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Last update - 16:33 02/06/2009
The racist Israeli fascist in me
By Bradley Burston
Tags: Israel News 

Click here for more articles by Bradley Burston


LOS ANGELES - I was determined to duck it. I was resolved to fly to the States, speak about the situation in Israel, and reply with nothing more than a half-smile and a "next question, please," to the well-read and otherwise openhearted people who ask questions of the tenor of "Between you and me, what is wrong with these people, your friends, the Israelis?"

Subtextual Translation of the question: What is with these blights on the backside of humanity? A vast war machine pretending to be a tiny country, a mobilized citizenry sterilized of morality, drained of compassion, bereft of conscience, bestial in war, imperial in ambition, Goliathized in its marriage of high tech and high explosive; incorrigibly bigoted bullying simpletons, little more than racists who vote for racists, fascists who fall for fascists, an embarrassment to the West, an embarrassment to the Jews, an embarrassment, at root, to the progressive individual who asks the question.

I was all set to say nothing. On the plane coming over, however, I read an essay about Israel and Israelis that changed my mind. I have the extraordinary novelist Anne Roiphe to thank for writing the piece, which made my blood boil, and, in the process, forced me to say what I honestly thought.

Ms. Roiphe, it must be said, is a compelling, wonderfully compassionate writer, who clearly cares about Israelis and knows just about everything about them, except for the first, most basic thing.

"I couldn't feel worse," Ms. Roiphe begins her essay about the recent Israeli election, and especially about the Israeli Jews who voted for Avigdor Lieberman, whom she accurately terms dangerously demagogic and deeply unkind. "I feel as if my spouse had cheated on me with Mussolini."

Perhaps as a consequence, it develops that Ms. Roiphe has begun to see Israel, and Israelis, with the kind of tunnel vision that allows no light at its end. She suggests that the import of the election was a vote against peace.

"I would call it pathological that Israel is listening to leaders who don't understand that the entire West Bank cannot belong to Israel without making it a pariah nation, without violating the spirit of the Torah, and the scared memory of the Jewish people."

With a smirk and a slap, she lets us know that she gets us. "I understand peace has been so long in coming and that Palestinians have done stupid things: electing Hamas, tossing rockets into Israel, mocking those of us who thought that leaving Gaza might be a fine first step. I understand the despair and the frustration and the need to jump around waving one's sword in the air, slicing up whatever clouds appear in the sky."

May Ms. Roiphe pardon me, but she does not understand. I'm not sure that, at a distance of thousands of miles, anyone could. Examine the results of the election closely, and you'll find that a clear majority voted for parties who have gone on record as favoring an eventual Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, and less than six percent voted for parties who categorically reject that solution.

What, then, explains the incomprehensible behavior of these people, my friends? What common denominator, other than evil intention, can explain the continued occupation of the West Bank, the risk of demographic disaster, the ill-understood rage of a people cast as the sole perpetrator of and, if at times the victim, then certainly the deserving victim of, wrongdoing?

You won't like the answer. But in all the blindingly complex bazaar of the Middle East equation, it really comes down to one word: rockets.

It was Saddam Hussein's rockets in 1991 that got us into this peace process, and it is Palestinian rockets right now, day after day after day, that sent that peace to its grave and which cover it with a little more silt and rubble every few hours.

It was fundamentally rockets and not racism that put Avigdor Lieberman where he is today. And it is rockets, more than any other single factor, that explains what happened to the Israeli left, to Meretz, and, in particular, to the Labor Party.

When Saddam Hussein fired 39 ballistic missiles into Tel Aviv, Haifa and Dimona, he radically changed the way Israelis viewed the importance of holding on to the territories. Overnight the threat was coming from 1500 kilometers away, so what good was it to hang onto and permanently settle the hills of Samaria in the West Bank, or the sand dunes of northern Gaza?
It was this, as much as any other factor, that paved the way for the opening of what we've come to know as the peace process, beginning at the Madrid conference in 1991.

In 2005, less than a day after Israeli forces removed every last Jew from Gaza, Palestinians set up rocket launchers on the ruins of settlements that had been just been evacuated. They took aim not only at Sderot, but at some of the very kibbutzim who had most strongly championed the cause of an independent Palestine alongside Israel.

