April 29, 2011, 11:28 AM
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Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's response to the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority's peace deal with Hamas would be funny if it weren't tragic. Immediately after the news broke of the deal Netanyahu announced, "The PA must choose either peace with Israel or peace with Hamas. There is no possibility for peace with both."
Netanyahu's statement is funny because it is completely absurd. The PA has chosen.
The PA made the choice in 2000 when it rejected Israel's offer of peace and Palestinian statehood and joined forces with Hamas to wage a terror war against Israel.
The PA made the choice in 2005 again when it responded to Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza with a tenfold increase in the number of rockets and missiles it fired on Israeli civilian targets in the Negev.
The Palestinians made the choice in 2006, when they elected Hamas to rule over them.
They made the choice in March 2007 when Fatah and Hamas signed their first unity deal.
The PA made the choice in 2008 when Abbas rejected then-prime minister Ehud Olmert's offer of statehood and peace.
The PA made the choice in 2010 when it refused to reinstate peace negotiations with Netanyahu; began peace negotiations with Hamas; and escalated its plan to establish an independent state without peace with Israel.
Now the PA has again made the choice by signing the newest peace deal with Hamas.
IN A real sense, Netanyahu's call for the PA to choose is the political equivalent of a man telling his wife she must choose between him and her lover, after she has left home, shacked up and had five children with her new man.
It is a pathetic joke.
But worse than a pathetic joke, it is a national tragedy. It is a tragedy that after more than a decade of the PA choosing war with Israel and peace with Hamas, Israel's leaders are still incapable of accepting reality and walking away. It is a tragedy that Israel's leaders cannot find the courage to say the joke of the peace process is really a deadly serious war process whose end is Israel's destruction, and that Israel is done with playing along.
There are many reasons that Netanyahu is incapable of stating the truth and ending the 18- year policy nightmare in which Israel is an active partner in its own demise. One of the main reasons is that like his predecessors, Netanyahu has come to believe the myth that Israel's international standing is totally dependent on its being perceived as trying to make peace with the Palestinians.
According to this myth - which has been the central pillar of Israel's foreign policy and domestic politics since Yitzhak Rabin first accepted the PLO as a legitimate actor in 1993 - it doesn't matter how obvious it is that the Palestinians are uninterested in peaceful coexistence with Israel. It doesn't matter how openly they wage their war to destroy Israel.
Irrespective of the nakedness of Palestinian bad faith, seven successive governments have adopted the view that the only thing that stands between Israel and international pariah status is its leaders' ability to persuade the so-called international community that Israel is serious about appeasing the Palestinians.
For the past several months, this profoundly neurotic perception of Israel's options has fed our leaders' hysterical response to the Palestinians' plan to unilaterally declare independence.
The Palestinian plan itself discredits the idea that they are interested in anything other than destroying Israel. The plan is to get the UN to recognize a Palestinian state in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and Gaza outside the framework of a peace treaty with Israel. The PA will first attempt to get the Security Council to endorse an independent "Palestine." If the Obama administration vetoes the move, then the PA will ask the General Assembly to take action. Given the makeup of the General Assembly, it is all but certain that the Palestinians will get their resolution.
THE QUESTION is, does this matter?
Everyone from Defense Minister Ehud Barak to hard-left, post-Zionist retreads like Shulamit Aloni and Avrum Burg says it does. They tell us that if this passes, Israel will face international opprobrium if its citizens or military personnel so much as breathe in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem without Palestinian permission.
These prophets of doom warn that Israel has but one hope for saving itself from diplomatic death: Netanyahu must stand before the world and pledge to give Israel's heartland and capital to the Palestinians.
And according to helpful Obama administration officials, everything revolves around Netanyahu's ability to convince the EU-3 - British Prime Minister David Cameron, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel - that he is serious about appeasing the Palestinians. If he doesn't offer up Israel's crown jewels in his speech before the US Congress next month, administration officials warn that the EU powers will go with the Palestinians.
And if they go with the Palestinians, well, things could get ugly for Israel.
Happily, these warnings are completely ridiculous. UN General Assembly resolutions have no legal weight. Even if every General Assembly member except Israel votes in favor of a resolution recognizing "Palestine," all the Palestinians will have achieved is another non-binding resolution, with no force of law, asserting the same thing that thousands of UN resolutions already assert. Namely, it will claim falsely that Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and Gaza are Palestinian territory to which Israel has no right. Israel will be free to ignore this resolution, just as it has been free to ignore its predecessors.
