To Lukian's last response: As previously noted, applying the term 'Apartheid' to Israel stands out as a dishonest statement in service to bigotry. It is hyperbolic and denotes disrespect to the point of hatred (Even from J. Carter).

As for Israel becoming less tolerant, it does appear as if populist bias is rampant. European countries are restricting access to immigrants, as is the US. Bigotry is never a good thing. However, removing borders and granting unrestricted access places an undesired burden on existing citizens that should be understood by well-intentioned humanitarians.

Amazingly, Lukian references IfAmericaKnew.org after I described the 'self-hating Jew'. The groups author, Alison Weir, looks to be a prototypical specimen. Even the Jewish Voice for Peace, an organization with similar sympathy to the Palestinians denounced Ms. Weir saying: "they chose not to work with Weir, on the grounds that "she has consistently chosen to stay silent when given the opportunity to challenge bigotry, which we find repugnant. There is a fundamental difference between engaging with oppressive beliefs in order to challenge them, and tacitly or directly endorsing those beliefs without challenge."" (Wikipedia). I wouldn't be surprised at all if Weir was on the Saudi payroll. Weir's website is high quality and that shit doesn't come cheap.

Getting back to Lukian, quoting: "Paragraph #4: Saudi's are not the enemy of Israel, Iran is." Iran is no friend to Israel and neither is Saudi Arabia. Hell, the US is not even its own friend.

and "...The aggression is very one-sided..." "Wasn't Israel carved out of a Palestinian territory..." Res Ipsa Loquitur. These statements speak for themselves.

What do you think the US would do if the Mexicans started firing rockets over our border?

To Lukian's last response: As previously noted, applying the term 'Apartheid' to Israel stands out as a dishonest statement in service to bigotry. It is hyperbolic and denotes disrespect to the point of hatred (Even from J. Carter).

As for Israel becoming less tolerant, it does appear as if populist bias is rampant. European countries are restricting access to immigrants, as is the US. Bigotry is never a good thing. However, removing borders and granting unrestricted access places an undesired burden on existing citizens that should be understood by well-intentioned humanitarians.

Amazingly, Lukian references IfAmericaKnew.org after I described the 'self-hating Jew'. The groups author, Alison Weir, looks to be a prototypical specimen. Even the Jewish Voice for Peace, an organization with similar sympathy to the Palestinians denounced Ms. Weir saying: "they chose not to work with Weir, on the grounds that "she has consistently chosen to stay silent when given the opportunity to challenge bigotry, which we find repugnant. There is a fundamental difference between engaging with oppressive beliefs in order to challenge them, and tacitly or directly endorsing those beliefs without challenge."" (Wikipedia). I wouldn't be surprised at all if Weir was on the Saudi payroll. Weir's website is high quality and that shit doesn't come cheap.

Getting back to Lukian, quoting: "Paragraph #4: Saudi's are not the enemy of Israel, Iran is." Iran is no friend to Israel and neither is Saudi Arabia. Hell, the US is not even its own friend.

and "...The aggression is very one-sided..." "Wasn't Israel carved out of a Palestinian territory..." Res Ipsa Loquitur. These statements speak for themselves.

What do you think the US would do if the Mexicans started firing rockets over our border?

To Lukian: Criticizing Israel is not off-limits, but as my statement noted, singling Israel out with a double standard compared to all the other countries begs the question of why Israel is being singled out. Bigotry or brainwashing remain the two most likely causes.

Judaism is a wholly artificial belief system based almost entirely on primitive myths. It imposes any number of absurd rituals on its adherents. While it encourages scholastic achievement, it rejects the incorporation of discovered truths into its teachings. Judaism is as much bullshit as Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc.

Within these super-cults, the pressure to conform to nonsensical beliefs generates a psychological anxiety that comes from cognitive dissonance. For anxiety-ridden Jews, quite a percentage become 'self-hating Jews' and engage in all sorts of extreme, neurotic behaviors.

