DuraMater - "Secondly, one thing I have noticed debating Zionists is that they are unified in proclaiming their solidarity for their fellow-Jews."

Isn't it funny how all the people who told us that ethnocentricity is wrong - Jews, blacks, hispanics, etc. - are now engaging in ethnocentricity?

As to the Middle East conflict, I think the U.S. should wash its hands of the matter. We have our own problems in this country, and Americans don't owe anything to either the Zionists or the Arabs. Actually, it's this obsession with people and politics in other countries that's responsible for turning the U.S. into a fascist nation. It's time someone on the American left stood up and told all these foreign cry-babies to stop whining and take care of their own problems.

I'm as big as supporter for Palestine as amyone, but why exactly is this story getting so much coverage over say, the recent racist killing of a Mexican by white high schoolers here in Pennsylvania?

Lucitanian, you obviously get your history of Zionism from the KGB's "Protocols of the Elders of Zion". You blame Jews (which you euphemistically call "Zionists") for WWI, the Great Depression, WWII, and pretty much every global catastrophe. Why didn't you mention "Jewish bankers"? Accept for anomalies like Rev. Hagee's "Christian Zionists", the vast majority of Zionists were and are Jews. The original Zionists (e.g. Theodore Herzl) pictured a Jewish homeland in Africa. Your ranting/hysteria reveal you as little more than a common (albeit rabid) anti-Semite. How would Jesus feel about your vicious condemnation of his own tribe?

Orfeo, let me put it another way. Logic has very little to do with wisdom. Wisdom starts with seeing the World as it is. When the horror and anger of seeing things as they are are dissolved in compassion, wisdom grows. Logic, being based in relativity and causality, is forever limited by Uncertainty-which is absolute (see Werner Heisenberg). Most of the bloggers here take their beliefs to be established fact. Fundamentalism comes in many flavors.

America should not allow duel citizenship. Too many ISREAL FIRST'S in Bushes admin. When did Isreal become a
U.S. State? I ask politely any Jews posting here to state that they value America over Israel, and why.
I truly question that.

It makes no sense anyway. If the U.S. wants to rescue Israelis-then why don't we move them all to Texas? Lots of land in Texas. Let them set up a 'holy land' there. Give Israel back to the Arabs. I don't think most Americans believe in special holy lands.

That is not the concept of our country. America is an idea-not a place. The concept of United States-implies that ALL land is sacred. Why are we defending a 'Holy Land' of a country that is not part of America and when America is supposed to be-CHURCH AND STATE SEPERATE?

How about our Native American Indians? Maybe we could help THEM for a change? Seems to me we owe them more than we do Israel.

To all previous posters:
You must not listen to the zionist propaganda as their words ae meaningless.
Instead watch their actions.

They say they are for peace & then do everything in their power to sabotage peace.
Their neighbors from Syria, Egypt and Palestine have all offered peace and every offer was rejected.

It is a serious mistake to argue with the zionists, how many do nothing but study the Talmud while their wealthy families support them so they can make riddles & mockeries of the law?

Over 60% of Israeli Jews claim to be atheists.
What about the mass coversions of people from India as a ploy for a permanent underclass of laborers - ostensibly so zionists can spend their time studying ways to trick people out of their property.

They tell the Palestinians to get over it.
But they live in Palestinian homes on Palestinian lands and still go after reparations from Switzerland & Germany for "stolen" art, gold, property etc.

Their hypocracy is astounding.
And the light of truth is creeping out of the shadows - soon it will be blinding the world when the full range of brutality & inhumanity become known- I truly fear for the ordinary, minding their own business people of this ethnicity, like during the holocaust they are the ones who will pay for the beastiality of their elected mastersl

ZIONIST APOLOGISTs,

Can you explain how the "Palestinian man who had already been detained, blindfolded and cuffed."Was able to be only to be "threatened", as the commander stated during the "investigation":see URL to article, zaz July 21st, 2008 10:17 pmBy waving the rifle around ( the order he claimed he made that was misunderstood - to shoot him )

How does a _ b l i n d f o l d e d _ man know that he's being threatened with a gun, if it's not fired at him?

The Israeli excuses are as idiotic as wicked.

Gnosis 1 you say: "American Christians have absolutely no natural connection with Arab Muslims who learned their religious intolerance from Christian Crusaders many moons ago. Muslim terrorists would be just as happy to cut a Christian throat as a Jewish one."

