I thank Yahweh for Jewish people like Orit Weksler who oppose the official positions of Israel today. I "sense" a growing movement in the world today of many different groups - religious and non-religious - who reject violence as a means to solve the world's problems, and are reaching for higher,deeper and more meaningful solutions.

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I am not Jewish but I have studied the writings of the great rabbis who developed rabbinical judaism after the fall of the second temple. Their stress on love and kindness in the treatment of other humans has always impressed me. I am, therefore, often suprised by the virulent violence and stress on revenge so often uttered by Israeli leaders. What happened to European Jews during the second World War was horrendous but it cannot serve as an excuse for injustice and violence against others. I'm sorry but when the State of Israel does that, it acts in the most unjewish way that I can imagine. I suggest that the leaders go back to Hillel and both Gamliels and relearn their heritage, just as Christians should rediscover the love and humility of Joshua ben Joseph, the man they call Jesus.

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I don't think I can possibly express, right now, how I feel, when I hear Jews of good faith disagree openly with the Israeli government. The same is true for Jews who know better than trust fundamentalists of any stripe.

It is the same feeling I get when I hear moderate Muslims and sane Christians seeking the truth and reaching out to each other.

If we say it is God that is tearing us all apart, we are liars. If we admit the truth; that it is more likely the usual Cardinal Sins that are responsible, we, as the human race--God's children, may stand a chance of survival, and more: PEACE

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Orit, my son will be a junior in college in a few weeks. I know perfectly where you're coming from. During his freshman year there were some Israeli boys in his dorm who go home every summer. They were teaching him Hebrew. At least one (that I know of) is a reservist. I wonder if he'll be back this fall.

Anyhow, after following this latest war, I can't help to suspect that the Israeli motives involving national security don't also involve the announcement of a 4-pipeline deal along the Syrian and Lebanese coasts. Fishing grounds that may be disputed during construction? Maritime rights that need to be settled before construction can begin?

I've posted these articles elsewhere and haven't heard much response or rebuttal.

How about the 4-pipelines being planned for the eastern Med from Turkey to Israel? Have you heard of that sweet deal? Wouldn't have anything to do with Israel wanting to secure the coast? Or saber rattling with Syria, by any chance?

Jerusalem Post:
Israel and Turkey plan energy pipeline

Global Research:
The War on Lebanon and the Battle for Oil

Is this war like all the others? It looks to me like Phase 2 (3?) of the Afghanistan/Iraq debacle.

Either way, with electricity involved, I can't help but think someone's going to get Enronned over that deal. And water is certainly a very hot commodity for sale. While most of Lebanon's coastal waters, fishing grounds have already been destroyed this past month.

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"Some people justify Israel's actions by arguing that Jews need a place to go to when anti-Semitism breaks out somewhere in the world. But as Yeshayahu Leibowitz, the philosopher and outspoken public figure, once said: the most dangerous place for Jews in the world is the state of Israel."

It needn't be called Israel. By any name any place that consists mostly of Jews will always be the most dangerous place for Jews because of the hatred of Jews throughout the world. And that was the point of that statement.

So Hezbollah as the arm of Iran kills 8 Israeli soldiers and kidnaps 2. Israel responds with a lot but not all of the power it has (which is what is done in war) and again, they are the bad guys and terrorists are the victims.

This by Bob Godwin:
Israel is surrounded by enemies, both literally, in the form of her bloodthirsty Arab neighbors, but ideologically as well. Many on the left are openly questioning Israel's right to exist, deeming it an "historical mistake" (Richard Cohen) or the source of all Muslim grievances--as if Muslims wouldn't simply be at each others' throats if Israel were obliterated, or as if Israel has anything to do with Muslim violence in the Philippines, Darfur, Malaysia, Canada, India, Singapore, et al."

And where is the outcry by Muslims against the Darfur genocide? Exacty! There is none.

Radical Islam is the enemy of not just Israel but America and the West. Their dream is the return of the caliphate; destroy as many infidels and take us back to the 5th century. Israel is the good guy in this picture and you identify and sympathize with radical Islam at your own peril. They certainly have shown they have no concern over the lives of Jews or Americans.

