but I just don't want to pay taxes to support a county that is appropriating land from the Palestinians to expand its borders. The old word for it is imperialism. Time to cut off aid to Israel and put it to dealing with the U.S. debt.

I can't see that what is Israel have contribute to US... All I can see that US have contribute to Israel since the war began...

Maybe Israel have been support US with something that we didn't know... All I can see that the war only drags US with further liability because it seems that the war is not going to end... not soon enough I think

Our meddling in the region has had virtually no blowback and they rarely transfer spyplane and missile technology to our next great rival, China. In fact, there's been hardly any espionage at all committed against us by our "friend."
I mean except like the Pollard, Kadish, and Franklin cases or the US legislators owned by AIPAC.

And only *once* have they strafed one of our naval vessels!

the USS Liberty. And how many billions have we given them since that atrocity?

This reaction to Mearsheimer's and Walt's book (without explicitly citing them) makes a point Israel and the US are not only linked because of the Lobby.
This article does not mention the influence of AIPAC, and it should have if it was to be unbiased, but it is not what you really expect from Israel Ambassador.
Rather it explores ideas Mearsheimer and Walt have put aside such as the empathy and the similarity of values between the American and the Israeli people. They miht have also exaggeratly describe the strategic liability that this alliance represent, as well as the representation of Israel as a non-reliable ally.
This article tries to exploit these ideas.
It is a good thing that the article didn't try to blame realists for anything else that their alleged mistakes by the way.
Reality's somewhere in between.

please push for the resignation of Mr. Lieberman.

You do your job with honor, but your boss is one who spits on democracy, diplomacy, and all that is respectable about Israel.

The ideals of Ben-Gurion are being, and have been, crushed by a corrupt thug who wields Zionism as a club. I can live with a Likud, a Kadima, or a Labor government. But the prospect of a Yisrael Beitainu government is becoming more and more likely as the years go on.

Please Ambassador Oren, give guidance on the future instead of repeating the same old tropes about how Israel has been an ally in the past.

Whether you agree with Gideon levy, he makes a valid point that the government of Netanyahu, Lieberman, and Barak is not offering any vision.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/we-have-the-right-to-know-where-israel-is-going-1.357150

You were a historian first, a politician second. You know that Israel cannot be a strong ally if it itself is not built on firm foundations. Those foundations are crumbling fast, and the turmoil of the Middle East gives the US and Israel much less leverage than it has in the past.

Sixty years of Israeli propaganda aimed at the American public is wearing thin. The anlysts the author speaks of ar those who have finally realized the U.S. is losing the goodwill of billions of people around the globe and damaging its own interests by supporting in every way possible an artificial state that is bent on expansion at the expense of its more legitimate neighbors, every one of which Israel has been at war with. Today it has widened the scope of its aggressive behavior by regularly "leaking" plans to bomb Iran. Who's next?

Both Israel and the Palestinians have an evidenced and valid claim to the land between the Sea and the River - and both are well aware of this - yet although Ben Gurion freely acknowledged that fact, now Netanyahu and Hamas deny it!

And so global peace is continually threatened, day after day as the US fuels the arms race in the Middle East under the pretext of ‘democracy’, by the shipment there of ever increasing amounts of arms, whilst using its veto in the UN Security Council, time after time.

The killing of civilians is a terrorist act under the Geneva Conventions subscribed to by all the major powers in the world – but the settlement of occupied territory by the occupier is also an illegal act of the utmost gravity.

Terrorism by both Israel and the PLO is a crime against the other that must now finally cease after over 60 years. The global community is sickened and tired by the killings on both sides. Unless both parties acknowledge the validity of eachother’s claim, then the UN, the US and the EU should discontinue all ties including trade, defence and aid.

Netanyahu and Israel are not innocent, and neither is Hamas or the PLO.

one of the most biased articles I have ever read, but then that is to be expected. The number of holes in this article is almost beyond counting.

Something that particularly gets me is the author's assertions about Britain. As I'm sure the author is aware, the IDF might be larger on paper than the British military, it is completely stupid to suggest a superiority in capabilities. When Israel can support 10,000 soldiers in Afghanistan (at a cost of more than a 1/3 of their annual defence budget) then I'll admit they're more 'likely to act as American allies in the realist sense.

It is so tempting to go on a massive rant about this whole article, but I guess there's no point.

What America really needs, when it comes to the Middle East, is an even handed policy that is true to its Founding Principles (as declared and not necessarily as practiced) and not influenced by lobbies and special interest groups. The Ambassador speaks of Israel as a country that shares Americas Founding Spirit. This is true only if this "Founding Spirit" was actually based, again in principle, on Ethnic Cleansing and Occupation.
By the way, a functional democracy that deprives more than 25% of its citizens of their rights, treats them as second class citizens, occupies others land and kills innocent civilians and claim that they're collateral damage is anything but a true functional democracy.

does america need help?? no kidden !! you don't have to say it, cuz, we all know america is israel's daughter, certainly Israel won't let her daughter down , see this article at oujda

It is unacceptable that in the 21st century, a minority pressure group acting in the interests of a foreign state should still be able to influence the election of members of Congress and/or the Senate.

The Obama government should legislate to redesignate such lobby groups as agents of a foreign state and as such to be precluded from influencing the election of any official to any office in government or in the legislature.

Then, and only then, will America return to genuine democratic principles of government. That should be a prime focus of Barack Obama's second term in office.

America's founding father, George Washington, begs to disagree:

"So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation.

As avenues to foreign influence in innumerable ways, such attachments are particularly alarming to the truly enlightened and independent patriot. How many opportunities do they afford to tamper with domestic factions, to practice the arts of seduction, to mislead public opinion, to influence or awe the public councils. Such an attachment of a small or weak towards a great and powerful nation dooms the former to be the satellite of the latter.

Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow-citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government. But that jealousy to be useful must be impartial; else it becomes the instrument of the very influence to be avoided, instead of a defense against it. Excessive partiality for one foreign nation and excessive dislike of another cause those whom they actuate to see danger only on one side, and serve to veil and even second the arts of influence on the other. Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests."
-- Farewell address to the nation, 1796

According to your own definition, Israel isn't much of an ally. It only partially shares our values, being a religious and ethnically-based state. I can't figure out how it reflects our founding spirit, though I'll give you the resonance with our beliefs. It doesn't stand with us, but rather we stand with it, since Israel has provided little benefit but generated many liabilities for US national security. It may provide useful intelligence, but provides little in the way of bases, training, or other support for US forces. While the Israeli military is undoubtedly formidable, when was it deployed in support of US military operations? I'm thinking never. Sorry, ambassador, but the US alliance with Israel is based on residual guilt and propaganda, not any actual benefit to the US.

I remember when you were one of the few even-handed Israeli historians who focused on the Middle East. Six Days? Fantastic. Power, Faith and Fantasy? Amazing.

It's so sad to see you take your entire life's work and so easily contort it to the kind of ideology and twisted self-view shared by the likes of Avigdor Lieberman. I suppose it was bound to happen, since it is your job to unabashedly, unapologetically represent the interests of Israel. It's a shame. I trusted you, once upon a time.

Millions of Americans have not supported the unbridled support for Israel no matter what they do for decades. Many have been lobbying their reps for decades for a far more sensible and just foreign policy. Thank goodness for Edward Said, Ilan Pappe, President Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Tutu, Charles Freeman, El Baradei, Vanessa Redgrave, Norman Finkelstein, former weapons inspector Scott Ritter, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, Kathleen and Bill Chrisitison, Senator Fulbright ,Art and Peggy Gish and so many more for exposing the facts about what is really going on in that conflict.

Micheal Oren is a a mad man. A racist whose policies we should not continue support.

The claim that that land belongs to Jews because they say they talked to god thousands of years ago. Is a bunch of hooey. One of the oldest land scams in the world.

How many times do we have to hear Queen Noor, King of Jordan, former head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit, many other former CIA middle east analyst, historians, former Presidents of the US, IAEA officials, UN officials who keep repeating that this unbridled support for Israel is what has and continues to fuel hatred towards the US in that part of the world?

Hell the 9/11 Commission report even mentions how this "special relationship" has and is undermining US National security. Who you going to believe Micheal Oren or the expanding list of experts on the middle east who say that US foreign policy that supports Israel as they continue to expand illegal settlements and illegal housing in E Jerusalem undermines US National Security and Israel's( 67 border) security?

Real friends do not support their friends building illegal settlements.

The occupation undermines Israel
The destruction of Palestinian homes undermines Israel.
The wall built partially on internationally recognized Palestinian land undermines Israel
The illegal settlements and illegal housing in E Jerusalem undermines Israel..
Illegal settlers humiliating Palestinian shepherds undermines Israel

Micheal Oren is undermining Israel based on the 67 border

Come over here for in depth discussions on the I/P conflict
http://mondoweiss.net/2011/04/two-upcoming-goldstone-events-in-chicago-the-bay-area.html

it is strange that 70-80 % of americans support israel , according to official polls!!!, but when i read these posts , and i read a lot of them , the numbers seem to indicate 70-80 % opposition to aipac and israel. Hmmmmm.. could something be messing with the numbers ?

anyone remember the cowardly attack on the U.S.S Liberty by israel where many U.S navy men were killed by our so called great ally , best friend, and little baby who we have been breast feeding for the past 30 years? To those who believe in unconditional support for israel, is it worth for u to see america become the main target because of what israel does? is it worth sending billions in aid to israel while our own education system and health system rots? is it worth getting into a war with iran because israel is telling us to do so? is israel worth the life of american blood and security? if so, then get then hell out of america.

why is this "US MARINE85" going around commenting on every single comment that is put up criticizing israel? this is another tactic by the card carryign member of AIPAC.u wanna bang israel that hard, leave ur U.S papers and move to tel-aviv traitor.

Whats with the likudniks using us military sounding names on these threads

Google Move Over Aipac. Please come to this event in D.C.. Great speakers lobbying day, protest outside of Aipac

11am – 1pm: Keynote Address with John Mearsheimer, Stephen Walt, and Medea Benjamin

Don't also forget how close we are to Saudi Arabia, even after we KNOW that their royal family had been funding Al Qaeda and how the Prince of the UAE Mohamed Bin Zayed was friends with Bin Laden (going on hunting trips) even after Bin Laden did the East African embassy bombings.

But hey God talked to Moses from a burning bush and told him that land belonged to the Jews. How in hell do people believe in this hooey.

Who you going to believe Micheal Oren or the expanding list of experts on the middle east who say that US foreign policy that supports Israel as they continue to expand illegal settlements and illegal housing in E Jerusalem undermines US National Security and Israel's( 67 border) security.

Reading the case files of the Aipac Rosen espionage files is an interesting read.

One more investigation into Israeli spying shut down. Hell our MSM did not even whisper about this investigation and 9 time and finally dismissed trial.

Remember Jane "waddling on over to interfere in the investigation" Harman's role in that investigation. No I lobby influence in that investigation or dismissed trial.

Oren "Far from peripheral, this "restorationist" movement flourished in colonial America and widely influenced the Founders: Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin wanted the likeness of Moses leading the children of Israel to serve as the Great Seal of the newly independent United States."

Thomas Jefferson is deservedly a hero to American Jewry. His was one of the few voices in the early republic fervently championing equal political rights for Jews. Jefferson’s Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom in Virginia is a classic American statement of religious toleration. Significantly, while Jefferson championed the rights of Jews and other religious minorities, he did not do so out of respect for Judaism but because he respected the right of every individual to hold whichever faith they wished.

Jefferson’s advocacy of civic equality for American Jewry began as early as 1776, when he co-sponsored a bill – which the Virginia legislature ultimately defeated – which would have allowed the naturalization of Jews, Catholics and other non-Protestants as Virginia citizens. During the debate, Jefferson quoted John Locke’s argument that “neither Pagan nor Mahamedan nor Jew ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the Commonwealth because of his religion.”