The threat of international isolation is also wildly exaggerated. Today, Israel is more diplomatically isolated than it has been at any time in its 63-year history. With the Obama administration treating the construction of homes for Jews in Jerusalem as a greater affront to the cause of world peace than the wholesale massacre of hundreds of Iranian and Syrian protesters by regime goons, Israel has never faced a more hostile international climate. And yet, despite its frosty reception from the White House to Whitehall, life in Israel has never been better.
According to the latest data released by the Central Bureau of Statistics, Israel's economy grew 7.8 percent in the last quarter of 2010.
International trade is rising steeply. In the first quarter of 2011, exports rose 27.3%. They grew 19.9% in the final quarter of last year. Imports rose 34.7% between January and March, and 38.9% in the last quarter of 2010.
The Israel-bashing EU remains Israel's largest trading partner. And even as Turkey embraced Hamas and Iran as allies, its trade with Israel reached an all time high last year.
These trade data expose a truth that the doom and gloomers are unwilling to notice: For the vast majority of Israelis the threat of international isolation is empty.
The same people telling us to commit suicide now lest we face the firing squad in September would also have us believe that the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement is the single greatest threat to the economy. But that lie was put paid this month with the demise of the Australian town of Marrickville's BDS-inspired boycott.
Last December, the anti-Israel coalition running the town council voted to institute a trade, sports and academic boycott against Israel. Two weeks ago the council was forced to cancel its decision after it learned that it would cost $3.4 million to institute it. Cheaper Israeli products and services would have to be replaced with more expensive non-Israeli ones.
Both Israel's booming foreign trade and the swift demise of the Marrickville boycott movement demonstrate that the specter of international isolation in the event that Israel extricates itself from the Palestinian peace process charade is nothing more than a bluff. The notion that Israel will be worse off it Netanyahu admits that Abbas has again chosen war against the Jews over peace with us has no credibility.
SO WHAT is preventing Netanyahu and his colleagues in the government from acknowledging this happy truth? Two factors are at play here. The first is our inability to understand power politics. Our leaders believe that the likes of Sarkozy, Cameron and Merkel are serious when they tell us that Israel needs to prove it is serious about peace in order to enable them to vote against a Palestinian statehood resolution at the UN. But they are not serious. Nothing that Israel does will have any impact on their votes.
When the Europeans forge their policies towards Israel they are moved by one thing only: the US.
Since 1967, the Europeans have consistently been more pro-Palestinian than the US. Now, with the Obama administration demonstrating unprecedented hostility towards Israel, there is no way that the Europeans will suddenly shift to Israel's side. So when European leaders tell Israelis that we need to convince them we are serious about peace, they aren't being serious. They are looking for an excuse to be even more hostile. If Israel offers the store to Abbas, then the likes of Cameron, Merkel and Sarkozy will not only recognize "Palestine" at the UN, (because after all, they cannot be expected to be more pro-Israel than the Israeli government that just surrendered), they will recognize Hamas. Because that's the next step.
It would seem that Israel's leaders should have gotten wise to this game years ago. And the fact that they haven't can be blamed on the second factor keeping their sanity in check: the Israeli Left. The only group of Israelis directly impacted by the BDS movement is the Israeli Left. Its members - from university lecturers to anti-Zionist has-been politicians, artists, actors and hack writers - are the only members of Israeli society who have a personal stake in a decision by their leftist counterparts in the US or Europe or Australia or any other pretty vacation/sabbatical spots to boycott Israelis.
And because the movement threatens them, they have taken it upon themselves to scare the rest of us into taking this ridiculous charade seriously. So it was that last week a group of washed-up radicals gathered in Tel Aviv outside the hall where David Ben-Gurion proclaimed Israeli independence, and declared the independence of "Palestine." They knew their followers in the media would make a big deal of their agitprop and use it as another means of demoralizing the public into believing we can do nothing but embrace our enemies' cause against our country.
The time has come for the vast majority of Israelis who aren't interested in the Nobel Prize for Literature or a sabbatical at Berkeley or the University of Trondheim to call a spade a spade. The BDS haters have no leverage. A degree from Bar-Ilan is more valuable than a degree from Oxford. And no matter how much these people hate Israel, they will continue to buy our technologies and contract our researchers, because Cambridge is no longer capable of producing the same quality of scholarship as the Technion.