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What a great, meaningful piece-- as our most pieces when people speak from the heart, and from our common humanity.
Like so many other people of this planet, I have been sorely grieved over the latest war, as I continue to grieve over the continued occupation and escalating violence in Iraq; and the Bush Aministration seems utterly impervious to whatever happens. One wonders how bad it has to get before some change comes--
But we the people cannot wait for that change, and must make the change ourselves.
I just came in from sitting on my back porch steps. It's a very long flight of steps, and I have pots of things growing on the steps: Heavenly Blue and Grandpa Ott Morning Glories; Lantana; Flowering Tobacco; Petunias; and some spring pansies that have become leggy and gangling, which I should really replace-- but they were so cheery in the spring that I haven't the heart somehow-- I will cut them back, fertilize them, and hope for good things in the fall.
Overhanging the back steps is a large and very ancient Mulberry tree. Although the front of this old house borders a four-lane state highway, where the roar hardly ever seems to stop, the back of the house features an old barn and, behind that, four acres of woods that somehow escaped development. Wild turkeys, raccoons, fisher cats, woodcuts, chipmunks, and all kinds fo birds live there.
For the past few weeks, the crickets have been going wild, sounding the night's depth, taking the pulse of the night. There are lots of stars out tonight; I came in and got my binoculars, and watched them for a while, my dog keeping me company one step behind me, utterly content to just be.
The night was so beautiful. It's easy to forget with all the nastiness in the world today, how utterly beautiful and miraculous life can be, and the things of this life.
We've tried war, and oppression, and injustice, and revenge, and racism; greed and corporatism, mistrust and hatred. They're not working. I wish I could put into words what I felt in my heart, with cricket sound spilling all round me, and the stars shining above. I had the feeling that if everyone could feel this way, we might turn away from our self-destruction, and the destruction of others, and the planet. It's so easy to burnout when working for peace and justice, and to feel powerless; but we have to remember what we're working for, and what could be. What if we tried-- just for a change-- making this earth-- for all its people-- a paradise?
Anyway-- just sending these thoughts out into the night, and thanks for listening.

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Weksler is correct: safety and security lies in ending and preventing wars not in starting/magnifying them. Guns and bombs do not make peace, they only make wars more horrible and more frequent.

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It's finally good to hear from someone who has reason and common sense rather than bloodlust and fear to offer. I feel encouraged that somehow, there is more to hope for peace than just wishing for it. If only this article could appear on the front page of the New York Times. My heart goes out to this man and his family. I hope one day that Israel and Palestine are two countries where people with such sound hearts and minds can live in peace.

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You have to be a badass to live in Israel. This guy isn't. Although seeing how crazy the world is now, what's to say this guy's kid won't be wearing an american uniform in 13 years?

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There is way too much anti-Semitism in the world for Israel to act any other. The only reason a Jew can feel safe in the United States is that are way too many other minority groups to run interference. I was born here a have no reason to leave, but Israel is my insurance policy.

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There is way too much anti-Semitism in the world for Israel to act any other. The only reason a Jew can feel safe in the United States is that are way too many other minority groups to run interference. I was born here a have no reason to leave, but Israel is my insurance policy.

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The capacity to turn earth into another eden is there, the only thing preventing it is human nature :)

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Why are there so many Israel-bashing articles/comments on alternet? when the states that sponsored the terrorists that struck the US on 9/11 weren't Jewish, but ISLAMIC. HELLO!!! Islam is the enemy, not Judaism.

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.... forced sterilization is the answer. The sterilization of the Islamic militants that is. Every captured muslim terrorist, member of Hezbollah, or "freedom fighter" - whatever you want to call them - should be sterilized before being returned to the Arab population.

Everyone knows how machista the arabs are. Take away the manhood of these terrorists, they will lose status in their communities, and most importantly, they won't be able to breed more young terrorists to cause problems for OUR OWN grandchildren.

Catch and release. As in catch the terrorist, anesthetize and sterilize him, and release him back to his people as an - er - changed man... hahahahahaha

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Both the Palestinian & Jewish people have legit claims to the region but you could not tell that by the way things have gone down over the years.

For whatever historical reasons the end state that modern Israel is in is untenable for any reasonable person. It is a religious version of old South Africa. It will not stand.

Not a wish, threat or promise-- just an observation. History teaches us many things and those who ignore it learn some very harsh lessons.