Four decades later, in 1820, Jefferson wrote to the Charleston Jewish physician, Dr. Jacob De La Motta, that “religious freedom is the most effectual anodyne against religious dissension.” Jefferson told De La Motta that he was delighted to see American Jews assuming full social rights and hoped “they will be seen taking their seats on the benches of science as preparatory to their doing the same at the board of government.” Subsequently, referring to the reading of the King James version of the Bible in public schools, Jefferson expressed his belief that it was a “cruel addition to the wrongs” Jews had historically suffered “by imposing on them a course of theological reading which their consciences do not permit them to pursue.” To Joseph Marx of Richmond, Jefferson expressed “regret . . . at seeing a sect [the Jews], the parent and basis of all those of Christendom, singled out for persecution and oppression.”

While Jefferson advocated for Jewish liberty, he held certain aspects of Judaism in low regard. In fairness, Jefferson opposed all religions based on divine revelation. He believed that God’s existence could be proven by reason and common sense rather than faith. A detractor of all priests, he found those of the Hebrew Bible “a bloodthirsty race, as cruel and remorseless as the being whom they represented as the family of god of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel.”

In 1787, Jefferson summed up his view of Jewish revelation in a letter to his nephew, warning him to be skeptical of “those facts in the Bible which contradict the laws of nature.” As one example, he cited the assertion in the Book of Joshua that the sun stood still for several hours. Since that would have meant, in scientific terms, that the earth stood still, Jefferson asked his nephew to consider how the earth, spinning on its axis, could have stopped suddenly and started rotating again without enormous destruction to natural and manmade structures. Similarly, the rationalist Jefferson doubted that God personally inscribed the Ten Commandments on a tablet which Moses later destroyed and then re-wrote.

It bothered Jefferson that the God of the ancient Hebrews was, in his words, “a being of terrific character, cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust.” He could also not understand how Jews could believe that “the God of infinite justice” would “punish the sins of the fathers upon their children, unto the third and fourth generations.” He agreed with the view expressed by John Adams that, in respect to God, “the principle of the Hebrew is fear.”

Jefferson thought that reason and logic demanded a belief in an afterlife, an area in which he found Judaism deficient. Jefferson argued that, without fear of punishment beyond the grave, individuals lacked an incentive to behave well and that, without hope of reuniting with loved ones, family commitments and friendships would lose their gravity. Since a definitive afterlife was not universally accepted in Judaism, Jefferson thought it a religion without utility.

Despite his reservations about the perceived “defects” in Judaism, Jefferson never wavered in his commitment to civil and religious freedom for Jews. Jefferson’s most notable achievement in establishing religious and civic toleration for American Jewry was his 1779 Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom in Virginia. Adopted in 1785, the Bill proclaimed: “No man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer, on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess. . . their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise . . . affect their civil capacities.”

Two years later, in 1787, the U. S. Constitution was adopted. Article VI contains the following, Jefferson-inspired phrase: “No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”

Despite his attitude toward Judaism as a religion, Jefferson’s advocacy of the rights of Jews –and those of other religious minorities – has become the law and custom of the land. Toleration of all religions, the absence of an official government religion, and the right to practice and express religious thought freely are the hallmarks of Jefferson’s legacy. Despite his private views of Judaism, he was indeed a most “righteous Gentile.”

Oren's title should read "Israel needs to manipulate the US now more than ever"

Doubleplusgood article comrade Oren, you'll be sure to get a ration increase! Israel is our ally. Israel has always been our ally.

For those of you defending our "ally" don't forget that Israel purposely carried out the attack on the USS Liberty killing 34 American soldiers. Don't forget the innumerable amount of Israeli spies who have stolen sensitive military info and sold it to enemy nations such as Red China. Don't forget that 85% of those convicted of spying on us for the USSR were Jews, many of whom fled to Israel to avoid prosecution. Don't forget Jews such as Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were fried in the electric chair for giving the Soviets the atom bomb, thus starting the Cold War and everything that followed, including the arms race.

And don't forget that the only reason we are so unpopular in the middle east is precisely because we provide this criminal nation with weapons that they use to brutalize their neighbors, thus resulting in attacks on us like 9/11, and meanwhile our own borders are wide open and we are being invaded by the Third World (take a guess who is behind that).

Those of you who are true Americans need to reconsider who your loyalties are to: your own country, or Israel. You can't serve both. No man can serve two masters.

“Every time anyone says that Israel is our only friend in the Middle East, I can’t help but think that before Israel, we had no enemies in the Middle East.” — John Sheehan, S.J.

What Israel is doing is as wrong as the Native Americans would be in getting armed by China - their racial brethren - and forcibly seizing the United States from all the White Christian Europeans and putting them into "containment zones". If the whites refused to give the land back and started terror gangs and the Native Americans fought back they would be condemned by the UN and all global "ethics" groups that in fact would support the White - and genocidal - Imperialist in their cause. This would then be made into the worlds largest and most important issue to defame the Native Americans and convince the world to ignore the justice they are due all in support of the White Imperialist agenda.

Israel is fighting a war or liberation and it has the oldest claim on that land by thousands of years. The Christian and Islamic imperialists are just clouding the issue and using Israel as a scapegoat to hide their truly evil and global scale empire building efforts by defaming a native peoples liberation movement. Israel/Judea was renamed Palestine when the Romans exiled the Jews and practically erased their presence in the land using genocide and murder. Later the Islamists and the British continued this injustice by denying the Jews the right to their land and support local Arab regimes that themselves were the colonial remnants of previous Islamic empires. Now the indigenous people return to Israel and the world is outraged! This defamation is occurring in multiple places in the world where native peoples are denied their rights. The reservation system and forcible assimilation of the Native Americans is a similar situation in the United States.

If you as a White Christian Europeans or Arab Islamic Imperialists do not like Israel and deny it's right to exist then move back to England or Europe and give your land back to the Native Americans who still have a legally valid claim on your house and all your posessions. If you are an Arab Islamic Imperialist then simply leave all of Africa, Turkey, Iran, Bosnia and Central Asia and return back to the Arabian peninsula and allow those peoples to return to their ancestral religions. If you are not willing to do this then leave the Israelis alone and allow them to retake their homeland...

@Forrest Smith - I couldn't agree more with you. I think we need to cut them loose and worry about our own country in these tough times. Posted by Stacy Hanson at Best Cookbooks

Who does Oren think he is with his historical revisionism?

THE FORBEARS WHO LANDED on Plymouth Rock in 1620 considered themselves the founders of a "New Israel." Committed to studying Hebrew and bridging the Old and New Canaans -- the Holy Land and America -- they pledged to restore the Jews to their ancestral homeland.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/opinion/09horwitz.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/books/30horw.html?pagewanted=all

Committed to studying Hebrew? For what purpose?

This sounds like hasbara desperation, and I resent the Israeli Ambassador trying to co-opt American history for his own purposes—How Dare You!—and introducing the one thing the Pilgrims did not want when they came here: freedom from religious persecution of any sort.

That, children, is the sound of Israel helplessly clinging to the Cold War-era canard that Israel serves America's interests and the Middle East would collapse to "evil mullahs" without it. The truth, of course, is that there is nothing Israel fears more than a free and democratic Arab world. How then will they convince the Americans to pay taxpayers' money for their illegal settlements? Without being the "Middle East's only democracy" (TM), how will they justify a 100:1 "collateral damage" ratio? When the Arabs are freed from the dictators who have beaten them and stolen from them for decades and begin the long path towards financial success, how will Israel convince their friends in America that those billions of dollars in aid should go to The Jewish State (TM), instead of the vastly more important growing Arab economies? Tsk tsk. What a tragic time for our Israeli allies.

You can't serve two masters. Either you serve the United States or you serve in the Israeli Foreign Legion.

...you are really whistling thru graveyard.

Americans are wising up and turning against Israel and the whole USA-Isr con game on the American people hand over fist and you write this drivel?..LOL

What?...it's not enough the zionist and Israel revise and make up their own mythical history...now you are trying to revise America's to make it all about Israel?

This is so bizarre it would be funny if it didn't indicate how delusional you Israelis are.
If I were you I would stay in the embassy and not venture out in public spouting this stuff or some insulted American is liable to slap you up the side of your head.

I actually learned a few things. And I thought I knew it all ;-)

Sorry to say, but it's as simple as that. The US doesn't need Israel - Israel needs the US. Which country is the superpower? Not Israel. The US stands by itself, and doesn't need a third-rate power halfway around the world telling us what to do. Really.

For a group of people who ride the sympathy wave of being persecuted in the Holocaust, they seem to enjoy violating human rights. We use white phosphorus weapons, cut electricity and water to starving people so they can't farm or live, shoot unarmed protestors, CHILDREN, and even americans, as well as violate international law by boarding a peace ship in international waters and executing peaceful aid volunteers... But yeah, as a Houston criminal defense attorney, I agree: we should totally support them! /sarcasm

Just some fun things to remember about all of this:
1. Palestinians are not occupying Israel. Israel is occupying Palestine.

2. Suffering is not even remotely comparable. Israelis kill much more Palestinians than other way around. They destroy their houses, keep them in siege and steal their water.

3. Majority if Israeli parties have it in writing in their party platform that whole "Land of Israel" (includes Palestine) belongs to Israel (only justification for this is their religion). Party like Kadima who would be ready to trade the land for peace, still thinks so. Israel would still govern the "free Palestine" like South Africa was governing bantustans.

4. Israel is constantly adding more settlements into Palestine. When peace negotiations fail, they start adding houses. When they go back to negotiation table, they insist that Palestinians must accept these settlements.

MRW April 26, 2011 at 1:53 am

I feel the same way; moreover, it is just factually and historically WRONG. Dead wrong. The Jews that were here before the Pilgrims were the Spaniards, rich Spaniards who arrived in the South via the Caribbean (slaves and cotton).

The Great Seal was created in honor of the Continental Congress by John Hanson, the first American President in either 1781 or 1782 in fucking Philadelphia. The same Great Seal that Monica kneeled on. The same Great Seal that Jefferson (I think) cried they could not inaugurate George Washington without in 1789. John Hanson was a freeman, half Swedish, half either black (or mulatto). (He’s the guy who created the first war dept, treasury, post office and something else, and the only President in US history to be elected unanimously.) He came from Maryland and had nothing to do with the Pilgrims; moreover, the Great Seal was his idea. So was proclaiming the third Thursday of November as Thanksgiving. (You can find the original doc online. Clinton was wrong when he said that Lincoln did it.)

This putz Oren obviously wouldn’t know American history if it hit him on the head

Good points. America need place where to keep bases. America need oil. This is my thinking.
Android stuff

The comments here are far more entertaining than the article itself.

What has Israel done for us?

But I stopped reading at the "it goes back to the Pilgrims" thing. That he would blatanly attempt to bring in the American Patriotic ideal at the very beginning, well. Have you ever heard anything from someone that you know is just so wrong or messed up it makes your stomach turn? Yea, that's what it did for me.

I grew up believing whole-heartedly in the Israeli State. I still absolutely believe they have a right to exist and wouldn't ever want to see that taken away from them.

The problem isn't that the US is a staunch ally of Israel, it's that the alliance is one of give with no questions asked and no action taken when Israel steps over the line of right to exist and enters the realm of forward defense lines versus enemies (foreign occupation?), real and presumed, or blockading the Gaza Strip for however many years. Or continuing to allow settlers to build in places that both the UN and its own government say shouldn't be built in.

When their own government can't (won't?) control their own, why should the US continue to back them without reservation? But that becomes a problem because too many people equate asking questions with "you're an anti-semite". Or not asking questions means you're Anti-Palestinian and wholey believe in the Apartheid Regime.