And it is well past time for our leaders to stop playing this fool's game. We don't need anyone's favors. Abbas has made his choice.
Now it is time for Netanyahu to choose.
Originally published in The Jerusalem Post.
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Netanyahu has been predictable since he betrayed his core principles in turning over Hebron to the Islamic terrorist to please then president Bill Clinton.
He has proven without any doubt to be a follower and not a leader.
The only game he knows is rolling over on Washington's command.
He always bends in the slightest breeze.
He's proven he can't be trusted.
He pushed Moshe Feiglin back in the Likud slot and kept the far left loser Ehud Barak courted Livni to please his handlers in Washington.
The devious snake has kept the building freeze on in Judea and Samaria with great arrogance and disdain for everything that Likud is supposed to stand for and all of you let him get away with it because you stood for a corrupt lying politician and not principal.
And too little too late you ask him to choose.
He's chosen long ago to be the quisling he's always been.
It's time for you to choose !
Caroline, excellent post and you've touched on all the issues, but I have to agree with Marcel. Netanyahu had his first chance and blew it. Now when he can capitalize on the insecurities of the US as well as the upheavals in the world and especially in the Middle East he is cowed. Perhaps he is waiting for the pat on the head telling what a good little boy he is. From whom will it come? Obama, who already has kicked him in the a** more than once. It's time for Israelis and Jews who care to choose for him. Shabbat shalom.
Hi Caroline...Thanks for your piece on Israel standing up for herself. If you try to serve too many masters you lose yourself.
Phil Bronner
You end with, ''Now is the time for Netanyahu to choose.''
C'mon, Caroline, be serious.
Our entire political leadership, with very few exceptions ( I emphasize very few) & including Netanyahu & most of the phoney-baloney fake right-wing Likud, are useless mediocre hacks, spineless, miserable opportunists, low-quality intellectually not particularly bright, out-of-touch, selfish, risk-averse, etc. etc. etc. etc. - I could go on & fill a page with pejoratives describing our crappy politicians.
Most are nothing but re-cycled failures.
To put it even more bluntly, the whole lot of them are full of sh*t, spouting BS speeches composed of slogans, platitudes, failed ideas.
And you expect something out of them?
You're kidding.
I hate to be the voice of gloom & doom all the time, but our future is pretty grim & getting grimmer by the day. Essentially, we are leaderless facing a very uncertain future.
Caroline, congratulations on your latest masterpiece. You should publish it in a collection and call it "Israel for Dummies".
The PA/Hamas bury the hatchet agreement coupled with the Egyptian rejection of it's peace treaty with Israel absolutely kills the Israeli Left. It is dead. Someone needs to shocken Shocken over at Haaretz and tell him the game is over, he lost, and to close up shop and go home for good. Their commentators are beside themselves with their creative writing. As long as they get paid, it is the same old regurgitated bull. I hope Chabad buys The Haaretz building, guts it, delouses it, and builds a shul there.
So from now on, Egypt is going to be responsible for Gaza. If Egypt violates it's peace treaty with Israel, Israel will just have to consider re-taking The Sinai as soon as it is legally justifiable and not one minute later. Just do it!
Yes, good post. As I've said before, two things need to happen for there to be peace in the Arab/Israeli conflict.
First, the Arabs need to understand and accept that they lost the war. Second, the Israelis need to understand and accept that they won the war.
You don't negotiate with a defeated enemy, you dictate terms. If Israel is negotiating, it's because the war isn't over and it's just a temporary cease fire.
And like you say, Israel needs to stop worrying so much about world opinion. There's just too much hatred of Israel and hatred of Jews to make it worthwhile.
Netanyahu merely stalled. Why not? Keep the Americans and Europe dangling. The result is the same - no negotiations with Palestine. You said it doesn't matter,so what's the difference? The difference might be that by declaring finality to the peace process Israel is doing Obama a political favor. American Jews (mostly liberal anyway)would see their president as a man of peace, a friend of Israel, and Bibi as a right wing hawk, the enemy of peace. They'd jump on the opportunity to demonize Netanyahu, and resume their love affair with Obama, which at the moment is in jeopardy. Netanyahu's diplomatic language, rather than your more confrontive approach, leaves it right there. The U.S. administration is going to veto Palestinian statehood in the security council anyway. Obamaneeds to appease American Jews with re-election coming up.
Why make him look good in the process?
