What it takes to move back into the old neighborhood?No welcome for the long-lost relatives?

At last an article in the US press that gets to the fundamentals. Alas, the fundamentals arrive via Israeli Jews rather than any (or much) independent thinking by American Jews.

Many years ago, in Jerusalem, at Hebrew University, I attended a class, conducted by a Jewish professor, on "What is a Jew?" After disproving all the alternatives (race, religion, culture, nationality), the professor announced his conclusion: "A Jew is a person who feels himself persecuted AS a Jew."

I was flabbergasted, and have thought many times about that definition. It is not just in the Passover story; it is also in Ruth, and in a prevalent attitude which insists that all of western civilization was simply a vast unceasing conspiracy against Jews while at the same time laying claim to having founded a so-called Judeo Christian civilization.

When it comes to religion people can believe whatever they want, but a colonist enterprise (Zionism) and a state (Israel) founded on such a paranoid view of self and the world, cannot be wholesome and cannot lead to good results.

We are, finally, finally, finally, at long last, just beginning to see the turning of American public opinion, and, as well, the mass public opinion of American Jewry. For the Israeli racist occupation state and the racist settlers, time is now starting to run short. To save Israel they must turn toward a democratic two-state solution. This would bring some level of justice to that long embattled area and its peoples.

For us in the USA, the time is finally beginning where we can begin the process of peeling our billions of public dollars and support away from that racist pariah, apartiet state of Israel. The only question is whether democratic forces will be able to do so in time to save Israel, or whether the racist settlers now running things there will be able to continue to push Israel on its suicidal drive to conquer the entire middle east.

In our nation, progressive forces are attempting to bring some level of even handed approach to American policy there. If what we continue to get in return in the back of their hands, the future is not rosey. At some point, reactionary, (and ACTUALLY anti-semetic forces), will enter the fray and there will not be much sympathy or aid in the pipe for Israel.

I very much hope that there can be a democratic and just solution, for all of our sake. While not Jewish, I have a great respect for the positive progressive traditions of that religion and culture. However, if the truely progressive voices from that community do not assert themselves, and soon, then they will be on their own, laying a bed of nails, or their own making.

I hope what I hope, but am also disgusted that our public funds are going to support the unjust occupation of Palistinian lands. I'm disgusted with the arrogance of Israeli racist settler mentality of their so-called "right to kill Palistinians and occupy their lands. I'm disgusted our nation is supporting this injustice.

The clock is ticking!!

One of Chernus' biggest problems is that he is apparently incapable of discriminating between cause and effect. He talks about Land Day and Passover as though the difference between them was the 'ongoing tragedy' of the Palestinians versus the emancipation of the Jews. That scenario is only a mere consequence of the real source issue. And that first cause was that the Israelites were enslaved by the autocratic actions of an external Egyptian tyranny which was forced upon the Israelites through no fault of their own, while the Palestinians have imposed their own isolation upon themselves by refusing to halt the violent, aggressive attacks they have been engaged in against the Jews of Palestine since the 1880's. That antisemitic violence precedes the founding of Israel by almost 70 years. It's a typical practice among antisemitic pundits to employ deceptive anachronism to make their irrational case sound very reasonable, since many readers are unaware of the real timelines and history. Chernus has been playing on this anti-reality team for a long while, joining such delightful anti-rationalists as Juan Cole, who among many other such deceptions, did the same sort of thing by attributing the 9/11 attacks to Sharon's Jenin attack. Only trouble was, Sharon had not yet been elected when 9/11 was planned, and the Jenin conflict erupted yet later still.

Chernus is deeply invested with a claque of Arab apologists who twist reality to suit their own dishonorable ends. That they get away with it so often is a sad commentary on the level of debate and the tragic inadequacy of our education and our public information systems. In this piece, Chernus talks about the "43 years of Israeli occupaton", completely ignoring the fact that the Palestinians had been occupied since the proposed establishment of that new state in 1948. The vital piece of information, which Chernus would have the gullible ignore, is that Palestine was occupied by Egyptian (again!) and Jordanian invaders upon its establishment by the UN. The neighboring Arab occupation was much harsher than the Israeli. But it was an extension of the ongoing orgy of Islamic antisemitism that had been the original cause for the establishment of Israel. However, acknowledgment of such reality would contradict Chernus's goal of fabricating a narrative which blames Israel for all the evils foisted upon the world and upon themselves by a violent and intolerant Arab-Islamic chauvinism.

