Israel, a nation created by the international community in the wake of World War II as a safe refuge and homeland for the Jewish people, is winning the battle but losing the war in Gaza. Ruthless tactics instead of a well thought out strategy will cost the nation dearly.

Most Americans have a soft spot for Israel in view of the Jews' long history of persecution and impressive contributions to the sciences, medicine, the law, music, literature and many other fields. They recall the support of the vast majority of Jews for the civil rights movement.

But they are horrified by the slaughter of children, innocent civilians, paramedics and aid workers, the cruel siege depriving people of life's necessities, and the constant lies used to justify these war crimes. Sooner or later there will be a movement to cut off aid and arms without which Israel, having incensed its neighbors, would quickly perish.

While Americans have no love lost for Hamas, they reject collective punishment. While they support Israel's right of self-defense, they draw the line at aggression.

The Israeli government and its right wing supporters in both the Christian and Jewish communities in the US is dragging both nations down, recruiting 100 terrorist for every one they happen to kill.

And the same logic put forward by Dershowitz, Obama, Livni and Rice justifying slaughter of innocents can be used to justify terrorism against Americans and Israelis.

It's time for international law, moral decency, the stated principles of all major faiths and--yes--long-term self-interest to prevail.

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Israel needs to turn the other cheek and be the change they want to see in the world! Violence will only beget violence. It’s time we moved passed the doctrines of Sun Tzu, Machiavelli, and Clausewitz. The complete inhalation of a threat will only bring about more conflict. If both sides lay down their arms and embrace the teachings of Gandhi and Dr. King, this and every other problem would be solved. Both sides need to realize that deep down we are all the same.

What is Israel? What is Palestine? Nothing!!! They are arbitrary lines drawn in the sand. Imagine if there were no countries! It isn’t hard to do! There is only one race, the human race!

It’s time to live a simpler life of locally grown food and locally produced goods. Somehow this will muster understanding and equality. Corporations might produce products, but what do they do to produce peace?


There are no strangers, only friends you have not meet!
If we all care and share more, just think of what we could do!
Think globally, act locally!
Yes, we can!

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Many of us have been watching in horror for years while collective punishment has been meted out to the Palestinians. Every time we raise our voice we are shouted down as anti-semetic or Jew Hater. I'm sure Naomi will get her share, after writing this the calls of self hating Jew will abound.

We have followed this tragedy and only had our hearts broken time after time as the Main Stream Media reports biased and prejudicial stories about the Palestinians or, nothing at all. Just yesterday our Senate gave full backing for this travesty. If Americans knew the story of Palestine and Gaza they would not be so quick to condemn the Palestinians.

I applaud Naomi Klein for her courage in the face of irrational hatred and systemic injustice both in Israel and here at home.

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If any boycott were to work, you can be sure that the US taxpayer will be forced to make up the difference in increased aid to Israel.

But what the hell...I'll try it anyway as a symbolic gesture...I think the hardest part for me will be giving up gefilte fish.

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that this venue facilitates. I've learned a great deal from the perspectives people express on this site and the tolerance AlterNet affords us.

Something very good can come from this.

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First of all, consider what the US would do if the Mexican government denied the right of the US to exist, and then started lobbing missiles from TiaJuana and Juarez into San Diego and El Paso.
Now look at a bit of history: in 1948 the Arabs turned down the partition of Palestine that was mandated by the UN, and instead invaded Israel. That created the refugee problem.
In `1967 the Arabs tried again (Nasser kicked out the UN border guards and shut the Straits of Hormuz to Israel-bound shipping). That exacerbated the refugee problem.
In 2001 Arafat turned down a two state solution that would have given all of Gaza and 95% of the West Bank to a Palestinian state.
In 2005 Israel evacuated Gaza, leaving millions of dollars of hydroponic farms for the Gazans to continue to work. They destroyed the farms as relics of the Zionists, and started to lob rockets into southern Israel. Hamas refuses to negotiate with israel, and refuses to withdraw its claim that Israel should be destroyed.

The Israelis work very hard to get civilians away from targets. Hospitals and mosques are blown up by the arms stored there exploding as well as by Israeli fire.

How about weeping for the hundreds of thousands of blackAfricans killed by the Arabs in south Sudan and Darfur.

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The horror now raining on Gaza has little to do with Hamas or, absurdly, "Israel's right to exist." The opposite is true: Palestine's right to exist was canceled 61 years ago and the expulsion and, if necessary, extinction of the indigenous people was planned and executed by the founders of Israel. The infamous "Plan D" resulted in the murderous depopulation of 369 Palestinian towns and villages by the Haganah (Jewish army) and that massacre upon massacre of Palestinian civilians in such places as Deir Yassin, al-Dawayima, Eilaboun, Jish, Ramle and Lydda are referred to in official records as "ethnic cleansing." Arriving at a scene of this carnage, David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, was asked by a general, Yigal Allon, "What shall we do with the Arabs?" Ben-Gurion, reported the Israeli historian Benny Morris, "made a dismissive, energetic gesture with his hand and said, ‘Expel them'. The order to expel an entire population "without attention to age" was signed by Yitzhak Rabin, a future prime minister promoted by the world's most efficient propaganda as a peacemaker. The terrible irony of this was addressed only in passing, such as when the Mapan Party co-leader Meir Ya'ari noted "how easily" Israel's leaders spoke of how it was "possible and permissible to take women, children and old men and to fill the roads with them because such is the imperative of strategy … who remembers who used this means against our people during the [Second World] war … we are appalled."

Every subsequent "war" Israel has waged has had the same objective: the expulsion of the native people and the theft of more and more land. The lie of David and Goliath, of perennial victim, reached its apogee in 1967 when the propaganda became a righteous fury that claimed the Arab states had struck first. Since then, mostly Jewish truth-tellers such as Avi Schlaim, Noam Chomsky, the late Tanya Reinhart, Neve Gordon, Tom Segev, Yuri Avnery, Ilan Pappe and Norman Finklestein have dispatched this and other myths and revealed a state shorn of the humane traditions of Judaism, whose unrelenting militarism is the sum of an expansionist, lawless and racist ideology called zionism. "It seems," wrote the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe on 2 January, "that even the most horrendous crimes, such as the genocide in Gaza, are treated as desperate events, unconnected to anything that happened in the past and not associated with any ideology or system … Very much as the apartheid ideology explained the oppressive policies of the South African government, this ideology – in its most consensual and simplistic variety – has allowed all the Israeli governments in the past and the present to dehumanize the Palestinians wherever they are and strive to destroy them. The means altered from period to period, from location to location, as did the narrative covering up these atrocities. But there is a clear pattern of genocide."

Holocaust Denied

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Glenn Greenwald has another great piece in Salon attacking the lockstep support for Israel in Congress in the face of massacres. The problem is that the astute Greenwald still has no explanation of why we are experiencing this meltdown in democracy. If the religious/political issue were abortion or gay rights, there would be no confusion on the left: we would blame a social faction, a religious lobby. But in this case we do not finger that lobby, because Jews tend to be so liberal, and the Israel lobby is our sisters and our cousins and our aunts (as Gilbert and Sullivan observed).

The left would always prefer to blame Bush and Cheney and John Hagee.

I dwell on this issue all the time because you can't fight something without knowing its true identity. Also, because in my own media experience, I constantly ran up against precisely this factor: pro-Israel feelings among powerful editors and publishers, coupled with fear of retaliation by readers, advertisers, the well-connected.

Here on Counterpunch is a fabulous piece (sent to me by Jeff Blankfort) by two writers in Paris, Diane Johnstone and Jean Bricmont, making my point: saying that the left must get past its belief that Israel is blindly supported for imperialist/structural reasons.

Bricmont/Johnstone:

Many people, especially on the left, persist in thinking that Israel is only a pawn in an American capitalist or imperialist strategy to control the Middle East. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Israel is of no use to anybody or anything but its own fantasies of domination. There is no petroleum in Israel, or Lebanon, or Golan, or Gaza. The so-called wars for oil, in 1991 and 2003, were waged by the United States, with no help from Israel, and in 1991 with the explicit demand from the United States that Israel stay out (because Israel’s participation would have undermined Washington’s Arab coalition). For the pro-Western petro-monarchies and the "moderate" Arab regimes, Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestinian lands is a nightmare, which radicalizes much of their populations and threatens their rule. It is Israel, by its absurd policies, that provoked the creation of both Hezbollah and Hamas and that is indirectly responsible for much of the recent growth of "radical Islam".
Moreover, the plain fact is that capitalists as a whole make more money in peace than in war...

