I was appalled that Rabi Fink would write such scurrilous and vicious clap trap. I certainly lost respect for him. When I was a little child, I saw the films of the liberation of the camps in Germany. That had a profound effect on me and I never have tolerated antisemitism (in its common usage). So to be called antisemitic or likened to nazis because I see the injustice being perpetrated on the Palestinians, is quite beyond the pale. Thanks for writing this; it took no small amount of courage.

For writing that piece. I am afraid our government has become so influenced by the Israeli lobby, that we no longer act in accordance with what is best for America. Our foreign policy toward Israel is perhaps the most corrupt, one-sided policy on the planet. The US government pushed sanctions on South Africa until they ended apartheid. But in Israel, we supply the weapons, money and influence that enable the most repressive, racist governments on the planet.

We will never have "Middle East Peace" as long as we continue to support Israel regardless of the brutality of their crimes against the Palestinians.

We have become the United States of Israel.

FREE MY LAND!

I would like to add my thanks to Marcy Newman for a great article. It was indeed couragous as she could very well face a backlash as have so many others who have called Israel to task over their policies and influence over the US. From an article on CBS news just after the recent Anapolis meeting stated:
"In an about face, the United States on Friday withdrew a U.N. resolution endorsing this week''s agreement by Israeli and Palestinian leaders to try to reach a Mideast peace settlement by the end of 2008, apparently after Israel objected.

Deputy Ambassador Alejandro Wolff informed the Security Council that the United States was pulling the resolution from consideration less than 24 hours after Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad had introduced it and welcomed the "very positive" response from council members".
This meeting was, as the Arab attendees knew, nothing but a PR show for American consumption. No concrete issues would be, or were, addressed. Nor will they ever be.
When former Pres Carter released Peace Not Apartied, 14 members of the Carter Center Committee (all American Jews) resigned in protest and called it Anti-Semetism. Within the next few days, there was an article calling for an investigation of the Carter Center's finances. The relationship between Israel and America is one of the tail wagging the dog. The Jewish lobby orginization AIPAC saturates Washington with operatives. Do a google search for "architects of the gulf war" and see what the results are. What will it ever take for this country to wake up to the realities of Zionism and the neocons (the unholy marriage between Isaeli interests and US big business)? Remember former Bush White House press secretary Ari Fleischer? He quit to start "Freedom's Watch" a "new group of prominent conservatives [which] plans to begin a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign [on August 22, 2007] to urge members of Congress who may be wavering in their support for the war in Iraq not to 'cut and run". Who wanted us to go to war with Iraq? Who now wants us to attack Iran? The tail that wags the dog and it's myriad supporters both in and out of our own government. Secretary of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff for example, holds dual citizenship, American and Israeli.
Our blind allegiance to Israeli policies and brutal treatment of the Palestinians have caused us to lose credibility around the world as well as put our citizens and especially our service men and women at deadly risk.

First, under Marcy Newman’s definition of apartheid every nation-state in the world is an apartheid regime. Show me a nation-state and I will show you some ethnic group that has been dealt a bad hand. Second, Israel is not entirely responsible for the Palestinian problem. In 1971 Jordan ethnically cleansed the east bank of the Jordan River of Palestinians but for some reason this part of the story gets lost. If every group sending gun money into the Gaza and West Bank spent those dollars on scholarships and start up money for new businesses the Palestinians would be in a much better place.

Third, I have yet to see a solution to the problem from people like Newman that provides Israel a reasonable security guarantee. Israel is a country surrounded by enemies who have attacked and continue to call for its extinction. The big difference between apartheid South Africa and Israel is that the Israelis are willing to talk. The other difference is that the African National Congress the opposition group to the South African regime was willing and able to sell their people on the idea of peaceful co-existence and reconciliation, something that the Palestinians are not yet willing to do.

If the bottom line is that Israel has too much influence in the halls in congress then there are bigger fish to fry. There are regimes much more brutal than Israel can ever hope to be with a bigger stranglehold on the U.S. Congress. 60 years ago could have Japan attacked Pearl Harbor without a U.S. declaration of war? Well that is what happened on 9/11 when 15 Saudi citizens flew airplanes into our buildings. And don't get me going on China. The fact that Israel gets more criticism on the pages of the Idaho Statesman than say China leads me to be live that there is a bit of truth to the claims that antisemitic feelings do indeed color some people's views of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

... to put it mildly. Great post, Calvin, I am glad there is someone willing to dispute the opinions here. I can't say I know much about that region; however, my gut tells me that the situation is hardly as black-and-white as Isreal's critics would want us to believe. While Isreal is hardly guiltless, I agree with what you wrote. They are alone in the region, with enemies on all sides calling for their complete and immediate destruction.

Instead of these polarizing opinion pieces, what we need is people coming together to see the TOTAL picture without the petty blame contests, so that a real solution can be reached. Otherwise it doesn't matter whose fault it is, the violence will continue.

Thank you for speaking up, this subject needs more daylight, most Americans are totally dumb and blind on this subject. Our tax money used in such a manor is a total disgrace,we'll see more incidents of 9-11 if we allow this "foreign policy" to continue!

As a Christian I find Ms. Newman's piece is missing essential historical logic. As I recall history, the Hebrews were in Israel as their homeland long before Arab-Palestinians. The right of return was extended to the Jews in the Balfore teaty of 1919 because the Arab-Palestinians had drived almost all the Jews from the area when Islam took over the region about ll00 CE when Jews were driven into Spain, Italy, etc. and NOT ALLOWED TO RETURN to the Land of David. So the first right of return belongs, by logic, to the Jews not to the Arabs-Palestinians. Ms. Newman's lack of historical content also forgot that after WW-I the homelands of Greece, Egypt, the North African states, etc. were all devided among peoples who existed before the Turks took them over.
Also Ms. Newman is wrong about Zionists. If you are a Zionist you want to return to the land of Zion, Israel. You can not be a Zionist and live anywhere but Israel, it would be a contridiction in terms. And, finally, it was the Arabs who refused to share the Holy Land with the Jews, started the 1948 war, never made peace, and left the land because they did not want to share Israel. If you abandon your home and someone buys it at a tax sale, you do not have the right of return after you left. Hope this shed some more light on the subject.