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I know very few people that support the Israeli government's treatment of this latest inicdent. Not that the kidnapping and killing of Israelis is viewed as acceptable either; to the contrary, it is just as despicable, but not any more so. The point is that people don't do these sorts of things out of pure malice and spite. They have reasons. Deep-seated motivations reaching back through generations of strife and conflict. Neither side is "evil," and it no longer matters who started it. People are being killed because of it just the same.

Live and let live. I know it is a simplified comment about an impossibly complex situation, but it doesn't make it less true. I don't agree with my family, friends, or strangers on every single subject; but I speak with them, always trying to maintain an open heart and an open mind, and try to come to a compromise. If that doesn't work, we agree to disagree and we move on. What we don't do is throw a fit or punch each other when we disagree. Most of us grew out of that when we were children. So, why is it ok for our governments to do it? Why do some of us cheer them when we would chastise our children for acting the same way?

The bottom line is this: who other than psychotics or sociopaths will want to kill someone else if everyone has what they need and no one is trying to take it from them or tell them how to live? Let's address the root of the problem. If we let cultures develop in their own way based on their own ideals and we don't constantly try and fit them to some sort of arbitrary "ideal" mold; if we ensure that everyone, not just "our" people, have the resources that they need to live comfortably; then we eliminate the friction that starts all of these fires. That's security.

The difficult part is stopping the argument long enough to listen; it's dropping the grudge and seeing the other side as your brothers and sisters; it's having enough humility to consider that your view isn't right for everyone, and may not even be right for you.

Whether you view the Israelis as victims or you view the various Arab factions as victims or either side as terrorists, you are simply showing a lack of objectivity. Everybody wants the same thing basically: they just want to live free and in peace. Not someone else's version of free, but their own version. I don't think that's too much to ask.

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As an American I cannot comment fully on this article, as it would he hypocritical of me. I could have chosen to live in Israel. But the responses on here seem uninformed.

By looking at the bombing of Lebanon as unprovoked, you miss the basic problem-- that the Arab world is not interested in a 2-state solution, only the dissolution of Israel. The consequences on either side is not symetrical. If Israel overshoots, like they might have this past month, a few hundred people are killed (not justafiable for sure). If the Arabs overshoot and breach the Israeli army, total destruction of Israel and Israelis would ensue.

Has Israel done grevious things toward the Palestinians, for sure. But if there was a way towards peace, the majority of Israelis would grab it quickly. If Israel makes one mistake, its all over for them. The population would be treated like the Jewish gravestones in East Jerusalem in the 1950's or Joseph and Rachel's Tombs a few years ago.

I believe most rational people believe a 2-state solution is the best solution for peace in Palestine and Israel. I agree that the current leaders of Israel are not as commited to a 2-state solution as they should be. However, at times over the past 20 years, there have been Israeli leaders that were definitely committed to the 2-state solution. NEVER, in 60 years has there been a viable leader of Arabs or Palestinians who were committed to a 2-state solution.

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"Goodbye to the Unipolar World"
The Nasrallah Interview
By CounterPunch News Service


From an interview conducted shortly before the ceasefire by reporters from the Turkish Labor Party daily, Evrensel.

Q. What is the current state of your relations with the Socialist movement?

Hasan Nasrallah: The socialist movement, which has been away from international struggle for a considerable time, at last has begun to offer moral support for us once again. The most concrete example of this has been Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela. What most of the Muslim states could not do has been done by Chavez, by the withdrawal of Venezuela's ambassador to Israel. He furthermore communicated to us his support for our resistance. This has been an immense source of moral strength for us.

Q. It is possible to see the posters of Che, Chavez and Ahmadinejad side by side in the streets of Beirut. Are these the signs of a new polarization?

Hasan Nasrallah: We salute the leaders and the peoples of Latin America. They have resisted the American bandits heroically and have been a source of moral strength for us. They are guiding the way for the oppressed peoples. Go and wonder around our streets..! You will witness how our people have embraced Chavez and Ernesto Che Guevara. Nearly in every house, you will come across posters of Che or Chavez.

What we are saying to our socialist friends who want fight together with us for fraternity and freedom is: Do not come at all if you are going to say "Religion is an opiate". We do not agree with this analysis. Here is the biggest proof of this in our streets with the pictures of Chavez, Che, Sadr and Khamenei together. These leaders are saluting our people in unison. So long as we respect your beliefs, and you respect ours, there is no imperialist power we cannot defeat!