However, the main reason for the silence [of Israel's critics] is surely not guilt precisely because it is so artificial, but rather fear. Fear of "what will they think", fear of slander and even of being taken to court for "anti-Semitism". If you are not convinced, take a journalist, a politician or a publisher to some spot where nobody is listening and there is no hidden camera or microphone, and ask whether he or she says in public all he or she thinks of Israel in private. And if not, why? Fear of hurting the interests of capitalism? Fear of weakening American imperialism? Fear of interrupting oil deliveries? Or, on the contrary, fear of Zionist organizations and their relentless campaigns?

Philip Weiss' Blog (The best on the net, hands down)

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...for US citizens to engage in a boycott of Israel.

Here is info from the US Dept of Commerce website:

"Who Is Covered by the Laws?
The antiboycott provisions of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) apply to the activities of U.S. persons in the interstate or foreign commerce of the United States. The term "U.S. person" includes all individuals, corporations and unincorporated associations resident in the United States, including the permanent domestic affiliates of foreign concerns. U.S. persons also include U.S. citizens abroad (except when they reside abroad and are employed by non-U.S. persons) and the controlled in fact affiliates of domestic concerns. The test for "controlled in fact" is the ability to establish the general policies or to control the day to day operations of the foreign affiliate.

The scope of the EAR, as defined by Section 8 of the EAA, is limited to actions taken with intent to comply with, further, or support an unsanctioned foreign boycott.

What do the Laws prohibit?
Conduct that may be penalized under the TRA and/or prohibited under the EAR includes:

Agreements to refuse or actual refusal to do business with or in Israel or with blacklisted companies.

Agreements to furnish or actual furnishing of information about business relationships with or in Israel or with blacklisted companies.

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One of the seminal events in the formation of Israel was the boycott of Germany when Adolf Hitler came to power, causing the Transfer Agreement to be negotiated by the Zionists. This paved the way for 60,000+ Jewish settlers (those with enough money)to be transported to Palestine to buy/take control of the land there---while millions of their poorer brethren paerished. It seems Israel, at least the Zionists, are what they despised in Germany.

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satan is AIPAC all dressed up as a political action commitee.

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"It is the sane ones, the well-adapted ones, who can without qualms and without nausea aim the missiles and press the buttons that will initiate the great festival of destruction that they, the sane ones, have prepared. What makes us so sure, after all, that the danger comes from a psychotic getting into a position to fire the first shot in a nuclear war? Psychotics will be suspect. The sane ones will keep them far from the button. No one suspects the sane, and the sane ones will have perfectly good reasons, logical, well-adjusted reasons, for firing the shot. They will be obeying sane orders that have come sanely down the chain of command. And because of their sanity, they will have no qualms at all. When the missiles take off, then, it will be no mistake."

Thomas Merton, RAIDS ON THE UNSPEAKABLE

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... it's Lucifer. There's no need to change someone's name just because you don't like their policies. Jeeze.

Now, will you please stop blaming invisible men for the atrocities of humankind? If a person cannot control themselves enough to not be a danger to other people, it is not the fault of some mysterious spiritual forces. This kind of reasoning you present is like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Stop your excuses. Humans are at fault and will have to account for their wrongdoings. No blaming negative impulses on mystical mumbo-jumbo. That doesn't fly in civilized society anymore.

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Satan (the Adversary) works directly for your god. Can't have one without the other.

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But these people DO provide some comic relief from time to time.

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Satan?
Have you even tried living in this century? It has some potential. Why not ditch the voodoo and join us?

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The evil going on in Palestine/Israel and the tragedy that has gone is due the delusional concept that some divine being likes some people more than others, blesses some more than others and has some chosen group based upon race/ethnicity/behavior/psychological delusion.

Zionism, in it's living & breathing form, is a poisonous and racist toxin that will never bring peace, justice or stability. Israel will eventually have to face up to the fact that the modern state is living on stolen land in an economic and political system dependent upon the suppression and enslavement of people who's only major difference is that they subscribe to a different fairy tale from the same library of tales.

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Oh yeah? Well it seems that Satan is now murdering More innocent Gazans than Jews. What's wrong, can't make the difference?

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HOLOCAUST IN GAZA



Rohini Hensman



In February 2008, Israel’s Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai warned that if Hamas continued firing rockets, they would bring upon themselves a ‘bigger shoah,’ the word used by Israelis to refer to the Nazi genocide or holocaust. This statement came in the wake of attacks on Gaza which left 32 Palestinians dead, including eight children, the youngest a six-month-old baby. These regular attacks, combined with a blockade which deprived Palestinians in Gaza of food, fuel, potable water, medicines and educational materials, was the slow-motion shoah which had been taking place up to December 27. The full-scale bombing which began on that date is surely the ‘bigger shoah’ promised by Vilnai, and, according to Israeli reports, it was being planned as long back as February (1).



There were demonstrations against the Israeli bombing by outraged protestors throughout the world as the Palestinian death toll climbed to more than 300 in three days, but Palestinians in Gaza felt that the international community were acting as mere spectators to the massacre. They were right. Protest demonstrations are not enough to stop a holocaust. Even less effective are sanctimonious statements by the UN and EU equating one Israeli life to more than a hundred Palestinian lives, which make the outright support for the massacre by George W. Bush almost attractive in its honesty. So what can we do?



Debunking Myths



The first necessity is to debunk myths that have successfully been used to vitiate all previous actions against Israel. Firstly, the myth that the founding of the Zionist state has anything to do with the Nazi genocide. In fact, the project was conceived decades before the Nazi holocaust, and was a straightforward colonial agenda in which European settlers would evict indigenous Third World people from their land and take it over. Gandhi saw this very clearly, which is why he refused to give the Zionists his support when they approached him, despite his sympathy for persecuted Jews (2).



The second myth is that criticism of or opposition to the Zionist state of Israel constitutes anti-Semitism, and is an attack on all Jews. This is not true; indeed, Jews are among the most trenchant critics not only of Israeli atrocities, but also of the whole idea of a Zionist state. The notion that Judaism and Zionism are one and the same is shared by anti-Semites and Zionists; the former assume that all Jews are responsible for the crimes of the Zionists, while the latter assume that all condemnation of Zionist crimes constitutes an attack on Jews. These assumptions, equally reprehensible, are simply two sides of the same coin.

The third myth is that there was ever a possibility of a two-state solution. There were two models of settler-colonialism debated by the Zionists. One model, supported by very few, was the South African one, where the indigenous Palestinians, though evicted from their land and herded into Bantustans, would be allowed to remain in the country. The majority view was that the indigenous population should be eliminated, like the indigenous peoples of North America and Australia. To this end, massacres were carried out to terrorise the population into leaving, a process then known as ‘transfer of population’ and now as ‘ethnic cleansing’, and ever since the Nuremburg trials considered to be a crime against humanity (3). Both sides saw Israel as swallowing up the whole of Palestine, and one look at a map of Palestine/Israel today shows that this has now been achieved, with the Apartheid wall carving up the West Bank into ghettos...

Go to 911insidejob.net for entire story

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And Move South.

The British have a hell of a lot to answer for with regards to the most appalling situation of Apartheid.

20 Years ago there were Major Concerts held at Wembley Stadium...

Where The Song and The Message Were

"Free Nelson Mandela"

And end Apartheid in South Africa

British Soldiers Never wanted to be in Iraq.

They don't want to be in Palestine either.

The current occupiers have absolutely no moral or historical right to occupy Palestine. Their origins are Eastern European. They are Khazars who adopted the Jewish religion around 700AD. They are a war like people who have eventually been kicked out of every territory they have occupied over recorded history.

As their homeland - Northern Caucasus along the Caspian Sea - is currently underpopulated - they should return home and help rebuild their own economy.

They seem completely incapable of getting along with the real Semites of southwestern Asia and stick out like a sore thumb as if they were Eskimos who had been relocated to Central Africa.

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the best way to do it is to overturn the ban on Cannabis so that America can grow its own oil and quit paying those dictators in the neighboring Arab states currently conspiring with Israel against the Palestinians and even their own people.

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The people in Gaza are going to have to run fast to stay ahead of Israeli tanks and bombs. They are like fish being shot in a barrel. The boycotts of South Africa took a long time. There may be no one left standing in the Palestinian area by the time Obama takes office.

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That's a great idea!

Let's boycott ALL countries that cross borders to bomb innocent people -- beginning with the U.S. which has been bombing innocent Iraqis since 2003, innocent Afghanistanis since 2001, innocent Pakistanis since last year -- and oh yeh, and let's boycott Hammas Palestinians who for over 10 years has been bombing innocent Jews (and also Arabs) in Israel.

