There’s a supreme irony in Obama quoting Dorothy Thompson, whose truly stellar career ended in charges of antisemitism from Zionists, to a crowd of journalists who quake in fear of having their careers destroyed by Israel supporters who more recently smeared Helen Thomas, Rick Sanchez, Octavia Nasr, and Jim Clancy for off-hand, ill-conceived remarks.

Israel created an apartheid system and became an apartheid state at the end of the 1967 war, 48 years ago. It’s high time that we, as Americans, face up to the fact that our military, economic, and diplomatic support of that country is support for apartheid, abetting nearly half a century of oppression of 4.5 million Palestinians.

Gil Maguire responds to Michael Douglas’s LA Times op-ed “Finding Judaism, facing anti-Semitism” and writes, “While everyone can agree it’s important to stand up against anti-Semitism, it’s also important to reject false claims of anti-Semitism used as an ad hominem sword to protect Israel and the actions of its government from criticism.”

There is no democracy in Greater Israel. Millions of Palestinians under occupation have no votes, and no rights. We need to send a strong and clear message to our fellow citizens and to our representatives in Congress that Israel’s abhorrent behavior is immoral and unacceptable.