment or media or government that will speak to the abuses of the Israeli government. I would appreciate of a list of these.
While I realize Jews are not monolithic, and J Street offers some hope of making a bit of noise, more must be done for people like yourself to disassociate themselves clearly and loudly from the Likudnik thuggery that the world more and more sees as a "Jewish thing."
In order to understand the illogical and lop-sided support that the US has for Israel, it is necessary to understand how deeply the Jews have insinuated themselves into the US gov't. I was shocked to see how many are in GWB's cabinet, some of whom hold dual citizenship with Israel.
http:/www.biblebelievers.org.au/bushlist.com
HTF do you post hot links in this forum?
Just check it out. Go to www.biblebelievers.org.au/bushlist.htm
Opeluboy, thanks for your comments. One thing I will say is that being a Jew who opposes current Israeli action, I feel a bit like I'm sure many Muslims did and do when pressed to disassociate themselves from radical Muslims - I'm screaming at the top of my lungs and nobody is listening. I am a member of various Jewish-American peace organizations, I write letters to the editors and call my Congressmen. I demonstrate, I march I protest, I speak up in my community and my temple and yet you stand here and tell me I must do more to disassociate myself. So my question to you, and I mean this quite seriously, what else is it you would have me do to satisfactorily "disassociate" myself.
Jews in America raise their voices all the time, but once again, nobody is listening. Israelis voted for Sharon because the alternative was the Likud and, for better or for worse, it was Sharon who negotiated the Gaza withdrawal, a plan backed by a vast majority of Israelis. They hoped for more of the same as it seemed that Ariel Sharon may actually getting pragmatic in his old age. Sharon was much much better than Netanyahu, a man who supports the absolute takeover of Gaza and the West Bank and the expulsion of Palestinians from these areas. This is not exactly a black or white issue.
As far as the media is concerned, I would like to know any MSM news outlet that regularly invites ANYONE who is a peacenik, regardless of who they are advocating for. This is not just an issue of Jews and non-Jews, this is an interest of corporate media vs the rest of us and Israeli/Palestinian issues get just as lost in the shuffle as anything else.
Shouldn't the American Israel Public Affairs Committee - AIPAC be required to register under the mandatory Foreign Agent's Registration Act of 1938 that requires all lobbyist
representing or lobbying on bahalf of any foreign interest or governments to register as a foreign agent with the Justice Department?
Aipac's foes have repeatedly called for the lobbying powerhouse to be registered as a foreign agent. In the mid-1970s, a prominent Democratic senator from Arkansas, William Fulbright, led such a campaign. In 1988, former senior CIA official Victor Marchetti filed a complaint with the Department of Justice, alleging that a thorough study he conducted of Aipac's conduct demonstrated that under the law, the pro-Israel lobby should have been registered as a foreign agent. The complaint was rejected.
Violation of the relevant law is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. But in almost all cases of suspected violations, subjects received an oral or written warning, and in some instances have been hit with relatively small fines.
This Act forbids all such registered foreign agents to be involved with any domestic politics and barred giving campaign contributions to any Political Parties or to Election Campaigns or to Representatives!
Isn't it time to start enforcing the LAWS of the United States and start marginalizing this powerful foreign lobby group that has hijacked our foreign policy? Isn't it time to drain this sewer?
buminfl - this phenomenon of US support for Israel has more to do with Christian Zionism than any Jewish infiltration of the White House. The support started back in 1948 when no Jews were in the White House because Truman was an evangelical who believed the Biblical prophecy that Israel must be restored and the Temple rebuilt in Jerusalem before the second coming of Christ could occur. In fact, Christian Zionism has a long history in the US dating back to the seventeenth century when there were no Jews in the US - or very few. This has little to do with any sort of like for the Jews. The same prophecy says we must convert or go to hell. Not my friends, thank you very much.
I won't deny that Jews are in powerful positions in the US, but US supposrt has just as much to do with Christian evangelical prophecy as it does undue influence by Jews in the government.
American law sets two chief tests for defining an organization or a publicist as an "agent of a foreign principal."
The financial one clearly does not apply to Aipac, which does
not receive money from Israel.
The other test has to do with the nature of the relationship between the American advocacy organization and the foreign government in question. According to the law, any person or group that acts "at the order, request, or under the direction or control of a foreign principal" has to register with the Justice Department as a foreign agent.