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Washington is responsible for this barbaric war, because it relies on Israel to implement its policies in the Middle East. Without US military funding, Israel would have no war machine.

The US vetoed the first UN resolution that Israel stop bombing Gaza, giving Israel the green light to continue the war.

By abstaining on the second resolution, the US gave Israel the yellow light to continue, but hurry up and finish the job.

We can stop this war, and the equally barbaric wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, by demonstrating in our millions.

Money for healthcare, not for warfare!
No more funding for the US/Israeli war machines!

Susan Rosenthal

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Yes, I am surprised that some reactionary hasn't declared this article to be "Anti-Semitic" yet.

Could that be a sign that people are doing a bit more critical thinking?

I'm glad to see that there is a peace movement inside Israel. From both inside and outside Israel, we can work to change things. And they can change. They don't have to be like in the book of Revelations.

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In song: "LULLABY FOR A CHILD IN WAR"

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6086636

(free download)

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Proposing to boycott the victim, Israel, is just plain wrong and evil and clearly shows a lack of appreciation of what this struggle is all about, one must understand Hamas' goals, largely derived from its ideological paternity to the Egyptian Muslim Brothehood. As a Sunni extremist offshoot of the Brotherhood, Hamas' raison d'etre is Israel's destruction -- nothing less will do. Despite my instinctive belief that one should try to negotiate a way out of this dilemma no matter the odds, I have concluded that the only way out of this mess is to separate Hamas' entire military and political leadership from the oppressed citizenry of Gaza (and yes, it is absolutely a mischaracterization of fact to assert that Hamas is the legitimate ruler of Gaza). Easier said than done you say. But as long as Hamas rules Gaza, no amount of cajoling is going to end the vicious cycle of terror that Hamas is inflicting first and foremost on its own beaten-down Palestinian victims as well as on Israel.

Hamas Is Responsible for the Civilian Casualties in Gaza, NOT Israel. It has been firing rockets at Israel for years and Israel has exercised extreme restraint for too long. It is just plain stupid and wrong for anyone to feel that Israel should not react to such extreme provocation.

To learn more, check out the following:

[1] http://religioustruths.proboards59.com/ An Educational Referral Forum

[2] http://www.network54.com/Forum/403209 A Forum Devoted to Exposing The False Religion of Islam

Iris89

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Boycott Israel? How?
What do they export? I'd know how to boycott Germany, most tools sold under the name of Craftman and Milwaukee are made by a German company named Bosch. It's also very easy to boycott the French. But how do you boycott Israel? What do you buy every week that's made in Israel?
Just curious

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Israel needs to be held more than accountable for what she is doing to the Palestinian People. I regret having to say it -- but you know I'm going to -- but the State of Israel is acting just like the Nazis did to them. They've put a Walled Camp (Ghetto) around their enemies; they've made it hard for food, water, jobs and medicine to come in and out; and now they're bombing the living crap out of them!

Anyone else see a parallel?? All the Palestinians need now are yellow cresents tacked onto their coats. It's a sad sad thing that a country that was formed for a Nation of People looking for Refuge would turn into the very thing that they fled from.

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instead of boycotting israel...how about relocating it...say, to nevada or utah or california? i'm 3rd generation american jew but non religious. i have been to israel. it's beautiful. the history is amazing. but for world peace, the jews are outnumbered and need to get the helloutta dodge. there will never be lasting peace in the middle east or on planet earth as long as israel exists in the location it does. if the jews want a state, give them one. someplace else. somewhere in the USA or in a land surrounded by millions of buddhists.
there is a big difference between being anti-semetic (hating a people) and disagreeing with israel (hating a government).
let's keep that difference clearly defined. if the jews of israel (as opposed to the jews of the USA) want their own state, let them have it. SOMEPLACE ELSE away from neighborhood hostility. israel is not safe for the middle east and the middle east is not safe for israel.

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For a boycott to work, we need to boycott any business that uses or stocks anything made in Israel.
Things have gone far too far to try and separate the 'good' Jews from Zionists.
Here in Sydney, Australia in a poll asking if the Israeli invasion was justified, in the area that I live just over 90 percent said yes.
There are many Jewish people here --- my response is to as far as is possible to confine my business dealings to Asian-owned businesses.

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American brands w/facilities in Israel. Even IBM got bribed into setting up a site there.

Dont take a Carnival/Princes/Cunard cruise, take Norwegian or any other.

Don't even think about the Plaza Hotel/Neiman Marcus/BergdorfGoodman/Harry Winston.......

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Incredible as it may seem, boycotting Israel is illegal in the U.S.

See for yourself: Bureau of Industry and Security

Dave
http://daveeriqat.wordpress.com/

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guess you didn't get your first post right (above) so you posted another. playing the poor victim has worn thin over the years. people aren't buying it anymore and it won't cover for the reprehensible actions Israel is doing to Gaza.

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You hate filled racist tool. You are the only satanic one here.

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Your efforts to admonish the ignorant heathen on Alternet are admirable. Now go forth unto the wilderness, preferably somewhere in Upper Volta, and rail against the evil minions of Satan there. Do not return to civilization until you have vanquished the Dark Forces! I shall reward you with Eternal Life (and perhaps digital cable as well).

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but I don't think the zionist could be considered INNOCENT. In my life experence I have found the most racist attitudes among them.when a religion starts killing children to ^protect themselves^my mind screams.

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This isn't terribly useful without a list of companies. Cruise lines and high-end fashion are irrelevant to most of us. I'm afraid the main money that flows from me to Israel is via the taxes I pay--if only there were a way to boycott that. Not only to eliminate the chunk Israel gets, but the rest going to our own ugly wars.
As for the apparent fact that boycotting Israel is illegal, I snort. What are they gonna do, arrest us for the purchases we haven't made? It goes to show how throroughly colonized "our" government is by the recent state of Israel, though.
And as for those people carrying on about how Israel is the victim here, it scarcely merits the trouble to reply--hundreds of inert "rockets" have hit Israel, and they've even killed five people over several years--compare this to the hundreds of Palestinians killed in just this latest assault, as well as the whole 1.2 million brought to the edge of starvation by the enclosure of Gaza. This is like whining that Americans are victims because a few Indians managed to shoot settlers or soldiers before we completed the destruction of the original peoples of this land.
Not that the rockets are legitimate--more to the point, they are so remarkably stupid that one has to wonder if Mossad is not supplying them.

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How big of you to chastise Israel all while confessing your “soft spot” and praising the contributions of Jews to American society and to reduce the other side of the coin to Hamas, who although terrorists”, in this case are undeserving of collective slaughter. Your absurd way of pointing out Israel’s atrocities, genocide and war crimes is a great part of the problem that Palestinians and Muslims all over the world face daily. You are an American bastard, straining not to offend your Israeli masters, chastising their egregious crimes against humanity with kid gloves and with assurances that you will still regard any entity who opposes Israel’s imperialist criminal actions as terrorists, whom you have “no love lost for”. You Americans and your incessant meddling from the safety and comfort of your distance are the parasitic root of every misery on this earth. Enough with your opinions! You see fit to dance around the issue of genocide, blubbering about Jewish contributions to music and art in the same single moment hundreds of Palestinians are brutally slaughtered? Who do you animals think you are?

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Ralph Nader - Letter to Bush on Gaza Crisis

Dear George W. Bush—

Cong. Barney Frank said recently that Barack Obama's declaration that "there is only one president at a time" over-estimated the number. He was referring to the economic crisis. But where are you on the Gaza crisis where the civilian population of Gaza, its civil servants and public facilities are being massacred and destroyed respectively by U.S built F-16s and U.S. built helicopter gunships.

The deliberate suspension of your power to stop this terrorizing of 1.5 million people, mostly refugees, blockaded for months by air, sea and land in their tiny slice of land, is in cowardly contrast to the position taken by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956. That year he single handedly stopped the British, French and Israeli aircraft attack against Egypt during the Suez Canal dispute.

Fatalities in Gaza are already over 400 and injuries close to 2000 so far as is known. Total Palestinian civilian casualties are 400 times greater then the casualties incurred by Israelis. But why should anyone be surprised at your blanket support for Israel's attack given what you have done to a far greater number of civilians in Iraq and now in Afghanistan?

Confirmed visual reports show that Israeli warplanes and warships have destroyed or severely damaged police stations, homes, hospitals, pharmacies, mosques, fishing boats, and a range of public facilities providing electricity and other necessities.

Why should this trouble you at all? It violates international law, including the Geneva Conventions and the UN Charter. You too have repeatedly violated international law and committed serious constitutional transgressions.

