The policy you see is a result of a highly combustible mixture – despair at the failure of socialism and the dissolution of secular Jewish identity even as Israel succeeds materially – combined with fury that the religious Jews who were supposed to be dinosaurs are in fact flourishing and have no problem articulating a vibrant national reason for being.

If half the anger, violence, and police action that have been directed at the religious right were directed at our external, Arab enemies – we’d have squashed terrorism long ago.

It is also obvious that the Left does not care for the Palestinians one whit, or else they would stop giving them weapons and maybe start giving them , I don’t know – an education? Agricultural tools? Something to take their mind off of killing everybody who disagrees with them (which includes Arabs as well as Jews).

What does it matter what I believe?

Of course I *meant* to say, “We will NOT go softly into that enternal night!”

When the people fall into bad philosophies, or nihilism, or ennui, that culture or civilization will inevitably decay. It will either fade away or come under an attack that it cannot resist, and violently disappear.

That is why it is encouraging to see some of us stand up and cry out, “No! We will go softly into that eternal night!”

For secular Leftists, there is only one option – Israel remains secular and Leftist. If not, as far as they are concerned, Israel can be destroyed completely – they could not care less.

Having established this country they are also perfectly willing to destroy it – after all, it is “theirs”.

In this light, Israel’s behavior towards the Palestinians makes much more sense.

what is dismaying is that very few Israelis realize the extent to which the ruling elite is betraying them. Until that changes, there will be no change.

Maybe we should disarm Israel except for a few outdated Kalashnikov’s and kassam rockets. Then lets equip the Palestian with a fleet of Merkave tanks and D9 bulldozers to start leveling Israeli towns and start erecting settlements in Israel.

How much do you want to bet the Israelis will turn into terrorists then?

Americans do not think of themselves or of Israel as terrorist states, but the evidence is complete and overwhelming. Thanks to the power of the Israel Lobby, Americans only know the Israeli side of the story, which is that evil anti-Semite Palestinians will not let blameless Israelis live in peace and persist in their unjustified terror attacks on an innocent Israeli state.

The facts differ remarkably from Israel Lobby propaganda. Israel illegally occupies Palestine. Israel sends bulldozers into Palestinian villages and knocks down Palestinian houses, occasionally killing an American protester in the process, and uproots Palestinian olive groves. Israel cuts Palestinian villages off from water, hospitals, farmlands, employment and schools. Israel builds special roads through Palestine on which only Israelis can travel. Israel establishes checkpoints everywhere to hinder Palestinian movement to hospitals, schools and from one enclave or ghetto to another. Many Palestinians die from the inability to get through checkpoints to medical care. Israel builds illegal settlements on Palestinian lands. Israeli Zionist “settlers” take it upon themselves to evict Palestinians from their villages and towns in order to convert them into Israeli settlements. A huge wall has been built to wall off the stolen Palestinian lands from the remaining isolated ghettos. Israeli soldiers shoot down Palestinian children in the streets. So do Israeli Zionist “settlers.”

All of this has been documented so many times by so many organizations that it is pathetic that Americans are so ignorant. For example, Israeli peace groups such as Gush Shalom or Jeff Halper’s Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions provide abundant documentation of Israel’s theft of Palestine and persecution of Palestinians.

Every time the UN passes a resolution condemning Israel for its crimes, the US vetoes it.

The Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees’ film, “The Iron Wall”, reveals the enormity of Israel’s crimes against Palestine.

President Jimmy Carter, Israel’s friend, tried to bring peace to the Middle East but was frustrated by Israel. Carter was demonized by the Israel Lobby for calling, truthfully, the situation that Israel has created “apartheid.”

Historians, including Israel’s finest, such as Ilan Pappe, have documented The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, the title of Pappe’s book published in 2006.

Israelis, such as Uri Avnery, a former member of Israel’s Knesset, are stronger critics of Israel’s policies toward Palestine than can be found in America. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz is more outspoken in its criticism of Israeli policies than any newspaper would dare to be in North America or Europe.

But it is all to no avail in brainwashed America where Israelis wear white hats and Arabs wear black hats.

The ignorance of Americans commits US foreign policy to the service of Israel. As Uri Avnery wrote in CounterPunch (January 14, 2008), a visitor from another planet, attending the recent press conference in Jerusalem, would conclude that Olmert is the leader of the superpower and that Bush is his vassal.

Americans don’t know what terror is. To know terror, you have to be a Palestinian.