Although Aipac staffers are known to be exceedingly careful in their dealings with official representatives of Israel, so as not to violate the law, there have been incidents in the past in which Israeli officials gave directions to Aipac to act in one way or another, said former Aipac employees speaking on condition of anonymity.
Aipac, he said, "doesn't advocate on behalf of the government of Israel, but the nation of Israel." Also, he pointed out, the law does allow for a certain degree of coordination with a foreign government. Therefore, "a substantial independence [of the lobbying group] is all that's needed. Not total independence," Susman said.
Aipac's lawyer, Nathan Lewin, noted that the organization "has prevailed in prior cases, when attempts were made to make them register as a foreign agent." According to Lewin, Aipac officials "prevailed on the proposition that they are an agent entirely of American citizens who have a particular interest in improving American-Israeli relations."
Jewish activists say that even if the likelihood is low that a legal attempt to compel Aipac to register as a foreign agent will be successful, public focus on the issue could be damaging. "Any open debate of this issue could be damaging," said a Jewish communal leader. "Questions of loyalty will resurface, and this time such questions will have to do with the chief pro-Israel lobby in America.
Each of our current Presidential Candidates were asked to address AIPAC and unless this super powerful lobbyist group is absolutely convinced that the candidate promises to maintain their continous support for Israel, chances are that candidates campaign would never get off the ground! It is almost grotesque to see how each candidate is trying to out do the other with their relentless support for Israel........
The first sentence says: "Israel's 60th anniversary is an opportune occasion to question why the U.S. government offers unlimited support to a country that persistently and routinely violates principles that Americans hold sacred."
WHAT???? As I have said before, America was founded on genocide and ethnic cleansing of Ntive Americans. What Israel is doing is genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. To me it all looks pretty logical.
Please read the true transcript of what Bush meant to say to the Knesset. You'll wish you hadn't!
P.S. It's on my blog which might be rendered shortly!
The state of Israel faces a grave danger to its continued existence. It is not, however, Arab states or Palistinian groups that endanger that entity. It is the continued ties between Israel's ruling right-wing clique and its ties to the hated Bush, right wing regime here, that are increasing the crisis that state is facing.
Some of the writers (above) alluded to the growing awareness that the American people are developing as to the adverse affect that this relationship is having on working people here in the USA. The trillions of US tax dollars going to Israel are doing nothing but fueling their illegal occupation of Arab lands. Meanwhile, we're told that "there's no money for health care, housings, etc.," or anything for the people. People are making that connection here!
Recently I worked on Congressman Dennis Kucinch's reelection campaign. Dennis was strongly backed by organized labor, his real base here in Cleveland. His opponent was bankrolled, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dolllars, by AIPAC. (This was published by AIPAC)! Dennis' crime, in the eyes of the right-wing Zionists, was publicly stating that the US foreign policy should be more even handed, that Israel should pull out of the territories they're illegally occupying and that we should work for peace in the middle east.
Dennis won big, very strong union support! Former progressive congresswoman Mary Rose Oakar is expected to run agasinst Dennis' opponent. People in this area got a very good lesson in what this poisionist relationship means to them, personally. AIPAC showed Israel's face to be that of Bush/the corporations/war, the opposite of what the American people want.
This absurd situation can't last forever! The majority of the American people AND the majority of the ISRAELI people want peace. Unless these progressive majorities can exert their strength and take over the governments in these nations, then disaster is the future for us both!!
There are 1,600 "refuseniks" - Israeli soldiers who refuse to contribute to the brutalization and oppression of the Palestinian people. Never hear about these soldiers on MSM. I learned about them in a documentary aired on Canadian TV - the CBC. These refuseniks are willing to face jail - and some of them have done so already.
It seems that the Hebrews and European Jews show little gratitude for the gift of Palestine. They do not seem grateful. Of course, they also throw the Ten Commandments out the window regarding the people of Gaza.
Adolf Hitler warned the world never to have Palestine under Hebrew/Jewish control precisely for these chain of events that is happening there for the last 60 years. What a shame that Hitler prediction proved correct huh? Greedy racists the Israelis are. I am sorry, but let us not beat around the bush here.