Q. Returning to threats in the region, western governments are intensifying their pressure on Damascus and Tehran, for which they are proposing a "change of regime." Some sources are of the view that the attack on Lebanon will be directed on Syria. According to your point of view, is a regional war possible?

Hasan Nasrallah: The centers of imperialist power want to make collaborators of our region as a whole. They expect us to kneel before them. Syria, Iran and Hezbollah are opposing this. The provocation concerning the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and the efforts to secure the withdrawal of the Syrian army from Lebanon and -- going even further -- their wish to attack callously on to Tehran and Damascus are all due to this reason.


Q. There are claims that Hezbollah is being directed by Tehran. What are your views on this issue?

Hasan Nasrallah: This is a great lie. We are an independent Lebanese organization. We do not take orders from anyone. But this does not mean that we are not going to form alliances. We are on the side of Iran and Syria. They are our brothers. We are going to oppose any attack directed at Tehran and Damascus to the last drop of our blood just as we do in Lebanon. We uphold global resistance against global imperial terrorism.

Q. Is there any other additional point you want to make?

Hasan Nasrallah: Peace cannot be unilateral. So long as there is imperialism in the world, a permanent peace is impossible. This war will not come to an end as long as there are occupations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.

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...is that it is not in the Israeli government's best interest to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict. In the Israeli people's best interest, but how often do government's really worry about that? If Israel can continue radicalizing the Palestinians and their neighbors through excessive unjustified use of force, then they can continue to claim that they have "no partner for peace". If they have no partner, they can continue building the Wall, effectively stealing Palestinian land; maintain full military control over water and other resources; and essentially keep the Palestinians as a handily available worker's class for Israeli industry. They get all the land they want and (and this is the key) they don't have to give any land up in return.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm Jewish. I support Israel's right to exist and will defend it with my own life if I have to. However, I do not believe for a moment that Israel's actual existence is threatened (4th largest nuclear military in the world courtesy of YOUR taxes). And I strongly disagree with the actions of the Israeli government in refusing to seriously seek peace with the Palestinians. I also have a strong dislike of those in the Israeli government who cynically manipulate the fears, beliefs and lives of their citizens for the sake of their own territorial and political gain.

Incidentally, it is worth pointing out (for those who like to hammer on the fact that Hamas won't recognize Israel) that Israel has never recognized a Palestinian state nor the right of a Palestinian state to exist. I have heard with my own ears a religious settler tell me that "This land is ours (all of it). We will push out all we can push and kill the rest."

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He did not mean that it would always work.

But he understood that you can strike a powerful blow, a moral blow, that way. It worked for Ghandi, Mandela, and for ML King, where it had previously failed for more violent rebels.

If you really want peace, then take some risks to prove it. Remember that the same war-hawks in Israel who said that you "cannot talk to the Arabs" opposed the 1977 peace deal with Egypt. Similar American war-hawks said that if the US did not "win" in Vietnam, then the whole world would fall "like dominoes" to the communists. Now the vietnamese make our walkmans and our blue-jeans!! In BOTH cases, who was right and who was wrong? The war-hawks or the "peaceniks"???

The war-hawks have alot of guns, but they have nothing else. We can allow them to continue to foment hate or we can stop listening to their hysterical fear-mongering.

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that the genesis of the problem Germany had with the jews was that the jews actually decared war on Germany in 1933. Or, doesn't that count?

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terrorist. When the Iraelis killed innocent civilians, they are terrorists. People are naive to slap this label around. The US has been terrorists when they orchestrated a coup that killed other countries' leaders or supported Saddam during the Iran/Iraq war and Bin Laden during the Afghan-Soviet war. Look at this recent one, Israel killed more civilians than Hezbolla did. Terrorism is a tactic used by all violent groups or states at one time or another. I found it amusing that people called the capture of Israeli soldiers a "terrorist" attack. It becomes a joke. It may be an act of war of some sort, but a "terrorist" attack? People misuse the term more and more and thus, demean it. When people use the term "terrorist", they intend to invoke fear because when people are scared, they tend to agree with you. Just by calling something "terrorists" doesn't make it so. Or calling the war in Iraq the war on terror or Al Quada doesn't make it so. Just by labeling something doesn't make it so. Some of us are not stupid. The propaganda doesn't work any more. I encourage smart people to call it for what it is and expose the lies and deception. Look at this Chuck Roberts guy on CNN! He called Ned Lamont an "al quiada" candidate but he insisted "some say". Well, no one said but himself. Imagine if there is no google. Those people lie and expect to get away with it. Well, not any more. We are not dumb and we hold them accountable for their deception.