This act, and the thousands of rockets that followed, utterly changed Israelis again. It put a sudden end to the idea of land for peace, because no one, even some of the most ardent advocates of Palestinian statehood in the West Bank, was about to agree to leave Ben-Gurion airport, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem within range of the rockets. Suddenly there was a consensus again. And the peace process, the peace movement, and with it Labor and Meretz, were kicked to the curb.

Ten years ago, Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah in Lebanon, electrified radical Islam and particularly the Palestinians, when he said that Israel was as fearsome and as fragile as a spider's web.

Push Israel with suicide terrorists, he indicated, and the whole web will tear and collapse. It didn't work. Suicide terror, in fact, acted to strengthen and unify Israel. In the eyes of the post-9/11 world, suicide terror changed Israelis from villains to victims, and Palestinians from an image of the valiant David to a creepy, loathsome version of Goliath.

The best way to destroy Israel

But now, Hamas is beginning to see something else. At this point, the best way to destroy Israel, is to leave it exactly as it is.

Titrate, adjust the flow of rockets fired at Israeli civilians to a level which is thoroughly acceptable to the rest of the world, but which is also entirely unbearable to Israelis.

Then, sit back and watch demographics and despair work their magic. No wonder Hamas officials who are seen as moderates urge a 50-year truce. By that time, Israeli Arabs will be able to simply vote the Jewish state off the map.

A clear majority of Israeli Jews know this as well. But I have yet to meet one Israeli, Meretz voters included, who is willing to hand over the West Bank while Ashkelon is even now in the gunners' sights, and rockets fly unabated.

I have long believed that in terms of their destructive effects on peace prospects, the settlements are the Qassams of the Jews. What I failed to recognize at first, was that the effect of Qassams is to enshrine West Bank settlements, and, more than any other single factor, protect them from eviction.

In the main, the world has no idea - nor does it particularly care - that when a rocket up to nine feet long flies up to 25 miles traveling at half a mile per second and lands with up to 44 pounds of explosives packed into its warhead - the human consequence could easily be carnage.

As far as the world knows, that rocket will fall without a sound. A house may be destroyed, childrens' nerves shot to shreds, perhaps for life. Entire communities, whole cities, suffer from post-traumatic stress. But unless 10 Israelis are killed, or 20, that rocket never existed. This after 10,000 rockets have been fired at civilian areas, unprotected by anything - I am truly ashamed to acknowledge - other than miracles.

It is these miracles, these barely averted catastrophes, literally thousands of them, which have become the central fact of Israeli life.
That, and an anger which no one outside Israel can know or fully comprehend, an aching, soul-deep frustration, an always humming fear, a sickness and fever over the nearness of true disaster, as well as a sense of abandonment by those abroad who cannot be expected to know what these people, my friends, are going through or why.

It is not the world's fault if it believes that Israelis do not have a right to their anger. The world is really not at all to blame if it prefers to view Israelis as ferocious without provocation, hateful without just cause.

The world only knows what we in the media choose to reveal. For a decade, we have dismissed the rockets as little more than toylike, backroom-cobbled nuisances, convenient pretexts for military onslaughts by Israeli politicians keen to evade graft raps.

The fact, however, remains. Day in and day out, Palestinian rockets target and, at times, demolish, homes, day care centers, health clinics, synagogues, kibbutz dining halls, town squares, factories, elementary schools, high schools, apartment houses. For years now, by some miracle, an enormous number of Israeli lives have been spared. These are people trying to live their everyday lives under fire, and who have no other defense, no protection whatsoever, except the intercession of some form or another of poorly understood providence.

On the weekend that Ms. Roiphe's article appeared, I wonder how many of her fellow New Yorkers heard at all that a Katyusha rocket had crashed into a empty schoolroom in Ashkelon, close to where worshippers were gathered in a synagogue, and, soon thereafter, another landed 600 feet from that city's Barzilai Hospital and its thousands of patients and staff. No one killed = Nothing happened.

The world long ago grew tired of its Israelis and their whining. The world could not care a whit less about the miracles that save them. The world has even had time to grow tired of its Palestinians as well.

But the world should know this: No matter how progressive the government in Israel, no matter how grave the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza, without an end to the rockets, there will be no peace process and certainly no peace. While the rockets are flying, nothing else moves.

