Steve B http://jta.org/user/profile/24053 en-us rgruber@jta.org Copyright 2009 2009-11-22T;18:33:00-05:00 To Michael Lerner, Alice Walker, David - what are you smoking? - it may be just the thing to help me be oblivious to the next 3.25 years of that other friend of Israel, Obama! :) Real insightful Alice Walker - the answer to the Palestinian-Israel struggle is "one state"? Just what the world needs - another Lebanon. You think your solution will bring peace to the world? I guess in your travels you never came across the scorpion and the frog. As for who-hit-who-1st - Thomas Roberts said it all. Good job Tom! 2009-11-22T;18:33:00-05:00 At the end of the day, Limbaugh is an entertainer. Meanwhile elected Democrats demonize U.S. citizens with impunity - Pelosi calls citizens who don't like her bills "nazis"; Obama calls cops who arrest his friend for disorderly conduct "stupid"; elected Democrats have honed to a fine art their practice of avoiding debating issues with their political opponents and instead demonize Republicans as threats to Social Security - as racists - as "fat cats" who hate the little guy - and then these same demonizing-Dems are utterly shocked when the elderly spot them as being wolves under sheep's clothing and attack the Dems' health care porposals. Mr. Rosensaft protestith too much. 2009-11-22T;18:33:00-05:00 Perhaps Netanyahu is still smarting from the money that poured in from Bill Clinton's cohorts in the US in the late 1990'2 that enabled Barak to defeat Bibi for reelection so Clinton could deal with a left of center government. Perhaps the Israeli public is smarting from the results of the dynamic duo - Clinton and Barak - giving Arafat the best deal the P.A. ever got and in return Israel's citizens suffered Intifada II - proportionally equivalent to 6+ 911's in the US. Transparency is the answer - well understood by Foxman - but not by the anonymous dissenter from Bibi's proposal to ban or at least identify outside money as such. 2009-11-22T;18:33:00-05:00 Before making moral equivalents re E Abrams comments about the parade of Obama officals trooping to Israel, perhaps "Capital J" writer Ron Kampeas might explain how Obama sending in the same week 2 cabinet level officals + 2 White House Middle East Czars is any where equivalent to any trip that Asst Secy Elliot Abrams or other Bush sub-cabinet officials ever made to Israel. 2009-11-22T;18:33:00-05:00 While the article does not identify the gunman's level of religiousity, the author and R Herzfeld seem to leave no dougt that Israel's orthodox community is responsible for this crime. Is it too much to expect that we not submit our own to profiling of the kind that we hate when applied to others? 2009-11-22T;18:33:00-05:00 Jeffrey Blankfort is right IF you turn history on its head and deny the Brits their internationally recognized right as a mandate governor to declare a Jewish State in the area east of the Jordon (1918), which the U.N. incorporated in its declaration of an independent State of Israel (1947) - (i was around for the later but not for the former - perhaps Mr. Blankfort, claiming the wisdom of old age, was present for both.) It would also be a twist of history to force a peace on the victor of a defensive war - including requiring resettlement of folks kept in "refugee" status by their Arab brothers for 62 years (when on the average, historically, folks have moved from refugee status to resettling somewhere in an average of 7 years.) But giving Mr. Blankfort the benefit of the doubt, it must be long past due for most of us "Americans", descendents of non-North Americans, to end our intransience and settle accounts with Native Americans. Finally, giving Mr. Blankfort the benefit of the doubt, what say he about the status of almost 1 million Jews chased from Arab lands in the late 1940's leaving behind real estate 7+ times the size of Israel and wealth worth in excess of $50 billion. 2009-11-22T;18:33:00-05:00 Mr. Hicks i looked at the video with an open mind and heart. I feel for Palestinians who have been kept in refugee status by their own leaders, the leaders of Arab states, and even by the acquiescence of the U.N. and thereby indirectly by the U.S.A. The average tenure as "refugee" in recorded history is 7 years. I feel for those whose leaders have given them the distinction of remaining enslaved in refugee camps almost 9 times longer than the world-wide average - Palestinian refugee camps have been maintained for 61 years and counting, not by Israel, but by Palestinians and their brothers and sisters. I truly feel for the refugees. Meanwhile the refugee camp maintainers have refused a two state solution many times since 1947, and at the same time condemn Palestinians, who depend on them, to rot in the refugee camps. Now, on a completely different topic, tell me exactly why an Israeli government should acquiesce to the feelings of empathy that you and others have for the sad state of affairs of 61 years of Palestinians as refugees, and declare disputed land Yuden-rein (no Jews allowed)? And tell me exactly how it will come about that a land free of Jews will hasten the day when all parties respect each others' borders and really live in peace. 2009-11-22T;18:33:00-05:00 Candidate Obama often said, "Words mean something." President Obama publically coddles Palestinians and slams Israel's leaders. Then he expects Israel not to be so sensitive about his words - he is quoted as saying at this meeting, "The president indicated he had a sensitivity to the perception of that imbalance and had to work harder to correct that perception." We are told that this President is very careful and very exacting when he speaks - both in the speech writing phase as well as his total reliance on teleprompters. He clearly is very focused on the staging of his many speeches and the impact on his audiences. And yet when it comes to Israel and Jewish-Americans sensibilities this President seems to use a different standard. He asks us not to hold him to his words if his words offend us. Wow - dual standards! Do our so-called Jewish community leaders expect us to trust this President who consistently reverses campaign positions and then defends his misstatements by whining that we just don't understand him?! 2009-11-22T;18:33:00-05:00 The settlements are not as big an issue as this Administration is making them to be. What is a big issue is the very public way in which the Obama Administration and its minions are stick ing it to Israel over the settlements - is this the diplomatic style of engaging the world that Obama promised? Against the background of Obama's widely heralded world-wide apology tour, the Obama Administration's tone against Israel is blood curding. Lenin's nickname for dupable bourgeois comes to mind. King Abdullah (the Saudi one) must be pleased. The Honorable Congressman was a strong supporter of Bill Clinton - he seems to have forgotten how successful Clinton was in getting Israel to call the Palestinians' bluff, Israel withdrawing its troops from Judea and Samaria during the Oslo process - in exchange the Palestinians delivered Intifada II which proportionally for Israel was the equivalent of 6+ 911s. The Honorable Congressman was a strident critic of George W. Bush - maybe he just didn't notice that Bush was also able to get Israel to call the Palestinians' bluff - Israel didn't just freeze settlements, Israel unilaterally pulled out of Gaza, settlements and all - and in exchange, Israel's citizens have had to endure daily bombing ever since from Hamas, a political party voted into power by the Palestinians. 2009-11-22T;18:33:00-05:00 i was surprised to see that Michael Hess lives in N. Carolina - someone with a European sounding name, living on up until 300 years ago was Native American land, and who so self righteously decries Israel's settlements on lands that Jews have lived on for 3000+ years is - ? - Well maybe Mr. Hess is a full-blooded Cherokee. 2009-11-22T;18:33:00-05:00