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Modern zionism is the source of the problem. The British government, in there ever vigilant quest to divide and conquer, set this "state" up to help keep control over vital assets in the Middle East. Yes, it is said, that the Brits were forced to give Balfour due to zionist terrorism and an assesment of the situation vis-a-vis the Ottomans, etc but really its was a tried and true method of the Brits to divede populations into tribal, ethnic, and religous conflict (see Africa, Afghan, India/Pakistan/Bangladesh). True Jews, even to this day, deny that the secular State of Isreal should exist because its not based on scripture and is a false creation of modern realpolitik.

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I cannot help but feel that the inhabitants of this planet have not progressed very far from the caves from whence we came.

Bravo for the voice of sanity, reason and peace! As Elie Weisel commented on a recent Oprah Show, "We said 'Never again' after WWII, but there have been more attempted genocides since. Look at Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur to name just a few..."

Again, those caves aren't very in the 'distant' past, are they?

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Israel is making the choice how it wants to live as a country. The reason it gets bashed so much is because of bad behavior. You simply cannot confiscate people's lands, as in the West Bank, then complain and cry anti-semitism when they lob some bombs back at you. You simply cannot kidnap and imprison thousands of Arabs, without trial and charges, and then claim anti-semitism when they lob some bombs back at you. You simply cannot acquire massive firepower and war making capacity thru lobbying and influence peddling of the major world power, the USA, then use that capacity to wage war. Then again, cry anti-semitism when they lob a few bombs back at you. And you cannot construct a wall, with thousands of people behind it living in squalor, while your people take all the best land and natural resources, then again, cry anti-semitism when they lob a few bombs back at you. Now, do the supporters of Israel get it yet???

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http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5658941
Nawar Sahili is a member of Hezbollah who also sits on the Lebanese Parliament. He shares his views on the U.N. resolution that calls for disarmament of his organization in the south of the country, the potential source of funds for rebuilding after the war, and Israel's right to exist.

Listen starting around 3:30, he just cant say that Israel has a right to exist. All he can say that is curretnly exists.

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The Arab hatred of Israel is a direct result of Israel's right-wing, neocon government and its continued reliance on military solutions. For 20 years, Israel has relied on the military instead of good faith negotiations. Furthermore, Israel's economy is heavily dependent on the military and quite possibly without US support, Israel would collapse economically. This is not anti-semitism, it is political reality. Now, modern day Israel is the garrison state, the military is everywhere. What kind of country has it become? To cry anti-semitism after somebody complains because you bulldoze somebody's home in the territories or send in a missle that kills a dozen civilians who are just "collateral damage?" Everywhere in Israel today Arabs are referred to as scum and "ragheads." Why should then American Jews support this. The original idea of Israel has been corrupted and no rants about the Holocaust or anti-semitism will fix it. Bring the Arabs in as equal citizens in Israel, separate Church and State, negotiate real solutions, then maybe you can go forward. Otherwise, you are doomed, think about it.

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Would the Jews, Christians and Moslems living in the land known as Israel be worse off if it was still called Palestine and had a truly fair, non-violent and egalitarian democracy?

What is the "State of Israel" anyway?

If our Declaration of Independence - with its clause:

"Governments ... deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ..."

were to apply to all peoples, why does Israel, but no other state, seemingly, have an intrinsic right to exist?

We, as Americans believe "We hold these truths to be self-evident ...":

THERE IS NO INTRINSIC RIGHT FOR ANY NATION-STATE TO EXIST!

The Palestinians and other Middle East states have no issue with Judaism, they have an issue with a colonial oligarchy of European Jews being inserted into their micropolitics without the "consent of the governed".

I submit Israel as it stands, and no state whatsoever, has any intrinsic right to exist, only PEOPLE do!

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The quality of the comments you guys are making on this site is impressive.
The question becomes, "Why then are Hillary and the rest of the democratic party carrying water for the Israeli party line?" Can they not see that the rank and file are way out in front of them, just as it is on getting out of Iraq? People are no longer afraid of being labeled as anti-semitic just because they label Israeli imperialism as such and Israeli colonialism as such. I will never vote for ANY politician that does not defend the fundamental human rights of Palestinians equally with Jews. Our politicians aren't, guys. They just plain aren't. And they should be ashamed to call themselves Americans.