Nothing that Israel has tried, neither diplomacy nor brutality, has been able to stop the rockets. Only Hamas can do that. The world and Washington could have made the rockets a priority years ago, and perhaps brought this to resolution. But the world has other things to think about, and Washington as well.

Back in New York, Anne Roiphe seems to have given up on her brethren in Israel. "Under the present conditions, it is vitally important that American Jews, liberal, decent, democratic, continue to play a major role. We may have to be the ones to carry the Jewish nation forward, in all its intelligent moral purposes."

I wish a had as much faith as she in her fellow American Jews, my direct people of origin.

As it is, I have next to nothing in common with my direct neighbors, Russian Jewish immigrants to Israel, other than the fact that, in a sense, I am one of them. I guess destiny will out. Had my family stayed in Russia before the war and not emigrated to Los Angeles, had they survived the Holocaust and Stalin, had I been one of the million former Soviet Jews who moved to Israel 20 years ago, I might well have found myself a proud voter for Avigdor Lieberman, angry with my fellow Israelis who disdain me as non-Israeli, angrier with the Arabs that toss rockets, furious with Israeli Arabs who support the tossing of rockets, and finally, contemptuous of - even as I uselessly blare my loyalty to - a place which is contemptuous of me.

Ours are dreadful times. Ours are ugly choices. You want to see peace, Ms. Roiphe? Pray for a miracle. But more so, pray for the event that no one expects, the shocking occurrence that no one could have foreseen - a journey by Netanyahu or Lieberman that resembles those of Begin and Sadat, Rabin and Sharon - the event that jars everyone from their accustomed outlook and despair, and forces them to reconsider the possibility that the humans of the Holy Land might still someday have a common future.


____________________


Previous blogs:

Hillary Clinton, Gaza, and the six-state solution
Winslet, 'Waltz,' and how Hollywood likes its Jews
Sure the Israeli right won? Peace lost? Look closer
Will Livni, Netanyahu settle for rotation, sharing premiership?
Israel Election Guide: Can Netanyahu be stopped? Can Lieberman?
The Gaza War as reality television
Mr. Obama, grant Hamas the freedom to fail
In Gaza's shadow: Obama's inaugural message
Gaza War Diary IV - Can people die of ambivalence?
A Jew's prayer for the children of Gaza
PROMOTION: Mamilla Hotel
Bookmark to del.icio.us  
 
