As usual TO's obnoxious filter has blocked my comment which can be found

http: wcg-chipigrams.blogspot.com/2010/06/worshipping-ones-golden-ass.html

The full URL with all slashes and colons

http: //wcg-chipigrams.blogspot.com/2010/06/worshipping-ones-golden-ass.html

I dunno. Mine seems to work just fine.

Good analysis! The aspect of colonialism in the founding of Israel is revealing, especially with regard to American and European motives in helping erase Palestine. Somehow, a brown, non-European people ended up becoming the scapegoat for the sins of Europeans, who were allowed to walk away from the genocide they had just committed. How nice for them. Would TO please do us all a favor and republish Einstein's 1948 letter to the Times? His analysis of Zionism extends Gould-Wartofsky's by daring to apply the f-word (fascist), a place nobody now seems to want to go. Given recent events, seems relevant to me.

"Our generation and others must now chart a course towards the only safe harbor there is: an end to the blockade, an end to all forms of terror, a port of peace and freedom. A beginning."
That's inadequate. It's not even a beginning. Until Israel returns, without qualification, the land it stole from the Palestinian people in 1967 (as required by several UN general assembly and security council resolutions) one cannot speak of ' a beginning'.
All people, everywhere and always, agree that oppressed people have an inalienable right to defend their families and homes by any means necessary. The poorer the oppressed, the more their resistance looks like--and will be defined by their oppressors as--terrorism.
Neither the US nor Israel are exceptional; that notion is just propaganda for their masses. Both are imperialist regimes seeking ownership or control of resources that rightly belong to others. When those inhabitants resist this state sponsored thievery they are labeled "terrorists".
Or, to use a more pithy expression; "There is no peace without justice".

Can we afford Israel? We give them a couple billion a year of taxpayer money, our soldiers are losing their lives, bodies and minds fighting Israel's -- but not our -- enemies, and our continual backing of Israel's wanton brutality and murder — which the rest of the world is condemning — is just making Arabs and Muslims lose respect for us. It's also helping them recruit more "freedom fighters" to oppose us, kill and wound more of our soldiers, and motivate more young Muslims to become human bombs in order to fight our illegal invasions, murder of civilians and occupations. We planned a permanent occupation of Iraq before invading it. We have built the world's largest embassy building and several huge concrete military bases. Supposedly, we learned in Vietnam that we're unlikely to win the hearts and minds of people we're killing and whose country we're destroying. This time around, we're also the friend of the Arabs' and Muslims' greatest enemy. Can we really afford Israel?

Mickalin: Those who take up arms and are labeled "terrorists" are doing it because their women and children have already been killed by the policies of super-nations. My question is, given the history of man[un]kind's thinking in regard to how to use civilian populations in order "to break the will of the enemy," Is there an 'innocent civillian' or only 'collateral damage'? Depends on whose side you're on. We would have to back way away from such bloody issues in order to redefine "side."

Some of you leftists would stand there is they were stoning someone in the street for being a "dirty Jew."

Your article about Helen Thomas was a intellectual FARCE.

Davidson, "Israel's enemies" "but not ours" ?? Oh how I wish I had no right to vote or work or get medical care without my MAN and had to walk around in society with a potatoe sack over my body. Oh my loving friends who killed thousands of my fellow Americans in New York City. What is your name really, Davidson? Where were your family members during the Second World War ?? How did they feel about that war ?? What did they think they were fighting for ? (If they were) Oh how I love how voices like yours really inform what's going on this matter. BTW Israel has universal health care. What do your friends in Saudi Arabia and UAE have ? GET REAL.

I wish there were just more down-to-earth discussion of the legal disputes and issues concerning this land. A lot of people seem to assume that everyone "just knows" about all of this. God help you if you stumble into a discussion of the Middle East and actually expect to learn something beyond the fact that there are people out there who hate their mythological boogeyman called "the Jews."

I will say this, though. You have to be pretty ignorant and not very self-reflective if you don't understand that there is, indeed, a Jewish people (vs. "race") that are traced back to this part of this world, and had good reason to head that way after the second World War.

A lot of the criticism of Israel, I notice, is fueled by the same kind of western exceptionalism that seems to think they can tell everyone else in the world what to do with their countries, who has a right to be where and when. This was exemplified by Helen Thomas -- who I see as long-time closet antisemite finally caught with her clothes off -- and darling of American Presidential administrations -- the European establishment that thought they could ship Jews here and there -- and now, thinks maybe they can ship them around again.

...@ "West Coast Mona Lisa":

You too are disgusting and sickening. Your "apologism" (sic) for stealing much of an entire country or territory, whether under the cover of so-called "legality" or not, makes you very typically brainwashed and ignorant of the True Facts, just as the so-called "exceptional" states of Israel and the U.S. governments and their blind supporters want you to be. Wake up and stop supporting mass murder!