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It is unfortunately much easier to run away from problems than it is to face them. As an expatriate Israeli critizicing your country, your voice is much weaker, and indeed smacks of hipochrisy.

If you indeed believe what you say, then you should be saying it there, using your voice in the ONLY democracy in the Middle East to change things.

The fact that you'd rather be in San Francisco talking about it is only telling of your cowardice and lack of dedication to your own principles and beliefs. I am sorry you cannot face your own self. You mask the truth behind saying that you are looking for safety for your kids. Yet this did not JUST come about... Did you not think about this when you were procreating him? When you lied with your partner in bed did you not think about where you were bringing your proginy?

You say Israel should defend herself from Nasrallah, yet abhorr the results of the defense. You say that Israel should pay for the damages inflicted upon the innocent cioviliansd who hid the murderers and criminals from Hizbollah.

At least Israel was only targeting the shooters and their equipment. Nasrallah made no such distinction, and was proud to say he killed civilians, and celebrated for it.

FYI -

Israeli Casualties:

• 159 dead: 116 soldiers, 43 civilians

• 2,015 people injured

Israeli's Affected:

• Over 500,000 displaced

• 7,600 damages claims have been filed

Rockets:

• Hezbollah’s arsenal: approx 13,000 rockets

• Rockets fired: 3,970

• Over 1,000 in the vicinity of Kiryat Shmona
• 808 rockets in the vicinity of Nahariya
• 471 in the vicinity of Safed
• 176 in the vicinity of Carmiel
• 106 in the vicinity of Akko
• 93 in the vicinity of Haifa
• 81 in the vicinity of Tiberias

Damage:

• Cost of war: approximately $11.3 billion

• Estimated 1.5% loss of gross domestic product

• Estimated $460 million in aid will be transferred to local governments and emergency services in the North

• Tourism down approximately 20%

• Hotels in northern Israel have lost approximately $27 million

• Total expected damage to tourism industry: approximately $222 million

• Manufacturers in northern Israel lost approximately $67 to $89 million

Humanitarian Aid:

• IDF has helped coordinate the evacuation of at least 70,000 foreign nationals from Lebanon

• A total of 213 passenger ships, 123 land convoys and 196 helicopters have been allowed to dock in or travel through Lebanon to evacuate people

• 57 planes have been allowed to land at Beirut International Airport to unload humanitarian goods

Environmental Damage:
• 2,500 dunams of natural or planted forest burned
• 25,000 dunams of grazing land burned
• Cost of forest rehabilitation: approx $1.67 million
• Recovery time for forests: 50 to 60 years
Source Israeli Consulate Miami, FL

Yes, Israel is forced to defend herself. Unfortunately she is under constant attack. Like many other Jews today and yesterday, you have chosen to run and hide from the problem, and say I'm not one of them, I want peace.

Well, as I hope you don't find out, anti-semites don't care and will make a point of showing you otherwise.

Good luck.

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Hey guys, I love you, but before you post, know your history, as written by Jews. Go to
http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/
Get educated, then post.
Thanks.

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I don't know if Israeli policy makers and supporters have figured it out yet, but they've got a bigger problem on the horizon than Arabs with missiles and bombs.
It's called educated westerners with credibility who no longer buy aggression posing as a response to chronic victimization.
It's called nobel prize laureates, x-presidents, Fortune 500 heads speaking up against what is clearly Israeli imperialism and colonialism.
Israeli lobby: if you don't have a better plan for winning that battle than the one in your present gamebook, better tell your handlers to start suing for peace.

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I think Orit's consciousness has quite a ways to rise yet. Given her training as a psychotherapist, I would have expected a greater degree of dispassionate insight than she displays in her essay here.

Israel's troubles stem entirely from being created by non-semitic European colonialists left over from the 19th century, ultimately in violation of post-WW2 international law against aggressive land-grabs. The Palestinian Arabs are completely innocent victims of that colonialist aggression, and everyone knows it even if they're not honest enough to admit it.

The entire situation, both problem and solution, can be summed up in 4 words: No justice? No peace.

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Although I don't entirely disagree with Weksler's analysis, and certainly do share her feeling of desperation, I choose to remain in Israel, and should I leave for a year or two for personal reasons, I will be coming back home - here, as soon as I'm done.