Then there is the matter of the Israeli government blocking imports of critical medicines, equipment such as dialysis machines, fuel, food, water, spare parts and electricity at varying intensities for almost two years. The depleted UN aid mission there has called this illegal blockade a humanitarian crisis especially devastating to children, the aged and the infirm. Chronic malnutrition among children is rising rapidly. UN rations support eighty percent of this impoverished population.

How do these incontrovertible facts affect you? Do you have any empathy or what you have called Christian charity?

What would a vastly shrunken Texas turned in an encircled Gulag do up against the 4th most powerful military in the world? Would these embattled Texans be spending their time chopping wood?

Gideon Levy, the veteran Israeli columnist for Ha'aretz, called the Israeli attack a "brutal and violent operation" far beyond what was needed for protecting the people in its south. He added: "The diplomatic efforts were just in the beginning, and I believe we could have got to a new truce without this bloodshed…..to send dozens of jets to bomb a total helpless civilian society with hundreds of bombs-just today, they were burying five sisters. I mean, this is unheard of. This cannot go on like this. And this has nothing to do with self-defense or with retaliation even. It went out of proportion, exactly like two-and-a-half years ago in Lebanon."

Apparently, thousands of Israelis, including some army reservists, who have demonstrated against this destruction of Gaza agree with Mr. Levy. However, their courageous stands have not reached the mass media in the U.S. whose own reporters cannot even get into Gaza due to Israeli prohibitions on the international press.

Continued in next Post...

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Your spokespeople are making much ado about the breaking of the six month truce. Who is the occupier? Who is the most powerful military force? Who controls and blocks the necessities of life? Who has sent raiding missions across the border most often? Who has sent artillery shells and missiles at close range into populated areas? Who has refu sed the repeated comprehensive peace offerings of the Arab countries issued in 2002 if Israel would agree to return to the 1967 borders and agree to the creation of a small independent Palestinian state possessing just twenty two percent of the original Palestine?

The "wildly inaccurate rockets", as reporters describe them, coming from Hamas and other groups cannot compare with the modern precision armaments and human damage generated from the Israeli side.

There are no rockets coming from the West Bank into Israel. Yet the Israeli government is still sending raiders into that essentially occupied territory, still further entrenching its colonial outposts, still taking water and land and increasing the checkpoints This is going on despite a most amenable West Bank leader, Mahmoud Abbas, whom you have met with at the White House and praised repeatedly. Is it all vague words and no real initiatives with you and your emissary Condoleezza Rice?

Peace was possible, but you provided no leadership, preferring instead to comply with all wishes and demands by the Israeli government-even resupplying it with the still active cluster bombs in south Lebanon during the invasion of that country in 2006.

The arguments about who started the latest hostilities go on and on with Israel always blaming the Palestinians to justify all kinds of violence and harsh treatment against innocent civilians.

From the Palestinian standpoint, you would do well to remember the origins of this conflict which was the dispossession of their lands. To afford you some empathy, recall the oft-quoted comment by the founder of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, who told the Zionist leader, Nahum Goldmann:

"There has been anti-Semitism the Nazis Hitler Auschwitz but was that their [the Palestinians] fault? They only see one thing: We have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that?"

Alfred North Whitehead once said: "Duty arises out of the power to alter the course of events." By that standard, you have shirked mightily your duty over the past eight years to bring peace to both Palestinians and Israelis and more security to a good part of the world.

The least you can do in your remaining days at the White House is adopt a modest profile in courage, and vigorously demand and secure a ceasefire and a solidly based truce. Then your successor, President-elect Obama can inherit something more than the usual self-censoring Washington puppet show that eschews a proper focus on the national interests of the United States.

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It never fails...the minute Israel defends itself, the anti-Semites burst out of the closet. The root of the problem is Hamas, who has vowed to destroy Israel and keeps taking "pot shots" at Israel to deliberately goad them. Hamas are self-proclaimed terrorists--plain & simple--fanatical, single-minded terrorists, and proud of it, who if given the chance, would not hesitate to kill us all in a heartbeat. It's time to quit pussyfooting around and squabbling about who's doing what to whom, and do what needs to be done--get rid of Hamas--we all make choices in life, and they have chosen to destroy all on earth who do not agree with them, like them, or fanatically believe exactly as they do, rather than learning to live in harmony, but they cannot keep taunting Israel and then whining when they suffer the consequences.

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Between '72 and 83 most of the developed world (except the US and Germany,) was at least going through the motions of boycotting Israel.

I lived there while it was going on. It was annoying and expensive. However, it wasn't doing much about the "intransigence" for which we supposedly being punished.

First ... don't get me wrong: boycotts are FUN -- for the boycotters at least. I boycotted Grapes and DOW products during the 60s and 70s and BOY didn't the self-denial make me feel, among other things SIGNIFICANT ... POWERFUL ... VIRTUOUS. (Oh, before that, in memory of an Uncle killed with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain ... I was not buying Spanish Olives ... being unaware at the time that the ones I wasn't buying were grown in California).

Now, the effect of the the world boycott of Israel was not "nothing". It created enormous problems in the banking and finance industries, and probably contributed to the 100% per annum inflation that was the fundamental fact of Israeli life at the time. And it made ownership of Japanese motorcycles and automobiles almost impossible. Imported luxury goods were extremely expensive. But it was was hard to sort out how much of that was due to the circuitous trade routes that brought, Honda products for example, into the country and how much was due to the weak Lira and the high protective tariffs Israel itself imposed on just about everything.

The important thing to know is that "everyone" was very aware of being BOYCOTTED -- but no one much minded. Most discussions of the hardships the boycott might have been causing eventually got around to a discussion of the various hardships and indignities people had dealt with BEFORE the declaration of the State, or before Coming to Israel. So Englanders nattered on about The Blitz ... Argentines bemoaned the THOUSAND percent inflatzia THEY had endured ... the Russians, of course had walked barefoot through Turkey to escape the Soviet tyranny and bread shortages -- and then someone with a tatoo on his arm would display it, and the conversation would shift to Sport or Sex.

Here's the thing: Isreali's LIKE "getting rich" -- most native-borns never will. Those who have, WANT a self-sustaining free-market Center-Right commonwealth, and hold the balance of political power, for the foreseeable future. But whatever else they might happen to want ... they want a Jewish State, MUCH MUCH MORE.

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You can't boycott for the sake of boycott. What exactly do you want this boycott to compel israel to do? No boycott is going to compel israel to tolerate rocket barrages.

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Call me cynical, but can I start a religion and write a book that says that a god granted my people a stretch of land, and that we have a holy rite to it?

To answer my own question, no, I can't, and people would call me a friggin lunatic for trying. But because their religion was established thousands of years ago apparently the Jews can.

Seems fair.

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the israel lobby is too strong i believe for a boycott too work, it is too entrenched. i also believe that this is a resource grab, like most disputes are. it appears to me that israel is after natural gas, and water, that would seem to explain their preoccupation with tormenting lebanon, and gaza, and threatening syria. iran causes them a problem because israel wants no rival in that region. in a similar fashion as the pnac. sadly unless one side gets completely wiped out, this will go on for a long time as the fertility rate among palestinian women is three times that of israeli women. the only way i see to end this is to arm both sides equally to the teeth. if israel doesn't face countervailing force, they will never stop!

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Its ok for the USA to defend itself from thousands of miles away.{this post is not about being for or against the war-its to late for that}, but, its not ok for Israel to defend their country from just a few miles away.Dont you see something very wrong with that logic?.For all you Israel haters keep blaming the victim. Im sure you would love to have rockets falling all around your house. What a bunch of phony jerks.

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The place to start in boycotting Israel is with your own congress critter. The house voted 408 to 10 to block the UN measure to stop the war in Lebanon. Now most of them support blocking UN action on the war on Gaza. It's AIPAC and their pressuring of congress and their smearing of anyone that speaks out against Israeli violence that are the problem here. Look how they're hacked up President Carter, the only president that achieved something on Israel's behalf. Don't let the anti-gentile crowd intimidate you. Kick the crap back in their face.

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Some UK academics tried to get their union to endorse a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, and loud, persistent and outraged were other academics who opposed the idea. Dialogue was important they said, suppressing dialogue was counterproductive they said, academic independence was vital they said. Unsurprisingly, the anti boycot faction won the argument.

I remember this well because the Comment and Letter pages of The Guardian were full of this righteous academic anger, often from well respected voices. So you can imagine my surprise when not one of these voices has expressed any concern at Palestinian universities being bombed. Apparently, academic freedom and dialogue is only important for some.

So although I largely agree with Naomi Klein's piece, I don't think her ideas have a chance of surviving establishment ire. The same establishment that backed and argued for the economic stranglehole on Gaza will make it very clear that some things are just unthinkable and uncivilised.

