Maybe if Israel hadn't been plunked down in Palestine and so many natives displaced their problems would be fewer. Why didn't they off the "diaspora" a few thousand acres in Maryland or Poland or something like that..?

Sorry, I'm really, really low on sympathy-for-the-master-race today... oh, I meant "Chosen People" and not "Master Race," really I did...

Maybe if Nazis like you and your German and Arab brethren stopped trying to genocide the Jews, this all wouldn't have happened?

I saw you post some of Hitler's "warnings on Zionism" as if that gave them merit. Which makes sense for you, since you're the most reliable anti-Semite on Salon.

The current situation really brings out the anti-semites, doesn't it?

I also find it pretty sad that for all the other articles about the Middle East situation, so many letter writers have been expressing sympathy about what is happening to the Lebanese -- but not one of them has expressed any sympathy here for Israelis like the ones in this article. Those folks have been living with -- and dying by -- rocket attacks and suicide bombers for years and years and years.

Make no mistake; I feel enormous sympathy for the civilians in Lebanon who have been caught up in what is, in reality, a geo-political power struggle. I have friends who are Lebanese and I feel their anguish. And I truly wish that no innocent blood were being shed on either side.

But the reality is that BOTH innocent Lebanese and Israelis are dying. And the lack of any response here to the plight of Israelis is a sad commentary on how truly biased many people here are.

And I'm sorry to have to say this, but had this particular article been about Lebanese hunkered down in bunkers, the letters page here would have been overflowing with sympathy for these people and filled with far more than one anti-semitic rant.

And tshere's no denying that.

I ha ve not heard of any rocket attacks on Northern Israel in the last several years prior to the bombing of Lebanon last week. In fact once Israel left Lebanon (in 2002?)I had not heard of them at all How often did Hezbollah bomb Israel prior to the beginning of the current war?

Never mind the Katyusha rockets overhead, down here it's just plain hot. The humid air reeks with the smell of too many people, crammed into the 150-square-foot cellar right on the beachfront of the northern Israel

Substitute 100 times as many Israeli Bombs, Shells & Rockets and you have daily life for the Palestinians for the past decade. Only that's their homes, not a bomb shelter (they don't have any).

But who cares - they're only Arabs.

At the risk of seeming to head away from the main topic (Hunkered down in Israel, again), I would like to take a few moments to comment on a fellow poster's comment. And please don't run off midway through my own comments, because I will come back to the point and main topic, I promise:

"Never mind the Katyusha rockets overhead, down here it's just plain hot. The humid air reeks with the smell of too many people, crammed into the 150-square-foot cellar right on the beachfront of the northern Israel"

Substitute 100 times as many Israeli Bombs, Shells & Rockets and you have daily life for the Palestinians for the past decade. Only that's their homes, not a bomb shelter (they don't have any).

But who cares - they're only Arabs. (contributed by a fellow poster)

As a poster commented previously, war and other forms of mid-east violence seem to bring out the anti-semites. I do not include myself in that group, while I seek to understand those who do.

On the one hand, there are those nations which make up the greater Arab world, some of which pit themselves against Israel in a political sense. By political sense I mean to say that despite their native popular opinions, or in favor of same, certain Arab nations have adopted an “official” stance pro or con the Israel, or Northern Palestine question.

Iran's president has recently stated his position concerning, in his words, the Zionist Regime. By appearing to be thus opposed to Israel's existence, one might therefore reason that Iran would stand in solidarity with other Arab nations so opposed. But if actions speak louder than words in the Arab world, it is the Palestinians who are speaking the loudest, and who are closest to the fire, and with little to no real support from their relatively wealthy fellow Arab nations. While Iran's nuclear programme generates controversy, the Israel-Palestine conflict continues to generate ever-deepening resentment among those who must cross the border every day looking for work just to survive. While the United Arab Emirates' new multi-million Emirati Dirham (local U.A.E. currency) indoor ski resort has proven to be a real crowd-pleaser, millions of Palestinians get by with no organised health care, no reliable source of income, and no country in which to call home. So this is Arab solidarity?

And once again, Hezbollah and the Israelis are in a shooting match, each side believing in their own cause. Is Iran pushing for the destruction of Israel by covertly funding and supporting Hezbollah? Are Israel's allies, including the U.S., waiting in the wings should Israel cry out for help? Do not all sides already have bloodstained hands?

The outcome of all this madness is any fool's guess, but one thing is certain: just as sure as precious black gold will gush out of the Arabian soil tomorrow, thousands of Palestinians will go to bed hungry, praying for a better tomorrow. But, as the previous poster stated, who cares – they're only Arabs.

Thoughful and cuts to the core of the issue.

Thanks

Let me explain some of the most basic facts of the middle east.

During 1948 you basically had an exchanged of populations. Tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs fled the land which would become Israel during her war of Independence. And after the war, Tens of thousands of Jews were forced out of Arab lands, due to the spiking anti-Semitism in those regions.

Israel welcomed the exiled, Arabian Jews, gave them citizenship, and resettled them into Israel.

The Arab countries prohibited the Palestinian exiles from entering their lands. Egypt walled them into Gaza, and forbade entry. Lebanon passed laws preventing Palestinians from working in 40 different possessions, owning land, and all the like. Only Jordan allowed Palestinians in with any substantial numbers.

Even though the Arab countries control millions of square miles of territory- more land than the continental United States- they could find no room for the Palestinians. And as for their vast oil wealth, very little reaches the Palestinian people.

Do the Arabs care about their Palestinian brethren? Not particularly. They don't compare about their LIVES per se. They care about their utility. And they find that miserable Palestinians make wonderful propaganda pieces and live ammunition (literally) against Israel. If the Palestinians ever became too comfortable, they may refuse to send their children into Israeli buses to become human bombs, so they must me kept miserable.

Do they care about Palestinian lives? Not particularly. Even Jordan, mentioned above, killed more Palestinians during Black September than have ever died by the hands of the Israelis in all the years of both intifiadas. And that was in just one month.

And if Gordon Wagner's little fantasy ever comes true, and Israel is destroyed and all the Jews murdered... there still won't be a Palestinian state. Syria, Egypt, and possibly Jordan would compete to see who could gobble up the most territory. And that would be that. Maybe they would allow the Palestinians to immigrate then. Maybe they'll kill them along with the Jews. Such would be the result if Iranian president Armadinejad gets his dream of dropping nuclear bombs on Israel; you think the adjacent Palestinians would be immune to the fall out? Hardly. But their lives just don't matter, save for the fact that they provide live shot to shoot against Israel.

Now if only the Palestinians weren't such willing pawns...