Thanks for your sweeping generalizations and asinine pontificating. What ever is a "natural connection"? I could equally say in that vein that there is no natural connection between Ashkenazi Jews and the Palestinian Jews in the history they pretend descend from, and thus claim lands without "logical" pretence.

It is amazing with your views that you cannot see yourself as the racist/tribalist that you are but you can call others anti-Semitic, not that it bothers me in the slightest from a stereo typical propagandist like yourself. How can you say I blame Jews, and euphemistically call them Zionists? There are plenty of Jews who are anti-Zionist and agree that Zionism is racism too, you know. Do you call them self hating Jews to get round that? Just because Walter Laqueur, Howard Sachar and Jack Fischel among others including you say people who are against Zionists are euphemistic anti-Semites doesn't necessarily make it so. I'm sure my "ranting/hysteria" as you call it, is far beyond your limited perspective, and you neither have the knowledge nor the ability to debate one historic event thoroughly "logically" based on facts without degenerating into a diatribe of name calling and propaganda. But then that's what you are here to do, isn't it.

Of course I know the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" they are quite amusing as is their origin and history. But amazingly the 24 protocols seem to propose quite current and topical methods of usurping global society to a tyranny of the few. The best place to hide anything is by putting it in the open and disseminated a truth through an easily deniable and obviously ridiculous source, another way to hide it. As in the events of 9-11, as long as the truth is mixed with theorist fantasy and well placed disinformation it is easily ridiculed, discredited and dismissed and thus nobody looks at the facts.

The fact is there is a vast international conspiracy of Zionists who have gone far beyond the foundation of a race based Zionist state of Israel, many of them but not all are Jews and are in the process of bending the power of the US and other counties to do their bidding through all the methods mentioned previously and they do act discretely as the hand behind the puppet, through agencies and organizations such as lobbies and pressure groups, manipulating minds, characters and events. Yes, you can call this "conspiracy theory" but it does not make the ugly facts all go away. Then you can call me anti-Semitic but the facts still don't go away, nor do the wars and suffering, misery and destruction they have wrought.

Ariel Sharon: "You guys compare israel to the nazis??"

If the jack boot fits, wear it!

In the big toe? Hell of a shot, give that soldier a "sharpshooter" medal.

Then jail him, preferably in a Marine run stockade. He'll wish the gun wasn't loaded if he has that "fun" experience.

This is a very important story that should be held up for many more to see.

Taking all of the postings above, the only one showing any form of possible support is from "Ariel", who obviously a supporter of Israel does point out that the soldier firing the weapon is being "charged".
Which brings me to the reason for MY posting.
One would suspect that the soldier would most likely NOT be charged had his actions not been filmed. Which is a very good reason for those who might see this story to understand what they have witnessed. That when we put others into a situation where they feel the power of "the state" gives them the authority to violate established and recognized rules of conduct; they will most likely violate those rules of conduct.
This soldier has fallen into the same mind set that all young people do when in the same position; he dehumanized his prisoner, and acted accordingly. Stories of American soldiers and Marines doing the same and much worse violations of established order are just now begining to surface, in some cases years after the fact. The Air Force pilots and support personnel do the same thing on a mass scale and call the victims "collateral damage".
Presently the Israelis are the aggressors, and will obviously not distinguish between "enemy combatants", and "long haired protesters" (don't forget Kent state) so that they are repeating the mistakes of history, and the only thing that has changed is perhaps the technology allowing the delivery of death, such as semi-automatic v automatic weapons, 500lb bombs from 20k' v 1ton bombs from 50k'.
The Israelis holding themselves up as "Gods chosen ones", and the Christians holding themselves up as the "adopted ones", or the "Faithful" holding themselves above the "infidels" are all justified in their own imaginations as the "the one's God favors over the others".
Humankind is on the verge of a great moment in human history. They most likely stand at a precipice looking down with a great decision to make: stop the madness and futility of war, for good, or "just drop the big one and see what happens", (Randy Neuman song).
One other suggestion. Have the soldier pictured, tour the Israeli schools, starting at the lower grade levels then working up to the college levels, accompanied by his victim, with the tape showing at auditoriums and have him disavow his actions and asking his victim to forgive him.
The soldier no doubt was conditioned to think in his present manner begining in childhood, he could be very instrumental in reversing the thought conditioning and the dehumanization of his opponents. Some day those children may very well remember the session and refuse to participate in any future conflicts; opting to negotiate any differences they may have with other peoples or nations.