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My expectations of one-sided outrage are never disappointed by the AlterNet community when it comes to this issue, and that's truly a disappointment. Many, not all, progressives see support for Israel as being a neocon issue and so reflexively denounce the impulse along with Israel. But where is the outrage regarding Hamas? Hamas is responsible in large part for how this war is being conducted. They are the ones using schools, hospitals, and mosques as refuges for their fighters and equipment. They are the ones hiding among civilian populations and daring Israel to do something about it. Where is the outrage over those tactics? Have Western progressives become so infatuated with poor, benighted Hamas that they are willing to excuse any atrocious thing they do in the name of resisting Israeli actions?

I'm not saying Israel is doing the right thing in this situation, but let's not lose all moral grounding by excusing Hamas. There are at least two (and actually more) bad actors involved here. Why all the condemnation of Israel while none is leveled at Hamas?

Naomi Klein likes the role of instigator, and she often enjoys the opportunity to stick her finger in the eye of people making decisions. But where are her solutions? What real-world recommendations has she made to answer the very real problems that have lead to this point? "Power to the People" is a nice slogan, but it's not an answer. It's not a solution. It's a sentiment, and this is not the time for sentimentality. Honestly, in this world, it never is.

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Ok, here's the political reality that I wish people would get around to:

Whereas we don't like civilian casualties, and clearly Israel is guilty of atrocities, the reason the US and the Arab nations aren't stepping in is because they agree, behind the scenes, that Hamas is a destabilizing agent for the entire region.

Hamas is most recently closely aligned with Iran, which implicitly means Iran, via Gaza, now shares a border with Egypt, something very unnerving to the Egyptians.

Internally the Egyptians have a grassroots opposition party of fundamentalists called the "Muslim Brotherhood" which are aligned with Hamas; again, not good for Egypt.

The same holds true for the other Arab states.

We may not like it, and there may be populist demonstrations in the streets, but the heads of state will be looking the other way for the greater good.

I highly suggest staying away from the mainstream and get strategic intel like the pros at Stratfor.com

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As always Naomi lives up to her name. But as the Tikkun community has been saying forever while NO ONE listens, the fundamental difference between South Africa and Israel is that S.A. did not have a dominant population traumatized by more than 2000 of pathological cultural PTSD.

I for one am so sick of even trying to talk sense into my people I stopped going to temple and have basically abandoned my community as a result of my exhaustion trying to overcome American Jews' pathological PTSD. That difference may appear small when you line up on paper all the criteria for how the boycott against S.A. worked and all the things Israel is doing now... but that small difference is EVERYTHING. You'll get more blood from a stone than trying to talk sense to American Jews (let alone mainstream Israelis, many of whom are far worse in terms of the daily presence of the PTSD and paranoia and victim mentality they live and work under). Boycotts only feed the neurosis and PTSD.

I understand the urge for it and I totally get the way things look. But seven years post-Sept 11, 2001, I have yet to crack any fellow Jew on the subject and the mere mention of boycotting Israel makes the sickness explode and completely dominate the person. I no longer donate any funding to my own people and I have withdrawn from working within my own community. I suppose that's a boycott in a way... and look where it's gotten me. I get beat on by Jews for "betraying" them and beat on by goyim for being a Jew. What a fucked up mess.

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...who actually cares about the people, the media, and like the majority of Israelis and jews, opposes this violent tribal-think bombing.

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Now that the nations are discussing terms of a cease fire Alternet prints N Klein's article.

Why?

Alternet did not print one article that could even remotely open a discussion of how a sustainable Palestinian-Isreali cease fire can be brokered?

As a matter of fact, the only article I remember that discussed pathways to peace was D. Chopra's article of how to revamp the business of manufacturing war weapons while still mantaining the economic advantages.

Where are your articles that deliniate possibilities of forging a middle east sustainable cease fire and a commonality of mutual interests?

How about presenting articles that try to hammer out the terms that would make peace possible instead of pouring oil on the flames.

What does Alternet have to gain from inciting hate instead of opening a discussion of finding the paths to peace?

Oh and by the way, if Niomi is interested. she can research the recent articles against Jews in general, Israel in particular and the comments. TAke careful notice of who is writing and how they feel and what their goal is.......not just towards Isreal, or Jews but towards Americans....not just some Americans.....ALL AMERICANS.

HATE DOES NOT MOTIVATE PEACE

After a whole lifetime, I can still not get my head around the misunderstanding of educated, seemingly intelligent people who claim they stand for the desire to eradicate "man's inhumanity to man" and yet instead of proposing and working towards a vision of brotherhood...and trying to trash out solutions, simply write articles that fan the fires of hate.

PEACE DOES NOT STEM FROM INCITING HATE...war does.

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Elaine C. Hagopian is Professor Emerita of Sociology, Simmons College, Boston, writes:

History matters. Israel conquered and occupied Gaza (along with the West Bank and East Jerusalem) in 1967. Hamas was an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brothers. In Gaza, it provided a network of social welfare institutions supporting the poor. During the first Palestinian Intifada (literally “shaking off” the occupation), a Hamas resistance military wing was formed. Israel and the US favored and met with Islamic Hamas leadership as a counterforce to the secular Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Fatah faction then dominant in the Intifada. As Hamas later strengthened, Israel reversed the process.

History matters. Palestinians have consistently resisted Israeli dominance over their lives. Gazan resistance has been especially problematic for Israel. In the 1970s, before Hamas, Ariel Sharon was charged with “pacifying” Gaza. Sharon imposed a brutal policy of repression, blowing up houses, bulldozing large tracts of refugee camps, imposing severe collective punishment and imprisoning hundreds of young Palestinians.

History matters. In 2005, Israel withdrew its illegal colonial settlers from Gaza. Israeli scholars Uri Davis, Ilan Pappe and Tamar Yaron noted in a Counterpunch article at the time that the primary motive of the evacuation of the settlers was to remove them from harm’s way in anticipation of an intensified future mass attack on Gaza.

History matters. After Hamas won elections in 2006, its leadership accepted a two-state solution based on the pre-war June 4, 1967 borders, but this was unacceptable to Israel. Earlier, Israel destroyed secular Fatah leader and Palestinian Authority President Arafat for failing at Camp David in July 2000 to comply with its demands to accept permanent Israeli control over Palestinian life and land confined in enclaves. Hamas became the new challenge to Israel’s vision.

The facts of history affirm that Israel will not accept a sovereign Palestinian state on any part of historic Palestine. Hamas is not the issue. All Palestinian leaders sooner or later, secular or Islamic, are declared unacceptable partners for peace no matter how much they concede to Israel. That Israel hides behind the “Hamas Islamic threat” today to destroy it as a potential partner is becoming transparent.

Today, Palestinian Authority President Abbas’s Fatah “security force” is used against Hamas supporters on the pretense that Abbas could be accepted by Israel as a satisfactory “partner” but for Hamas. Both before and after Hamas won the 2006 elections, Abbas fared no better than Arafat though he conceded more. In fact Jonathan Cook’s new book, Disappearing Palestine,” describes the persistent Israeli strategy to achieve the diminution of Palestine. Nonetheless Abbas continues to comply with Israeli/US demands, faulted by his people and humiliated by his keepers.

The picture changes when history matters. Treating Israeli war crimes as historically detached events, unrelated to its Zionist ideology and militaristic strategy to control all of Palestine, becomes more transparent each day.

Israel has a choice: by accepting Palestinian rights under international law now and jettisoning its exclusivist ideology and militarism, Israel secures the future of its people in a shared Israel/Palestine; or by continuing its present policy of ruthless repression of indigenous Palestinians and denying them self determination, it cultivates an intensified and unyielding native resistance. Israel has always chosen the latter. Will President-Elect Obama have the courage to help Israel embrace the first?"

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I don't recommend boycotting Israel unless you want to boycott great advances in communication, energy, and medical technology that we all depend on. Otherwise, enjoy Polio! And throw away your cell phone.. Also forget about solar power
Steve Selverston

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Anytime someone raises a voice for the Palestinians - they are accused of being anti-semitic! All of the Israel firsters beat the drums of "Israel has the right to defend itself"! Yet they make no mention of the fact that (1)Israel is terrorizing old people, women and children, (2)that deliveries of food, medicine and fuel depend on the "largesse" of the Israeli's in order to get thru the gates, (3)Israel is steadily encroaching and occupying more and more Palestinian land! What they are doing is trying to exterminate the Palestinian people, and to accomplish this they guilt the world because the world stood by while the Ashkashnazim were being exterminated by the Nazi's! Their appetite for revenge will never be sated!

