"In Shuhada Street, which runs through what is now the settlers' security zone, the rows of empty Palestinian shops and houses [are] boarded up with steel shutters, many daubed with Stars of David to show who is in charge here."

What a kick in the head. From being a mark of victimhood in pogroms, the Star of David is now transformed into a sinister proclamation of hegemony after ethnic cleansing.

Shame about the hundreds of millions invested in Holocaust museums. Their message is being obsoleted by Israel's supremacist policies today. Another reason why all U.S. aid to Israel should be stopped NOW.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/columnists/20080224_Worldview__A_look_at_the_limits_democracy_must_set.html

Second, and perhaps more important, a chilling testament in Ha'aretz to the tragic fact that BTS' work must continue — the title alone says it all: "For IDF brigade, 'Hebron is like Wild West and army is the law'"

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/957169.html

Here's a sample paragraph:

Channel 2 television's "Fact" investigative program recently aired additional alleged incidents of abuse by soldiers in the Kfir Brigade. "We'd go on a patrol," one soldier told Channel 2. "If even one kid looked at us the wrong way, he'd be slapped. Rocks were thrown at us during one patrol, and we caught one of the kids who knew the perpetrators. We beat the crap out of him until he told us who did it." The soldier said that he and other soldiers tracked down a boy said to be involved, aged 14, and placed the tips of their rifles in his mouth. "We said, 'You want to die? Just say when and where,'" the soldier recalled.

This small booklet was published in Israel about four years ago and caused quite a fuss. It was written by a young soldier and describes the encounters between the army and the Palestinians. At first it couldn't get a publisher, and when it was published, the company would only allow it out in Hebrew. Gideon Levy talks about it here–
link to haaretz.com

HAARETZ 21/11/2003

It's now been translated by an Israeli living in Britain and is downloadable in PDF format here–
link to angrywhitekid.blogs.com

The author is writing about his experiences in Gaza from 1996-1999. This, remember, was a quiet period. It helps put the second Intifada into some context.

In commenting on something at the Huffington Post, I tried three times to include a link to the "Breaking the Silence" campaign. It was filtered out each and every time.

Part of the Lobby's effectiveness is from the amount of gatekeeping it does.