Just a thought.

Thank you for your time

Lucitanian, the more you write the more you reveal your White Christian racist point of view. Where do you get this pathetic crap, "...vast international conspiracy of Zionists who have gone far beyond the foundation of a race based Zionist state of Israel..."? Since Judaism is not a "race", what race do you refer to--perhaps the big-nosed, horned race? You make light of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and then you casually support its tenets. BTW, you're not entitled to your own "facts". The fact is that White Christians have killed more innocent people in the name of their tribal god than all other religions combined. Refute that fact Mr. Omniscient. Get yourself a prescription for Valium and Prozac while you're at it. Also, you might open a history book occasionally. Let's hope you're the first one to disappear in the Rapture.

Gnosis1 :
To be coherent you will have to be able to read and comprehend.

"the foundation of a race based Zionist state of Israel":

Quoting from CounterPunch November 8 / 9, 2003, Zionism as a Racist Ideology
Reviving an Old Theme to Prevent Palestinian Ethnicide By KATHLEEN and BILL CHRISTISON

…the dirty little secret of Zionism. In its drive to establish and maintain a state in which Jews are always the majority, Zionism absolutely required that Palestinians, as non-Jews, be made to leave in 1948 and never be allowed to return. The dirty little secret is that this is blatant racism…..

…According to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, racial discrimination is "any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life."…

Read and learn : http://www.counterpunch.org/christison11082003.html

You write : "You make light of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" and then you casually support its tenets."

I did not say I "support" the protocols. I did suggest though that they were prophetic :
See Structures and Themes, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protocols_of_the_Elders_of_Zion

You write : "White Christians have killed more innocent people in the name of their tribal god than all other religions combined."

Here we go again, comparing atrocities to switch blame to the other guy to avoid attention to your lot. To assume my religious affinities and try and offend them is just about what I would expect. Even if I was a Christian, I'm hardly responsible for the crusades or the Spanish Inquisition, or even the buggery of a New York priest, nor is every Jew responsible for Zionist crimes, or war crimes by the Israeli state. However Israel is responsible for the deaths, injuries, destruction and displacement caused by their aggression under their illegal occupation of Palestinian territories.

Ah Prozac, yes. It sure ain't as much fun poping pills as goading ignorant Zionist zealots. It's been great fun to get you going, but now that you've shown your colours nicely, it has become a bit tedious. Come back when when you know what you are writing about and can deal with the questions at hand instead of trying stupidly to insult and offend.

Lucitanian, you're really foaming at the mouth now. You also showed me all your cards when you referred to the Neo-Nazi rag Counterpunch--an organization that seeks out Holocaust deniers and self-hating Jews like Norman Finkelstein and Israel Shamir. Counterpunch is one of the leading periodicals of pathetic paranoia. Can you quote any legitimate journals, Mr. Lucitanian? The "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" are only prophetic to those wearing Neo-Nazi glasses.

Congrat gnosis1.

In just a few sentences you manage to argue ad hominem, reductio ad absurdum and ad Hitlerum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_Hitlerum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reductio_ad_absurdum
Quite an accomplishment but argumentwise rather anemic.

It is important to be critical of what you hear and read. US media post 911 showed how dangerous unconditional trust can be. Thats why we need dissenting outlets like counterpunch and commondreams. If you had taken the time to look up the authors of the article, you would have seen that they are both qualified and trustworthy. -several years as CIA analysts

I hope that one day MSM will find the courage to print articles critical of Israels policy-so people like you can make INFORMED conclusions.

Daga, you accuse me of being uninformed and naive and then you reference Wikipedia. When did Wikipedia become a legitimate resource for anything? If you'd like to reference some scholarly and widely-acknowledged resources, please do. BTW, I was not trying to win a debate with Lucitanian. I was merely playing him like a pinball. There's no reason to reason with a rabid anti-Semite. Finally, you don't need to lecture me on critical thinking. There is nothing in having worked for the CIA that makes one "qualified and trustworthy". Our intelligence agencies have a long history of screwing up. The Europeans and Israelis have the best intelligence networks--hands down.