The Israelis feel entitled to land and money because they are supposedly the chosen people of God only because the Jewish God says so? That is brilliant and original thinking...lol
The Jews being responsible for Nazism and the Holocaust? Well...given that Nazism came about as a reaction to general frustration toward the upper-class of Europe (the European Jews) as well as France occupying Germany for more than 125 years, I would have to say...sort of. That is a different topic altogether though.
The solution is of course a one-state solution, as many sane minded people of Jewish/Israeli/Palestinian extraction have been saying for some time.
But of substantial interest at the moment is the fierce propaganda war. The 60th celebration is turning into a propaganda disaster as the truth keeps coming out of the cracks. At the same time, the lobby has been forced into the most bizarre of denials and lies, and straightforward attempts to censor those who speak the truth.
Meanwhile, the US leadersip in toto is oblivious to the subterranean upheaval.
"...what else is it you would have me do to satisfactorily "disassociate" myself."
See a plastic surgeon for a nose job.
Ahuramazda - playing to the lowest common denominator I see. Think much?
As a matter of curiosoty I thought this was the original homeland of the Jews before the dispora?
I was also under the impression that control of Gaza had been returned and that Israel had withdrawn her forces?
I also seem to remember that the Palestinian lands were taken after Isreal had been attacked? Not that they attacked the Palestinians and threw them out.
Anyone know for sure about these things?
As for the Jews being responsible for the Nazi's, thats absurd.
Ok, Ok....I can't spell....
curiosity
Thomas More, there are plenty of books and websites where you can find out what really happened. An easy read from the Palestinian point of view is Blood brothers by Elias Chacour and also read Exodus by Leon Uris for the Jewish point of view.
Yes, more complete bs from the pro arab people.
The cost of us support since 1973? Not a fifth as much as the iraq war, or a few years of buying oil from arab countries at these prices.
You guys just want israel to, as another poster said, march into the sea. They arn't going to do this, and they will not fail to respond to the constant arab aggression they face.
Nahidia, actually, the images in this conflict that are "manufactured" come from the arab side. Remember the fake jenin funerals? Remember the photoshopping of pics from the hezbollah war?
You guys are the ones spinning propaganda.
Ahuramazda - >>"…what else is it you would have me do to satisfactorily "disassociate" myself."
See a plastic surgeon for a nose job.<<
OK. I never once here have used the term anti-semetic. Disagreeing with Israel is something that one can do rationally as many here do. This however, is as ugly as calling an african-american stupid or a Mexican lazy. This is anti-semitism and it is base and below this site.
sphne May 16th, 2008 10:16 am
Thanks for the suggestions.
zionist watch
I would like to respond to this contribution to this forum if I may.
"No sir, I/we do not hold out any hope of the zionist jews marching into the sea any time soon just to please us. I perhaps can offer a simple solution though. Why not allow all the Palestinians to return to their homes, make the jews stop murdering the Palestinians,pay reparations and return living in peace just like the jews, Muslims, and Christians did before western governments decided to steal the land from the inhabitants that lived there before 1947."
Okay, fair enough. Do we also give the right of return, reparations, etc. to all of the Jews expelled from Arab lands after 1947?
"But as you are surely aware, the zionist jews will not accept this and will not stop terrorizing, killing, and stealing the land of Palestinians until this country makes them ."
I don't honestly know if the US can make them do anything. I do know that when the two sides sit down to negotiate that good things can happen. Egypt has signed a peace treaty. Jordan co-exists with Israel in relative equanimity. There is even talk that Syria may come to the Table and get back the Golan.
"The zionist jews are a terrorist organization and israel is a rogue state and must be treated as such."
I don't think that vilification of one party or the other does any good. There are plenty of people that think Hamas is a terrorist organization and refuse to talk to them. What good does that do? How dumb is it for Hamas to rain those pitiful little rockets into Israel and kill the occasional grandmother? It simply plays into their hands and gives them an excuse not to negotiate.
Sooner or later, they will be forced to give up their wall and settlements in the West Bank, but it won't happen until the Palestinians quit shooting themselves in the foot. I don't know that the right of return will ever happen.
Actually, I do "think much". YOU were the one who asked the question what more can be done to "diassociate myself" from the Jews besides renouncing Israel, taking part in anti-Zionist parades, showing understanding and compassion regarding the plight of the Gaza people. YOU proposed that question.