Chernus continues his depredations with a deceptive reference to blood-letting and a deliberate misrepresentation of Israel's reaction to aggressive attacks by terrorists as a continuation of the bloody Biblical narrative. Confounding truth with fiction, cause with effect, victim with aggressor is Chernus' stock in trade. That doesn't make his viewpoint correct. But it helps make a lot of people misinformed.

Chernus' worst deception is the Jerusalem illusion, the notion that there is a rationale for Israel to cede their holy city to Arabs who have repeatedly attacked them. There is none! The UN envisioned Jerusalem as an open city. With the Arab attack and conquest of 1948, all synagogues within their grasp were destroyed. Jewish headstones were ripped up and used for building materials. Almost all traces of 3,000 years of Jewish presence were obliterated in a deliberate Arab attempt to alter history. It is only after the Arab's third formal attempt to wipe out the Jews that Israel successfully entered Jerusalem, and for the first time since the original Arab attacks, Jerusalem was finally open to all. Chernus employs his deceptive logorrhea to fervidly further vile Islamic fabrications. The reality is the opposite of what he claims.

The overall truth about this conflict is much simpler than Chernus comprehends: the irredentist Muslim hordes are continuing a tradition begun in the 7'th Century. There is underlying all else an absolute religious intolerance - even one sect of Islam battles with another; an absolute Islam-defined oppression of women - they are chattel; an Islamic-inspired martial intrigue - lie and deceive those whom you would conquer until you are strong enough to attack; and an Islamic enlistment of insiders - recruiting such fifth-columnists as can be conned into assisting in fiendish conquest schemes. While they haven't yet conquered the world, that is their clear and publicly avowed goal. Muslims have already enslaved tens of thousands of Christians and Animists in Africa, killed millions all over the world, are infiltrating and slowly altering the landscape of Eurabia, even altering the awarenesses of the US. Only in Israel is the Muslim agenda and the blatant action Islam secretly adheres to fully observable, yet people like Chernus have managed to completely invert truth and fabrication on behalf of the aggressor Muslims. The Muslims attack Israel - it's got to be Israeli aggression. The Arabs kill Jews for 130 years - it's because Israelis control parts of Palestine for 40 years. The Arabs demand Jerusalem - it's because they are entitled, since they started five wars, conquered and then lost it in their failed aggression... Chernus and his ilk should be medicated or muzzled. His distorted perceptions do not derive from any factual history of the Middle-East conflict.

Excellent and truthful piece! I recommend that those who want a just settlement for the Palestinians join the sanctions and divestment movement. Do not buy goods from the 'West Bank', which are grown on stolen land, or Israel itself, and encourage divestment from Israeli corporations and businesses in the country in which you live.It worked in South Africa.

It's Mr. Britain, "Idyot". And, please, call me "Wolf" everyone, not "S. Wolf" or "S. Wolf Britain" or "Mr. Wolf" or "Wolfe" or whatever.

I'm waiting for someone more knowledgeable on the subject than I to respond to your twisted, hate-filled, racist, truly anti-Semitic, and undoubtedly history-twisting screed. Someone (or more than one), come to the rescue, not of me but of truth, please.

There you go jumping to conclusions. I did NOT say I knew less than you on the subject. I SAID I didn't feel up to responding to it (I'm physically disabled), and that I was waiting for someone MORE knowledgeable on the topic than myself to respond to you. Perhaps what I should have said is that I was waiting for someone more knowledgeable on the subject than you OR me, respectively. Besides, I believe it's a waste of time to try and reason with you, as you are brainwashed with a great deal of false "history", etc., that you will probably never face is fraudulent; and perhaps that's also why others here haven't tried to set you straight either.

Anyway, I've had a long, trying day and I'm exhausted, so I'm going to bed. Goodnight.

"Wolf" is NOT my second last name, it is my middle name and what I go by. My last name is Britain; so please STOP calling me "Mr. Wolf". How many times do I need to spell it out, or are you (most likely) wrongly calling me "Mr. Wolf" intentionally? I'm NOT "Mr. Wolf from Britain" either. My last name has been Brit(t)ain since the day I was born (I legally dropped a 't' in a court of law). And my mother and father were both born in the U.S.A., and so was I.

Well, the sacrificial lamb has risen. Mohammad Farmawi was not 'shot dead by the IDF', but in an Egyptian prison. Seems like the IDF was truthful and the Gazans....liars. After all, his death was confirmed by "medical personnel" and several "eyewitness"!

Did it ever occur to you that Gazans and other "Palestinian" Arabs might by LYING about certain things, including made-up 'ivilian' deaths? The vast majority of those killed in Operation Cast Lead were Hamas members, yet the fact that it was a defensive war that happened only after years of rocket attacks is not mentioned.