It is time that all aid be cut off to Israel, and any American company that does business must call for divestment. This would ensure that the Israeli's come to the negotiating table, and begin honest discussions! Until they start to feel the pressure they will not let up on their holocaust of the Palestinian people!

Maybe people should remember how they felt on September 11, 2001 - when the attacks on this country were perpetrated - people wanted to know why, but they also wanted to fight back. If that day there had been 20 planes, with more on the way - I wonder how long it would be before individuals started retaliating against the hard-working Muslims in this country! Or if Canada had invaded this country, how many Americans would say that's okay - we deserve to be invaded! Yeah, I didn't think so.

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is expecting Gazans to just put this behind them and make nice with Israel in this lifetime.

Would you be so kind as to explain to me how, as a parent, they're supposed to remotely trust or respect the neighbour that did this? The American Senate has just given its unequivocal, "no matter what" support to this! Tell me, if it were you, after you've picked up your child's severed head, just how would you WANT to deal with the country that did this? You'd be rational you say? Like Israel wants Gaza to be? Just forget it and move on, nothin' to see here folks....

Go ahead....take a look...

Don't be scared, if this war is such a righteous thing to do, man-up and have a look.

Did you even notice the smiling, laughing, lookie-lou's on the left, the second picture down? Don't they look like people who even give a damn about the horror in the distance? Or do they look more like folks getting off on it?

Take a long slow look and notice that in each photo, the subject is a PERSON, their blood is RED and someone is crying over them. Just like we would be in the same situation. THEY ARE NOT CATTLE AS IS THE POPULAR ZIONIST VIEW! They are a people in need of help, then and only then should we be considering their political affiliations.

Then find a way to FORCE your fine upstanding Christian Senators one by one, (after viewing the photo's too) to explain WHY they are supporting this. Make them tell the world after EACH photograph, WHY they are supporting this...and ask them what they think Christ might do to the murderers of these children? That would include those who have given their support to this horror. After all, we all know that the majority of the reason American politicians support Israel has to do with religion...isn't it? Or could it be blackmail? Or fear maybe...

I have not cried in anger in my life, today, I cried. Tonight I will pray for "my people Israel" as I should because they are a wonderful people, and to them as well, this is a horror beyond comprehension.

As for the zionists in the land of Israel? Welllllll.....

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My God! Why doesn't everyone shut up with all your taking sides, spitting "facts", and comparing (or not comparing, for Pete's sake Canadians, can you just let an example be an example, it's not personal nor based in anything but hypothesis). Don't you see? These people are not fighting over anything more than FEAR. The facts that would seem to apply according to you and me don't here, because it's the wild west there. No "rules of engagement" exist. Basic human respect doesn't exist. Mistakes have been made all over the place for years and years and years. The rest of us around the world DO NO GOOD TAKING SIDES. Because that's what is proliferating this! We are not the experts. THE ONLY GOOD THING WE CAN DO IS STOP TAKING SIDES. Both of these groups of people are at fault. PERIOD. So just stop this ridiculous posing of ideologies. Ideologies are the enemy in this case. An end to this two bully duking it out BS has got to end. And we won't help it by continuing the team breakdown.

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but what will the World do for snazzy bed-linens, incredibly sexy bathingsuits & fabulous bath salts?

you know, there's a reason that fruit juice vending machines in France have *multiple origin* orange juice selections

its not all about TASTE, the FRENCH are at least willing to support their values in even the smallest purchase...

you can get OJ specifically sourced from a wide variety of orchards in North African, Israeli, S.African... even @ an urban transit stop!


Spread Love, not corporate dependence...

BlueBerry Pick'n
can be found @
ThisCanadian
~~~
"... tolerance of intolerance is cowardice..." ~ Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
"We, two, form a Multitude" ~ Ovid.
"Violence can only be concealed by a Lie, & the Lie can only be maintained by Violence." ... "Any man, who has once proclaimed Violence as his Method, is inevitably forced to take the Lie as his Principle" – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire
~~~
"Silent Freedom is Freedom Silenced"

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Israel starves the Gazans and denies them medicine and their money. Gazans throw bottle rockets over the fence which was built on their land. Israel drops 500,000 pounds of bombs on Gaza.

I want no part of Israel's action.

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Those fools in the Gaza Strip have nothing better to than "eliminate" Israel. they don't have anything even remotely resembling a civilized society, yet they blame Israel for all their problems. They don't have a pot to piss in, yet they profess to know something. What an ignorant bunch of losers! Israel stands head-and-shoulders above the trash that lives in the Gaza Strip.

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Comments such as these

Are Very Important

Don't Underestimate Your Own Personal Ability To Fight The Evil and Evoke Change For The Better

That's What God is all about

Tony

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We'll be discussing the Israeli invasion of Gaza from perspectives on both sides of the divide Monday and Tuesday January 12 and 13 at 5 PM New York time on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com with Israel's Consul General in New York Asaf Shariv and Hussein Ibish, executive director of the Foundation for Arab-American Leadership and senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine.

Please go to www.garybaumgarten.com and click on the Join The Chat Room button to speak with Shariv on Monday and Ibish on Tuesday.

Thanks,

Gary

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.

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Boycott is the only effective leverage we the people have against profligate power at home and abroad.

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Let us see: 4 Israeli killed, 800 Gazzans.
10 Israeli Injured , 2000 Gazans
Israeli Schools hit? Hospitals? Ambulances?

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"Let's Impeach The President"

Let's impeach the President for lying
And misleading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all our money out the door

Who's the man who hired all the criminals
The White House shadows who hide behind closed doors
They bend the facts to fit with their new stories
Of why we have to send our men to war

Let's impeach the President for spying
On citizens inside their own homes
Breaking every law in the country
By tapping our computers and telephones

What if Al Qaeda blew up the levees
Would New Orleans have been safer that way
Sheltered by our government's protection
Or was someone just not home that day?

Flip - Flop
Flip - Flop
Flip - Flop
Flip - Flop

Let's impeach the president for hijacking
Our religion and using it to get elected
Dividing our country into colors
And still leaving black people neglected

Thank god he's cracking down on steroids
Since he sold his old baseball team
There's lots of people looking at big trouble
But of course our president is clean.

Thank God

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When I lost one of My First Hearts of Gold - a Muslim Girl from Manchester - whe lent me all her Neil Young Albums....

She was taken away from me by her Parents to an arranged marriage in Pakistan - a country she had never been to before

I Mourned Her Loss far more than I mourned the Death of My Dad

And So - She Was Gone - My Dad was Gone and I wa so totally in love with Neil Young in 1974 that although I couldn't possibly afford the airfare

I nearly boarded a jet at Manchester Airport to go to New York and just hope that I could get a ticket to see him play live.

Saw him again last year with My Heart of Gold

He Blew Hammersmith Away

It was Like God had turned up

I have Never seen so Much Reverence in an Audience

Total Peace and Quiet during his Acoustic set - such that several thousand people could hear a pin drop in between the songs

And Well

Rockin In The Free World?

London Audiences Are Even LOUDER Than Manchester on the Right Occasion

Tony

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Muse-Sing For Absolution

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Thanks Naomi. Gandhi and his followers led the way - non violent protest will bring peace

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American supports, strongly, the massacre of innocent Palestinians. We do this partly because of what 9/11, the official story, taught us............that Arabs are horrendously evil kinds of people. That is what Bush has taught us based on that story.

But that story is bullshit. We know that. Anyone that has looked into the fairytale of the official story of 9/11 realizes that. And so all of that misery in Israel/Palestine is based on that fateful day.

But that could change, and Alternet could change it all. But Alternet just doesn't feel like doing it. It doesn't tells us why. But all it would have to do is bring us the truth of 9/11. The evidence is copious. Well researched. Easily gotten. But Alternet apparently has made a deal with the devil, secretly, to ignore the 9/11 truth issue. Alternet doesn't tell us why. We just know it HAS made that deal. For money? For security? To avoid attacks by powerful people and organizations (like AIPAC)?
We will not know. Not unless I and you and others all put pressure on Alternet to tell us, or at least begin to tell the real story of 9/11.
Journalists, real, honest, brave, self respecting journalists, do that. They look for truth. They investigate. They would not ignore the biggest, most important story, possibly, of all time. But Alternet journalists don't care. They have another agenda besides the truth.

Maybe that will change. Maybe we can change their minds and make them live up to what their great profession is supposed to be about. Time is running out. We need to spread the word about 9/11.

hey, Alternet journalists..........if you think what I have been posting about this is right, or wrong, or you are angry, or whatever, I'd love to hear from you. My email address is pfgetty@embarqmail.com

I've posted my email address before. No takers. Maybe one day one, just one journalist out of many, will feel the twangs of guilt, of letting down the American people, and let me know why they have joined the conspiracy to defraud the American public about 9/11.............to coverup the truth. Maybe somebody will want to be on the side of truth and honesty. Maybe those things are still important in the twentyfirst centry.