In regards to the video, greed may well be a significant motivation for the Birthright participants to get a free vacation, but then they chose to 'Walkoff'? While the Birthright campaign is novel PR, not all participants will have disregarded the Saudi anti-Israel propaganda, and many are subject to the self-hating described above. Anyone who pays attention at all knows that the Palestinians educate their children with maps of Palestine that show no trace of Israel. The Birthright maps may well be a subtle counter-dig.

As to Gaza and the West Bank requiring military occupation, that has been necessitated by the intransigent political/religious aggression of the Palestinians/Jordanians.

To Paul4747: On your comment that "Israel lost international goodwill through their own doing", I don't recall that Israel ever had any international goodwill to start with, and the Saudi hate campaign didn't improve that. Israel gets credit for successfully rebuffing the insanity of the surrounding Islamic countries, sometimes quite heroically (Entebbe), often quite creatively (i.e. bombing nuclear and chemical weapon sites). I'm not fond of Judaism, but Israel's behavior stands out over that of other countries, especially the surrounding Arab states. As example, the so-called civilian protesters seeking to breach the border have mostly suffered leg wounds from the snipers. Damn good aim to minimize mortal casualties. Too bad our own cops only shoot to kill. Bulldozing the homes of bombers seems crudely appropriate, as does continuing to appropriate land in the face of intransigence. None of that begins to compare with Assad's use of poison gas and carpet bombing. Selecting Israel for criticism ahead of the many dozens of far worse countries can never pass the test for Anti-Semitism.

I have a fair amount of contempt for Israelis except the Chassidic guys who seem to be wanting a level playing field but I am horrified by what the Jews have done there especially given that they know what its like to go through that horror - I have a friend who is Jewish who lives in England and doesnt like the arrogance of the Israelis.

Great. Because what we need is more divisive politics.

The whole 'we're gonna take Palestine away from you and make it a place for Jewish refugees' thing that spawned the nation of Israel after World War 2 is evidence of a certain set of 'shut up and live together peacefully' philosophies that didn't work in Yugoslavia, hasn't, doesn't, and will continue not to work all over Africa, and I'm not sure why nobody saw that forcing cultures with long-standing animosities to live together under the direction of an uninvolved third party would go badly.

I guess they assume that they have a green light from Trump's administration to go all out to achieve their goals. I think they are being foolishly arrogant. Antisemitism isn't dead by any means. European Jews will probably suffer for it in the near future but I fear a huge backlash against the Jews coming slowly down the road.

Israel cries wolf? Seems like the wolf has come several times and is still firing rockets on a daily basis. Yes, the UN has repeatedly singled out Israel and taken up special measures to vote against Israel at the urging of its Arab neighbors. As for Israel being or becoming an apartheid theocracy, neither of those terms can be honestly applied, unless one is a Saudi apologist. Israel does not treat Arab citizens anything like how the South African treated the indigenous Black people, such extreme racism does not come even remotely close to what occurs in Israel. Israel is still much more democratic in its government than the truly theocratic dictatorships that exist in the neighboring Arab states.

Bigotry is such an ugly word. To focus on Israel and to grossly misuse terms in the service of rancorous propaganda invites the assumption that the origin is Anti-Semitic in nature. That or a shill for the Saudis. Saudi money has quietly perverted the views on Israel among select Liberal spokespersons.

To be fair, Judaism is as much a screwball religion as any other. A great deal of Judaism is based on demonstrable myth, and Conservative Judaism denies and eschews the social justice that has developed in the last 50 years. (But it still compares very, very favorably to Wahhabism.)

And yet, Israel is among the most progressive nations, in stark contrast to their Arab neighbors. Whatever punishments Israel metes to the Jordanian-Palestinians has usually been well earned.

I tried to make this point over ten years ago with my twin sister - the bible thumper Christian.

an aside - if I type the word christian without capitalizing it it is highlighted in pink the same as when I just incorrectly tryped type. wtf?!? I don't capitalize things cause I am lazy, I do it to show MY lack of respect.

I digress. Israeli behavior was even back then showing signs of not having learned a damn thing from the hot mess Germany dumped on the Jewish people prior to and during WWll.

But my christian sister thinks it is part of the 'end times'. YIKES