Helen Thomas isn't, as far as I know truly anti-Semitic. She was just expressing that she, as millions of other Americans and others, including millions of Jews, realize, that since Jews have been unconscionably expropriating land that did not rightfully belong to them, with much genocide and ethnic cleansing in the process, they should have to give up all claim to that territory completely, and go wherever they can go. Of course, it will never happen, but it is nevertheless the truth. Helen Thomas just got persecuted for speaking the truth, as is also typical, particularly at the hands of the so-called "exceptional" states which have no true divine right to anything more than everyone else has a divine right to, which is freedom from exceptionalism and mass-murder...

Oh,were you finished? Then allow me to retort.

@S.O. Teric: You said, "Depends on whose side you're on." I agree completely. If you choose sides, then by definition, you are biased. Best to not choose and remain objective. The world is not simply black and white, even if simple people wish it were so.

@S. Wolf Britain: You, my friend, have some anger issues. But to take your rant one point at a time...
"The Israeli government and military murders women and children; and far more women and children than the Semitic "Arabs" and/or Palestinians do."

So, at least you admit that your Arab friends do indeed murder women and children. You just think that the Israeli gov't does it more. That's a start.

"Therefore, it is YOU who are lying, both by lying directly and lying by omission; not those who stand up against Isreali apartheid."

Are you saying I'm a liar because I corrected someone else's post? Do you disagree that those who kill innocent people are terrorists? You don't seem to think that when Israel does it. You can't have it both ways, Wolf.

"You supporters of blind racism, ethnic cleansing and mass imprisonment and murder are absolutely disgusting and sickening!..."

Here you show your true colors. You make a judgement without knowledge. That is called prejudice. By doing so you are also a hypocrite. You know nothing other than that I believe that killing innocent people is terrorism, yet you have come from on high to brand me as an uber-Zionist. The rest of your diatribe against Israel is similarly tainted with bile and hatred. If this is your way of helping the Arabs in Palestine, small wonder they are doing so well.

SWB

I do have a bias towards Israel in the sense that I understand more about what Israel is about in terms of its meaning to Jews than I do insofar as whatever you are talking about.

But you see, I never really get what you are talking about, because you don't approach arguments on the basis of traditional rules of dialogue and reasoning.

You may very well have legitimate arguments, but you don't express it in a way that is understandable. Because you're apparently so paranoid and seem to think that everyone has the same knowledge and understanding as yourself. By some magical form of osmosis.

I don't agree with everything the Israeli government does, but I do think Israel has a right to exist as a nation. Obviously people should not be shipped around, including the Palestinians, and people must find a way to live in peace together.

I don't think the Israeli government handled the activists correctly, I don't agree with what happened with the attack on Gaza, and I do think there should be an end to what people are calling "the blockade" insofar as humanitarian goods are concerned.

That being said, I don't profess to have any great knowledge of all the land disputes. That may seem remarkable to you, and unbelievable, but it's true.

And I don't wish to be pushed into taking a position on a number of land and international legal issues that I am not sufficiently informed on.

I hope that serves to better understanding of where I am coming from.

Shalom.
Saalam.
Peace.

Well, you two really outdo yourselves in self-contradiction, especially "Mickalin". He or she claims that what the Israeli government and military does is supposedly not terrorism, then turns around and admits that it is, and claims that I am supposedly against calling it the terrorism that IT IS, when I very much call it by its real name, terrorism, or state-sponsored terrorism; as I also call the U.S. government and military's so-called "counterterrorism" by its true name, terrorism, or state-sponsored terrorism.

I agree, there is in reality NO exceptionalism unless countries are truly exceptional, as in truly humanitarian with absolutely no mass-murder and other human rights violations such as torture, etc.

"West Coast Mona Lisa" contradicts "herself(?)" by claiming to believe in Israel's so-called "right to exist", while allegedly being against mass-murder. But to support Israel's so-called "right to exist", IS to support mass-murder; because that is what the Israeli government and military are doing in order to continue to secure their so-called "right to exist". Don't you get it?! You support a terrorist apartheid state's so-called "right to exist"; therefore, you DO support mass-murder!! Wake the hell up!!

And both of you please stop being the ones' truly contradicting yourselves.

Oh, and in response to "Mickalin's" false claim of my allegedly having anger issues, OF COURSE I AM ANGRY ABOUT ETHNIC CLEANSING AND MASS MURDER!! Anyone who isn't has no true conscience, and lives in deep avoidance and denial, intentionally burying their their head in the sand ignoring, excusing and/or rationalizing mass mayhem and bloodshed; and if the latter, also contradicting themselves as you "experts" at contradiction(s) are doing.

@West Coast Mona Lisa: I like your style. There is a lot of (mis)information out there on both sides of this issue and no shortage of those willing to shout down those who disagree. Or even appear to disagree. As is so often the case, the truth lies somewhere muddled in the middle. From your restrained and intelligent reply to SWB I can only guess that you are intelligent enough to eventually come to this conclusion yourself. Oh, and I'm pretty sure that to be a true "Ad hominem" SWB would have had to be making a logical fallacy argument. I sincerely doubt that SWB has the wherewithal to make a logical argument, fallacious or otherwise. I salute you and wish you luck in your truth-seeking endeavors.