I do not agree with you caroline.
Do not believe I am an anti israeli- on the contrary.
The other day I was saying to my nephew that the only 2 countries I really cherish are Israel and Russia.
Russia because russian women are gorgeous. Israel because of the holocaust and the 2000 year persecution. There were many jews in portugal before their expulsion .
By the way :
According to a recent study that was published in the American Journal of Human Genetics in December 2008 by Adams et al., about 30 percent of modern Portuguese (23.6 in the north and 36.3 in the south) have DNA reflecting what can be a male Sephardic Jewish ancestry and about 14 % (11.8 in the north and 16.1% in the south) have a probable Moorish ancestry .
(wikipedia)
As you know in some matters I believe palestinians have justified complaints , in other matters i am more pro israeli.
I have no doubt arabs want to destroy israel.
They were unable to do it through military means.., so they are trying the diplomatic way.
(Hitler also did isolate Czechoslovakia before invading it ).
The diplomatic isolation of Israel is part of the strategy to destroy it.
Israel cannot afford to be isolated .
The main thread is diplomatic.
Israel must go along with the peace process .
If Israel were to do something really radical would be to try to return as much as possible to the 67 lines.., retain only the major settlements and give away territories in which majority is arab.
Such territories should be given to the PA .
Arab minority is a fifth column
PS :
Sharon did call such withdrawal disengagement.
A war of attrition with the Palis and international community will not benefit israel, he did realize.
Besides there was the demographic threat.
Sharon idea was to retreat to lines that could be held and dig the heels there.
PM Netanyahu will address the joint session of Congress next month. He is under pressure to come up with another peace plan to counter the global recognition of 1949 borders as the solution. But how can Netanyahu come up with a solution when one does not exist? With the Palestinian unity government deal with Hamas it is now obvious that the solution does not exist. The solution does not exist because Islam is an ideology that demands submission, does not accept compromises and the only real solution would be to apply sufficient force for their own theology to kick in and they accept the Islamic teaching that if the enemy is too strong they can proclaim hudna for 10 years and only after that period expires re-evaluate the possibility of continuing the jihad. Israel has painted itself in a corner because for years we have refused out of political correctness to clearly state where the problem was. Islam is intolerant and its ideology of jihad demands of its followers to wage it until the whole world succumbs to Muslim rule. The best we can hope for is a series of back to back hudnas .
Can Netanyahu in front of the whole Congress and the world say this? it would bring the wrath of the 1.5 billion Muslims against us. But isn't that already the case? Netanyahu's speech in front of the joint Congress is our last chance to present our case to the American people. Netanyahu may again fudge the issue and come up with another "peace process" that he and all of us who have read Muslim source texts know has no chance of succeeding. He may wish to buy time until a normal US president is back in office, but the situation with Iran and Egypt and Turkey is deteriorating much faster than our ability to wait it out. What to do?
Iran is ruled by apocalyptic mullahs who believe that starting a nuclear war will bring the return of the Twelfth Imam, the Mahdi. There is absolutely no discussion in the West on the ineffectiveness of the doctrine of mutual assured destruction. It is almost insane that our civilization is refusing to discuss the one most pressing and urgent problem facing it – the fact that MAD will not work . A collective taboo on the discussion has been imposed simply because the ramifications of acknowledging that Iran may indeed start a nuclear war without being deterred are so profound that no one has the guts to discuss them, and everyone concentrates on the horrible situation the world will be in if Iran gets the nuclear weapon and imposes its hegemony on the Middle East and everyone avoids to tackle the even worse scenario. i.e that Iran gets the bomb and uses it undeterred. There is no doubt that this should be the crux of Netanyahu’s speech
Regarding the Palestinians, then, the only other reasonable alternative for Netanyahu telling the whole truth about the impossibility of peace with the Palestinians would be to concentrate on the ineffectiveness of MAD with Iran, and so avoid the issue of the Palestinians by saying that there is no solution with them until the Iranian threat is resolved, which is true, and he can skip the part where he has to explain why there would be no solution with the Palestinians even if the Iranian threat were resolved, although things would be somewhat easier.
As news from Kadima hacks (MKs) come in Saturday late evening, it turns out that many are bought part and parcel by Europe. It's still not too late for the Israeli people to term them as the traitors they are together with Labour and Meretz, and agents of outside forces from antisemitic, anti-Israel Europe. Kadima traitora must be exposed, revelaed and shamed. They are in effect far-leftist sellers of theirown country. I even question if they are Jews. They shouldn't be allowed to get away with the desirable label of politically "centrist". They are clearly and demonstrably not.