Why is there no middle ground for these (supposedly) adults? It's either you're an Anti-Semite or part of the New Apartheid Order. It all seems so wrong, so messed up, doesn't it make you want to throw up?

Israel is only an ally because we fund its very existence. And we get nothing back in return.

Israel and AIPAC have long spied on U.S., officials say
Israel has one of the most dangerous and active spy operations against the US
http://www.haaretz.com/news/la-times-israel-has-long-spied-on-u-s-officials-say-1.133798

70 rabbis protest arrest warrant against Rabbi Dov Lior who advocates murdering gentile civilians
http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=207738

Rabbi published a Jewish text book encouraging Jews to kill young gentile children
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=185389

Rabbi advocates Kosher prostitution
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/israeli-rabbi-honey-pot-sex-is-kosher-for-female-mossad-agents-1.317288

Israeli minister is willing to holocaust Palestinians
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/29/israelandthepalestinians1
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL296121231

Rabbis are trying their best to bring the light of Zionism to Palestinian Christians and Muslims by massacring them.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/chabad-rabbi-jews-should-kill-arab-men-women-and-children-during-war-1.277616

Israeli education: Molding fascists, one student at a time
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israeli-education-molding-fascists-one-student-at-a-time-1.344501

Chinese workers in Israel sign no-sex contract to gurantee the purity of Israeli blood
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/dec/24/israel1

No wonder Israel is massacring Palestinian and Lebanese women and children. Even Israel's closest allies are not safe from the Israeli murder machine as when Israel murdered and injured 200 American soldiers in its attack on the USS Liberty and when Israel murdered the Turkish aid workers recently

It is quite amusing to hear a Zionist preaching human rights (as if Zionism has anything to do with humanity).

Zionism is so human that Zionists cooperated with Nazis against fellow Jews. Zionists also carried out terrorist attacks on Jews escaping from the Holocaust killing many of them as when they blew up a whole ship load of Jewish refugees.

Zionists are so human to the extent that Israel was established by Zionist Jewish terrorist groups like Irgun, Stern, Hagganah etc.

These Zionist terrorists massacred and dispossessed millions of Palestinians and later their leaders were ethnocratically elected to become Prime Ministers and Presidents of Israel like Gorion, Begin, Sharon, Peres, Shamir etc. They were all war criminals and terrorist thugs no wonder they became the most prominent of Israelis.

Some more astonishing factual revelations about Israel and its "alliance with the West"

I wonder what did the Police do to monitor other communities that are well known for supporting state terrorism.

The Police should start spying on Syanim (local Zionist Jews who assist the Mossad in carrying out extra judicial assassinations and terrorist acts etc.)

Ex Mossad officer confirms the role of Syanim in aiding and supporting illegal terrorist and esionage activities carried out by Mossad.
Refer to By Way of Deception Making of Mossad officer and other works by Victor Ostrovsky.There is plenty of evidence if you do your own research on the role of Syanim in supporting Israeli terrorism and espionage against their home countries.

A good idea is to subject Israelis or those with connections to Israel to discriminatory profiling at airports to prevent the possibility of Mafia style executions, assassinations and terrorist acts carried out by Mossad.

Yes, let's be honest. The US has become a whore, and every gentleman in the town wants a piece of it.

From the business lobby, to the unions, to the Saudis, and Israel being another one of those whose natural rights are being served here.

Mr. Oren, here we are. Billions of dollars for you, a few votes in this or that organizations. We are on sale. Grab as much as you can before it's too late.

With constant tension in the Middle East and Americas placement within Iraq and potentially Libya coming into question, having Israel as an ally would be a particularly wise move. Unfortunately, it also seems unlikely as it might appear the disparities between the two countries are somewhat inconsolable by now.

Perhaps it isn't too late for talks to be undertaken and some form of an alliance be created, it just seems to insurmountable with the other pressures on Israel at the moment. Pakistan seems to be becoming more and more important globally recently, and the US might find it foolish to get involved in such a bitter feud.

Scott Bass - Parkour Filmmaker

Cyprus would seem to confer all of the same benefits as an ally that Israel does -- similar location in SW Asia, democratic values, strategic ports and airports, etc. It is even a member of the EU.
Also it has none of liabilities that come with supporting Israel.

I think Israel should realize that is quite dispensible and work to really resolve its problems with the Arabs to make itself a more attractive ally.

Ultimately, Israel needs the US, but the US really does not need Israel.

I am all for the Israel alliance, and I think it is strategically important that we maintain a close working alliance. What bothers me is all the money we send them. It's not just government money, but the money that Jewish American citizens remit to Israel. It's money that we need more than them, and others need more than us.

This speech by Oren at a synagogue demonstrates his racist views. Let's not forget that the Bible was written by a bunch of Jewish guys with an agenda. Folks who claim that Moses talked to god who was a burning bush. Now Roman Catholics and Muslim etc dogma is just as crazy to me. But Micheal Oren does not look at the I/P issue in a pragmatic way based on facts

On Yom Kippur we read the Book of Jonah, one of the Bible's most enigmatic texts. It is also one of the Bible's shortest texts, weighing in at a page and a half, which is quite an accomplishment for this holiday. And it features one of our scripture's least distinguished individuals. Jonah--a man whose name, in Hebrew, means dove--not dov, as in Hebrew for bear, but dove as, in English, pigeon.

Yet this same everyman, this Jonah, is tasked by God with a most daunting mission. He is charged with going to the great city of Nineveh and persuading its pernicious people to repent for their sins or else.

Not such an unusual task, you might think. Twenty-first century life is rife with people who warn of the catastrophes awaiting us if we fail to modify our behavior one way or the other. Today we call them pundits, commentators who, if proven correct, claim all the credit but who, if proven wrong, bear none of the responsibility.

Jonah, though, cannot escape the responsibility. Nor can he dodge his divinely ordained dilemma. If he succeeds in convincing the Ninevehians to atone and no harm befalls them, many will soon question whether that penitence was ever really necessary. Jonah will be labeled an alarmist. But, what if the people of Nineveh ignore the warning and the city meets the same fiery fate as Sodom and Gomorrah? Then Jonah, as a prophet, has failed.

Such is the paradox of prophecy for Jonah, a lose-lose situation. No wonder he runs away. He flees to the sea, only to be swallowed by a gigantic fish, and then to the desert, cowering under a gourd. But, in the end, the fish coughs him up and the gourd withers. The moral is: there is no avoiding Jonah's paradox. Once elected by God, whatever the risks, he must act.

As such, the Book of Jonah can be read as more than morality play, but also a cautionary tale about the hazards of decision-making. It is a type of political primer, if you will, what the medieval thinkers called a Mirror for Princes. The Talmud teaches us that, in the post-Biblical era, the gift of prophecy is reserved for children and fools. In modern times, we don't have prophets--pundits, yes, but no prophets. Instead we have statesmen who, like Jonah, often have to make fateful decisions for which they will bear personal responsibility. If not a paradox of prophecy, these leaders face what we might call the quandary of statecraft.

Take, for example, the case of Winston Churchill. During the 1930s, he warned the world of the dangers of the rapidly rearming German Reich. The British people ignored Churchill- worse they scorned him, only to learn later that he was all along prescient and wise. But what if Churchill had become Britain's Prime Minister five years earlier and had ordered a pre-emptive strike against Germany? Those same people might have concluded that the Nazis never posed a real threat and that their prime minister was merely a warmonger.

Or consider Harry Truman who, shortly after assuming the presidency in the spring of 1945, had to decide whether to drop America's terrible secret weapon on Imperial Japan. Today, many people, including some Americans, regard the dropping of the atomic bomb on two Japanese cities as an act of unrivaled brutality, but what if Truman had decided otherwise? What if the United States had invaded the Japanese mainland and lost, as the US Army estimated at the time, more than a million GIs? Truman, the decision-maker, was either the butcher of Japanese civilians or butcher of young Americans. Either way he lost.

The quandary of statecraft: every national leader knows it and few better than Israeli leaders. They, too, have had to make monumental--even existential--decisions.

On May 14th, 1948, Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion had to determine whether to realize the two-thousand year-long dream of Jewish sovereignty in the land of Israel. But, by doing so, he risked an onslaught by overwhelming Arab forces against a Jewish population half the size of Washington, DC today armed mainly with handguns.

Another example: my personal hero, Levi Eshkol. On June 5th, 1967, Eshkol had to decide whether to unleash Israel Defense Forces against the Arab armies surrounding the Jewish State and clamoring for its destruction or whether to alienate the international community and especially the United States and be branded an aggressor.

Ben-Gurion's decision resulted in the creation of the State of Israel and Eshkol's in the immortal image of Israeli paratroopers dancing before the Kotel. Nothing is inevitable in history and in both cases the outcome might have been tragically different. Like Churchill and Truman, Ben-Gurion and Eshkol confronted the quandary of statecraft.

They also have to answer to their citizens. Unlike the prophetic leaders of antiquity, presidents and prime ministers are not selected by God but rather elected by the majority of their peoples through a democratic process. In America, the system was modeled on the Roman Republic in which citizens empowered senators to represent them in the distant capital. In tiny Israel, with its multi-party consensual style of democracy, the model is not Rome but rather ancient Athens. The American president, it has been said, represents 300 million constituents; Israeli prime ministers represent 7 million prime ministers.

Israeli democracy is rambunctious and intensely personal, placing the premium on individual participation. In our family, I can attest, my wife and I have never voted for the same party. Our son also went his own way politically. Together with his friends, he started a political party in our living room that now holds two seats on the Jerusalem municipality.

At 62 years old, Israel's democracy is older than more than half of the democratic governments in the world, which, in turn, account for less than half of the world's existing nations. Israel is one of the handful of democracies that has never succumbed to periods of undemocratic rule. And Israel has achieved this extraordinary record in spite of the fact that it is the only democracy never to know a nanosecond of peace and which has endured pressures that would have crushed most other democracies long ago. In a region inhospitable--even fatal--to government by and of the people, Israel's democracy thrives.

Democracy in Israel is not only personal and vibrant, but also grave, because the stakes are so enormously high. Recalling Jonah's paradox, the leaders we elect are confronted with grueling decisions.

Consider the case of terror. Israel today is threatened with two major terror organizations: Hamas in Gaza and, in Lebanon, Hizbollah. Both are backed by Iran and both call openly for Israel's destruction. And, over the past five years, both have acted on that call by firing nearly 15,000 rockets at Israeli towns and villages.

Next imagine that you're the prime minister of Israel. You know that in order to keep those thousands of rockets out of Hamas's hands you need to blockade Gaza from the sea. The policy is risky--people may get hurt, especially if they're armed extremists--and liable to make you very unpopular in the world. But you have to choose between being popular and watching idly while a million Israelis come under rocket fire. You have to choose between popular and being alive.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah has nearly quadrupled the rockets in its arsenal. They're bigger, more accurate rockets, with a range that can reach every Israeli city, even Eilat. Worse: Hizbollah has positioned those rockets under homes, hospitals, and schools, confident that if Israelis try to defend themselves from those missiles, they will be branded war criminals.

Imagine, again, that you're Israel's prime minister. Do you wait until Hizbollah finds a pretext to fire those rockets or do you act preemptively? Do you risk having the much of the country being reduced to rubble or having that same country reduced to international pariah status?

The terror threat is a very poignant example of the quandary of statecraft in Israel, but an even thornier case is posed by the peace process.

Yes, the peace process, with its vision of two peoples living in adjacent states in a relationship of permanent and legitimate peace. What could be so hazardous about that?

Well, let's return to that Kafkaesque scenario in which you wake up one morning and find yourself transformed into Israel's prime minister.