Hamas film premiere
The group's first feature - an action-packed homage to a top militant - opens in Gaza.
Clip controversy
Did Cellcom steal the idea for its ad showing soldiers playing soccer at West Bank fence?
  1.   You forgot Israel`s bombs 16:46  |  Marilyn 16/03/09
  2.   Burston`s shame. 16:56  |  Choni Davidowitz 16/03/09
  3.   If there is still any doubt 17:02  |  Sceptic 16/03/09
  4.   If there is still any doubt 17:02  |  Sceptic 16/03/09
  5.   Remind me... what was it before "rockets" 17:04  |  Victor 16/03/09
  6.   One word: settlements 17:06  |  Jack 16/03/09
  7.   #2 marylin and the unfortunate lack of history 17:08  |  v hardman 16/03/09
  8.   disturbing nerves vs. 1300 children and women 17:09  |  Nir 16/03/09
  9.   Deadly sins of Aussies 17:14  |  Sceptic 16/03/09
  10.   Deadly sins of Aussies 17:14  |  Sceptic 16/03/09
  11.   "The world" is even tired of Darfur, so what do you expect? 17:15  |  yoyo 16/03/09
  12.   Thank you, Bradley 17:17  |  judith 16/03/09
  13.   To#6, Jacks of the world. 17:18  |  MK 16/03/09
  14.   A fine piece 17:21  |  Avrum Rosensweig 16/03/09
  15.   it`s the settlements, stupid 17:21  |  Jack 16/03/09
  16.   danger lurks 17:24  |  flyby 16/03/09
  17.   I understand your rage 17:27  |  Heinz 16/03/09
  18.   Praying is overrated 17:32  |  sh 16/03/09
  19.   hardman marylin bickering 17:33  |  flyby 16/03/09
  20.   Is This Journalism? 17:34  |  Matthew Houston 16/03/09
  21.   To #13, MK`s of the world 17:34  |  Jack 16/03/09
  22.   #6, #15 Jack 17:34  |  heinz 16/03/09
  23.   Bradley, better hope that the rockets will never stop..... 17:35  |  Swiss (Dino) 16/03/09
  24.   The rockets will become deadlier 17:38  |  HH 16/03/09
  25.   Marilyn 17:42  |  The Mik 16/03/09
  26.   Withdrawal from Lebanon and Gaza proves it`s NOT the settlements. 17:44  |  Raymond in DC 16/03/09
  27.   One word 17:45  |  MK 16/03/09
  28.   Bradley this is disappointing. 17:46  |  Lou Medel 16/03/09
  29.   You are a pathetic man, Mr. Burston 17:47  |  Abe 16/03/09
  30.   Let me get this straight 17:51  |  Voice of Reason 16/03/09
  31.   Bradley Burston 17:59  |  newyorkone 16/03/09
  32.   ?Palestinian? extremism is the obstacle to peace. 17:59  |  Jean Van Daem 16/03/09
  33.   Sorry, try again 18:03  |  Murray 16/03/09
  34.   the justice scales 18:08  |  liam 16/03/09
  35.   Burston seems to be arguing in favour of Iranian nukes. 18:11  |  Michael 16/03/09
  36.   Burston`s Israeli eulogy 18:13  |  PCR 16/03/09
  37.   It`s not the settlements OR the rockets 18:17  |  David 16/03/09
  38.   3 small points 18:25  |  Fair 16/03/09
  39.   The world will back Israel if you move first. 18:29  |  Stephen L 16/03/09
  40.   Re: Burston`s shame 18:29  |  Chuck Norris 16/03/09
  41.   Bradley dances around the facts 18:34  |  Natallie Durson 16/03/09
  42.   Brad. What Israel has done to the Pals is morally wrong. 18:38  |  Michael 16/03/09
  43.   Bradley it`s not PC unless you spread the blame evenly 18:44  |  don 16/03/09
  44.   to Jacko and his obdurate & fictional prognosis.. 18:45  |  Whiskey 16/03/09
  45.   Chuck Norris 18:48  |  CS 16/03/09
  46.   Michael from UK (#21) 18:51  |  David 16/03/09
  47.   The answer is not to think. 18:52  |  H 16/03/09
  48.   #20 newyorkone..To Bradley Burston..Yours is a heartfelt And . 18:53  |  Whiskey 16/03/09
  49.   The Wall created the missles... 19:01  |  Daniel 16/03/09
  50.   No matter how progressive the government in Israel, 19:02  |  Uetliberg 16/03/09
