Comments on: WALLED OFF-Accepting the abnormal as normal

By: Josef Avesar

Josef Avesar — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 19:16:30 +0000

How do I know that my idea for an Israeli Palestinian Confederation makes the most sense? How do I know that engagement is far better than isolation? How do I know that those who oppose my ideas have no logical counterargument? How do I know that those who oppose my ideas for an Israeli Palestinian confederation really want to keep the conflict forever? How do I know that those who oppose engagement between Arabs and Jews also oppose peace?
There are several good clues. Those who oppose my ideas never respond substantively. They never deal with the article itself. They resort to a personal attack on me. They are afraid to deal with the ideas and hope to divert attention from my ideas by attacking me.
If you were a person who is interested in peace you would have discussed in your comment the following: Why are you opposed to a Confederation? Do you think isolation is better than engagement? Did you read the Israeli Palestinian Confederation Constitution, available at http://www.ipconfederation.org , and if so what did you find wrong with it?. What is your plan for peace between Israelis and Palestinians?

By: Avraham HaLevi

Avraham HaLevi — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 18:58:30 +0000

Hey Dominga: tell me when the Palestinian State ever existed. Tell me who the first king or Prime Minister of Palestine was. Tell me one Palestinian contribution to civilization. Tell me what the Palestinian Legal Code is called. You CANNOT. And do you even know why? Because there is no such thing as an ancient Palestinian People. You cannot, with any intellectual honesty or integrity, even remotely approximate the Jewish claim to our ancestral homeland. Our executive form of government is called the Davidic Dynasty. There are thousands of Jews alive today who can trace their ancestry back to the his lineage. One of our cultural icons was the Temple in Jerusalem, which stood where the Dome of Rock currently stands. Yes, they built a shrine atop the ruins of our holiest site, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. That would be comparable to the Nazis destroying the Vatican, and the Muslims building a mosque in its stead centuries later. I wonder how many holier than thou Catholics would acquiesce and just let matters rest (perhaps yourself included). That Jewish Temple in Jerusalem stood for centuries. Many of the Priestly caste, the descendants of Aaron HaKohen (the high priest) can prove through genetics and DNA that they are (a) related and (b) descendants from the same. Again, a millenia old linkage of Jews today to the ancient ancestral homeland and religious and cultural institutions. Here's a third: the Talmud — a 5400 page compendium of Jewish Law that codifies the legal system, government system, social welfare infrastructure, national security apparatus, legislature, judiciary, educational system, economic system, etc. The Talmud has existed for 1000s of years before there ever was a Christianity, an Islam, or any type of Western Empire. Yes, your ancestors (Rome, Spain, the Ottoman Empire, Germany, whatever) kicked the crap out of us over the centuries. But guess what? We're back, and we aren't going anywhere. We don't want to harm the Palestinians, or anyone else. We just want to be left alone. If you care so much about them, give them their own country somewhere in the rest of the Middle East. The Arabs and Muslims control 98% of the Middle East, and its oil, etc. They can settle anywhere they want outside of Israel. It's not their land, it's not their country, it's not their heritage. I defy you to show me how their claim supersedes or even equals ours.

By: Shlomo Toren

Shlomo Toren — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 12:42:17 +0000

you maybe learn English? you just speak jibberish. You pay taxes or getta lots of Social Security?

By: Shlomo Toren

Shlomo Toren — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 12:39:08 +0000

maybe his head is up Uranus.

By: Stef Delarge

Stef Delarge — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:38:38 +0000

Amazing someone this articulate can be so oblivious to reality. It appears his mind his more "boxed in" than he claims are the Palestinians. He ignores the terrorism prior to the wall, and that the Palestinians have repeatedly stated they do not want peace with the Jews. They are trained from birth to hate Jews and idealize martyrdom until every last Jew in Israel is dead. This is also an integral part of the Koran. How can there possibly be voluntary peace without the wall when the Palestinians make daily broadcasts to their children are "created to be fertilizer for the land of Palestine, to saturate the land with their blood" in killing Jews. The wall generally keeps that blood saturating their own side of the wall. Self-preservation requires the civilized to wall off barbarism.
Quantum Capitalism

By: Natan Ophir

Natan Ophir — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 15:26:14 +0000

Dear Finally Free, when you next visit Jerusalem, I would be happy to show you around and help you enjoy your freedom …

By: Dominga Luna

Dominga Luna — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 15:02:59 +0000

Can you tell me where Israel is given the right to in the world or in fact you the right to state. If you do this or that " Then maybe, one day (like Israel would be doing Palestine a favor?" the walls can come down" ? I am American. My Country give Israel Billions of dollars in my tax money. As an American I say until you can learn to Struggle without aid from another country. Israel has no right to cage another people. control there food, water, electric, and use that as a weapon to get the people of Palestine to do what it wants it to do. If this wall was such a good thing. Then do Israel Military and settlers keep coming through the wall into Palestine to harm the people of Palestine?

By: Mohamed Awadalla

Mohamed Awadalla — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 11:12:33 +0000

I do envy Israel of having such great free thinkers put themselves in harms ways to support and care about "the enemies" as they call them in Israel, and they are everywhere in Israel, regardless and no matter what will happened, the quality of such people, should be always appreciated, they are the absolute brave solders, they take orders only from their conscience, they go through hell try to get the people to live in peace, Josef, you are such great man.

By: Dominga Luna

Dominga Luna — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 23:18:58 +0000

Great article. Free Palestine. Israel does not have the right to cage these people from the world. Palestine has the right to Live FREE.

By: John Cronin

John Cronin — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 21:10:21 +0000

Remind me. Where exactly do Israelis and Palestinians live?

They appear to inhabit a small piece of territory in the Middle East that is approximately the size of Wales here in the UK. The UK is an island of relatively minor size connected to Europe by a tunnel running under the English channel. Europe is a medium to large continent occupying a middling amount of space on a planet where the surface area is dominated by vast quantities of uninhabitable and mostly salty water.
The planet itself orbits a small unregarded yellow sun far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy. (H/t to D A)

And yet it's hard to believe that, in all of 65 years and more, nothing has been done to prevent thousands of human beings killing and being killed over what is such an insignificantly tiny land mass.

In fact, there has never been any sort of precedent that might restrict sovereign nations doing more or less what they like on home ground.

Then it may be high time that there was.

http://www.laxiankey.com

By: Finally Free

Finally Free — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:51:01 +0000

I am, howewer, wrily reminded of some Texan neighbors who have taken to telling every Californian who wants to move to Texas how terrible, raaaaacist (with 5 a's), sexist, homophobic, and coulrophobic (heh) Texas is — so they stay away and don't try to bring with them the failed (il)liberal policies that made Calfornia unlivable in the first place.

By: Finally Free

Finally Free — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:23:55 +0000

You can replace "too much" by ALL. None of them called themselves "Palestinian" until it became the stratagem du jour in the struggle to destroy Israel.

By: Finally Free

Finally Free — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:23:47 +0000

Go live among them if you like and leave the rest of us alone.

By: Finally Free

Finally Free — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:21:54 +0000

iF you live on Uranus, that is. OK, having lived in SF, confusion is possible…

By: Finally Free

Finally Free — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 20:17:32 +0000

I'm afraid that said shrink will also need a shrink after the treatment. Seriously. Is he living on Uranus?