It used to be that we in Israel would say, "In this moment of dire need, we in Israel need you in the diaspora to back us up 100%". Many of us think that is what needs to be now.

I want to say it differently. When I made aliya, 17 years ago, I said to some friends: "I'm making aliya because I fear that if Jews like me don't make aliya to Israel, Israel will end up in a place that Jews like me won't want to have anything to do with."

Sadly, my one vote has not been able to change much in the course of history. And it seems to me that Israel today is sliding WAY down that slippery slope: The president is under investigation for sexual misconduct that has become an investigation of rape. The Justice minister resigned
yesterday to face charges of sexual misconduct. The Prime Minister is under investigation for accepting illegal donations in kind, and the Deputy PM (Shimon Peres) is under investigation for for accepting illegal donations in cash. A leading Kadima (the ruling party) MK is facing trial for illegal political appointments when he was Environment minister. The Defense Department has launched an investigation into the mishandling of this war, which isn't over, and one of the generals has already quit the panel (that was Herzl Bodinger, Dan Halutz's old boss in the IAF).

Condemnation of Israel's prosecution of the war in Lebanon is not enough. Nor is blind allegiance to "Israel, right or wrong" a la AIPAC.

However, any true engagement of the moral issues must happen HERE, within the very complex polity of the state of Israel.

I am reminded of patrolling the Jordanian border when I was in miluim (reserve duty) in September 2001. It was on September 11th or 12th that our jeep and the Jordanian jeep met on either side of the border, driving parallel to one another. We looked at the Jordanian soldiers, and they looked at us, and we drove in sync for a few hundred meters. I don't know what went through their heads, but I know that going through mine were thoughts like, "what happens if we open fire on them?" and, "in a couple of days we might be fighting these guys," and, "are they for us or against us?" An internalized message of right and wrong, some Freudian SuperEgo holding us back worked very well here, and after a
few hundred meters, we waved to the Jordanians and they waved back, just as we had done a few days previously.

The complications come when we step away from the border, from the face to face interaction, when we don't approach the situation as private soldiers, as individuals, but as armchair generals. 20 - 20 hindsight is no great claim to fame...

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I think Isreal doesn't care who is Orit Weksler and where she lives. Do you think otherwise?

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Folks, the root problem is not Israel. It is America, an America that sees the State of Israel - a racist apartheid state, no doubt - as the model for its own lawless behavior in the world. _American_ - not Jewish, not Israeli - Zionism, an incubus for a home grown American Fascism, is the cutting edge ideology for this model. If you doubt this prospect, talk to your local Christian Zionist neighbor. Zionism has been completely transformed from its 19th century origins, and is now an indigenous ideology and movement of the American Far Right.

Can there be any doubt from some of the extreme Right racist rants posted on a progressive blog?

Would Alternet permit Neo-Nazis or Klansmen to unfold their screeds on its blog?

But when it comes to Arabs, its OK to advocate their genocide in America. This has got to stop. One can see in the left sidebar that we are supposed to concerned about genocide in Darfur. But how about the policies of the US government as seen in Lebanon and Iraq, implicitly genocidal to their innermost core, whose vision of a "new Middle East" is one "freed" of every last Arab and Muslim? This policy will find its realization when American Zionism comes to full fruition as a fascist movement seeking total domination of US politics. As in, "Shut up about Israel", by which they will mean "America". Is this not an infinitely greater danger, coming as it does from the world's leading military power?

This is the fundamental geopolitical question facing humanity in this generation. We still have time to stop it, but we must act right now, beginning with a truly honest dialog in the left around the real matter at stake.

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Where on earth do you get that all those arab countries were created the exactly the same was as Israel? HUH? Israel is a nation of EUROPEAN jews, not indigenous arabs, such as are the people of all the lands you use in your comparison. The arabs have been fighting back for decades, because the land was taken from them, and given to a foreign people. Your argument is falling apart at the seams.

You see, once racist, narcissistic zionists like this guy join the human race, and stop thinking they are a step or two above everyone, then, there might be a chance for peace.

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Thank you Mr Weksler for being compassionate and wise enough to realize that your own beloved child really should be more than merely a potential soldier for some and definite enemy for many others. I think you made the right choice, and I wish more people would.