  51.   David 19:09  |  Voice of Reason 16/03/09
  52.   Proud to have been Twice Censored 19:12  |  Heinz 16/03/09
  53.   All lies #1 19:18  |  Robin Miller 16/03/09
  54.   Same Old Story 19:18  |  Samer-Palestinian 16/03/09
  55.   All lies #2 19:19  |  Robin Miller 16/03/09
  56.   All lies #3 19:20  |  Robin Miller 16/03/09
  57.   When there is no light at the end of the tunnel how do you know 19:33  |  Kris Lazar 16/03/09
  58.   WOW! 19:36  |  Stephen 16/03/09
  59.   Peace is war and war is peace 19:38  |  z, the monarchist, 16/03/09
  60.   MAY IT BE REMEMBERED 20:01  |  Aaron 16/03/09
  61.   Israel has no reason to feel guilty 20:02  |  Baruch Gold 16/03/09
  62.   Response to David 20:03  |  Daniel 16/03/09
  63.   Bradley 20:04  |  Yosemite 16/03/09
  64.   Burston: King of Denial. It`s always the Arabs` fault, right? 20:06  |  peacelover 16/03/09
  65.   Censorship 20:25  |  Heinz 16/03/09
  66.   Buston, finally waking up! 20:31  |  Moises 16/03/09
  67.   Finally 20:34  |  Eli 16/03/09
  68.   Just one addition 20:39  |  Danite 16/03/09
  69.   Bradleys article shows that the REAL problem in Israel..... 20:51  |  Swiss (Dino) 16/03/09
  70.   The same is true in Iran, BTW 20:55  |  Isadora 16/03/09
  71.   It doesn`t help the average Arab 20:58  |  American 16/03/09
  72.   #32+#34+#35 All lies..Especially if You give credence to: 21:13  |  Whiskey 16/03/09
  73.   Of course you are in a difficult situation...... 21:19  |  Hanna 16/03/09
  74.   PEACELOVER Actually blame shifting is the Arab worlds speciality 21:25  |  PETER SM 16/03/09
  75.   The Best Way to Destroy Israel is to Flood it With Suicidal Left 21:27  |  UsedToPostHere 16/03/09
  76.   #6 Jack: You and Burston in a violent agreement! 21:34  |  Yitzhak 16/03/09
  77.   Interesting remark 21:35  |  Colin Wright 16/03/09
  78.   MARYLIN Hamas rockets started after Suicide bombers could`t get 21:37  |  PETER SM 16/03/09
  79.   Listen to the wise words of #33 Samer-Palestinian 21:38  |  Hanna 16/03/09
  80.   Advocates of the Devil 21:54  |  Sceptic 16/03/09
  81.   No, no, no Mr. Burston! 21:55  |  CaptAhab 16/03/09
  82.   History repeats itself, but don`t expect farce 21:56  |  Sceptic 16/03/09
  83.   Unreliable attempt of disinformation, Robin Miller 21:57  |  Sceptic 16/03/09
  84.   Re: Voice of Reason (#31) 21:59  |  David 16/03/09
  85.   Samer the Pal.,.tell it to your arabs who had booted pals from Ku 22:07  |  Absolute Sweden 16/03/09
  86.   You justify Israeli facism 22:17  |  ayboday 16/03/09
  87.   The million Russian Immigrants 22:19  |  Saavedra 16/03/09
  88.   DELETED BY MODERATOR 22:27  |  angry 16/03/09
  89.   DELETED BY MODERATOR 22:31  |  arik 16/03/09
  90.   DELETED BY MODERATOR 22:33  |  frank mayer 16/03/09
  91.   David form Boston 22:39  |  arik 16/03/09
  92.   and if there were no rockets ? 22:41  |  flimflam 16/03/09
  93.   Rockets? 22:43  |  Roy B. Giv 16/03/09
  94.   #33 Samer-Palestinian; wrong address 22:43  |  Alicia 16/03/09
  95.   #3/4 SCEPTIC 22:48  |  Courcey 16/03/09
  96.   The tale of two Rockets 22:48  |  Fed up 16/03/09
  97.   To Samer - Palestinian - Interesting Point BUT... 22:50  |  Eli 16/03/09
  98.   To Jack - So Gazans Were Protesting WB? 22:58  |  Eli 16/03/09
  99.   Rockets 23:04  |  David 16/03/09
  100.   Dear Bradley 23:08  |  I have many names 16/03/09
  101.   Is Israel Nazi Germany? 01:25  |  Mark Lincoln 17/03/09
  102.   Vctor 01:30  |  sweis Melbourne 17/03/09
  103.   Bradley 01:32  |  sweis Melbourne 17/03/09