You know that to create that neighboring state that you're going to have to give up some land, but not just any land, but land regarded as sacred by the majority of the Jewish people for more than three thousand years. You know that a great many of your countrymen have made their homes in these areas and that numerous Israelis have given their lives in their defense. You know that Israel has in the past withdrawn from territories in an effort to generate peace but that it received no peace but rather war. And, lastly, you know that many Arabs view the two-state solution as a two stage solution in which the ultimate stage is Israel's dissolution.

What, then, Mr. or Ms. Prime Minister, do you do?

You could opt for maintaining the status quo, with the risk of deepening Israel's international isolation or you could specify a vision of peace that significantly reduces its perils. You could, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has done, insist that the future Palestinian State be effectively demilitarized, without an army that could bombard Israeli cities or an air force that could shoot down planes landing at Ben-Gurion Airport. You could insist that the Palestinian State reciprocally recognize Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, and so put an end to all future claims and conflicts.

Even then, of course, Israel will be running incalculable risks, for what if the Palestinian state implodes and becomes another Gaza or Lebanon? What do you do if, a week after the peace treaty is signed, a rocket falls on Tel Aviv?

More than Gaza, more than peace, the ultimate quandary of statecraft centers on Iran.

This is the radical, genocidal Iran whose leaders regularly call for Israel's annihilation and provides terrorists with the means for accomplishing that goal. This is the Iran that undermines governments throughout the Middle East and even South America, and an Iran that shoots its own people protesting for freedom.

Iran does all this without nuclear weapons--imagine what it would do with the nuclear arms it is assiduously developing. And imagine what you, awakening once again as the Israeli Prime Minister, will decide. Do you remain passive while Iran provides nuclear weaponry to terrorist groups, targets Tel Aviv with nuclear-tipped missiles, and triggers a nuclear arms race throughout the region? Or do you act, as Israel has now, joining with the United States and other like-minded nations in imposing sanctions on Iran, hoping to dissuade its rulers from nuclearizing? And, if that fails, do you keep all options on the table, with the potentially far-reaching risks those options entail?

The issues of terror, the peace process, and Iran evoke strong emotions in this country and around the world, and often spark criticism of Israeli policies. Yet it's crucial to recall that those policies are determined by the leaders elected through one of the world's most robust and resilient democracies. Recall that the people of Israel--not of Europe, not of the United States--bear the fullest consequences for their leaders' decisions.

There is no escaping the responsibility--as Jonah learned thousands of years ago--and that responsibility is borne by our leaders and by the majority of the people they represent. Israel today faces decisions every bit as daunting as those confronting Jonah, but we will not run away. There is no gourd to hide under or fish to swallow us whole. Terror, the peace process, Iran--our Ninevehs--await.

Support us as we grapple with these towering challenges. Back us in our efforts to defend ourselves from terrorist rockets. Uphold us if we have to make painful sacrifices for peace or if we decide that the terms of the proposed treaty fail to justify those sacrifices. Stand with us as we resist Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. Respect the decisions we take through our democratic system and respect the risks that we, more than any other nation, take.

The message of the Book of Jonah is one of personal and collective atonement, but it is also a message of unity and faith. "In my trouble I called to the Lord," proclaims Jonah, "VaYa'aneini" - "and He answered me."

Let us--Israelis and the American Jews--united by our faith, our peoplehood, and our common love for democracy. Let us assume responsibility for our decisions, crushingly difficult though they may often be, and appreciative of the quandaries our leaders face. When we call out, let us answer one another with the assurance that no challenge--no paradoxes, no Ninevehs--can defeat us.

some other great web sites who focus on the I/P issue. Race for Iran, Mondoweiss, Washington Note, Informed Comment.

Important information to access and hand out at
If Americans Knew and
Council for a National Interest

Oh and if you want to see what Illegal settlers have been doing to Palestinians for years Just google you tube there are many clips of the settlers attacking Palestinians in extremely violent ways.

Also Max Blumenthals and Norman Finkelsteins sites are informative and fact based.

Max's video of Feel the Hate is a must watch

Read the UN report on the Mavi Marmara

I agree with the writer. US and Israel have started to share the values. Like of Israel the US is also becoming an imperialist state, it is also involved in Muslim holocaust, it is also becoming a fascist state, the religious intolerance is also on the rise like that of in Israel where Palestinians have no rights. So lot of common grounds for the US and Israel to be allies. US has learnt a great deal of values from Israel.

It is interesting to see how some Zionists can make fool of US MARINES. But there are rationals minds which can see the injustices and the ill effects of Israeli and Zionists cult on the US.

US marine has quoted some Americans killed by Arabs. How many Muslims were killed by Israelis from 1917-1948? Why US became a party to this killing by accepting Israel and dumping the King and Crane mission which was sent by President Wilson as a fact finding mission? how many Muslims have been killed have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Interestingly the clumsy US MARINE fails to explain that all the conflicts which he has mentioned have erupted after the creation of Israel. This is primarily for the reason that Muslim see the US and the west collaborating with the Zionists Jews to conduct a Muslim holocaust and thus become a legitimate enemy. The roots of all this turmoil lies in the Middle East and till the time western countries will not stop assisting the Zionists this bloodshed will not end. If anyone thinks that all Muslims could be eliminated this will not happen.

The only solution to this problem is a just solution to all the existing conflicts otherwise its just a matter of time before the whole building of western capitalism would crumble under the weight of this conflict. You can bet on that.

So with a friend like Israel US need not to have any enemy at all. If US has to prevail it has to adopt a just approach. Whether Muslim, Christian, Jew or any other religion, No unjust power can prevail for a long time and this is law of the nature. The time to take the right decision for the US is running out fast.

Shams Zaman - Pakistan (smszmn72@yahoo.com)

Did anyone of my American friend obsessed with the Israeli love tried to find out who was Rachel Corrie and how she was killed??

Had it been any Islamic state doing that... the world would have been turned upside down.

Periodically someone who wishes to use the USS Liberty incident for anti-Israel political purposes or wishes to write a book and re-raises the issue. Those individuals are never former Navy or Air Force Officers with combat zone experience.

On the night of June 16 or 17, 1968 (its been a long time) I was the Officer of the Deck on one of nine US Navy ships cruising off the coast of North Vietnam near the DMZ. One heavy cruiser, one Australian Guided Missile Destroyer, 3 US Destroyers, 3 US Destroyer Escorts, and one Aircraft Carrier (a CVS) operating with the running lights on.

Several US Air Force F-4's were flying into the area - identified by their IFF.

All aircraft flying north of the DMZ or north of the 17th parallel, over the water of the Gulf of Tonkin or over the adjacent land area had by procedure to check in with the US Navy ship controlling the air traffic in that area, called Yankee Station.

The experienced USAF pilots, ignoring the need to check in with the US Navy air controllers, decided one or more of the surface contacts they picked up on radar, in an area with heavy US Navy traffic, must be North Vietnamese helicopters??? Or so we were later told. So, of course, they opened fire on two of the ships. None of the nine ships were traveling faster then 15 knots. I saw the firing and the explosions.

Contrary to the many imaginary stories there were no attack that night by North Vietnamese aircraft on Navy craft operating in I Corps area There was nothing on search radar that day or night to indicate a North Vietnamese presence.

We knew the attackers were USAF and didn't fire back at them, just tried through various means to contact them directly or indirectly via radio to get them to stop firing. They didn't kill as many people as the losses suffered by the Liberty, but there were casualties on the Australian destroyer.

A major miscalculation on the part of the USAF, and given the controls that were in place to prevent something like that--almost unbelievable. But, it happens in wartime, just like the errors made by the Israeli pilots who attacked the Liberty and the decision made by someone in the Sixth Fleet to place the Liberty unescorted and alone in that position.

I was also a Navy officer when the Liberty was attacked and read the communications real time.

Those who have not experienced war and these types of situations will never understand how they can occur, military officers who have experienced them understand (?) how they occur. They are not intentional, just result from the so-called fog of war when one makes rapid decisions in a violent environment where your enemy is often clever and killing is routine. Mistakes occur, even in this day and age with all our high tech equipment.

That is the story of the Liberty incident, nothing else.

not some anonymous pro-Israel traitor:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2007-06-07-liberty-meeting_N.htm

"Coverup theory alive at USS Liberty reunion

By Oren Dorell, USA TODAY
McLEAN, Va. — Former crewmembers gathered near Washington this weekend to remember a controversial attack 40 years ago today when a U.S. spy ship was nearly sunk by an ally.

The Israeli naval and air bombardment of the USS Liberty on June 8, 1967, during Israel's Six Day War against three Arab nations left 34 Americans dead.

Israel has always insisted the attack was a case of mistaken identity and 11 U.S. investigations over the years have reached the same conclusion.

Although Israel apologized and paid restitution to the families of servicemen killed and injured, some of the men on the ship that day have for decades been pushing the theory that the Israelis intended to murder every American on board and that the Pentagon is covering up a war crime.

"They knew exactly who we were," said Joel Lehman, 60, of Austin, Texas, who was a storekeeper for the Navy on the ship and wants a new investigation. . . . ."

http://www.ifamericansknew.org/us_ints/ul-boston.html

"Declaration of
Ward Boston, Jr.,Captain, JAGC, USN (Ret.)
Counsel to the U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry’s investigation into the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty

I, Ward Boston, Jr. do declare that the following statement is true and complete:

For more than 30 years, I have remained silent on the topic of USS Liberty. I am a military man and when orders come in from the Secretary of Defense and President of the United States, I follow them.

However, recent attempts to rewrite history compel me to share the truth.

In June of 1967, while serving as a Captain in the Judge Advocate General Corps, Department of the Navy, I was assigned as senior legal counsel for the Navy’s Court of Inquiry into the brutal attack on USS Liberty, which had occurred on June 8th.

The late Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, president of the Court, and I were given only one week to gather evidence for the Navy’s official investigation into the attack, despite the fact that we both had estimated that a proper Court of Inquiry into an attack of this magnitude would take at least six months to conduct. . . . "

All the crew of the U.S.S. Liberty is asking for is to finally have a full and fair investigation of what happened to them in which they finally get to testify. Until then, in the immortal words of Captain McGonagle to his "ally":

"A(n Israeli) torpedo boat officer asked in English over a bullhorn: "Do you need any help?"

The wounded commander of the Liberty, Captain William McGonagle, instructed the quartermaster to respond emphatically: 'Fuck you.'"

Seems like one of these hawks-in-sheep's-clothing op eds comes out every time Israel loses further ground in the Arab-Israeli conflict, usually due to its own actions or inactions.

Let me ask you, Ambassador -- when you're done these op eds, do your knees and neck hurt?

The reality is that the Israeli political establishment RESENTS having to trot to Washington, hat in hand, to continue Israel's existence. America RESENTS having to send billions of dollars in financial and military aid to Israel to bolster its strategic interests only to have those interests undermined by an aggressive, condescending, and bad faith foreign policy conducted by Israel.

Sure, we're the best of friends, but really, how long can that last when one nation is dependent on the other, and the dependent one consistently sh**s all over the hand that feeds it?

As for the settlements, anyone with half a brain and no vested interests knows what it is -- it's a landgrab, pure and simple. It's an attempt by Israel to consistently improve its bargaining position in future negotiations. For myself and many others, it simply undermines any claims Israel has at all to any land taken subsequent to 1967. It also highlights the disgustingly disproportionate influence that a bunch of unemployed zealot welfare cases have on the greater Israeli politics, bolstered by well-meaning but ignorant zealots in the diaspora.

Americans love Israelis; Israelis love Americans. I spent 5 weeks in Israel -- I was there when Gilad Shalit was kidnapped, in Haifa when rockets rained down on the city -- I get the existential concerns. However, there is a major disconnect between our personal feelings for one another and the growing distance between our respective foreign policies. (Though frankly, I'd be hard pressed to summarize what exactly Israel's current foreign policy is, beyond "f*** everyone" and verbally fellating America as needed.)

