Ronit –
Because what one sees in the printed news is the good, or at the worst -usually- the marginally good is, I think, part of the reason that statements on-line sometimes grow heated. Such a relief comes from finding a forum within which to express one’s repugnance.

There are many comments on line from military personnel past and present decrying the activity of the IDF and denying the legitimacy of such actions.

There is a lot on-line by US military personnel, a fair amount of it critical. You ignore, also, the trials for actions by US personnel deemed criminal. Some of them end in no judgment against the personnel but criticism of the military is rife in court testimony.

I consider your argument about Israel being unique in allowing criticism of its actions to be specious; in addition to invalid, as the criticism doesn’t seem to result in consequences, and won’t as long as the military controls State policy.

Israel has been on the offensive since the 1920’s, pre-state, days. It’s such a false premise to posit that Israel is always responding to attack. False: fail.

Do not criticize the state: Obey!

The only viable position is to hold Israel itself and its army accountable for its actions in Gaza. RS

Speak truth to power.

It is understandable, Ronit, that the Israeli are fearful. Yet, that fear is something that the SA’s overcame.

Israel has been recognized as a nation/state in the UN; they have a most-favored nation status with the US, they receive unholy amounts of money from the US in military aide. What more is wanted?

I’ve seen little evidence of a desire for a two-state solution, at the highest level one sees it not in any but oblique terms. What there is comes from highly reputable sources, but they claim themselves to be a minority, and question their ability to receive representation within the Israeli Knesset.

Israel does NOT recognize a Palestinian state, it recognizes a “Palestinian Authority” which is not allowed the sovereignty of a full-state…I guess by those standards, Hamas DOES “recognize” Israel when it refers to it as an “entity”. Jafar

Israel doesn’t recognize Hamas nor a Palestinian state. So Israel will be recognized when it is prepared to recognize its enemy. Not before.

As for recognition, I don’t think you should expect Palestinians to “recognize” Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state–they’re not going to endorse their own expulsion.

“What you can hope for is that they will resign themselves to it and settle for boundaries very close to the 67 borders, with mutually agreed upon changes.” Oh, Donald, I don’t want that if it ends with non-contiguous and scarce land for the Palestinians. I guess I need to go check the ‘67 boundaries.

IMO the rights of all faiths should be recognized equally, especially in Jerusalem.

Those who don’t support a one-state solution because of a belief that enmity is natural among those different also, many of them, seem to be those who stand to gain from the segregation of the two-state solution, IMNSHO. There is recent history of peaceful cooperation. The trope that it’s been war, war, war for more than sixty years is laid out by those who want war, almost universally the Israeli (suddenly I’m just as happy to leave the s off the plural possessive form of the word.)

Ronit: about racism. Read this, then go read the comments on Haaretz. http://academic.udayton.edu/race/01race/race02.htm The prosecution rests.

However, they are miserable because their identity does not correlate with the state they are citizens of, nor do they have another fully existing national statehood they could identify with at the moment.

Specifically to your question the answer would be “no”, not because I wouldn’t be able to fully practice my democratic rights, nor because I wouldn’t be individually “free”, but because my statehood would be filled with national contents that I would not relate to, and that would have caused me constant alienation.

Therefore, the solution would be to either empy out the particular contents from the state altogether, or create a statehood with my own contents.

Would Israel’s Jews like to live in a Palestinian state and be treated like Israeli Arabs (let alone Palestinians in OC) are being treated in Israel?

Keep comments brief and on topic. As much as you think we all want to hear you expound on your full views on all these issues, trust me we don’t. Participate in the discussion. But don’t abuse the privilege.

Comments are meant to specifically apply to the post on which you’re commenting. Don’t regale us with long discourses you’ve written before or posted elsewhere.

Also, once you post more than three comments a day (many of them very long) & do it consistently you are also beginning to abuse your comment privileges.

Do you know? Sticking “zionism” everywhere does not automatically justify your assertions…

I’ll repeat though, what I said earlier–the reason you see people at blogs like this concentrating our attention on Israel’s sins, with less attention paid to the sins of Palestinians is not just that Israel’s sins seem greater to us (though they do) but also because in mainstream US political circles there is an overwhelming pro-Israel bias. It’s not like people are arguing about whether Israel should get 40 percent or 60 percent or 80 percent of the blame–it’s more like whether Israel should get 0 percent or maybe as much as 5 percent. Politicians and pundits are forever making excuses for Israel–they condemn unreservedly Palestinian terror and rocket fire, but Israel’s settlements (or rather, the increase in settlements) is at worst “not helpful” and when Israel bombs civilians it’s always the fault of Arabs. And when, because of the internet I suspect, the NYT is forced to pay attention to the stories in Ha’aretz about IDF atrocities, it’s undoubtedly going to be treated as some aberration, as some new development because Israel normally has such great concern for innocent human life. In short, Israel always has to be treated as having the moral high ground–they may do some “not helpful” things and individuals may be guilty of atrocities, but in the end, they are the good civilized Westerners and even Israel’s sins prove its virtues, because they are so anguished about it. (Though I value the existence of B’Tselem, too much can be made of this. There were many good-hearted European-Americans who took the side of the Native Americans in the 19th century, but it didn’t stop the ethnic cleansing and occasional acts of genocide.)

If we had a press and a political culture in the US which treated the conflict with the kind of balance you see in Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International or B’Tselem, a blog like this would be unnecessary. We’re a long ways away from that and so you’re likely to see a lot of angry Americans at blogs like this pointing out Israel’s sins.

Listen, I am not denying there shouldbe change… but to call Israel racist.. you are kidding me.. really… I should copy paste here conversations with Israeli Arabs, who brag to our Egyptian friends about the liberal place they live in…

Come on! Really. There are many wrong things.. Stick to them.. no need to cover everything with empty rethorics to prove your point