For almost sixty years, Israel has touted the freedom and support it gained from those Arabs who chose to live under a Jewish state than anything offered by their Arab brethren. When Palestine broke apart the neighboring governments ordered all Arabs to leave. Many did. Many did not. Maybe because they were tired of being told what to do by people who had no interest in there best interests. They stayed.

In return the new state of Israel granted all Arab Muslims the same rights as Jewish Israelis. There are parties in parliement that represent the Muslim minority community which currently reprents about 23 percent of the population. Sadly, this is little different than the rights we in America granted African slaves in 1865. They had the constitutional rights to participate and be equal to the white populace, but they had some hurdles to jump.

When I read those letters attacking this writer I have to wonder "Have you ever been to Israel? Have you ever talked to Jewish citizens? Arab citizens? I have.

I've been to the bedouin settlements in southern Israel. They live like the worst of reservations in New Mexico and Arizona. I've been to the northern Arab cities in Israel. Think of Roxbury in the 1960's.

Many of these Arabs are Christian, not Muslim, and yet they are treated badly. Like this writer states, their permits are rejected, their buildings and homes are allowed to fall into disrepair and their water rights are cut off. Then, when all is lost and they are forced to move, the locals talk about how it is all their fault for being so shiftless and lazy. Sound familiar?

Israel is 1950's America except without the lynchings and African Americans blowing themselves up at the local Mississipi police office or laying down IEDs against FBI or National Guard patrols. It is the same when it comes to the absolute hatred felt between Arab and Israeli. Maybe we overcame this because we in the US were not surrounded by African American countries, and we didn't have 2000 years of being an oppressed minority with an axe to grind.

Still, what happens next should not be based on revenge but where to go from here and there is 20 percent of the population asking this governmnet to get from here to there and willing to follow them. Apartheid and racism isn't a route that will get you there.

Being able to post comments on Salon is the major reason I keep renewing my subscription. Though there are some lousy responses, the majority are well reasoned and add to the original topic. The best part of the red stars is that its proof the editors are actually reading the letters. I also like the fact the number of letters for most articles are fairly small, unlike say Huffington Post, where writing a comment is the journalistic equivelant of tossing a glass of water into the sea.

There are certain writers who post often enough that their letters are like regular columns. Flame wars are rare here, as opposed to other sites and there is very little raving lunatic spam. As web forums go the letters set up is a serious asset to Salon.

What I am surprised by, though, is how thin skinned and self important professional writers really are. You'd think your English teachers never gave you a bad grade or something.

The correct name for Whole Foods is Whole Paycheck. Anyone who's ever shopped there understands why.

You might discover who we really are. Not everyone posting letters is some amatuer.

What? No comment about Cheney's handwritten not implicating Dubya in the cover up? I guess that might have slipped your mind, what with no semen samples spilled on it and all.

Guys. Bush was up in the cover up to his ass and the evidence is bluer than Monica's dress. More importantly, this crazy fuck is hell bent on attacking Iran and realizing Osama Bin Laden's greatest wet dream: a western superpower so over stretched it is doomed to lose and a Middle East that wouldn't spit on Osama if he was on fire allying themselves against the US not because Bin Laden told them to, but because the US obliged him by invading everyone in the middle east and forcing them into the Al Quaeda camp. My personal opinion. The administration has an Al Quaeda Mole in the Veep's office.

The last thing the security and safety of our country need is a war in Iran and the best hope of saving us is to remove this bastards from power. Soooo while your getting your jollies off whatching a certain NY Times columnist sweat on the stand you might consider what is necessary to get this administration out of power before they kill us all.

Mkay?