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At the beginning of the year I visited Israel and came back and wrote a post, Israel's crisis. Last month I got back from my third trip to the country, and that sense is stronger. Israel is headed for the iceberg, as one Israeli friend put it. Its effort as a Jewish state to govern a population that is half-non-Jewish is unsustainable. Palestinians are everywhere oppressed in the occupied territories (and second-class citizens inside Israel). The awareness fills me with dread and a renewed commitment to the American conversation, and even feelings of blasted brotherhood with American Jews, who are the chief enablers of the oppression.

If Israel can reduce its defense spending because of its domestic economic problems, shouldn't the United States consider reducing its aid to Israel?

The information below is based on the 2010 report of the Secretary-General to the Security Council (A/64/742-S/2010/181) issued on 13 April 2010. More information is available in the report. At the close of 2009, the effects of Israel's military operations in Gaza, codenamed "Operation Cast Lead", from 27 December 2008 to 18 January 2009, were still being felt across the Gaza Strip. Thousands of Gaza residents, including children, are still living in alternative or temporary accommodation and many schools, health facilities and parts of vital water and sanitation infrastructure networks have not been rehabilitated or repaired. The ongoing blockade by Israel and the resulting lack of necessary materials in Gaza make such repairs and rehabilitation difficult. A total of 374 Palestinian children were killed and 2,086 were injured during the reporting period, including at least 350 killed and 1,815 injured in Gaza alone during "Operation Cast Lead" by Israeli forces. The Israel/occupied Palestinian territory working group on grave violations against children confirmed 12 cases of Palestinian children who were killed while bearing arms and acting as combatants during "Operation Cast Lead". The working group also confirmed one case of recruitment of a 16-year-old boy by the armed group Ezz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. The actual number of cases is believed to be higher and there had been other reported incidents of children being trained and/or used by Palestinian militant groups in Gaza. Community members are, however, reluctant to provide information on this practice.

THIS IS ISLAM: THEY ARE TAUGHT AND BELIEVE THAT ISRAEL IS THE LITTLE SATAN AND THAT AMERICA IS THE GREAT SATAN AND THAT BOTH SHOULD BE ELIMINATED BY VIOLENCE!

The world condemns Israel for stopping weapons from coming in to the Gaza Strip for Hamas, when the one goal of Hamas is the obliteration of Israel.

There was only one purpose to the flotilla to Gaza and that was to provoke an Israeli response. Israel had offered to deliver the "humanitarian" aide, but that is not what the people on the boats wanted.

The Israeli action is supported by the International Humanitarian Law - San Remo Manual 1994, Part IV, Section II, Blockade.

"I regard the establishment of the Jewish state as one of the West's high-points in the 20th Century. Like America's founding, it was not immaculate, and its survival has been a brutal struggle in which Israel has not been as innocent as some want to believe, but whose enemies' anti-Semitism and hatred is tangible and omnipresent and despicable. But the Palestinians' legitimate grievances are very real and utterly human and perfectly understandable. Israel, for its part, remains, in its own proper borders, a model state for that part of the world; its openness and democracy vastly exceed any neighboring regime's; it has made more of a tiny strip of land than most of its neighbors have of their vastly greater territory and resources put together. If I were Jewish, I'd be proud. But I'm not, and I can still admire a great deal. There is a huge amount to admire."

We bring you a debate between Noam Chomsky and Alan Dershowtiz on the question, "Israel and Palestine After Disengagement: Where Do We Go From Here?" Dershowitz argued for a political solution based on an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian towns and a mobile security fence to protect Israel's borders, while Chomsky insisted that the main obstacle to peace in the region is U.S.-Israeli insistence on maintaining settlements and rejecting minimal Palestinian rights. They faced off at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government November 29, 2005.

ISLAM, THE RELIGION OF TERROR

THE MURDERS OF INNOCENTS BY THE FOLLOWERS OF ISLAM

THIS IS THE HATRED AND BIGOTRY OF ISLAM

Since June 16, 2002, the Israeli Government has been constructing a West Bank Barrier in Jerusalem. The concrete wall is 750 kilometers in length and eight meters high. Thick concrete walls are equipped with trenches, barbed wire, electrified wire, watch towers, electronic sensors, video cameras, unmanned aircraft, sniper towers, and roads for patrol vehicles. The point is: there is no possibility to penetrate the wall. The barrier wall was built in a zig zag shape through ten of 11 districts; across all cities in the West Bank. Construction of the first phase started from the west to north of Jerusalem along 145 kilometers and was completed in July, 2003. The second phase is underway, ranging from eastern West Bank to southern Jerusalem. This wall needed a lot of funding, but the total cost of construction was never made public. For the barrier wall maintenance alone, Israel has to spend U.S $4.7 million/mile. So the total funds needed for the maintenance of the West Bank Barrier along the 750 kilometers is U.S. $ 3.4 billion.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates –  Iran needs U.S.-led sanctions rolled back again, and Western nations and some others request to limit Iran's capacity to enrich uranium to ranges that could guide it closer to producing nuclear weapons. But negotiators experience resistance from Western allies these kinds of as Israel and Gulf states towards any pact that retains Iran's nuclear program normally intact and dissent inside Iran from hard-liners opposing any nuclear concessions or diplomatic outreach to Washington.

Will Israel be forced to strike this week as Russia readies to load nuclear fuel rods into an Iranian reactor?

The soon-to-be House Majority Leader vows to protect Israel from his own Government