Wow, this is my very first time visiting this site and after reading Michael Orens excellent piece I went on to read some of the comments.

By and large, what a foolish group of people are those who have left comments. Obviously anti Israel and many anti Jewish, not one comment that I read had a quarter of the grace or intelligence of Mr. Oren's article.

Who are you people who are so ignorant or reality, so biased and hateful? You know nothing at all about the reality of Israel. You've chosen the odd negative episode that you think makes your point when the reality is that there are a hundred opposing points that could be better made. Your bias is quite, no, make that your ignorance is pitiful.

I've always heard that the people interested in "foreign policy" are a bunch of racist right wingers who hate Jews, but this is my first tangible experience with such loser. What a bunch of idiots!

Mr. Oren's piece is truthful, honest and reflective of the interactive experience between Israel and the United States. The founding of the country, for petes sake, was partially based on the Jewish experience.

If Americans love or loved America, by extension they should continue to have positive feelings for Jews and the Israeli experience. That this crowd does not is indicative of a low intelligence quotient and a sickened mind.

Good day to y'all.

...Is NOT one that spits in the face of the President and Vice-President by announcing the theft of more Palestinian land when they visit Israel or the Israeli PM visits America.

It is not one that deliberately feeds us false intelligence. It is not one that sells our top-secret military technology to Communist China. It is not one that forces us to ignore its murder of Americans, both civilian and military.

And it is not one whose Jewish government denigrates American Jews as not being truly Jewish.

FP should spare us clumsy propaganda.

Personally i feel as though The United States has no moral standing in the world if it continues to spend 3 billion dollars annually to support APARTHEID in Gaza. That money is better spent investing in new technologies that will relieve America of its dependency on petroleum. The change Mr. Obama promised seems like the same ole status quo to me.

Michael Oren was born in the U.S. an American citizen and is now part of a group of immigrants pushing the native born inhabitants off their land because it's really his land? Can I see the heavenly deed that gives him the right to push people off the land of their birth?

So because Michael Oren "experienced anti-semitism" in his homeland, that gives him the right to push the Semitic inhabitants of Palestine into the sea and claim their land?

Holy lebensraum! Does that mean one of the key tenets of National Socialism and South African apartheid was right after all?

Those who supported Israel:

Presidents G.W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon, Harry Truman. General Alexander Haig and most U.S military commanders including the son of George S. Patton. Most of Classy Hollywood, including the late Elizabeth Taylor, and those like Kirk Douglas, James Woods, Gary Sinise, Jon Voight. Bob Dylan, Randy Travis, John Hagee, most Evangelical Christians.

Those who Hate Israel:

Barack Obama, Jimmy Carter, Elijah Muhammed, Farrakhan, George Lincoln Rockwell, David Duke, Jeremiah Wright, Samantha Power, Zbig Brezinzski, James Baker, Chuck Hagel, Rosie O'Donnell, Pete Seeger (once a Stalinist, always one, it seems). Roger Waters, Elvis Costello. Rachel Corrie.

Need I say more? And who would you rather be with? Class or Trash??

It was not Iraq but not taking care of Iran. Unfortunately the Kenyan Chimp - whom the anti-Americans here so dearly love prefers to bomb Libyans instead of the real enemies of peace - the Iranians, the Syrians, and yes, his Palestinian benefactors.

Bush made some mistakes but compared to ignoramus monk, he was a President. That's just a sad, pathetic, gutless, racist and anti-semitic little boy - whose animus has provided cannon fodder for many here who are more and more creeping out of the woodwork ever since he and Shrillary Dumbass came on the scene.

No list of Americans who are odious because they're insufficiently loyal to Israel would be complete, of course, without the names of the crew members of the U.S.S. Liberty. For brevity's sake, only the officers being listed here:

+ Lieutenant Commander Philip McCutcheon Armstrong, Jr., USN (killed in action June 8, 1967, by Israeli forces; buried Arlington National Cemetery, grave 2096X) (Navy Cross)
* Lieutenant Maurice Hogue Bennett, USN
* Lieutenant James Marquis Ennes, Jr., USNR
* Lieutenant George Houston Golden, USN (plank owner) (died January 30, 2009) (Silver Star)
* Lieutenant Richard Francis Kiepfer, Medical Corps, USNR (Silver Star)
* Lieutenant Commander David Edwin Lewis, USN
* Ensign David George Lucas, USNR (Silver Star)
* Commander William Loren McGonagle, USN (died March 3, 1999) (Medal of Honor)
* Lieutenant James George O'Connor, USNR (died March 19, 1988)
Ensign Malcom Patrick O'Malley, USNR
* Lieutenant (junior grade) Lloyd Clyde Painter, USNR
+ Lieutenant James Cecil Pierce, USN (killed in action June 8, 1967, by Israeli forces)
Ensign John Deaderick Scott, USNR (Silver Star)
* Ensign Richard Patten Taylor, Jr., USNR
+ Lieutenant Stephen Spencer Toth, USN (killed in action June 8, 1967, by Israeli forces) (Silver Star)
* Lieutenant (junior grade) Malcolm McEachin Watson, USNR

What a mess. Arguing back and forth. The only thing one can do is read the history books, and decide for oneself. There is only one inevitable and incontrovertible conclusion: Israel is to Palestine as Obi Wan Kenobi is to Darth Vedar. Enough said.

It's only a mess if you're putting lipstick on a pig and trying to convince others it's beautiful. I know I wouldn't want the job. I'm rather enjoying myself though as it's like shooting fish in a barrel. I do have some sympathy for our Zionist friends though as it can't be easy loving something so much that you're willing to sacrifice everything including your own country for it.

Foreign Policy is an intellectually well rounded periodical, yet this web site attracts so many either in desperate need of ESL or those clearly lacking a sense of reasoning and presentation.

One can only wonder how even those expressing themselves in such educationally low class style, such as XEXON above, can either be so openly anti-Semitic or so foolish as to support Arab (Muslim) regimes which are led by murdering butchers and thieves--a la Assad in Syria or HAMAS in Gaza. XEXON is only the most recent example.

Even the other Arab nations have no use for the so-called Palestinian Arabs. They realize they are a manufactured group with no history whatsoever. The Jordanians (created by the British) want them out of their country. They have never forgiven them for Black September when the Jordanian Army had to crush Arafat and the PLO. The Jordanians gave them a place of refuge and in return the Palestinians attacked them and tried to seize the Jordanian's country. Sort of what Hamas did in Gaza to the PLO. To this day the Jordanian government keeps the Palestinians from becoming citizens and in the few case where they have become citizens, they later strip those Palestinians of that status.

Those so-called Palestinians in Lebanon are treated even worse by their brother Arabs. They live in camps, are not allowed to integrate into the country. The Saudi's, among others are wealthy, so why have they not provided funds to upgrade the standard of living of their Muslim brothers in need of help?

Kuwait kicked out their Palestinian population after they aided the Iraqis during their 1991 invasion of the country. Once again, the Palestinians bit the hand of those who were feeding them.

Look what the Palestinians did to Gaza. Israel pulls out of there and some wealthy Americans purchase the Israeli businesses in Gaza and turn those businesses and Israeli built homes over to members of the local population. The local Arabs tired of the corruption of the PLO commit political suicide and elect a radical Hamas government. They destroy the businesses and turn the area into an artillery base and begin firing thousands of rockets into their neighbor and bring Israeli retaliation onto themselves. Now they live in an abject poverty of their own making, except of course for their ruling elite which lives quite well. Oh yes, why did the Saudi's and other Arab oil rich countries not invest in Gaza and attempt to get the area economically on its feet?

President Clinton convinces Israel to agree to a piece plan that was fair to all. A plan which included the sharing of a part of Jerusalem where Arab Mosques were insultingly built on top of a Jewish Temple and where an Arab population resides. Arafat refuses to sign the agreement fearing he would be murdered. Some statesman! Of course, we would later learn that he had redirected millions in U.S. aid currency to his foreign banks, probably as a retirement fund. He cheated his own people. He was simply a badly dressed thief. Not to worry, he died young anyway, but his family is enjoying the good life in Paris on a well financed Palestinian dole. Even more absurd, the Palestinians support Arafat's betrayal of their society by embarking on suicide attacks on the Jews in Israel,. They again reap what they sowed--many time over. Once again they are crushed, loose countless people in street wars with the IDF and loose thousands of jobs in Israel and find themselves fenced out of their neighbor's land. A neighbor who had an open border with them and who once employed thousands of their people.

Now, Fatah has apparently decided to team up with Hamas. Be careful kids. Don't forget what happened to Fatah last time you weaklings tried that move in Gaza. Also, if that occurs, the US and the West will cut off its aid as HAMAS is a terrorist group and a government with HAMAS as part of it cannot receive US aid.

This story is to long. It needs a book titled The Created People and Their Collective Self Destruction. But one more set of incidents that tells the reason Palestinians cannot be trusted to act sanely.

Recently, the Palestinians murdered two activists who not only supported their cause, they lived among them. One was the son of a Muslim father and Jewish mother who lived in the Jenine refugee camp and the other was an Italian activist who lived in and was murdered in Gaza. Palestinians devour their own supporters, can you imagine what they will try to do with those who don't support them?

And, on goes the story. Why would one negotiate with People who act like those described above. They will wallow in the hell of their own making.

Their brother Arabs kept them in poverty and used their desperate state as a political magnet to distract their populations attention when they needed to be misdirected from acting against repression by their own governments. They are now seeing how well that worked. It only took the so-called Arab Street 60+ years to begin to wake up. Slow learners!

The original descendants who lived in and had / have nations in the land west and east of the Jordan Rive along the Mediterranean were Jews and the Canaanite peoples of the area--not conquering Arab Muslims from the Saudi Arabian desert. Muslim Arabs came as one of many temporary conquerors into the area. All those temporary conquerors have now been put in their place, thrown out of power, and the remainder need to return home with their supporters to Saudi Arabia. Of course, Do you think the Saudi government will treat those people or their supporters as heroes or slap you'all in prison.

The 580,000 so-called Arabs who left their homes during the 1948 Arab army invasion of the former British colony of Palestine were accompanied by Arab land grabbers who convinced the foolish"Arabs" living there to abandon their homes to make way for the all conquering Muslim hordes. The land grabbers wanted to expropriate their brother's land and sell it for a profit. The foolish Palestinian "Arabs" believed the propaganda they would be able to return to a Jew cleansed area. Another Palestinian Arab blunder. Oh how the historical record of stupid Palestinian decisions increase.

The only ethnic cleansing that occurred in 1948+/-was that of the other Arab nations whose Muslim populations murdered their Jewish neighbors, expropriated their property, and drove out 850,000+ Jews, who primarily went to Israel - returned home to help rebuild their finally repossessed land.

The Canaanite descendants who still live in that area and in Lebanon have been totally co-opted by the Muslims from Arabia and lost their cultural identity. When are the true Canaanites of Palestine (to use the Roman term) and Lebanon going to realize they are not Arabs. When are the Egyptians going to learn they are not Arabs, but a more ancient people called Egyptians as a local Egyptian resident and business owner reminded me-- when making certain I did not refer to him as an Arab in our discussion. Canaanite peoples can not act in a civilized manner until they shake off the cultural captivity, with all its inherent barbarism and intellectual backwardness, of their Arab Muslim conquerors.

The so called West Bank was overrun in 1948 by the British Officer-ed, British led, and British equipped Arab Legion of the Trans-Jordan Hashemite Kingdom. (Know who was John Baggot Glub?) That armed forced conquered the West Bank area and drove the Jewish population out of a part of Jerusalem they promptly (but temporarily) renamed East Jerusalem. An act as ridiculous as the British renaming their still conquered part of Ireland as "Northern Ireland" and falsely claiming it to be their land--a la the "Arabs" and Jerusalem.

