Getting better, Glenn, a generally thoughtful post free of your usual slant (aka: no "Attack on Gaza! (tm)" bromides).

The discussion in America on Israel/Palestine has changed because the facts have changed. The military response by Israel to Hamas provocation seems to have gone far beyond the boundaries of acceptability. As a result, American voices are now being raised to criticize Israel (and without the secret media silencing campaign that you were convinced existed).

Obama has made all the right moves on the issue. Foxman continues to expose himself as a joke.

Where you continue to err is in your conflation that Israel's wars are America's wars because we give Israel money and weapons. By your logic, Pakistan's military skirmishes with India are an American war since we give Pakistan 1 billion a year.

Yet India views us as an ally.

Unlike America's actual wars (Iraq, Afghanistan), what Israel does is not an American war in any literal sense. Yes, we support Israel. And yes, many zealots in the middle east love to blame America for Israel. But that is not reason to change course any more than we should elect Republicans because "Osama Bin Laden wants John Kerry to win." Surely you can see the logical fallacy of making foreign policy decisions based on what other countries argue as part of their own domestic political propaganda slants.

We will never stop supporting Israel, much as you, or others on the fringe who use words like "Zionists" and "tribalists" might want.

But we can and should be more evenhanded. Clinton knew that.

Simply because the Neo-Cons are pro-war chickenhawks who love it when Israel kills Arabs, that doesn't mean we have to swing 100% in the other direction.

There is much promise that an Obama administration, like Carter and Clinton, can intervene in a way that both supports Israel's right to exist and defend itself, while also doing what we can to empower the Palestinians to self govern.

But if the Palestinians continue to blow it, by electing Hamas or sending nail bombers onto the streets of Israel, there's not much anyone can do for them.

Who the fuck do you think your are or what the fuck to you think Israel is that it should be able to dictate who anyone chooses to lead them?

The Palestinians chose Hamas. Period.

Live with it.

They're the ones who have to live with the consequences of their choices. They remain complicit in their failure to be achieve state-hood. This doesn't excuse Israeli crimes, but it does place a context on the events in Gaza that GG usually fails to provide.

Many peoples have suffered under oppression in history. Some choose peace and passive resistance as a form of resistance. Other choose terrorism and self destruction.

The Palestinians need to find their Gandhi, their King, their Mandela. So far, they've found Arafat and Hamas.

(sigh)

There you go again.

(2) Our one-sided support for Israel is a major reason (though not the only reason) why we are so enmeshed in Middle East conflicts and why we provoke so much external hostility.

We're "enmeshed" in two Middle East conflicts -- Iraq and Afghanistan. Neither of which have anything to do with our support of Israel.

If you believe we invaded Iraq because of secret Israeli encouragement or a secret desire to help Israel, please state this, and then state your evidence for believing this. It is rank conspiracy looneyness, right up with "no Jews died in the WTC on 9/11" nonsense.

BushCo invaded Iraq because of a long-standing desire to do so. To claim this war has to do with support for Israel is nonsensical.

Equally inane is to claim Osama Bin Laden cares about the Palestinians, and had we not supported Israel, Al Qaeda would not have attacked us on 9/11.

Al Qaeda's fanaticism runs deep and springs from America's partnering with the House of Saud and other corrupt despotic regimes occupying the "holy lands" of Iraq and Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden barely mentioned Israel until around 2002-2003 when, post Second Intifada, he tried to tie everything together.

Your attempts to link your anti-Israel stance with a larger philosophy of disentanglement with the Middle East fails even the basic logic test, Glenn.

We can easily continue to support Israel while ending our occupation of Iraq and ongoing war in Afghanistan. The two, quite simply, are not connected.

Just because terrorists claim Israel is their motivation to attack America also doesn't make it so. More like a convenient excuse for Holy War. If Israel disappeared tomorrow, Al Qaeda's motivations would be unchanged. Stop taking terrorists at their word. Israel, as it has been for so many zealots and war-mongers in the Middle East over the decades, remains the excuse given to cover the agenda.