And thank you for seeing the importance of making right the terrible wrong done to the Palestinian refugees... I wish more people would. I also wish more people would realize how terribly unfair - and fundamentally insulting Aliyah is, as millions of Palestinians are cruelly harassed and trapped by racist Israeli laws and walls, suffering and starving in concentration camps, yearning to return to their family's original homes and land... yearning for real dignity and a future where their own children will be safe.

Instead racist Israel just keeps on creating refugees, ruining countless homes, families and communities.

Anything can happen- ghastly things happen everyday, but it seems to me that Zionist Israel is more toxic delusion than sanctuary... not so much security for any one as a morass of burgeoning angst and armed bigotry. It simply isn't healthy. Israel foolishly creates a situation where ghastly things are much more likely to happen to many innocent and vulnerable people.

I wish you and your family the best, and I applaud your decision not to live in Israel. I applaud the fact that you refuse nurture the injustice of a Zionist made apartheid and that monstrous Israeli built wall of hate that has pushed many innocent people into poverty and despair.

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Leaving Israel is a major step in the right direction. But Jews need to reject Israel entirely. WE ALL NEED TO OPPOSE THE CONTINUATION OF ISRAEL, as a for-Jews thing, that is. Yes, the whole miserable, immoral and unviable Jewish-state-on-stolen-land project "Israel".

It is not possible for it to exist without endless fighting and suffering.

Israel has no business being there, it never did. That's the entire problem. The Palestinians won't accept Israel there - or enough of them won't. And they are right not to. If the trespassed upon don't resist, the criminal will be rewarded and justice in the world will decline.

So Israel resorts to extreme efforts to get away with its crime. Its mere existence is a savage crime.

At www.al-bushra.org/israel/ben.htm:
from David Ben-Gurion's own mouth:
"One day, or rather night, in 1956 I sat up at his house [Ben-Gurion's]
till three in the morning. That night, a beautiful summer night, we had a
forthright discussion on the Arab problem. 'I don't understand your
optimism,' Ben-Gurion declared. 'Why should the Arabs make peace? If I
were an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural:
we have taken their country."

“Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves…politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves… The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country.”
Speech by David Ben-Gurion, 1938, quoted in Zionism and the Palestinians by Simha Flapan, 1979

700,000 people were then terrorized off their land by Jewish terrorist groups like Irgun. Several massacres of Palestinians occurred (see www.palestineremembered.com) and were publicized widely to terrify more people to leave.

There is only one way out now, and it is the same way out that saved other colonizer states, including the United States. Israel must remove its for-one-people(Jews)-particularly basis, and become a state for all people equally.

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to thank Ms Weksler for making her decisions based upon her humanity rather than her nationality.
I only wish the citizens of the United States would follow her good example.

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Hopefully, more eyes of the American people are being opened by the cruelty and brutality of the Israeli State. A soldier was captured (nothing unusual) and Israel responds by terrorizing Lebanon's civilian population. I wish it was just a single event, but unfortunately these European Jews came to the Middle East and acted no different from the monsters they escaped in World War II. They should be ashamed! Unfortunately, they are secure in their self-righteousness. And I'm appalled that my government supports their behavior. As I have said many times before "Israel will eventually write a check, Americans will not cash!"

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Would you accuse the owner of a house as being cruel and mean he if stayed awake to catch the thief? I just dug through all the propaganda and garbage to reveal how it really is.

Thanks for your attention Mr. Blind man :)

northwind72000

PS Refute me if you think I am wrong! I challenge anyone who has an intelligent argument to state their case.

Favorite places to shop,

zappos.com. Traveling with Orbitz is great. Especially to Israel!

Dating Info,

http://www.myincredibleuniverse.com/eharmony.htm

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Orit Weksler - Article above.

I am utterly shocked and embarrassed for you after reading your article. There are extremists in high power throughout the middle east that vow the destruction of your people. Presidents, Prime Ministers and everyday citizens wish upon the death of Jews and Israel and you are sending a message of defying army service in Israel?

How many times has Israel attempted diplomacy? Israel has given and respected territories since its creation and you are convincing people that it should put its arms down and use diplomacy as her method!

How do you negotiate with someone who wants to kill you and is willing to kill him/herself in order to kill you simultaneously.

What you need to do as a Jew is wake up. G-D forbid, should gas chambers / Camps renew itself with a new Anti-Semetic Leader, you would wish with every inch of your soul for a powerful Israeli Government to rescue.

Shame on you.

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