I hope so.

We are doomed, really doomed, if they are not.

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http://smokingmirrors.blogspot.com/

As smart as the minds behind Israel have always been, before and after it’s inception; driving the Palestinians from their lands with wholesale murder, changing the names of their towns, controlling the flow of information through their control of the world press, giving the impression that one of the world’s most well funded military forces is actually being victimized by peasant farmers with shovels and rocks, they have finally done what all vicious deceivers have done throughout history. They have exposed themselves for what they are.

No one expected the internet. Across the world today, people who want the actual news, instead of clever propaganda, are getting it. People know about Israel’s false flag adventures. People know about her culpability for 9/11. They know who PNAC and Larry Silverstein are. They know about Odigo, Comverse and Megaphone. They know about things like this. They know that Israel started both of her major wars and wasn’t attacked by anyone. They know what Israel did in Lebanon and they know what is happening in Gaza. All over the world people are waking up to the fact that Israel is an enemy of the rest of the human race.


Israel has no desire to live in peace with anyone. Israel and her fellow travelers in the U.S. and abroad initiated the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for her own benefit. Now she seeks war with Iran. There should be a wall built around the entire 1967 borders. It should be built a thousand meters high, not to keep out any enemies but to keep Israel within.


Well people… You can see it coming, whatever it is and it’s less likely to be driving six white horses than it is to be accompanied by four dark horsemen. The stage is set for a punishing economic winter in the United States. When Spring arrives it will look like the folks from Idiocracy are watering the plants with Gatorade. It won’t be that hard to sell the public bullshit at a discount when they have no money to buy anything else. Israel’s Federal Reserve looted the countries coffers of whatever might have been useful and now they’ve pinched off the money supply. People who’ve had their material excess taps turned off aren’t going to care who gets killed as long as the water gets turned back on.


Still… the psychopaths need a catalyst to get the final stage in action. Somewhere in the heartland a whole lot of people are going to get to find out the answer to life’s biggest mystery; what happens after you die?


You can look at Gaza as motive for whatever Tavistock graduates get the nod for patsy. You can look at the constant message of weapons to Gaza from Iran to see what nationality the patsies will be wearing over their real clothes. Rahm’s going to be handing Barack Gumby his prepared speech and Homeboy Lincoln will get to stand somewhere near the rubble in a spacesuit and tell the world that America must stand tall in the critical hours of the latest deception.


Meanwhile the internet keeps churning out the facts in stark contrast to the septic overflow of lies pumping out of the MSM.


There’s no question that the boys from Murder Incorporated at the Tel Aviv outlet have absolute confidence in whatever they intend; just as they did when they carried out the 9/11 attacks. They’re dropping white phosphorous on the inhabitants of Gaza and using depleted uranium, probably because of the extreme danger they face from the Pop Rocks and bottle rockets being launched at them from the blasted alleys and broken windows of a defenseless and starving nation that makes the Warsaw Ghetto look like St. Tropez.

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But If The Israelis Do Not Stop Committing Genocide against The Palestinians

My Wife and I are Going To Join The Palestinians and Start Lobbing OUR Bombs Over The Fucking Fence

And My Wife and I Do Love Bombs

See The Film PERFUME

To get a hint of the ESSENCE

We Don't Fuck With Any EVIL ARSEHOLES

Tony

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If anyone has a list of Israeli companies please post.

TRC

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IT IS ALL OVER THE WORLD. THE ZIONIST STATE IS A SUPRANATIONAL STATE.

HOW IS IT POSSIBLE TO BOYCOTT THEIR BANKS IF THEY HAVE THEIR SHARES ALL OVER THE WORLD SPECIALLY IN US AND EU, AS WELL AS WEAPONS, AND INFORMATICS AND....?

AND NEWS PAPERS, THERE IS THE MYTH THAT BECAUSE THE MYTH ISRAEL STARTED AFTER WWII, THEN REPORTERS HAVE A FEAR TO HEART FEELINGS !!

NONSENSE!! THEY HAVE A BIG FEAR OF LOSSING
THEIR JOBS TOO!!!

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We know damn well that 3 billions of our money raining down on the heads of Palestinians as cluster bombs every day and there is nothing we can do. It's frustrating. There are a few rich Jews who support the occupation, but there are good Jews and the hundreds of millions of us not-so-rich ones who give a damn about seeing other people die, both Israelis and Palestinian civilians. We must unite to push back the evil occupation/blockade and its enablers. We need a leader.

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In 1979, the President Jimmy Carter signed into law amendments to the 1969 Export Administrative Act (EAA) forbidding US based firms from participating in boycotts against countries friendly to the US in the course of doing business with firms from countries engaged in the boycott. Criminal prosecution could result in fines and/or imprisonment. US firms are required by law to report requests for observing a boycott as part of the terms of business contracts to the US Department of Commerce. Although the Oslo peace process led the Gulf Cooperation Council(GCC) led by the Saudis to renounce the secondary and tertiary boycott requirements of the 1945 Arab League Boycott Decree, the US Commerce Department has stated that it received 1,037 official reports by US firms of requests to observe secondary and tertiary boycotts between October 2004 and September 2005. This contradicted the 1994 GCC declaration against such boycotts.

By 1996, in seeking a peace dividend from the Oslo peace talks, the GCC even hinted at closing the Arab Leagues Office of Boycott Compliance in Damascus. Billions of dollars of trade with Israel were already being done with Arab states especially Jordan which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994. Israeli trade with its Arab neighbors continued to increase over time.

Between 1981, two years after the amendments to the EAA were passed and 1996, when the GCC hinted at ending the boycott altogether, over $26 million in damages were paid by US firms to settle civil suites regarding the boycott of Israel. Boycotts don't work and are impossible to significantly enforce. Peace negotiations work better. That is exactly what Israel was pursuing before Hamas's violent campaign of terrorism designed to sink the peace process and take power from their Fatah rivals.

One Hamas sponsered boycott website presents its case in the following manner, ...the cancerous Zionist entity has got its tentacles hooked into numerous markets and economies-sucking each one to nourish itself, but this is no excuse for us not to do anything...If we can successfully campaign against [firms that do business with Israel] then the support of the others will, inshallah, evaporate. The desire, evidently in the name of religion, to portray Israel and Jews in traditionally negative anti-semitic stereotypes is obvious. That such attitudes are nourished in the UK where this software group "innovativeminds" is active and in other places makes the peace process and dialogue between the various parties to the conflict quite difficult. We need bridges not walls. Those who want peace must come together immediately for constructive dialogue.

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The government of Israel just declared her antisemitic along with Jon Stewart for crtizising their actions of Nazism.

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http://www.nytimes.com/ 2009/01/11/washington/11iran.html?_r=1&hp

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Some questions. In all seriousness...

How many Palestinians are in West Bank and Gaza- in total, in territories that Israel occupies, claims, makes settlements in, etc.? I would like to have some (credible) idea.

How many of these people might reasonably be in an "electorate" under normal suffrage as understood in contemporary democracies (e.g. some form of "citizenship/enfranchisement, appropriate voting age)? (The populations are hugely skewed toward youth, aren't they?)

How many Jewish Israelis are there in Israel- i.e. an approximate "electorate?"

If Israel "absorbs" all of these contested areas and territories- what would be the non-Jewish population of a theoretical "state" so comprised? Muslim proportion? What proportion could be expected to be "politically unsupportive" of the present Israeli policies regarding settlement, violence, warfare, "foreign policy," etc.? I am truly interested in comments and thoughts about this equation.

Entire classes and identification groups of people are now excluded from "enfranchisement-" worldwide. One of the major traumatic upheavals in our world now is the contestation and definition of "belonging" -expressed as suffrage, political power, enfranchisement- within "states." "Statelessness" was an enormous issue at several times before and after WW1. Now, people are disenfranchised from 'citizenship' WITHIN states- based on all kinds of ugly inventions and reifications of identity: "linguistic" identity, "religious" and "sectarian" and "ethnic" and "tribal" and "racial" identity... They all categorize the sub-citizen, the unnecessary, the contaminating, the... foreign body. In Eastern Europe and Africa we call this "cleansing." In Iraq and Afghanistan we call it "anti-terrorism-" unless it is "brown-on-brown..."

