I do predict, however, that Israel will withdraw its citizens from the West Bank, all of them.

--- @Renegade Iconoclast

What makes you think this is the case given the religious fanaticism of the messianic Jewish settlers and the fact that EVERY single Israeli government has expanded settlements in the West Bank?

My post was about how the Mitchell report indicated that the Palestinian Authority (that's Arafat at the time) DID NOT intentionally plan the violence of the second intifada as you had asserted (and as Zionists repeat ad nauseum hoping that it becomes an established fact).

A much more likely explanation is that the Israeli right wanted to jeopardize any chances for peace as the two sides were getting closer to a mutually acceptable agreement in Taba. Hence Ariel Sharon's provocative visit to the Alaqsa Mosque.

But, realistically speaking, without serious action by peace loving people across the globe (effective boycott of Israeli products, war crime lawsuits against Israeli army officers, etc) I don't think the Israeli people will act. They are simply too unaware of what's going on in the West Bank. Also the highly militaristic and ultra-nationalist culture in Israel makes it very hard for them to act against the settlements.

You are clearly full of hate and racism toward Arabs and Muslims whom you find easy to dehumanize (kind of explains the behavior of the Israeli war criminals in Gaza - Many likely share your hateful outlook)

As for your interpretation of history, did you consider:

1) Since 70 AD - when the second temple was destroyed by the Romans- Jews were never more than a tiny minority in Palestine until the 20th century.

2) In the 20th century, the Zionist movement started mass immigration of Jews to Palestine while denying the existence of the Palestinians (remember the whole thing about "a land without a people for a people without a land" and Golda Meir's "There is no such thing as the Palestinians")

3) Palestinians did not leave their homes voluntarily (no one would) they were massacred and driven out by Zionist terrorist gangs like the Irgun, Stern and the Haganah who brought terrorism to the Middle East (where Muslims, Christians and Jews had lived in peace for centuries).

It is starting...

"As educators of conscience, we have been unable to stand by and watch in silence Israel's indiscriminate assault on the Gaza Strip and its educational institutions," the U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel stated in its inaugural press release last Thursday.

"The response has been remarkable given the extraordinary hold that lobbying organizations like AIPAC exert over U.S. politics and over the U.S. media, and in particular given the campaign of intimidation that has been leveled at academics who dare to criticize Israel's policies," Lloyd wrote in an e-mail to Haaretz Monday. "Within a short weekend since the posting of the press release, more than 80 academics from all over the country have endorsed the action and the numbers continue to grow."

--- http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1059775.html

I have a suggestion for you: I don't have a problem with Jews living in the West Bank, provided that the Palestinians living there be given the same citizenship rights as their Jewish neighbors. What do you think?

Through fear mongering and deceit, The neocons tried to turn America into a paranoid and racist country that justifies torture and prejudice. Thank God they failed (at least for now)!

Too bad Bush squandered the budget surpluses left by Clinton as well as the goodwill that Clinton had built with the rest of the world.

Whatever happened to "for richer or poorer"

China, as an emerging power, has interests that are not always aligned with the US. The difference between China and Israel is that China clearly does not control US foreign policy.

Israel on the other hand does control US policy through "a group so clearly intent on enforcing adherence to the policies of a foreign government – in this case, the government of Israel."

"there is a powerful lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired, still less to factor in American understanding of trends and events in the Middle East. The tactics of the Israel Lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth. The aim of this Lobby is control of the policy process through the exercise of a veto over the appointment of people who dispute the wisdom of its views, the substitution of political correctness for analysis, and the exclusion of any and all options for decision by Americans and our government other than those that it favors."

---- Chas Freeman (http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/03/10/freeman_speaks_out_on_his_exit)

If it wasn't for the Israel Lobby and the neocons there would not have been an Iraq war and the US influence around the world would not have fallen to an all time low. Just think about it.

"I'll agree it's [the Israel relationship] a big source of animus for parts of the Arab/Moslem world. But the Moslem extremists are the real danger, and they are still pissed off about the Crusades, and their goal is the destruction of Christianity and, well, any non-Moslem religion, as well as the Sunni-Shia cross-hatreds. In short, a mess."

-- Jonathan in Tel Aviv

That's what you would like us to believe. Islamic extremism exists, in large part, because Israel occupies Palestine, including the holy Muslim site of Al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem. This occupation and the Israeli brutality that we have seen in places like Gaza are the main reason behind inflaming extremism. (see, for example, Bin Laden: Palestinian Cause Prompted 9/11 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/16/terror/main4102367.shtml)

But then you probably know this already but would like others to fight your dirty wars for you a la Iraq.