There never was a border between Israel and the Trans-Jordan, just an armistice line. There is a major legal difference.

Unfortunately for the Jordanian Army, without as much British support, in 1967, despite Israel's constant asking them to stay out of the war, the Jordan Arab Legion attacked Israel and the rest is history. The Jews took back the remaining neighborhoods of Jerusalem and will hold onto them forever--so says Israel's nuclear arsenal and you and your like fellows cannot do a thing about that fact.

Like most "Without Name" or perhaps "Sin N" forgets that Gaza, which was Egyptian territory prior to 1967--not Palestinian Arab, is a free area its residents or government have turned into Terrorist Central and a Hamas ruled fiefdom--perhaps more appropriately Hezbollah South--the vassal States of Iran.

The choice was theirs, build a democratic, economically viable and thriving area friendly to its neighbors or degenerate into an economically poor area peopled by terrorist bandits. Thousands of Gaza residents were employed in Israel until Hams turned their country into a base for firing thousands of rockets into Israel and sending suicide bombers across their border dressed as workmen. Brilliant move, but alas another typical Palestinian action showing they wish to join the civilized community of nations in the spirit of economic competitiveness. Of course. they were doing it by delivering spare parts from used rockets and expended explosives to their neighbor. What more needs be stated.

At the behest of Nasser and believing the lying propaganda that Egyptian armies were conquering Israel, the Syrians rushed to join in the division of those imaginary spoils in 1967 and the process lost the Golan Heights. I suppose that now you would have Israel return that territory to the regime of the murderous butcher Assad. Certainly a trustworthy, educated man.

Where is your outcry about the mass killings being carried by his orders??? Please don't tell me you are two faced on the issue of Arab leaders slaughtering their own people, but what is new.

"Sin," illegal as they may be, business crimes pale in comparison to the murderous and barbaric acts of the various Arab regimes carried out often against their own people, their cultures permitted killing of women by men which is not an illegal act, the fact their countries are all ruled by dictators who are wealthy beyond compare when their people starve and live in poverty and filth--yes I have been there. Watch television news. If the only problem was Arafat's theft of a few dollars, that would be criminal but amusing. It was his failure to sign onto a fair peace treaty that would have delivered to the Palestinian people a decent country with a supporting neighbor and a supporting United States that would have lead to their economic, cultural, and educational uplifting and the end to conflict in the area that was the crime--as well as the murderous acts of (to many of) the Palestinian population against their neighbors that is the crime.

So-called Arabs living in Israel have the right to vote, many more than you realize serve in the Israeli military and as officers and fight for their democratic country, have members in their country's parliament, and earn a far higher wage then their counterparts in any Arab country. The proof lies in facts, not Arab falsehoods.

Enough, time for important things. Xexon, you are not a Chinese light bulb that has burned out are you? You most certainly have misplaced the brains God presumably gave yo you. Time to return to Kindergarten, or maybe you grew up in a country where they do not educate their masses.

Suppose the islamists snatch American lands, what would Americans do. Will they gladly accept it for the sake of being crowned as large hearted. The Israelites were unjustly ousted from their promised holy land. There is nothing wrong if they are using all means at their disposal to reclaim that holy land. It is only in the larger interests of the world that effects of Islamic conquests be undone and reversed. What right Arabian Islamists had to conquest Iran, India etc and cause widespread bloodshed. Would any one call the ouster of Jews from their holy land and continued killing of Hindus the bright chapters of world history. America funds all those human rights organisations that scream at appropriate handling of terrorists, but they do not shed a tear when patriotic blood is spilled in the name of Islam.

Sorry I don't have the full lists, but since you insist on your stupid little game here, how about trying this one for size, bozo?

KILLED BY MOSLEMS - PALESTINIAN AND/OR PALESTINIAN SUPPORTERS

- 3000 Americans murdered by Al Qaeda on September 11, 2001. Immediately after learning the fate of those on the planes and on the ground Palestinians in Gaza and Ramallah started dancing in the streets in celebration.

- 250 U.S. Marines (some of them friends) murdered in the Beirut Barracks by Islamic murderers.

- The U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon and his assistant, murdered by PLO thugs in 1976, after the U.S, Ambassador to the Sudan, his Charge D' Affairs, and the Belgian Ambassador were murdered on the DIRECT orders of Yasser Arafat. President Nixon was so outraged that he was all set to bomb Palestinian targets but was sadly dissuaded by Henry Kissinger and Vernon Walters.

The entire crew and passengers of a TWA Flight from Athens to Tel Aviv, blown up over the Mediterranean by Palestinian terrorists in September 1975. Gerald Ford whitewashed this under the carpet knowing the American people would have demanded a response. This, predating both Lockerbie and 9/11. And speaking of.

- 250 Americans, Brits and other innocents murdered by agents in the pay of Syria, Iran, Libya and the Palestinian General Command, over Lockerbie, Scotland, November 1988. If Reagan had remained President there would have been a response. Sadly the incoming pro- Saudi and by extension pro-Syrian idiots George Herbert Walker Bush and his sidekick James Von Ribbentrop Baker also chose to whitewash this, like Obama convienently blaming it on Libya.

And countless Americans murdered by Palestinian and Islamic terrorists worldwide since 1967 - hundreds, if not thousands of them.

Care to bring up the Liberty incident again, fella? If you love your roach fece friends in Gaza so much, get off my (Native American) land and go and live amongst your own.

Spadra awaits you - now please be a good little vermin and put that straightjacket on while you drool over your copy of Mein Kampf.

Ahhh, that's a good little boy. Trouble is, you're too sick to be deported to your Palestinian trash, as all those who scream for the rights of Palestinian terrorists yet tramp Native American land should go to, but Spadra will take care of you.

We can't afford to feed and fight the world with borrowed money.

Every cause has an effect. Every action a reaction.

By intervening in the Israel-Muslim conflict, we created the conditions that started the American war with Muslim terrorists. Intervening in other countries always leads to war and enemies. Terrorism is the strategy of the powerless when they fight the powerful. The next step in this permanent war is that terrorists will detonate dirty nuclear bombs on the NATO countries and America. We have to stop the steps that are leading us to this end.

The terrorists have more time and supporters than we have money. To survive we have to stop all interventions in the world. Defend our borders and attack only targeted actual terrorists. This total divorce from the world's problems will eventually cause the terrorists to focus on their own power struggles because they will see that America is out of the area and that it's in their best interest to end terrorism against America to keep us out. This is the only way to end this permanent war before we enter the terminal stage of our economic and social cancer.

The $1.65 Trillion dollars out of a budget of $3.7 Trillion, that the Federal government has to beg and borrow this year and every year, should not be spent on war contractor profits and foreign affairs. Confront reality; The USA is the largest debtor in world history. The annual trade deficit (losses) is over $700 billion. Industry is only 9% of the economy. According to the official government statistics, 36% of males 16 to 64 years old are permanently out of the labor force and don't count. The Federal, State and local governments must reduce their size by 37% to fit actual taxes. There are not enough taxpayers to support this huge government of over 20 million people and an equal number of people that are employed by dependent government contractors. Taxes are too high already. Most taxpayers are struggling with increasing local property tax increases and the rising cost of living.

We need to re-industrialize to become financially and politically independent from the global corporations and special interests. America has to nation build to restore its prosperity. 47% of American households are too poor to be legally obligated to pay income taxes. American owned companies cannot compete with imported global corporate products made with cheap labor. We cannot survive competing with Chinese that earn $200 a month.

Focus on our own problems, end globalization, mass immigration and re-industrialize with free enterprise competitive American owned companies before we become another failed state. Stop voting for the two political parties that ruined America. Choose independent politicians and change them when they sell out to the special interest groups. Constitutional government must represent national interests that include corporations, the rich, the middle class and the poor.

Roman Gil
http://roman-gil1.blogspot.com

We can't afford to feed and fight the world with borrowed money.

Every cause has an effect. Every action a reaction.

By intervening in the Israel-Muslim conflict, we created the conditions that started the American war with Muslim terrorists. Intervening in other countries always leads to war and enemies. Terrorism is the strategy of the powerless when they fight the powerful. The next step in this permanent war is that terrorists will detonate dirty nuclear bombs on the NATO countries and America. We have to stop the steps that are leading us to this end.

The terrorists have more time and supporters than we have money. To survive we have to stop all interventions in the world. Defend our borders and attack only targeted actual terrorists. This total divorce from the world's problems will eventually cause the terrorists to focus on their own power struggles because they will see that America is out of the area and that it's in their best interest to end terrorism against America to keep us out. This is the only way to end this permanent war before we enter the terminal stage of our economic and social cancer.

The $1.65 Trillion dollars out of a budget of $3.7 Trillion, that the Federal government has to beg and borrow this year and every year, should not be spent on war contractor profits and foreign affairs. Confront reality; The USA is the largest debtor in world history. The annual trade deficit (losses) is over $700 billion. Industry is only 9% of the economy. According to the official government statistics, 36% of males 16 to 64 years old are permanently out of the labor force and don't count. The Federal, State and local governments must reduce their size by 37% to fit actual taxes. There are not enough taxpayers to support this huge government of over 20 million people and an equal number of people that are employed by dependent government contractors. Taxes are too high already. Most taxpayers are struggling with increasing local property tax increases and the rising cost of living.

We need to re-industrialize to become financially and politically independent from the global corporations and special interests. America has to nation build to restore its prosperity. 47% of American households are too poor to be legally obligated to pay income taxes. American owned companies cannot compete with imported global corporate products made with cheap labor. We cannot survive competing with Chinese that earn $200 a month.

Focus on our own problems, end globalization, mass immigration and re-industrialize with free enterprise competitive American owned companies before we become another failed state. Stop voting for the two political parties that ruined America. Choose independent politicians and change them when they sell out to the special interest groups. Constitutional government must represent national interests that include corporations, the rich, the middle class and the poor.

Roman Gil
http://roman-gil1.blogspot.com

Your biases may not be reachable, but I have to try. The Jews have been in that land for 4,000 years; Arabs came on the scene in 624 AD, when Muhammad converted or slaughtered all who would not convert to Islam. Over 1400 years, most of the religions and cultures have been annihilated by warring Muslims - Zoroastrians, Buddhist, Hindus, Baha'is, Pharoahics, Copts, Jews and Christians. When the Jews were legally granted this small piece of land in the midst of the Islamic Middle East, the Muslims waged yet another war, illegally occupying the land for 19 years until Israeli won it back. Is this what you're basing your opinion on? 19 years?

Gaining land by war is considered illegal by international standards. Of the 59 Arabic countries in the Middle East, you are against one small piece of land for one Jewish country? Is this your response to the fairness of a people to return to their country of origin, that was, anyway, always inhabited by Jews. Are you aware that there were no Arab Palestinians until 1967, when they determined that a good strategy would be to give themselves the name of the land?

Islam is more than a religion; it is a complete civilization that includes politics (caliphate), jurisprudence (Sharia law), war (jihad), and the deliberate and deceptive misnomer of "religion of peace." Their doctrine, in three books, contains the words of Allah and Muhammed, which are to be obeyed unquestioningly, and to bring people to submission (Islam means submission). Over those 1400 years, killed 270 million people, and you're defending their continuing to kill again for the sake of taking Israeli land. Are you aware that they will also overtake Europe and America - are YOU willing to live under their repressive Sharia law (do you know about Sharia?)

Islamic doctrine is the destruction of all non-Islamic cultures until the entire world is under Islamic rule and Sharia law. They have waged more than 17,031 deadly jihad attacks since 9/11 - worldwide. They are at war with Israel, but do you realize they are at war with African countries (enslaving so many poor Sudanese), and Europe (making life very tough and changing the nature of European countries forever) and be aware of how America is destined to change if YOU don't understand and don't do something to keep our country free.

