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Agreed. In today's America, Israel is perfect & can do no wrong (God forbid the party in power loses 1 Jewish vote). Hamas did start this. The perpetrators should be punished. The Israli gvt should ALSO be punished, & making that statement does not mean I am anti-Semitic. I am antifascist.

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thank you for this.

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I disagree.

First, pease is, of course, a wonderful thing. However, misguided peace movements are the ideological equivalent of AIDS. Just as AIDS destroys the immune system and leaves the body vulnerable to infection, peace movements can paralyze our military responses, leaving us vulnerable to savage, deadly attacks.

Re Hillel's assertion that "the rest is commentary." We Jews do not deify our leaders. We do not surrender our right to question and to doubt. And so I can continue to venerate Hillel while disagreeing with his assertion that the rest is commentary.

What you dismiss as commentary is long, compelling and proves that whenever Israel makes a concession, it suffers enorrmous wounds.

For example, in 2000, Israel withdrew from Southern Lebanon to show its good will, to facilitate a trend toward peace. Southern Leb immediately filled up with Hezbollah fighters sworn to annihilate Israel.

For example, in 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza and installed, in Gaza, factories so the so called Palestinians could have a viable economy. (The Israelis did not retain any ownership in the facilities it built, for the Arabs, in Gaza.) And the Arabs responded by making Gaza a base from which to attack Israel.

I could give you many more examples. But I doubt if you are interested in examples or reasoned discourse.

BTW: The three most recent articles on my susbstack Newsletter, "Mad Dogs and Englishmen," all pertain to the current conflagration in the MidEast.

David Gottfried

New York, New York

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"so called Palestinians"

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I call them "so called Palestinians" for the following reasons:

Palestinian ethnicity is a social construction made to delegitimize the state of Israel:

1) There is no Palestinian religion; they are largely Muslim, like millions of people the world over\

2) There is no Pal. language; they speak Arabic, like millions of people in Arab countries

3) There never was an independent Pal. state

4) The word Palestine was coined by Rome to extinguish the memory of ancient Judea

AND CONSIDER THIS:

5) From 1948 to 1967, Gaza and the West Bank were ruled by Egypt and Jordan respectively. DURING THAT TIME, NO ONE SAID THAT THE ARAB STATES OF EGYPT AND JORDAN WERE TREADING ON PAL. NATIONAL IDENITY.

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