You don't like when Jews defend themselves by killing the 'bad guys' with targeted air strikes. You don;t like it when we defend ourselves by finding the 'bad guys' with house-to-house searches. You don't like it when we defend ourselves passively with the anti-terror fence. What type of self-defense against terrorists DO you approve of?

And than you for your excellent analysis, Richard, and the excellent follow-up by anonymous.

I'm really tired of having to say this; but, NO, it is you Israel-firster shills who are the ones who are not interested in true facts.

What happens to a majority of innocent civilians in Palestine, mostly children, at the hands of the Israeli government and military is twisted around by you into the lie, "The vast majority of those killed in Operation Cast Lead were Hamas members...'; and the fact that hardly any Israelis are killed by the rocket attacks, and FAR MORE non-combatant Palestinians are murdered by the IDF ["Israeli (Destructive) Force", aka "Israeli (Aggression) Force", far outside of so-called "defense"], four to five times more, is twisted around to, "...it was a defensive war that happened only after years of rocket attacks...".

I'm so tired of your lying propaganda. You will go to almost any lengths to have the last word and to counter the truth gaining more and more sway over your lies, as it is doing more and more every day.

Certainly Hamas members lie, but so does the "IDF" and Israeli government; again, FAR MORE...

...So, ENOUGH of your neverending litany of evil propaganda, misrepresentations, lies, exaggerations and attempted-brainwashing, etc. Millions of people in the world are exceedingly tired of, and fed up with, your rationalizations and "justifications" for the Israeli government and military's extremely unconscionable, intolerable, inexcusable, indefensible and inhumane terrorism. More and more people are waking up to the truth about Israeli terrorism, and you're not going to be able to stop that awakening no matter what you do.

Sorry, Gene from Berkeley (where else?). Perhaps reading is not your strong suit. I clearly stated: "Palestine was occupied by Egyptian (again!) and Jordanian invaders upon its establishment by the UN...." and "The Muslims attack Israel - it's got to be Israeli aggression. The Arabs kill Jews for 130 years - it's because Israelis control parts of Palestine for 40 years. "

I didn't bother with the British occupation which preceded the Arab one, nor the Turkish (Ottoman) which preceded the British. Nor the predecessors to them. While I didn't choose to belabor the point, the reality is that Palestine has been a lot of things to a lot of people - but trouble to virtually everyone. The Arab custom is one of extreme hospitality to guests, and murder to anyone else they feel like killing. It's a tribal thing, and to understand it, you have to have an open mind and a reasonable amount of history under your belt. That's HISTORY, not indoctrination. They come from a very different culture than the one which produced the closed minds of our Western "Progressives".

It's not that hard to understand that when the Arabs attack their neighboring Jews for over a century that those victim Jews might become wary of trying to make nice. You obviously have never experienced pain, so you couldn't possibly understand.

The accompanying picture was an interesting deviation from the topic - it shows a policeman, shield down, mingling in a crowd next to a kid who is more interested in some other activity than the evil Israeli brutes. This is far more the norm than Chernus and the other deceivers would have you believe. It's only when there is violence that Israelis respond firmly. That fact is disguised and distorted by the anti-Israel crowd, whose stock in trade is inverting truth and masking the defensive nature of Israeli actions.

Man, there's just so much to say to you, Richard, that one hardly knows where to begin. Of course, it's a complete waste of time because you're so "sure" of the propaganda and false, and/or exaggerated, history you've been brainwashed by, probably for a very long time.

First of all, I personally am NOT a "left-winger", or a "right-winger", or a "progressive" like most that go by that so-called moniker. I am a True Conservative and a Constitutionalist, you might say a "Constitutional Republican, though I have NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with the "Republican Party" which is anything but. Both main political parties in the U.S. are neo-liberal, totalitarian socialist (or very soon leading to it; in fact, we're well on the way), and corporate-fascist; and I have no connection with ANY of that WHATSOEVER.

You also might say that I'm a True Liberal as well in that I am first, foremost and always about True Liberty. And lastly, I am also NOTHING BUT a True Progressive; in other words, for nothing but True Progress, NOT what most so-called "progressives" accept as "progress". Nor am I complicit in ANYTHING they are complicit in, if in no other way than by the fact that they keep voting the "Democrat(ic)" version of the neo-libs into office to turn the U.S. into more and more of a corporate-fascist police state, etc.