Spot on, Caroline!
I agree completely- 'choose' is the operative word here. Whose side are we- the nations of the world, every individual on the face of the earth- on? Are we for the God of Israel or against Him? Do we stand with Israel or against her? I believe we at a pivotal time in human history when we are being asked this. Make your decision. Choose your side. Be clear about it.
Israel is watching nations and individuals make their choice very clearly. They are breathing hard, closing in, hating, wishing Israel smaller, wishing her gone. It is incredibly painful to watch Israel being squeezed in this manner. But there is so much hope. The most powerful ally Israel could ever hope for, the only one she will ever need, is standing inside the circle with her, guarding her. He chose- a very long time ago. His choice stands forever.
Israel, know your God absolutely is with you. He has chosen and He doesn't ever change His mind. The day is coming when He is going to claim you before the entire world, so just hold on. You are in the land to stay, so plant both feet firmly and don't budge. Don't allow a single person, government or global coalition to bully you out of another inch of God-given soil. Cherish it..and build on it.
Caroline, the PA and Hamas are and have been co-conspirators whose aim is to destroy Israel.
Hamas a proxy of the Iranian stooges is really in control of the PA and that smells bad.
I believe Israel has no other choice but to continue building communities, shore up her military and defensive ability and go about protecting her citizens.
It’s high time liberal American Jews to wake up and get off the Mr. Obama [Acorn community organizing pamphlet distributing anti-Semite pretending to be a Christian (for political reasons) who embraces Islam and an incompetent president] band wagon and put pressure on their representatives in Congress to fully support Israel, our only true trusted friend and ally in the ME, with no strings attached.
When you help your best friends you don’t attach conditions.
The US provides aid to the likes of the Arab world, all of whom have the world’s worst human rights violations and they don’t like us either. Conditions need to apply to these rascals, no aid until rights are provided for all their citizens, especially women, no engagement in terrorism acts against their neighbor Israel.
The US needs to support the one and only state, the Jewish State of Israel, the Holy Land with its capital, the undivided city of Jerusalem.
I believe this is the will of G-d.
Dear Caroline & Crew,
I believe you have analyzed, the so called peace deals properly. Israel has plenty of Old Testament history, where trying to appease other nations didn't help them. For the liberal the Bible says, if your enemy hungers feed him. But nowhere does it say follow him to your own destruction, nor try to appease him. Israel has tried, but you can't have peace with an enemy who doesn't want it. If Israel stands up for itself, and rejects world pressure. How can it be any worse. The same people who praise you for a peace deal, want more concession later. I vote for the good sense you make. God Bless
Ivan
Caroline,
I have been reading your columns for sometime now. I agree with almost everything you say. I believe we must be adamant about our position with PLO, Fatah, Hamas, Hezbollah et al. But, I do feel that we live in a world that we can not survive alone. You might think we can because the boycott did not work in Austrailia. The great GDP growth Israel has been achieving and the gas discovered off the coast of Haifa. Do not be to arrogant. We can not survive alone! We must continue to state and argue our position. I think your article regarding the lessons learned from Goldstone rebuttal point the right direction for us. We must continue to work towards peace but from our rightful position. We can start by declaring our right to the territory set out by the Balfour declarations along with the UN/ League of nations mandates. Then we can demand defensible borders. But, do not fool yourself and think we can live alone. We are in their world. Someday, Hashem will change that but until then…
I am now getting doubts that my mildly critical comments will ever get posted on this blog - and that would disappoint me even more - after all someone should live by ideas that "I disagree with you but would rather die for your right to say it freely".
To further illustrate what I mean in my previous post where I justly criticize extreme points of view expressed by a number of readers regarding ethnicity of President Obama, calls for "Holy war" against tyrannical regimes in any Arab states (except Egypt of course - that one was a friendly tyrant) led by the US and declaring all Israeli Arabs are a "fifth column" (coming form Jews who were declared such in Germany by Nazi propaganda - see Caroline's article for the Holocaust remembrance day). These ideas are pretty much as radical and groundless as their direct opposites.