Is there a myriad of "individual circumstances" that, today, by policy simply eject all or nearly all of the non-Israeli and non-Jewish occupants from enfranchisement? Now or in any evolving or credible future "state?" How preposterous and egregious are they?

This quick thought suggests an ominous question: Is there some number of Muslims/Palestinians/non-Jews/dissenting-Israelis that must "leave the scene" if the number of potential voters in this growing "state" is to be solidly and reliably in favor of the Israeli policies that are justifying and implementing Israeli conduct? This very "expansion?"

As Israel "absorbs" these areas, what possibilities are there for a democratic "state?" Democratic local institutions?

What form of "state" do we suppose - and importantly, do the military oligarchic elite in Israel suppose- will prevail in this theoretically constituted "area?" It cannot possibly be anything like what we understand as "democracy."

What sorts of relations to other “states” (e.g. the United States) could be practically operative? The current policy and "aid" relationship between Israel and the US looks a little different from this perspective. It is not -perverse and hypocritical as they are- your run-of-the-mill democracy-to-democracy diplomacy. It is an odd and sordid thing compared to that.

What sort of "state" do we imagine those in power in Israel are projecting? They have a vision, and it is a hegemonic one. We know it encompasses these areas and populations.

Who do we imagine in this country (the US) is party to that construct for a future "state" over there?

I hope these questions are understood as serious. I think questions are often more important that answers, and that a really good answer is often a question, but I am ignorant of the population factors and the general demographic geography there.

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“In other words, I am boycotting the Israeli economy but not Israelis.” and “Ramsey says that his decision wasn't political; he just didn't want to lose customers. "We can't afford to lose any of our clients," he explains, "so it was purely commercially defensive." OK So perhaps Israel should take away all those toys that we have all grown accustomed to? After all they invented them.
Does anyone really believe Ramsey when he says its not political? I have worked in the US for a very long time, was a CEO of a software company, and have never ever seen an issue made about where the software tool was made having any impact on business decisions. Sorry Ramsey your argument reminds me of all those people who say they are anti Zionist but not anti-Semitic or anti-ISrael (really weird). Let’s put it this way, the slogan anti-Zionist by definition is being against a national home for the Jews. It is often uttered by people who have a national home—in England, France, Germany, US, Canada—but who for some reason believe the Jews shouldn’t have one. Often these same people, who naturally believe they are entitled to such a place, also believe the Palestinians should have a national home—but not the Jews. Bizarre.
Now what about the boycott? Can Ms. Klein explain how boycotting the Israeli economy will not result in a boycott of Israelis; after all an economic boycott means refusing to purchase the goods and services in this case of Israelis. In Ms. Klein’s simplistic statement is buried a war crime—starve the Israelis! Presumably this will teach the Jews a lesson.
What I find offensive about Ms. Kelin is not so much her argument (offensive as it is) but that no one--she certainly has not--made those arguments against the Chinese for taking over Tibet and repressing Tibetan rights. IS Mr. Ramsey refusing to buy Chinese products? IS Ms. Kelin refusing to buy Chinese goods? Is anyone? Boycotts begin and end with popular causes. Today the popular cause is liberty and justice for Palestinians. The fact that there is a Palestinian state already—Jordan—and two more in the making, albeit struggling, the West Bank and Gaza, each ruled by a different political entity, is simply below the radar of anyone’s knowledge.
Were there any calls for a boycott of Arabs when they rocket Israel, was there a call by Ms. Klein to mobilize the world against Hamas rockets into kindergartens and schools in Israel for 8 years prior to the Israeli response. Finally, should we not slap Hamas on the wrist just a little bit for importing guns into Gaza when Israel exited Gaza instead of importing knowledge and capital to build an Arab Singapore.
Oh and one more thing. I believe MS. Klein is from Canada. I wonder what she would think about what America would if rockets were lobbed from Canada towards Buffalo? What does she believe the US would do first? (A) Negotiate with the Canadian government (b) Investigate (C) Bomb Canada. I think we know the US would do all of the above but it would start with the bomb. So would any other country—except Israel it waited 8 years!

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Everybody seems to be able to tell the israelis how to handle their problems with their neighbours in an kindly, humane manner. Good!
Now please advise me what I should do about the murdering maniacs my neighbours send into my town every now and then. How do you want me to talk to them? Do you want me to turn the other cheek? Am I to just give up and .....die quietly? I want workable suggestions from people who actually have a clue about the issues and situations they are talking about.

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Adbusters has created a web banner that can be placed on the corner of websites to spread the Boycott Israel message.

Check it out at Adbusters.org

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Hamas FIGHTS its war among innocent victums, women and children used as shields for their evil end. If they did not fire rockets at Israel, no war would have occured. Israel would gladly open boarders for all to pass freely, but not for a group that uses open borders to obtain arms, etc. and has dedicated their lives to kill all Israels. The only way to deal with this element is to wipe them out first. If they use people as human sheilds, What is Israel to do. I HEAR ALL YOUR COMENTS, BUT NONE HAS A SOLUTION FOR THIS PROBLEM. CAN YOU GUARANTEE SECURITY FOR ISRAEL?
HOW WOULD YOU DO IT?

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I have been reading your web site for two years now and have appreciated your wise and unbiased perceptions - until now. You are clearly biased against Israel and not reporting both sides of the conflict - I am really saddened by this slip into unfair reporting and one-sided judgement - I now feel that reading your website is not the clear and balanced reporting that I once looked forward to.

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Most average Amercians don't know the full extent of Israeli atrocities because of the biased , filterted so called news about Israel .
So that so called soft spot would evaporate quickly , once they realize collective punishment , bulldozing homes , destroying farms , stealing land in the Negev from Bedouins for expensive Israeli homes , cutting off electricity and much more are all forms of terrorism on a civilian population .
The only soft spot for Israel I have is what I leave in the toliet .

BOYCOTT ISRAEL .

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It is beyond comprehension that anyone can ignore the announced Hamas/Hezbollah intention to murder Jews, not Israelis. In case you missed it, see Jeffrey Goldberger's article in the Jan. 14 issue of the New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/14/opinion/14goldberg By now I would have thought that Jews, if not the rest of the world, would have learned that there is a right of self-defense against those who seek the death of Jews solely because they are Jews. Try to imagine defending yourself from your neighbor who shoots a rocket into your home solely because you are a Jew. Are you going to think about his wife and his children when you shoot back? That is something your neighbor should have thought about before he pulled the trigger.
The solution to this conflict will require a major effort by other countries, not just the U.S. At the top of the list is a well-armed multinational military force that will forcibly, if necessary, intervene to prevent attacks by Palestinians, Lebanese, Israelis, Syrians, etc. In parallel, there must be a genuine coalition to convince the Arab countries and Iran that peace is in their best interests, and the best interests of their people, and that to get there from here: (1) all countries must agree that there will be no more arms supplied to Hamas, Hezbollah etc., and (2) that Israel's right to exist must be acknowledged explicitly, unequivocally and in writing. Only strong leadership from the U.S. can start and see through to the finish such a multifaceted process.

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As an american of Neither Jewish, Muslim nor 'Evangelical' Ideology, I've had enough of "Friendship' that has ONLY been a one way street.
History is Just that HISTORY, it has no barring on what is happening today- Israel is in the Wrong on Gaza.
Those who have pledged their undying allegience to Israel, should move there. I on the other hand have always and will always pledge my allegience to ONLY to the United States of American. this 'relationship' has been parasitic as opposed to mutally beneficial. It is not only a matter of constant financial support, but a matter of being held resposnible for Every thing the Isreal Gov't does to benefit themselves and endanger US. The Israeli Gov't is that drunk bar brawling friend who always picks a fight and leaves US to take the beating. Enough is enough, it's time to cut them loose.
I'm all for your boycott, unfortunately in our current economic meltdown..who will notice. I intend to write these companies and tell them that their Corps are further endangering American Lives, esp those who are serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Hamas et al know Ameircans nor Israeli's will strap bombs to themsleves to terrorize their people, so they are not inclined to worry about their people suffering further retribution once the bombing stops. But Americans and Israelis Know such individual attacks are inevitable. As much as Hamas is endangering the people of Gaza, so are the Gov't of Israel & the US. so should an attack occur at an american 'Soft target', I will be holding Our Gov't and theirs responsible.
Damn and I LOVE Sarah Lee's Strawberry Cheesecake, but a miniscule price to pay to end a genocide.
I will also continue to pray that God ends this never ending 'Caine & Able' plague upon humanity by destroying the top 3 'holy' sites similatneously with lightening bolts..Think they all would get the message then.."thou shall Not Kill", or Worship Idols, Or covet???

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________________________
iPhone Ringtone Maker, a smart iPhone ringtone tool.

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