We should all accept the might makes right argument and kick these people’s asses. Ask them as they beg mercy if they are dissuaded of their arguments. Either way you win, as if they agree that the violence is pointless and doesn’t dissuade. Even if you get grudging agreement given just to stop the pummeling they should no that nothing was resolved, the old resentments will still be left unsettled.

But, you will never be heard. We are invisible to them. They don’t see the victims of their plans as people. The harbor a racism, or some elitism. Churchill felt nothing for brown people, Woodrow Wilson was a repugnant white supremest. Many Zionists are too, they get succor from the same sources. These people will pervert the most sacred for selfish gain–what better typifies this than ordering the murder of innocent babies?

I think there MAY be a spiritual and apocalyptic aspect to what is happening there. Revelations talks about vast numbers of the “Church” being deceived. Simply, what can be more Satanic than cheering “shock and Awe” the cheering slaughter of innocents?

We are guided to hold to the Golden Rule, love our neighbors as ourselves. When Jesus is asked, “who is my neighbor?” he points to the good Samaritan. Yet now our Congress offers it’s full support to the murder of a thousand civilians in Gaza.

The Antichrist means not just the opposite of Christ but also ante, as before. I know millions of Christians see Israel as being the Israel of prophecy. Many Orthodox Jews believe this attitude is blasphemous and heresy. I certainly don’t think THIS Israel is the Israel of prophecy. I think that what replaces THIS Israel could be the Israel that comes as a reward for the righteousness of the people.

Jon wrote, “The one hope is that in time there will be a “revolution of attitudes,” an acceptance that Palestine can flourish as a state with Muslims, Jews and Christians living side by side in peace and equality” Well, that is what it was for much of the 1300 yrs Muslims lived there.

In ‘67 when Moshe Dayan occupied the West Bank, the Jews that had been living there for years begged him to be merciful and fair to the Arabs. He didn’t take their council. Even the Atheist can embrace the Golden Rule, it’s these men who succumb to evil for personal gain who cause these problems.

Most of us don’t have personal challenges anything like this. We don’t have millions to gain by turning our back on the victims of some pillaging. But each of us has the ability to compel the concern of our neighbors. WE have to speak up! I appreciate your fine blog and the dedication to speaking the truth, one mitzva few of your peers are willing to earn.

This does suggest that hypocrisy coupled with psychopathic attitudes is a formula for success in this society. Friedman proves it.

At the same time, this reopens the difficult question of how one deals with an enemy who is embedded among the civilian population. In Vietnam we tried two ways: massive firepower with heavy civilian casualties, and “counterinsurgency,” i.e., discreet operations side by side with an effort to win over the people. The former failed becuase the enemy was dedicated to his cause and would not roll over in the face of heavy losses. The latter failed because we were, at bottom, a FOREIGN element on Vietnamese soil. We were never able to win over the people — that is, the peasantry that made up a majority of the Vietnamese population.

The Israelis tried firepower in Lebanon and Gaza. Hezbollah and Hamas are still standing, and Israel is even more hated than before. As for winning over the civilian population, although small efforts to do this are underway on the West Bank, no such effort is being made in Gaza. Nor would such an effort succeed, because the Israelis are a FOREIGN element in a land that (before 1948) had been for 1,300 Arab and (mostly) Muslim.

Israel will eventually be overwhelmed militarily or demographically. The object lesson from history is the fate of the medieval Crusader states. The one hope is that in time there will be a “revolution of attitudes,” an acceptance that Palestine can flourish as a state with Muslims, Jews and Christians living side by side in peace and equality. I doubt it will happen, but never say never. What must be grasped is that a Jewish state in Palestine is an anachronism, a last fling of colonialism that was morally indefensible, even given the unspeakable horror of the Holocaust and the centuries of persecution that preceded it.