  104.   To arik From London..to David -Boston..I say the same.. 01:40  |  Whiskey 17/03/09
  105.   Raymond: Israeli occupation worse 02:36  |  AT 17/03/09
  106.   David: that`s all very good, but... 03:02  |  AT 17/03/09
  107.   Israelis like their Americans right wing 03:15  |  avramele 17/03/09
  108.   its the rockets stupid 03:51  |  marcia zax 17/03/09
  109.   I felt cheated after reading this article. 04:47  |  jess from Brazil 17/03/09
  110.   A rocket for a rocket 05:10  |  Lou 17/03/09
  111.   #77, Eli 05:31  |  Jack 17/03/09
  112.   To #58, Hannas of the USA, 05:37  |  MK 17/03/09
  113.   Bradley why did it take you so long to see the light??? 06:12  |  Miriam 17/03/09
  114.   Bradley, I used to value your opinion. Are you in denial? 08:34  |  Disappointed reader 17/03/09
  115.   To # 2 Sceptic 09:21  |  a voice 17/03/09
  116.   Confessions of an `Israeli dream` 10:20  |  allang 17/03/09
  117.   ro ro rockets 10:48  |  tsk_tsk 17/03/09
  118.   AMEN!! TO THE ONE STATE 10:48  |  Mike 17/03/09
  119.   Amen 11:04  |  sweis Melbourne 17/03/09
  120.   one Islamic state 11:41  |  Jack 17/03/09
  121.   Mr. Burston....some people just want to see 13:42  |  Lynn 17/03/09
  122.   i see the dawn of the final war 14:29  |  Circassian Warrior 17/03/09
  123.   Circassian Warrior 15:20  |  Tcherkessi 17/03/09
  124.   Criticizing Israel 15:47  |  Thomas 17/03/09
  125.   It`s the threat from within ... 15:57  |  Phil Craig 17/03/09
  126.   The problem with Israel 17:33  |  Samir 17/03/09
  127.   Circassian Warrior of Istanbul - 2nd try 18:00  |  David Israel 17/03/09
  128.   Does you anger justify villainy, stupidity and suicide? 18:20  |  Joel A. Levitt 17/03/09
  129.   Does your anger justify villainy, stupidity and suicide? 18:44  |  Joel A. Levitt 17/03/09
  130.   SAMER-PALESTINIAN 18:50  |  Fred 17/03/09
  131.   80~ Mark Lincoln Strong words or making Chalk & Cheese ! 18:53  |  Akram Zekaria 17/03/09
  132.   Samir from Stockholm - Sweeds erspect all 18:56  |  David Israel 17/03/09
  133.   2nd try Haaretz - asleep to 101 Circassian 18:56  |  Big Sur 17/03/09
  134.   Mark Lincoln #80 19:46  |  Roo 17/03/09
  135.   Mr Burston. One week you`re a lefty the next 19:47  |  Roo 17/03/09
  136.   Good article by Thomas of Berlin #103 20:02  |  Elliott 17/03/09
  137.   105~Samir. A tool Order you have taken upon yourself ?! 20:14  |  Akram Zekaria 17/03/09
  138.   Delusionals 20:15  |  Brooklyn Bound 17/03/09
  139.   Brad is a putz 20:24  |  Baruch Gold 17/03/09
  140.   Land for peace... ??? Well lets see... 20:26  |  Ines 17/03/09
  141.   Burston 20:41  |  P. J. Casey 17/03/09
  142.   To the Circassian Warrior and David Israel ..Not a new phenomenon 21:26  |  Whiskey 17/03/09
  143.   #119 AMEN ...Amen to Pappe? He is a Traitor and.. 21:32  |  Whiskey 17/03/09
  144.   Re # 1 The right "medicine " for people like You 21:40  |  Ines 17/03/09
  145.   Re# 1 Part II Marylin... Do You remember 21:48  |  Ines 17/03/09
  146.   Re # 3 Yes and still... the Ashkelon. hospitals 21:55  |  Ines 17/03/09
  147.   Re # 7 Israel gave up the Gaza settlements 21:58  |  Ines 17/03/09
  148.   Re # 7 Arab terror...muslim terror is nothing but 22:12  |  Ines 17/03/09
  149.   The REAL problem with Israel 22:15  |  Darlene Wallach 17/03/09
  150.   Re # 7 1.300 children ...what about .... 22:18  |  Ines 17/03/09
  151.   Re# 15 Jack Hamas is where it is ... 22:25  |  Ines 17/03/09
  152.   BRADLEY 22:25  |  abe 17/03/09
  153.   One clear truth is that almost any journalist can 22:35  |  Ines 17/03/09