My response was for you to have a nose job in order to make your nose smaller...less "Jewish" as it were. So what? And...
The Israelis disappoint me...big time! The victim has become the victimizer. While the Jewish people endured quite possibly the longest persecution known in History, this does not give carte blanche to punish the Palestinians for what Jewish people have been through. Let me be even MORE frank, as if "anti-semitism" is a bad thing anyhow! The Jews were the ones who have owned that term unto themselves WITHOUT acknowledging that Palestinians are Semitic people also. Will a Jew EVER acknowlege that the treatment of Palestinians is "anti-semitic"? I seriously doubt that. Would a Palestinian? Quite frankly, I am not sure...but the Ten Commandments is something that ALL Jewish people should adhere to...but refuse to do so.
After 60 years of hte existence of Israel, it is evident that they want more than what was granted to them in 1948. Also, they chose to ignore the 1967 border arrangments. The Palestinians were also promised control of the West Bank after 1948, and yet the Jews refuse to grant the Palestinians control of the West Bank to this day - against the backdrop of the systematic killing of the Gaza people as well as their systematic extinction.
Conclusion - Israelis are greedy yamaka-wearing big-nosed worthless pieces of S***! Again, they have shown little gratitude for the gift of Palestine after WW2. Indeed, they want more land than what was promised to them.
Most of the people who post comments here are supposedly "progressive." Yeah..progressive. Actually I do consider myself progressive. For example, my opinion of Israel - that most here seem to disagree with. In my opinion, the Hebrews and European Jews should forfeit Israel simply on the basis of their lack of gratitude by demonstrating cruelty to Palestinians. Just an opinion...ok? I mean...again, if a particular group is not grateful for a nation bestowed upon them by the International Community - should the same group in turn forfeit the gift? Right? People here on CD are supposedly Progressive? Yeah...ok. Most who post on CD do not seem as "progressive" as I would have thought.
BreeMass,
I think you must continue to do what you're doing, and encourage like-minded Jews to do the same. I think you should write or call when Likudnik thugs appear on TV or radio and forecfully let the media know that these criminals and propagandists do not speak for you.
Finally, I feel very strongly that American Jews who feel they are being misrepresented by AIPAC, right-wing Jewish commentators and American Likudnik organizations must retaliate financially, by boycotting and organizing against those who are fomenting anti-Jewish sentiment by their hawkish, amoral actions.
Goose2 - thank you for being the only one on here to call foul on true anti-Semitism.
Ahuramazda, I will say in no uncertain terms that Palestinians are Semites and yes, you could refer to violence against Palestinians is an example of anti-Semitism. However, the term goes back centuries and was coined by Europeans who considered Semites to be Jews and it has stuck over the years. There, a Jew admitted it. Happy?
I asked a sincere question and you throw back blatant racism in my face and expect to listen to a damn word you say?!?! Good luck with that.
Jewbacca - I don't know which "jenin funerals" you are referring to, but I've been to Jenin and seen the destruction and death caused by Israeli incursions with my own eyes. Argue for Israel all you want but don't outright lie, okay? It makes all us Jews look blind and ignorant.
Most of the zionist leaders (BenGurion, Perez, Netanyoohoo, Sharon) all started their careers as terrorists.
They should be in the Hague serving life sentences for the atrocities and massacres they commanded and led.
All the recent Russian emigrees should be returned to where they came from, same for
those who are mass converted in India so they qualify for entry.
Over 60% of Israeli Jews identify themselves as atheists - so what do the ten commandments have to do with these "rejectionists"? They are not religious, so can they really be called Jews
as the word is understood by the majority of\English speakers?
These "chosen people" broke their covenant with their god so any so called contract between them & their god they have broken the deal. They have been cursed to wander the earth and to belong nowhere.
That is is you believe the babblings of the old testament - mostly stolen from earlier
Persian & Mesopotamian stories & passed off
as original jewish writing.
Just another example of the notorious scams and schemes of the "chosen people".
Since their conquest of Palestine their greed has shown no limit.
The disengagement from Gaza is a PR coup, as they have neither left or quit killing people there daily.
Murders & other crimes are excused with squawks about security - this from the 4th largest army in the world against their
largely unarmed civilian targets.
Nobody is buying this crap anymore, not even
the totally brain dead such as jewbucka.