Wonderful statement.

That is that history is important. The history of Israel/Palestine has pendulum-swung, similarly to American history.

The questions on the relations between Israel and Palestine have existed with MUTUAL tensions and aggression for really a century now.

Since 2000, Sharon had been prime minister (the executive of the settlement project as a state project) and left Likud but still retained a resentful attitude towards Palestinians as far as can be inferred.

If her understanding of history started there, it would inevitably be an incomplete one.

The present is the state of change. Obama has and will moved political consciousness in Israel to the left, just by his existence. Depending on what happens in the coming Israeli election, Israel will either commit to peace or posture to continue expansion.

Its really an open question what actions or Americans move Israeli attitudes towards peace or move Israeli attitudes towards resistance to peace.

My sense is that creative and non-intimidating (but still assertive) dissent, helps the cause of peace, as it informs. My sense is that punitive or polemic and intimidating forms of dissent have the OPPOSSITE effect, making Israelis defensive and ultimately say "screw you, we'll go it alone".

(You seem to have touched a nerve with the resident apologists here, which is always a good thing.)

This sentence hit a nerve when I read it because it describes how I felt during the 2006 Lebanon war. I still cannot understand why it is that my friends and neighbors, people who go out of their way to be kind and just to others, who appear to be beacons of progressive values, could not muster one word of criticism against Israel during the slaughter of civilians and the wholesale destruction of an entire country, still reeling from three previous Israeli invasions. I confronted my friends and neighbors, telling them that this over-reaction to the abduction of 3 Israeli soldiers was racist, that the lives of 3 Jews were not worth more than the lives of 3 million Muslims and Christians, that these crimes were being committed in their names since the state of Israel claims to be the state of all the Jews, and that decency demanded that they do something to prevent the atrocity from continuing. "At least call the Israeli embassy and tell them to stop!" I implored them. All I got was downward glances and muffled excuses about how they were not "political." What I learned from this experience was that these people were not truly "progressive;" actions speak louder than words, and by their actions they were demonstrating that the ancient ties of tribalism were much more powerful than I had previously thought. I'm still troubled by this experience. I want to understand this cult-like attachment that blinds people to basic questions of right and wrong, and what we can do to help them think and act as human beings first and Jews second.

Oh, and keep paying your taxes so your government can continue to underwrite the Jewish Zionists whose ethnic cleansing of Muslims makes them want to behead Americans and fly airplanes into their skyscrapers. And ignore all those Jewish Zionists in America agitating and plotting for wars against Muslims to be fought by the US military. And ignore the Iraq war and the decisive role played by Jewish Zionists in putting America there. And pay no attention to all those Jewish Zionist Neocons and Neolibs splashing their rank Judeofascist ideas and agenda all over American media. And don't make a peep about any of it, just keep your head down like a good farm animal, avert your gaze and let the "chosen" do what they will.
—–
Stever R., why don't you get a job — in Israel. Your loyalties are obviously already there.