it's getting smaller but there still are many

I still can not get beyond one predominent reverberating shocking thought chain in the whole Israel/ Palestine conflict. This is how since I was a child I've had curriculum in school learning about the horrors of the holocaust. Countless films have expressed the horrors of it, have made me weep with sorrow at humanities utter ignorance. And the Jewish communities have railed that we must not FORGET, we must remember how much, how horribly they (we) lost. And yet, here in our midst, there IS a holocaust. There is the stealing of land, the sense of collective entitlement, the utter theiving arrogance, the discrepancy in value between Jewish folk and Palestinian folk (and CHILDREN). I am so sickened by the brutal irony...we were annihilated (you must remember), but we are annihilating (and you must close your eyes). I for one will not close my eyes to this, nor will I not label an intention for what it is. Whether the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands is right-wing american immigrant driven or not, I will label the intention for what it is: an attempt to annihilate another people. I am remembering, but in the present tense.

I have never seen anything in common between Christianity and the Palestinian people. They are Muslims, and are aligned with the most militant anti-Christian Muslims, if they are not themselves the most extreme.

Why should I listen to them preach about the sacred nature of the Christian city?

We are presented with the following:

"Bethlehem is a living document of Christianity. A lot of rituals and practices here mimic biblical traditions that have been the same for 2,000 years," she said. "But Christianity here is going to die."

Christianity is not in danger of being forgotten, and Bethelem is being held in a Muslim prison, not a Jewish Prison. Jesus was Jewish, and Christians know the Bible, philosophy, and traditions arose from Jewish thought.

Buried several paragraphs down is the main point of this article:

"Israel says the barrier has succeeded in preventing terror attacks, the stated aim for its construction."

I did not read any dispute of this anywhere in the article. Now, later on, we do read some comments from Leila Sansour. A security expert? No, but she'd like you to think so, saying,

"No security expert would advise you to build a security wall like this." But it turns out Ms Sansour is the Director of Open Bethlehem, an international campaign to save the city.

Given that the wall is saving Israeli lives, and is after all pretty non-threatening, isn't the rest of this article nonsense?

Dear Fellow Salonites:

I've read most of your letters. Some major realities are missing. Israel has to be seen in greater detail: it has a right wing that has led it and for the most part the rest of the world around by the tail for far too long. It is VERY IMPORTANT to make this distinction, otherwise the charge of anti-semitism is made and not easily dismissed. It isn't Israel that is the problem, but the fundamentalist right wing in Israel and the politicians who pander to it--in Israel and here.

Are you aware that many of the most hawkish and intolerant Israelis are more recent arrivals from the US? Many of the so-called "settlers" in the occupied territories are starry eyed American immigrants come to re-claim the promise land. What does that tell you? It tells me that many of the older, more established members of the society have had it with the brutal killing, but the radicals are winning and the moderates are still without a champion. (Barak may have been the last and that's been a long time now.)

The more far reaching question at this point, in my estimation, is: what will be the course of American policy toward Israel in the future? There is not much an outsider can do about the internal politics in Israel. But something (perhaps) can be done to extricate American attitudes from the prevailing Israeli consensus that allows them to justify the wholesale slaughter and repression of Palestinians as if they are slaves on the plantation who shouldn't be there in the first place.

It is a complex issue, and I only write this quickly and with little hope. The current alliance of American and Israeli fundamentalist is powerful. They vote. Non-sectarian Jewish and non-Jewish Americans concerned about the issue for the most part sit on the sidelines and say "tisk, tisk, tisk," but do not practice the solidarity and compromise that is necessary to get into office the politicians who might take a few chances and cut the ties that allows the Israeli right to get away with it.

Your pro-Israeli view is just the same old tired propaganda. Otherwise, don't flatter yourself . Your opinion is not important and does not matter a whit.

Same old propaganda? Or one side's consistent version of the truth?

I suppose it depends which side you are on whether you feel it is propaganda or truth.

Well, KStone, I'm glad your smiling. I'm gratified that you enjoy hearing the "pro-Israel" view. I can't wait until the Saudis fulfill their dream of re-writing all the textbooks in the US. I'll be smiling, too, when kids learn that statements about Jews NOT being the offspring of apes and pigs is actually just the "pro-Jew" view.

after spending a little more time reading some of the letters here, I am completely flummoxed. JPincus and Xanthro both make arguments that amount to "the jews were thrown out of Palestine, so now they get to throw people out of Palestine."

Boil it down, that's what you're saying, guys. You really think that sort of thing will result in peace in the middle east? It hasn't yet.

And I'll admit to being a bit simplistic in my earlier posts--I have read my Bible, I'm probably as well-read on this subject as you are, or more so.

I know the Jews have lived in Palestine for millenia. I think my point was: so have a lot of other people. And that's the problem, isn't it?

Unfortunately, religious arguments for a jewish homeland have absolutely no weight with me. Religion is delusion, and the cause of more trouble in this world than any other single thing--besides the human urge to procreate. Any argument for land based on religious beliefs is just useless, from where I sit. Others will feel differently, I realize..

Right of habitation by virtue of longevity doesn't cut any mustard either. History is full of one group annihilating another for land. If Israel does that to the Palestinians, or vice-versa, that's human nature. But let's not deceive ourselves about what's going on with high calls to religion and morality. It's just chimp-violence, I want what you have, I'll kill you to take it.

In the end, it sounds like it's gonna be a fight to the death, wall or no wall. And there will be more than enough blame to distribute all around.

As some other writer here put it more eloquently than I could, Israel appears on a slow descent into madness, finally infected with the same virus that has infected Islamic--and really all--societies for 50,000 years. It's a terrible thing...but hardly surprising. Unless some politician with a lot more on the ball than anyone in Israel right now, does something to innoculate people against it, the virus will destroy everyone...maybe even you and me, if some nut gets a nuke into the United States.

I'm out. You guys go ahead and solve it. I give up.