You said: Let me ask you straight: If it was you and Israel withdrew from Gaza, would you shoot rockets at Israeli civilians? If not, why not?

Answer: In the present situation I would shoot missiles at Israeli "civilians" who are actually a nationwide civilian militia. Fill their hospitals with dead and wounded and give them a taste of their own medicine.

Make Israel go back to their original borders, roughly 1965, when they were also secretly testing or developing nuclear bombs with the help of the French. The Israelis are always “secretly” doing something to further their economic situation. They are a nation of hucksters allied with huckster allies in the U.S.

America is broke and Israel is really broke. Israel, prepare to embrace the values and lifestyles of the third world. The Obama Administration had better show some backbone on the Israeli problem (but only after they legally prosecute members of the Dubya Nazis who dismantled America for eight years).

"So long as Israel is a lone beacon of democracy and equality (for it's citizens, at least)"

Provided, of course, they're not Arabs.

> a region overrun with misogynistic, anti-democratic, 19th century nations

What's the prostitution rate in Israel? Any Eastern European women kept in brothels as sex slaves?

How much aid has America given Israel?

> I think most Americans will identify and sympathize with Israel.

Like they did Germany until Japan attacked us and Germany declared war? America was content to let Jews die in concentration camps. Was that good?

> I have a wife, a mother, nieces and cousins

Do you like hamburgers, too...speaking of irrelevant matters and all?

> Israel is the only nation in the area that doesn't stone women to death...

What's its divorce rate? Any homophobia? When was the last time a trans-gendered Prime Minister was elected? Any Jewish male babies genitally mutilated?

Fembots talk about respecting differences....until they meet others who actually LIVE differently.

What are the rape stats in Muslim countries?

How backward Arabs are!. If only they had modern weapons they, too, could be like Israel and violently attack weak others. And democraticall endorse torture. And shoot kids who throw stones.

Watch the news about Israel today. Then watch a Holocaust film. The more the former is deemed acceptable, the more the latter is, too. Are Israelis ready for that kind of blowback?

Sooner or later, as death-camp survivors die, the response to Israel-uber-alles defenders who play the Holocaust card will be: "Holocaust shmolocaus! Who cares about all that crap? Start acting civilized, Israel, or face international isolation."

Finally, Israel has no "right" to exist. People do, not countries. Otherwise everyone could call him/herself a nation.

the Scots would like to take credit. All that hootenanny music you have in "redneck country" comes from over here too and, as you probably know, the Welsh like their choirs. Your Welshness came out when you didn't seem to know that while I'm angry about what's happening in Gaza I was only being flippant about Brahms & Lizst.

What's happening in Gaza is what we would refer to here as "The last sting of the dying wasp", and I'm not referring to the Bush religion/ethnicity or anything about White Anglo-Saxons. I think America is coming to the end of empire and that the Middle East will be seen as precipitating that end. Good night, sweet dreams.

And if you're honest you'll have the courage to admit it rather than sulking when I responded in kind.

Keep in mind that most Israelis and most Palestinians are good decent people who just want to live in peace and get along with each other. The same is true of anyone of the three faiths involved who actually are religious.

We have bad leadership, bad media, bad entertainment, bad weapons and an Industry intent on using our differences in order to trick us into hatred, conflict and war so they can make money at the cost of human lives.

Don't be hating on people or each other, be hating on the causes and the actions which do not belong among civilized peoples.

Now back to the argument:

Get along or try to wipe each other out? How stupid can people be?

Get along with each other.

Use the Golden Rule.

Pretty clearly, Dr. Amy is absolutely correct -- the Arab world sees Palestinians simply as proxies to harass and fight Israel, and is happy to 1) imprison Palestinians in camps, 2) keep them out of any other Arab country, and 3) send them munitions, rather than food or other humanitarian assistance. (One wonders whether Dubai might send a few coins over to Gaza or the West Bank and build something there.) Instead, the West provides billions in welfare payments to the Palestinians. At partition in 1948, Palestinians WERE given a country - it's called Jordan. Had the Arabs won in 1948, there would have been NO "Palestinian State." Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon would simply have fought over control of the territory -- and they had for centuries.

"Proportionality is a moot point."

Really? If you compare anything to the Holocaust, pro-Israel nutters scream that nothing compares, that it trumps all other tragedies.

However, if you mention the overwhelming kill ratio of Israelis to Palestinians they change their tune, saying it's the "attempt" that counts. So was Germany right to kill millions of Jews since IF those Jews had had better weapons they MIGHT have harmed the country more?

"Hamas has been lobbing missiles at Israel."

Because Israel trapped Gazans in a prison, killed its commercre, etc. etc. etc.

" Israel has followed the dictates of a cease fire."

No it didn't. It repeatedly violated it with raids and killings and a continued siege.

"Israel now must either fight Hamas or simply let them keep shooting missiles at Israel."

A less insane state would make peace.

Germany said Jews were a menace. Was its only choice to fight Jews or let them destroy the country?

Thanks for justifying the Holocaust. The KKK will no doubt send a lifetime membership and special sheets.

"Hamas...hiding behind innocents so that when an innocent is killed they can issue a press release"

Whereas brave Israelis use 60 jets to bomb a civilian population during rush hour and BAN reporters.

How many tanks, battleships, jets, etc.does Hamas have? What's the average income of Gazans? Where does Isreal store it's weapons? Does the IDF ever use Arabs as human shields?

Israel is contemptible. If cuts off heat and electricity during bitter winter months, forces a population to live off handouts, and calls itself moral.

It condemns Hamas for launching rockets that could "potentially" kill civilians while itself using weapons that actually DO kill innocents...and thinks itself honorable. What an arrogant, chickenshit country! It's filled with weenies who believe 1 wounded Jew matters more than 40 Arab kids killed in a UN compound.

Did Germans foresee this? Is this what they were trying to spare the world: A Jewish state that foments slow-motion holocausts, ones APPROVED by the West?

Israel must be proud. It's Nazi-like, no sympathy-for-the-weak actions are causing more and more people to compare it to the Third Reich. It's apologists sound like Hitler Youth.

"they are martyrs for the cause."

Whereas Israelis are killers for a racist cause.

Thirty years ago no anti-Israel comments would have appeared in public forums. Now, thank Yaweh, AIPAC's influence is waning. More and more average Americans (along with sane folks around the world) are speaking out and trashing Israel. That's a good thing. A VERY good thing. We don't need Ashkenazis outdoing Nazis.