  154.   Re# 18 We can still do both won`t harm anyone 22:40  |  Ines 17/03/09
  155.   Re# 17 Heinz so if Hamas understand that the jews will 22:50  |  Ines 17/03/09
  156.   Re # 25 Well even Australians were victims 23:10  |  Ines 17/03/09
  157.   Re # 26 Right Raymong it is not the settlements 23:13  |  Ines 17/03/09
  158.   Re# 28 Palestinian point of view could also be... 23:30  |  Ines 17/03/09
  159.   Re# 29 Jews were also in Palestina.. 23:40  |  Ines 17/03/09
  160.   So why does Israel settle the West Bank 23:41  |  Dave Duncan 17/03/09
  161.   Re # 30 Yah Voice of Reason..that is the 23:44  |  Ines 17/03/09
  162.   Slight correcion.. 23:48  |  Elliott 17/03/09
  163.   bradley is dead wrong 23:58  |  Mark 17/03/09
  164.   #102 Fred Jews persecuted 00:03  |  Luc Hansen 18/03/09
  165.   Its always something...but never Israel 01:14  |  Ben 18/03/09
  166.   Ms Rolphe 01:43  |  Paul Frenkel 18/03/09
  167.   Brilliant. But... what took you so long? 01:48  |  Simha 18/03/09
  168.   You are right 02:17  |  Paul 18/03/09
  169.   a wonderful article; however, on one is listening. 03:02  |  a wandering Jew 18/03/09
  170.   Responses by the Israel-haters prove Palestinians deserve nothing 03:31  |  McQueen 18/03/09
  171.   Rockets & municipal budgets 03:56  |  Sharon 18/03/09
  172.   Holier Than Thou 04:54  |  Shimon Cleopas 18/03/09
  173.   Joel Levitt 05:28  |  jess from Brazil 18/03/09
  174.   RE Samir 05:31  |  Shlomog 18/03/09
  175.   Bradley, you made me understand a little better 06:02  |  Maria 18/03/09
  176.   Right on Rockets Wrong on Roiphe 06:09  |  Shalom Freedman 18/03/09
  177.   The racist Israeli fascist in me 06:24  |  Gypsyuma 18/03/09
  178.   Samir 06:48  |  Yosemite 18/03/09
  179.   Well look at all the self hating Jews in US of A! 09:00  |  Lily 18/03/09
  180.   Rockets to where? 09:22  |  Stephen 18/03/09
  181.   Maria, this is what Israel got after signing Oslo accords 10:48  |  Sceptic 18/03/09
  182.   Maria, this is what Israel got after signing Oslo accords 10:49  |  Sceptic 18/03/09
  183.   ROO @ 134 HAMAS declared the ceasefire over.Poland did that?? 11:45  |  PETER SM 18/03/09
  184.   Bad experiences makes one bitter 12:11  |  Hanna Bard 18/03/09
  185.   Stephen #155, something you don?t know about Partition Plan 12:17  |  Sceptic 18/03/09
  186.   Stephen #155, something you don?t know about Partition Plan 12:17  |  Sceptic 18/03/09
  187.   PETER SM "Israel warned" 12:34  |  Roo 18/03/09
  188.   Gypsyuma #155, Arab terror came first, long before the occupation 12:45  |  Sceptic 18/03/09
  189.   Stephen #158, something you don?t know about Partition Plan 12:47  |  Sceptic 18/03/09
  190.   Stephen #158, something you don?t know about Partition Plan 12:47  |  Sceptic 18/03/09
  191.   end of rockets vs end of occupation 16:31  |  Abu Adam 18/03/09
  192.   #178 Samir: It is more effective to argue with logic 22:03  |  Hanna 18/03/09
  193.   Where was the world while the Rockets failed 00:59  |  Realistic poster 19/03/09
  194.   David - overwhelming military power 01:10  |  Don 19/03/09
  195.   The purpose of the rockets is to prevent peace 03:05  |  Sam 19/03/09
  196.   ROO Hamas refused to recognise Israel or accept permanent peace 03:58  |  PETER SM 19/03/09
  197.   A larger view of the Middle East 14:02  |  Susan 19/03/09
  198.   Iron Dome? CRAM? Scam! 15:34  |  Jay 19/03/09
  199.   yeh I mean if you fear rockets so much let NATO handle the WB 20:11  |  Arab 19/03/09