For those of you who think America and Israel is oppressive, you have the right to vote, the right to walk and wear what you want, the right to believe and worship and live as you wish, the right to love and marry and divorce, and play music. Islam prohibits all these things at the risk of stoning, beheading, amputating, torturing, and more. Do you really think you'd prefer life in a totalitarian Arabic regime?

Since they do not assimilate in whichever country they inhabit, they work to make YOU acquiesce to their religion and thoughts. This is not accommodation; it is conquest. They do not want to live according to our Constitution, but we should live according to Sharia. You folks haven't read enough...Look up "sharia for dummies" on the Internet; learn something.

Every attempt at peace by Israel has been met with a broken covenant and more rocket fire, or suicide bombers, and more. What sane country would ever send their citizens, their children out to commit suicide in order to kill others? Do you realize what you're siding with?

Are you aware that the purpose of Islamic terror and hate is to deflect the world's attention from what they do and from the tyranny of their own leaders. If they were civilized, there wouldn't be such evil taking place. But all the growth experienced by Europe and the Americas (modernization, increased productivity, improvements in health and science) did not take place in the Arab Middle East. They were left behind, and they're not able to cope with a deflated ego. Instead of lifting themelves up to the level of the rest of the modern world, they prefer to kill the infidels and reduce our democracies to their level, under their rule, with no freedom of thought or speech. Read books by those who were born Muslim and who left to join a better world, because only they can explain to you what life was like for them, under a autocratic rule with no freedoms.

Unless you're cowards, start putting your effort and energy into saving women from their captors in the Islamic world, and save the Darfurians and Sudanese from Islamic slavery. Find out for yourselves what's really happening in Israel, visit Israel, enjoy the freedom, their innovations, and how they treat their citizens. Know that they have more than one million Arabs as citizens, whereas Saudis have no Christians or Jews in their country and Palestinians want a country of Muslims only - with their laws of enshrouding women, honor killings, amputations for theives, stoning for adulterers, decapitation for crimes of comments against Islam; genital mutilation for their small daughters, plus marriages to older men; burning homosexuals – certainly beatings and torture for the crimes of practicing Judaism and Christianity.

Jews and Christians are not committing crimes against Muslims. You have fallen for a load of propaganda. Don't you owe it to yourselves to read, travel, learn, think for yourself? If Muslims are the oppressed people you believe them to be, why is it that they commit more than 80% of all the crimes in America - and Jews (2% of the population) have been most victimized?

And where are the “moderate Muslims.” They are NOT afraid to speak out when they want to; they do not want to. When people do not agree with something, they find a way to voice their opinions and objections. Muslims demonstrate against America's support of Israel; they demonstrate in the universities, and celebrated openly in the streets and in the Cleveland Clinic hallways on 9/11. They demonstrated in Dearborn, MI, and in Washington DC, and held prayer-ins, blocking traffic and intimidating the original citizens in America, Canada, throughout Europe – and they have the right to speak in America without fear of being killed or imprisoned. So these "moderate Muslims" support and are as complicit as those who actually wield ammunition.

Have I made anyone think? Christians and Jews welcome thinking...reading and thinking; Muslims tell you what to read and what to think. Where are you in all of this? Have I encouraged you to learn? Listen to thirteen 20-minute lectures on Islam by renowned Dr. Bill Warner, on http://actwestnashville.com/?page_id=544 (scroll down to see the buttons to click), and at least read:
Stealth Jihad, by Robert Spencer,
Sharia, the Threat to America, An exercise in Competitive Analysis, Report of Team B II.

If you can't think for yourself, you're like a dog at the end of a long line of dogs...looking at . . .

Israel is Pakistan with better plumbing.

Pakis terrorize Afghanistan and India, Israel terrorizes Palestinians.

When Israelis voted for Netanyahu, they knew they were voting to imprison and torture an entire Nation.

With freedom breaking out across the region, Israel pushes tyranny and tribal vengance.

The time is fast approaching when the USA will reject Israeli blackmail and rip their bloody hands from our pocket.

Remember the USS Lberty !

Allies don't shoot your ships and kill your seaman or soldiers. That is all I need to know about Israel.

The main vehicle for expressing support for Israel has been foreign aid; Israel currently receives about $3 billion per year in economic and military grants, refugee settlement assistance, and other aid. Congress has monitored the aid issue closely along with other issues in bilateral relations, and its concerns have affected Administration's policies.

I was born in Israel and moved to the U.S. with my family in the late 1970s. I can't remember much about my time there but I still am proud of my heritage. Growing up here in the U.S., I was always reminded about how lucky I was to have all the opportunities we have here by my parents. That's probably why I studied so hard getting a scholarship to Baylor College of Dentistry. Now I am a happy dallas dentist thanks to this great country.

Going a little off tangent, I can objectively say supporting Israel is absolutely crucial to the long term best interests of any western democratic society. Simply for the fact that Israel is a western style democracy in itself in the middle of a region where that is obviously not the norm. And yes, although we do spend quite a bit of money in aid, the U.S. does get some of that back. Israel is known for improving a lot of the defense technology we send to them (in the form of aid) and sharing that back with us.

-Dr. W

Let me get this straight...the land originally belonged to arabs who were conquered by the Israelites, then conquered by different arabs, then the greeks, then the romans, then more arabs, then the crusaders, then more arabs, then the british and then even more arabs, and then finally the Jews...so who is to say that anyone deserves the land? As far as I am concerned, the world is a pretty tough place and in it only the strong survive. Im not rooting for UFC fighters or the Marines to take over the world but what I am saying is that it's pretty pointless to argue over who deserves what land because when it comes down to it nobody rightfully owns any of it. Sorry if I come off as ignorant, this topic is obviously more important to the millions of people caught in the middle of this age old pissing contest but when it comes down to it, the world will always have too many problems and not enough solutions. Sorry to all of those involved, it is truly a tragedy.

Israel has been a millstone around the neck of the USA almost from its inception and has led us down the path to permanent war vs Islam. This will most likely drag the US down financially and morally and in general for years to come by burdening our budget with ridiculous military expenditures. The Lobby so well exposed by Mearsheimer and Walt is of course why this fatal embrace continues and why the US cannot unglue itself from this damaging relationship.
Until public opinion changes radically in the US nothing really can be done about the matter; and that change seems as far off as ever. One thing is certain, however. As the US power declines under the financial burdens of empire so will the security of Israel since the latter has made itself completely dependent upon the former. Israel may regret its having glued itself to the USA and vice versa.

In this article Barack obama says United States has no better friend in the world than Israel and this whole article says US join hands with Isreal. So it is evident that the Muslims are going to be the first enemy for US. http://www.newsep.com

I agree with many people that the United States needs to focus more on their own country; well I should say that we should focus more on our own country; being a lifetime citizen of the United States.

It's no wonder why the United States is in such bad debt, I mean when we are constantly giving other countries money for their problems, how can we ever expect to get out of debt? We won't if we keep going the way we are, and our taxes are going to just keep going up and up.

I love my country, but I agree with man that we need to mind our own business more often - or at least let some of the wealthy affiliates of the USA help with giving outher countries monetary support; but only when needed for reasons that are for 100% positive reasons. Things like feeding people, not fueling tensions or war.

As I am writing this I am watching the news on Israel, Palestine and Gaza right now - and it's sad and terrifying. I don't quite understand myself why the United States continues to support Israel so casually!

People really need to start coming together, regardless of skin color, citizenship of country, religion, and other personal preference. People need to start supporting people, period.

" In Israel alone, the United States will not have to choose between upholding its democratic principles and pursuing its vital interests."

What about the democratic values given to the occupied Palestinians and the 2nd rate citizenship enjoyed by the Israeli Arabs? It seems like a state openly occupying territory and preventing the sovereignty and democratic rights of another people is not that democratic...

"Israel is the only Middle Eastern country that is certain to remain stable and unequivocally pro-American."

So a war every couple of years (2nd Intifada, Lebanon 2006 and Gaza 2008) is equivilant to stability in your book? That's a very strange standard of stability. Also let's not forget the dislike that the current PM has for the president of the United States (unequivocal support?) and the Israeli spying on the US in the past which definitely indicate just how supportive Israel is of the US.

"And in contrast to the Middle Eastern leaders who hold themselves above the law, a former Israeli president was recently convicted of sexual offenses"

And yet Ariel Sharon is found guilty by the Kahan Commission and is stripped of the Defense ministry only to return as Prime Minister... truly a beacon of justice and transparency.

"The official U.S. documents released by WikiLeaks show that Arab rulers are not preoccupied with Israel but with the perils posed by Iran."

It's laughable that, in an article pointing out the dictatorships of the rest of the middle east, one would think the rulers of the Arab nations actually represent the opinions of the majority of their people. The majority of Arabs have a major problem with the US support for Israel and that is a fact that will never change. There are fears of Iranian influence and there are other issues that impact Arabs' views of the US negatively, but the number one and most universal issue for ill will by some Arabs and Muslims towards the United States is the support for Israel which has irked them since before the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and before Al Qaeda even existed.

The revolutions in the Middle East are not against the United States or Israel, they are against the despotic rulers in charge so it is not surprising that there is not much mention of those two foreign countries in local revolutions, despite the fact that Israel was one of the few countries openly supporting Mubarak to stay in power (politically) and the US has supported some of the falling dictatorships for decades.

"Israeli leaders offered to create a West Bank Palestinian state, but Palestinian leaders rejected the plan. Israel in 2000 offered the Palestinians sovereignty over virtually the entire West Bank, all of Gaza, and part of Jerusalem"

How dare the Palestinians demand the return rights of millions of fellow Palestinians living in exile and squallor? Shame on them! They should do as Israel says and take their 'sovereign' state that can not decide on matters of immigration or border security apparently...

"Settlements, meanwhile, have never been the impediment to peace. They did not preclude the signing of the Egyptian and Jordanian treaties or 16 years of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations."

What do negotiations with Jordan and Egypt have to do with settlements on Palestinian land? I think we all know just how much the governments of Jordan (Black September?) and Egypt (Siege on Gaza) really care about Palestinians...

" Internal Palestinian documents published recently by Al Jazeera reveal that Palestinian negotiators in 2008 were willing to concede the bulk of the Israeli communities in the West Bank, as well as most of the Jewish neighborhoods built over the 1967 line in Jerusalem, as part of a peace arrangement. Israeli leaders were ready to sign; the Palestinians again walked away."

The 'Palestinians' walked away because they knew such a deal would be completely unacceptable to almost all Palestinians and they had no right or legitimacy to give away massive amounts of land of an already tattered and torn nation to the Israelis in exchange for nothing. Fatah leadership would be hung in the streets if they gave up all that land...

"And even elected representatives can be profoundly hostile to the United States, as in Iran, Lebanon, and Gaza."

Interesting, because as i remember the United States and its allies sat by and watched as Hezb Allah took over half of Beirut by force from the democratically elected rulers of Lebanon thus resulting in the current political equation in that country where they (Hezb Allah) have taken the leading role.

"Israel is the only Middle Eastern state never to oppose America on major international issues. Its fundamental interests, like its values, are America's"

Are we forgetting the 1956 Arab-Israeli conflict where the US stepped in to ask for Israeli withdrawal from Egypt, or the Israeli opposition to the US asking for Mubarak to step down?

when it comes to the Middle East, its always about oil, money, money ,oil,

I say, bring on non-oil fuel alternatives for the world and then see what happens- the Middle East will be an even bigger desert than it is now and you wont see the US for dust....or sand storms.