Secondly, it probably would be "telling" if you weren't such a coward and you gave your real last name (assuming "Richard" is your real first name). You're probably Jewish; you're probably a Zionist [and a believer in the Likud and/or Kadima political party(ies)]; you're racistly anti-Arab and anti-Muslim; and, regardless of whether or not you are any of the foregoing, you have been heavily indoctrinated and conditioned by far "right-wing" extremist Zionism, probably all of your life (thus, you're most likely Jewish)...

...Fifthly, you and your ilk of course also very conveniently leave out that the Israeli government and military are much less hospitable to most non-Jews, are guilty of an extreme amount of "murder to anyone... THEY feel like killing (and the Jewish people have been for thousands of years)", and that it too is "a tribal thing" with an extremely heavy seasoning of having a superiority complex over everyone other than fellow-Jews (even though they are NOT superior TO ANYONE IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, FORM OR FASHION WHATSOEVER). And talk about closed minds! Jews have some of the most indoctrinated and closed minds of any people in history!

But now, having said all of that, I agree with you about so-called "Western 'Progressives'". They too are some of the most close-minded people, and that's one of the main reasons I'm NOT a "dyed-in-the-wool", or mainstream, "progressive".

Yes, Jews "come from a very different culture" alright. They come from a primarily self-superior, racist culture that leaves no room for any true peace with anyone, even those they take advantage of and/or "use" while it suits them, like they are using the West to suit their advantage(s) for the time being and/or right now; until, as the most extremist among them hope, they soon will have no need of the West and would seek to eradicate them as well. Yet, thank God, there are millions of Jews who don't have this closeminded, self-superior, racist, mass-murderous mindset! Though, of course, the extremist Jews make those much more properly enlightened ones', who don't associate themselves with the hateful, extremist mindset, and take umbrage with it, out to be "self-hating" Jews, one of the most preposterous notions in existence, like calling every Gentile who doesn't cow-tow to racist, extremist, mass-murderous Zionism, so-called "anti-Semites"!...

...Most Israeli leaders, past and present, come from a very strong lineage of terrorists and terrorism, who carried out, and still carry out, "black-op" and "false-flag" terrorism against countless peoples, including Palestinians, the Lebanese, Syrians, Iraqis, Afghanis, Pakistanis, Americans, and the list goes on. That is the true history which you will probably never read or listen to. Therefore, the very fact that you have the nerve to bring up the much more limited so-called "'Arab'/Muslim/'Islamo-fascist' terrorists", most of whom have not been complete terrorists at all, but have been freedom and/or resistance fighters against Israeli and other aggression, for a long time now totally illegal aggression under international law, is the ultimate (in) absurdity!

But the so-called "murderousness" of the "Arab"/Muslims, etc., is supposedly just that, "murderousness"; but the Israeli murderousness supposedly isn't! Please give us all a break from all of this absurdity! "Take a break from innocence and see the aggressive [Israeli] pogroms for what they have been, and then recognize that murderous [Israeli] religious intransigence (and misogyny and various other intolerant hatreds) are not going to dissipate just because [any so-called] 'naifs' think they should"!

The facts are "disguised and distorted by the... Israel[-first] crowd, whose stock in trade is inverting truth and masking the defensive nature of ['Arab'/Muslim, etc.] actions[!]... ['Arab'/Muslim, etc.] self-defense is [supposedly] unacceptable, but killing [mostly innocent and/or relatively defenseless 'Arab'/Muslim babies, children, women, and men] - that's an ideology [Israel-firsters] really dig!"

You wouldn't know "unarmed" if you looked in the mirror, Richard, because you can't see the forest for the trees. Hell, you can't even see the "trees" due to the fact that you won't face your complicity in mass murder through your defense of it; and thus that, through your complicity in it, you are a mass murderer yourself because you are part of it.

Like I said earlier, there's no reasoning with psychotics like yourself. You are evil; and, like Dr. M. Scott Peck so aptly said in his great book, People of the Lie, "(T)he evil are the most insane of all". You condone, support, rationalize and defend evil due to your lord and master being Evil himself.

So, talk about who is "unarmed"; for, all you are armed with is evil and the "defenses" for it, and you do nothing but go on and on and on "justifying" pure evil. It is, after all, a pathology that most people in this evil world are part and parcel of because they see that world as "normal" when it is anything but.

It is supposedly "normal" and "acceptable" for Israel and the U.S. to mass murder and mass imprison people without any true recognition of human rights and fairness of law. But it is allegedly "not" normal for the Palestinians, Iraqis, Afghanis and Pakistanis, etc., to defend themselves and their countries from foreign invaders...