@S. Wolf Britain: I wish you luck as well. May you find someone who will listen tirelessly to your incoherent polemic against the state of Israel. I, however, will not be that person.

So when will I see Truthout do an article called "The Myth of Muslim Exceptionalism"? It is a well-know fact that the entire Arab world has a huge percentage of illiterate, oppressed people. Gays and non-Muslims and Muslims of the "wrong" sect are often murdered. Women and girls who don't toe the line are killed with impunity. I'm not sure of the exact numbers, but I think all the books published in the entire Arab world is less than what is published in Israel. There is no freedom of speech. There is no legal equality unless you are a Muslim male. You may enjoy bashing Israel, but do you really want the alternative?

First of all, in Old Testament and/or Old Covenant times, it was the Jews who did most of the mass-killing, and Christianity didn't exist yet until the end of the B.C. era and the beginning of the A.D. era.

Second, it has been nothing but counterfeit, false, so-called "Christianity" that has carried out the mass-killing in New Covenant and/or New Testament times, and wasn't God's or Jesus the Christ's will at all.

Third, Jesus did away with the "eye for an eye" of the Old Testament, in Matthew, Chapter 5 of the New Testament, verses 38-48. There is a True Christianity, but it was not THAT Christianity that carried out the mass-killing.

Fourth, if in referring to my "online identity" you're referring to my name, S. Wolf Britain IS my legal name. I don't hide who I am online; because, even if you're "Anonymous", the government can find out who you are anyway.

Fifth, I have never killed anyone; I have never taken part in any war; and I have always been against war, all of my life. And the government couldn't have gotten me to go murder people no matter what they threatened.

If at my age (54) the government could legally draft me, if there was a draft, I would leave the country, or I would refuse to serve or support the war machine in any capacity, even in a non-combatant capacity.

I would not be, and I am not now, complicit in any of the government's programs of mass-murder; and I am against all of them, including abortion and the death penalty. I have been a man of peace my entire life.

Lastly, TRUE Christianity, only that which Jesus the Christ represented and continues to represent, is all that I have anything to do with. I am not a part, nor will I have anything to do with, counterfeit, so-called "Christianity".

Look, Ignoramus, I never claimed to be a Christian; and I don't claim to be one. I just know that True Christianity is 100% the Truth; and, thus, I defend it, stand up for its principles, and promote God's Word(s).

I have studied the Word(s) of God for over thirty years, in-depth; so, because you don't know what YOU'RE talking about, and on the contrary, I DO know what I'M talking about. And, Moron, I do NOT hate Jews.

Let me try to spell it out for you one more time even though you're apparently too ignorant to understand or interpret correctly what I'm saying: I do NOT support counterfeit "Christianity" AT ALL!

It is that counterfeit, so-called "Christianity" that carried out the mass murder of which you speak. Not the true principles of Christianity. No True Christian(s) could have carried out any of that mass murder.

Also, I am NOT a Muslim either. Islam is one of the worst counterfeits of Christianity on the face of the planet, along with Buddhism, Hinduism, Catholicism, Mormonism and the Jehovah's Witnesses, etc.

I have absolutely nothing to do with ANY false religion(s) and/or counterfeits of Christianity, nor with organized religion or spiritualism. I completely separated from all of that many years ago...

"True Christianity" has killed more people on this planet than any other people or faith.

The very definition of fanaticism is a "True Christian."

I'm so glad I don't have The Truth, just as you state, SWB. You are certainly correct on that one narrow point.

As they say down south: "If a fool talks long enough eventually he will say something that makes sense."

BTW, Nazis had Jewish friends, lovers, even wives and children. Try that one on for size, jackass.

Another dog whistle to the antisemites article by Truthout.

Maybe you work for the Israelis S Wolf Britain. You do such a bad P.R. job for the Palestinians.

Do you really anyone takes you seriously who isn't completely devoid of a thinking mind ?

"It is written, thus says the Lord [God in and through Jesus the Christ, the Word(s) of God, and the Maker / Creator or all things except evil]...":

"...Get... behind Jesus (the Christ), Satan(ist{s})..."! "...You are of your father (and lord and master) the devil, and the lies of your father you... do (perpetrate and perpetuate)..."! [Matthew 16:23 and John 8:44; etc.; emphasis and/or clarification(s) added by me.]

CORRECTION(S): ...This person, or these people, clearly want(s) to do me harm, and is, or are, seeking to do so any way(s) they can. I am sure you don't allow this kind of lying, venomous and vindictive activity on this site, so please prevent these attacks from continuing to occur against people telling the truth, and don't allow this illegal activity to continue. Thank you for all of your assistance, as well as all of your appropriate action.