Home Business Opportunities

I have to agree, US should take care of their own internal problems
. A Rapid cash tornado is needed to resolve US debt

Man half of you netnutz are so far off. If you want to talk dollars we have significant trade with Israel...look inside your putter for on.

So we gave Israel 3B and they bought the F35 for 2.5B. You do the subtraction....and these monies come back as US jobs. It is call FMS, Foreign Military Sales.

Of all of the money that we have given the 22 nations of Arab, can you tell me what the US gets in return?

Israel is only 9 miles wide and the buffer is there for their protection...have any of you put up the two maps to show the pre and post 67 lines? You all act like they need more land but on a map they only want the buffer, which is small. You can't even tell the difference. The buffer is used to defend Israel borders from you guessed it...the Arabs who lob rockets at them.

First you get the bloody Arab nations including the Palestinians to allow Israel to exist...to recognize them as a sovereign nation...It is a piece of bloody paper, pulp. Then you have the Arab nutz stop lobbing rockets at Israel. Easy stuff and then you sit down and discuss the bloody 67 lines = hard stuff.

Abbas says he will run the Jew into the ocean...sounds like he's ready to negotiate...Iran is no friend. Jordan can turn on a dime and Egypt yeah they are killing Christians. Syria, sweet place, eh?

You have Israel surrounding, what do you really want?

A Francis Fox Piven moment...just what she expects to happen here in the US.

Rise up, unemployed led by young workers and by students...great...

Britain in 1923 issued a Mandate of Palestine. "Transjordan" was created as the Palestinian state. When it was broken up the name "Palestine" was kept for the west of Jordan for the Jews and a large amount of Arabs.

How many times must "Palestine” (i.e. the State of Israel) be divided?

Hell let the Arab nations take them the outcasts back...they by far have more land and oil. Israel is just dirt.

So you are Jew haters from what nation? Students taught be the older hippie sociologists? Or just ignorant of Israel and how much the Islamic fascists would love to kill all of them? First on Saturday then on Sunday.

I listen to the Arab nutz and it is all about killing...they don't peace they want PIECE and the death of all Jews.

You've become the bullies of the net with your hate of the Jew...and Christian.

Poor Obama. He has been snubbed all over the globe, most recently in India which just told Secretary of State Clinton it would like to grow its economy, thank you very much, and won’t limit carbon emissions. He’s stridently asserted he’s not interested in telling a country like Iran how it run its internal affairs but he has no compunction in trying to micromanage in East Jerusalem karmaloop promo codes, to tell the Israeli government to intervene to tell a private developer to cancel a project that’s been under contract for years, a project that involves a long uninhabited building, in a district that Israel claimed after winning the territory from the Jordanians in a defensive war. Obama has no legal, moral or historic standing here. He seems to be acting out of desperation, as if he needs to put a victory on the board, somewhere, anywhere. But this is the wrong fight to pick and he’s going to lose this one as well.

America’s Fatal Love Affair With Israel Gained Us a Permanent War.

If we had followed George Washington’s advice in his “Farewell Address”, we would not have become involved in the “War on Terror”. I loaded his complete address in my blog and highlighted the parts that are of special interest to Americans that believe in the American limited constitutional republic type of government.

By intervening in the Israel-Muslim conflict, we created the conditions that started the American war with Muslim terrorists. Intervening in other countries always leads to war and enemies. Terrorism is the strategy of the powerless when they fight the powerful. The next step in this permanent war is that terrorists will detonate dirty or conventional nuclear bombs on the NATO countries and America. We have to stop the steps that are leading us to this end and change the strategy to win and end the war before it escalates.

Why are we providing Israel annually with $3.5 billion American taxpayer debt dollars? They are rich and can afford to defend themselves. Israel has nuclear weapons and a strong military; they don’t need our money or participation in this Israeli-Muslim conflict that has been going on even before the founding of Israel in 1948. Why are we paying Egypt annually over $1.5 billion in foreign aid? The American taxpayer is paying foreign aid to many nations, but Communist China has no foreign aid. China buys oil fields, mines and finances the government debts of the American and now European governments. China is obtaining real power and influence by following the policy that George Washington explained in his “Farewell Address” advice to the American people.

The global interventionist policy gained us Israel’s enemies. The terrorist attack on 9/11 is a result of intervening in a conflict that concerns Israelis and Muslims. Osama Bin Laden’s strategy was to draw America into conflict in the Muslim world to bankrupt us like what happened to the former interventionist, expansionist Soviet Union. The Afghanistan war and the many Soviet global interventions bankrupted the Soviet Union and caused its ignoble collapse in 1991. We have been playing Osama’s game since 9/11 and we are losing our wealth and power.

We get most of our oil from Canada and other suppliers that are not in the Middle East. The Communist Chinese announced last year that they now have a controlling interest in Iraqi oil and proudly announced the receipt of the first oil shipments. It is clear that they have a strategy of gaining real power at the expense of the follies of other powers. We are fighting a war against maybe 2,000 Al Qaeda terrorists without a military strategy to win the war. Instead, the military talks about the nonsense of “nation building” and “democracy building” in Iraq and Afghanistan. We just added thousands of new enemies by intervening in Libya. The Libyans that Obama killed have families. Every bomb that falls in the American Muslim war is financed by debt and represents a nail in our coffin. We really know how to win friends and influence people.

An economist estimated that the total cost of the war on terror is $5 trillion. 57% of Americans that are fighting this war are contractors, not military personnel. The war contractors are now a powerful special interest group. They are not likely to voluntarily abandon this lucrative business and join the underpaid and overtaxed American civilian population.

The terrorists have more time and supporters than we have money. To survive we have to stop all interventions and occupations in the world. We must defend our borders and attack only targeted actual terrorists. This total divorce from the world's problems will eventually cause the terrorists to focus on their own internal affairs because they will see that America is out of their area and that it's in their best interest to end terrorism against America to keep us out. This is the only way to end this permanent war before we enter the terminal stage of our economic and social cancer.

The $1.65 Trillion dollars out of a budget of $3.7 Trillion, that the Federal government has to beg and borrow this year and every year, should not be spent on war contractor profits and foreign affairs. Confront reality; The USA is the largest debtor in world history. The annual national current account balance losses are over $700 billion (this is wealth that is lost according to the formula national assets-liabilities). Industry is only 9% of the economy. According to the official government statistics, 36% of males 16 to 64 years old are permanently out of the labor force and don't count. The Federal, State and local governments must reduce their size by 37% to fit actual taxes. There are not enough taxpayers to support this huge government of over 20 million people and an equal number of people that are employed by dependent government contractors. Taxes are too high already. Most taxpayers are struggling with increasing local property tax increases and the rising cost of living.

We need to re-industrialize to become financially and politically independent from the global corporations and special interests. America has to nation build to restore its prosperity. 47% of American households are too poor to be legally obligated to pay income taxes. American owned companies cannot compete with imported global corporate products made with cheap labor. We cannot survive competing with Chinese that earn $200 a month.

Focus on our own problems, end globalization, mass immigration and re-industrialize with free enterprise competitive American owned companies before we become another failed state. Stop voting for the two political parties that ruined America. Choose independent politicians and change them when they sell out to the special interest groups. Constitutional government must represent national interests that include corporations, the rich, the middle class and the poor.

Roman Gil
http://roman-gil1.blogspot.com

Legally, until the Palestinians negotiate a peace agreement with Israel, the land you are referring to was part of the Palestine Mandate, all of which the League of Nations unanimously James voted to be a Jewish Homeland.

America’s Fatal Love Affair With Israel Gained Us a Permanent War.

If we had followed George Washington’s advice in his “Farewell Address”, we would not have become involved in the “War on Terror”. I loaded his complete address in my blog and highlighted the parts that are of special interest to Americans that believe in the American limited constitutional republic type of government.

By intervening in the Israel-Muslim conflict, we created the conditions that started the American war with Muslim terrorists. Intervening in other countries always leads to war and enemies. Terrorism is the strategy of the powerless when they fight the powerful. The next step in this permanent war is that terrorists will detonate dirty or conventional nuclear bombs on the NATO countries and America. We have to stop the steps that are leading us to this end and change the strategy to win and end the war before it escalates.

Why are we providing Israel annually with $3.5 billion American taxpayer debt dollars? They are rich and can afford to defend themselves. Israel has nuclear weapons and a strong military; they don’t need our money or participation in this Israeli-Muslim conflict that has been going on even before the founding of Israel in 1948. Why are we paying Egypt annually over $1.5 billion in foreign aid? The American taxpayer is paying foreign aid to many nations, but Communist China has no foreign aid. China buys oil fields, mines and finances the government debts of the American and now European governments. China is obtaining real power and influence by following the policy that George Washington explained in his “Farewell Address” advice to the American people.

The global interventionist policy gained us Israel’s enemies. The terrorist attack on 9/11 is a result of intervening in a conflict that concerns Israelis and Muslims. Osama Bin Laden’s strategy was to draw America into conflict in the Muslim world to bankrupt us like what happened to the former interventionist, expansionist Soviet Union. The Afghanistan war and the many Soviet global interventions bankrupted the Soviet Union and caused its ignoble collapse in 1991. We have been playing Osama’s game since 9/11 and we are losing our wealth and power.

We get most of our oil from Canada and other suppliers that are not in the Middle East. The Communist Chinese announced last year that they now have a controlling interest in Iraqi oil and proudly announced the receipt of the first oil shipments. It is clear that they have a strategy of gaining real power at the expense of the follies of other powers. We are fighting a war against maybe 2,000 Al Qaeda terrorists without a military strategy to win the war. Instead, the military talks about the nonsense of “nation building” and “democracy building” in Iraq and Afghanistan. We just added thousands of new enemies by intervening in Libya. The Libyans that Obama killed have families. Every bomb that falls in the American Muslim war is financed by debt and represents a nail in our coffin. We really know how to win friends and influence people.

An economist estimated that the total cost of the war on terror is $5 trillion. 57% of Americans that are fighting this war are contractors, not military personnel. The war contractors are now a powerful special interest group. They are not likely to voluntarily abandon this lucrative business and join the underpaid and overtaxed American civilian population.

The terrorists have more time and supporters than we have money. To survive we have to stop all interventions and occupations in the world. We must defend our borders and attack only targeted actual terrorists. This total divorce from the world's problems will eventually cause the terrorists to focus on their own internal affairs because they will see that America is out of their area and that it's in their best interest to end terrorism against America to keep us out. This is the only way to end this permanent war before we enter the terminal stage of our economic and social cancer.

The $1.65 Trillion dollars out of a budget of $3.7 Trillion, that the Federal government has to beg and borrow this year and every year, should not be spent on war contractor profits and foreign affairs. Confront reality; The USA is the largest debtor in world history. The annual national current account balance losses are over $700 billion (this is wealth that is lost according to the formula national assets-liabilities). Industry is only 9% of the economy. According to the official government statistics, 36% of males 16 to 64 years old are permanently out of the labor force and don't count. The Federal, State and local governments must reduce their size by 37% to fit actual taxes. There are not enough taxpayers to support this huge government of over 20 million people and an equal number of people that are employed by dependent government contractors. Taxes are too high already. Most taxpayers are struggling with increasing local property tax increases and the rising cost of living.

We need to re-industrialize to become financially and politically independent from the global corporations and special interests. America has to nation build to restore its prosperity. 47% of American households are too poor to be legally obligated to pay income taxes. American owned companies cannot compete with imported global corporate products made with cheap labor. We cannot survive competing with Chinese that earn $200 a month.

Focus on our own problems, end globalization, mass immigration and re-industrialize with free enterprise competitive American owned companies before we become another failed state. Stop voting for the two political parties that ruined America. Choose independent politicians and change them when they sell out to the special interest groups. Constitutional government must represent national interests that include corporations, the rich, the middle class and the poor.

Roman Gil
http://roman-gil1.blogspot.com