  200.   After all the Palestinian and Lebanese people the Israelis have 21:34  |  Apartheid 19/03/09
  201.   NO HOPE 02:10  |  John Eason 20/03/09
  202.   Mr. Burston, (cont.) 02:12  |  zeev 20/03/09
  203.   Falling Rockets 02:32  |  Katica 20/03/09
  204.   Mr. Burston, - 2nd try 04:26  |  zeev 20/03/09
  205.   do you understand? 04:42  |  Barry 20/03/09
  206.   Mr. Burston, (cont. - 2) 10:16  |  zeev 20/03/09
  207.   You forgot Israel`s Bombs 22:59  |  Yehoshua 21/03/09
  208.   You make Jews look like babies 23:44  |  Ari Levi 21/03/09
  209.   bradley column 00:54  |  manuel escott 22/03/09
  210.   So why not freeze the settlements, at the very least? 00:55  |  Yitzha 22/03/09
  211.   to Raymond in DC #26 - 6th try 02:39  |  zeev 22/03/09
  212.   to PETER SM #196 - 6th try 03:25  |  zeev 22/03/09
  213.   to marcia zax #108 - 6th try 03:50  |  zeev 22/03/09
  214.   to Barry #205 - 3rd try 04:30  |  zeev 22/03/09
  215.   Zeev #210 You Have Got To Be Joking.. 09:25  |  Tim R 22/03/09
  216.   Zeev and His Mentor 22:57  |  Tim R 22/03/09
  217.   Bradley - You Really Do Get It. 09:26  |  Eli Wapniarski 23/03/09
  218.   The world long ago grew tired of its Israelis and their whining. 09:53  |  Steve 24/03/09
  219.   to Tim R #215 10:46  |  zeev 24/03/09
  220.   to Eli Wapniarski #217 10:50  |  zeev 24/03/09
  221.   What Heritage, what history, what suffering? 13:29  |  Jeff Bracey 24/03/09
  222.   Zeev #219 00:11  |  Tim R 25/03/09
  223.   RE:220 - Zeev 08:26  |  Eli Wapniarski 25/03/09
  224.   RE: 221 - Where is Queen Victoria When You Need Her.? 08:31  |  Eli Wapniarski 25/03/09
  225.   Zeev #219 09:08  |  Tim R 25/03/09
  226.   Palestinians aint Arabs 16:56  |  Mirko 26/03/09
  227.   RE: 26 - You May Be A Little Confused 19:25  |  Eli Wapniarski 26/03/09
  228.   oops... I meant RE: 226 21:56  |  Eli Wapniarski 26/03/09
  229.   Mirko #226 22:00  |  Tim R 26/03/09
  230.   on Eli Wapniarski #223 19:54  |  zeev 27/03/09
  231.   to Tim R #225 20:08  |  zeev 27/03/09
  232.   Russians 22:42  |  John Babtist 27/03/09
  233.   Zeev #231 07:25  |  Tim r 28/03/09
  234.   Zeev #231 2nd Try 10:58  |  Tim R 28/03/09
  235.   Re: 230 - No Zeev, It Wasn`t Tried 14:01  |  Eli Wapniarski 28/03/09
  236.   RE: 230 - Oh and Zeev. One More Thing. 14:06  |  Eli Wapniarski 28/03/09
  237.   to Tim R #233 14:09  |  zeev 28/03/09
  238.   Not rockets, but settlements defended by IDF defended by America 15:10  |  Ivar 28/03/09
  239.   to Eli Wapniarski #234 20:23  |  zeev 28/03/09
  240.   To "232. Russians" 23:25  |  Mam 28/03/09
  241.   talkback 04:49  |  Charles Waters 29/03/09
  242.   to Tim R #233 - 2nd try 12:02  |  zeev 29/03/09
  243.   US opinion 20:49  |  Julie 29/03/09
  244.   Zeev #242 01:14  |  Tim R 30/03/09
  245.   Miracles? Hardly 04:10  |  KaiserD2 30/03/09
  246.   Zeev #242 09:48  |  Tim R 30/03/09
  247.   to Tim R #246 - 2nd try 21:30  |  zeev 31/03/09
  248.   to Tim R #246 - 3rd try 09:08  |  zeev 01/04/09
  249.   Zeev #247 - Part 1 12:13  |  Tim R 01/04/09
  250.   Zeev #247/8 - Part 2 09:18  |  Tim R 02/04/09
  251.   Zeev About The Unilateral Withdrawal From Gaza? 00:00  |  Tim R 04/04/09
  252.   To I have many names @100 02:38  |  And from No Name 07/04/09
  253.   the elephant whining over the crushed fly 12:36  |  Dekker 23/04/09
  254.   Marlyn (#1) said it best... 00:24  |  Lasmarch 19/05/09
  255.   Eretz Yisrael 15:31  |  Restrepo 23/05/09
  256.   Restrepo #255 Third Try 15:25  |  Tim R 01/06/09
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