I wanted to share an article which is a great sample of objective "realpolitik" by Alon Ben-Meir form the NYU's Center for Global Affairs:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alon-benmeir/us-middle-east-_b_856558.html
Specifically, I liked the following logic:
"otwithstanding the heroism of this act by our courageous Armed Forces, the Obama administration has appeared befuddled, slow-to-react and inconsistent in its response to the awakening of the masses protesting throughout the streets of the Arab world. Calls for an "Obama Doctrine" in the region have become louder, urging clarity behind the United States' regional strategy and goals. However, it is not that U.S. policy has been misguided; rather, it is that the White House's messaging has been sluggish and ineffective. While it has demanded that the universal right of peaceful protest be ensured in all places, it must also be clear that America's actions will be dictated by its strategic interests and priorities and those of its allies in the region"
I can sign under any word of this statement because it is logical, objective and suggests what can be done REALISTICALLY to make Administration;'s policy standing in the Middle East better. Hope that those who keep painting Obama's Middle eastern policies in black-n;white colors (black to be specific) would take notice..
I have a great respect for Caroline powerful journalistic and civic style as far as supporting Israel's right for a better safety and existence is conerned. I do however disagree with many of her statements towards current US Administration policies, especially those in Middle East and specifically in Israel - Palestinie conflict.
Here's the quote that is typical exagerration (if not putright distortion) of facts "...Since 1967, the Europeans have consistently been more pro-Palestinian than the US. Now, with the Obama administration demonstrating unprecedented hostility towards Israel, there is no way that the Europeans will suddenly shift to Israel's side. So when European leaders tell Israelis that we need to convince them we are serious about peace, they aren't being serious"
I believe that this statement is not based on facts, and not only because of yesterday elimination of bin Laden that was done quietly and very professionally - as opposed to very loud but inefficient (not to mention costing thousands of American and other Western lives) campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama effectively adopted Israel's practice of "targeted killings" of arch terrorists and executed it perfectly.
Of course there's just one less terrorism mastermind in the world (albeit a major, cult figure for his followers around the world). But it did not take a full blown war (which still goes on Afghanistan) to take him out. Now - Taliban, mullocracy of Iran, Ghaddafi's and Asad's secular but brutal regimes are all very very bad guys. And I am sure that US has some intel form sources on the ground on what;'s going on - but by no means the US should play a world enforcer of "democracy" (in quotes b/c of this word has been used & abused by many US leaders differently). And I'm sure that US is running some covert operations in Iran to provide support to its "green opposition" and openly leads with more strict sanctions against it in the public policy area as we all know. US does not have a world's mandate to overthrow all "rogue" governments - there are rules and regulations even in World policy and these not only come from the much hated by the right United Nations.
I am also completely disgusted by all attacks - past, present and quite likely future - on the personality of Barack Hussein Obama who of course is an ideal target for neo conservatives of all brands. As we saw recently the "birther" theory easily ruined and now another - quite real - disproval of the myth that "toothless liberals" are not ready to protect their population and only can offer more & more concessions to their sworn enemies - see the list above. I believe that a really wise leader (and Obama is getting there - not there yet) see things not in a black and white colors of ideology ("us vs. them", "righteous vs godless" etc) - but in a gamma of various colors of real circumstances.
Of course there are absolute moral principles which may and are translated into politics - and Obama administration is getting the message about holding a high ground in the Israeli Palestinian conflict. But again - invoking ideas of Obama's alleged (and absolutely unconfirmed) for radical Muslim thoughts and policies do nothing that present authors of these ideas like posters above in a less than positive light. People can disagree ion many things - and I do disagree with some policies that Obama administration (for which I have voted as well as miserable 75% of American Jews) used to carry out. I also disagree with quite a few policies that Netanyahu administration carries out - especially those pushed by my former compatriot Avigdor Liberman. But for me that is absolutely not a reason to viciously attack your opponents personally, accuse them of all possible sins and as a result present yourselves as zealous propagandists of radical ideas of faith intolerance and borderline racism.
Diversity of political opinions is not a new cultural phenomenon, especially in the history of Jewish people - so I hope that it will be respected as much as I generally respect opinons of others (when they do not fall below line of civil arguments).
Hi Caroline....As usual you are to the point. Bullies will bully as long as victims victimize and appeasement is victimizing oneself. Humans are still animals, a fact unwishedfor by our sophisticated elite and those who do realize it-and act acordingly-are sneered at while saving the lives of the paralyzed. Keep it up and screw anybody who doesn't like it.
Phil Bronner