Taiwan, which had occupied the seat of China in the UN till 1971, has never been able to acquire the "non-member entity", a title currently granted to Palestine. will time come when Palestine acquire a status similar to China?

Dear Marlene ,How the Devil are you? You seem to have entirely misunderstood the thrust and meaning of this article.This article is about China and Olympic ceremony ,This is Forum no.28 .You need forum no.25 =the'" Israel abuses Palestinians and inflicts atrocities against them "forum. May I respectfully suggest you research zionism which is about the rights of the Jews to their homeland.Israel was founded as a state for the Jews ,our own private country club if you like,and not as a Democracy.for all faiths.I am slightly peeved as in order for me to write this talkback I had to interrupt a perfectly good abusing and bashing of Palestinians session .In fact I may very well have murdered these 2 Ragheads had you not interrupted my session.Talking of olympics ,I am training for the next one in which I hope to win a Medal in the cruelty to palestinians category.

I agree entirely. It was unsettling and spooky to view, but that did not make it good, it gave it an appearance of evil. Terrible control freakery. I feel sorry for the brainwashed Chinese people and hope and pray that their evil regime is soon brought to it's knees. and that this will happen by the Power of God in their land.

and tuned into another channel. There were just too many participants - but then the Chinese have a huge population. However, my daughter-in-law thought it was beautiful !

Just read the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony fireworks display was 'faked' http://tiny.cc/Zs0h6

Yes, and we also discovered the utter lack of sensitivity to the feelings (and safety?) of a 10 year old girl, who was strung up on wires over the crowd and hovered there for at least ten minutes, moving to and fro. She waved, she smiled, and this was probably due to medication which "relaxed" her. Certainly,there were hours of practice in harness and wires. Her parents consented, of course, for greater glory of New China. (Did they even have another option?) It's called aggravated child abuse in the courts.

For all we know Mr Wegman could be writing about how our own government and media come close to those tendencies with their mode of control , populist brainwashing and media spinning. I did not watch the opening and have very litle interest in the olympics, but for sure sports are a opium for the masses,like our old Romans knew so well and to use to their benefit.. Before one can start critizising another country maybey it is better to focus on our own corrupted mess and work on changing that. One can not talk about human values of others, unless one first works on their own and we all know how that has been lacking here of lately. Gush Katif was just 3 years ago and it showed a controlling nasty state with no regard to human values at all.

Close the windows because the stinky maniac beggar came out again from the sewer,and is zombing around! Get preparaded for its rat's decomposition smell!

As a friend and supporter of Israel who often defends your country as unfairly maligned, I can tell you now that your fascistic parallels are based on nothing more than a stretched analogy, and a complete misunderstanding, if not ignorance, of China's history and its current trajectory. You also miss, completely, the ceremonial symbolism here. Rather than glorifying communist archetypes, it has returned to actual Chinese CULTURE -- the vast scholarly bureaucracy of the past, the massed human vibrancy of Chinese antiquity -- a culture repudiated by the communists under Mao. If you had understood this instead of viewing it through modern ideological lenses, you would have viewed it benignly rather than with hostility. China has made tremendous leaps and bounds over the past 30 years, opening up gradually and tentatively. Ask any observer of China or ordinary Chinese and they will testify that they are today more free than they ever have been in recent history. It's not perfect, but they are moving in the right direction. Hitler in '36, by contrast, was moving TOWARDS rather than AWAY from totalitarianism. Your profound failure to grasp this essential difference makes your diatribe at best, uninformed. At worst, a lousy piece of ideological spiel comparable to the type of propaganda put out by Hezbollah -- believable only to those already convinced. Really, I expect better from an Israeli newspaper.

Tell Yehuda Wegman to go to a psychiatrist immediately. His paranoid rant borders on psychosis. I saw that opening ceremony and it was terrific, spectacular. And when all those people showed their faces they were all smiling from ear to ear. Fantastic showpiece. And I suppose America should have banned the Rockettes because they all danced in perfect unison, proving the group was Fascist.

Is any fireworks display 'natural' ? I can't think of a display of any kind that is natural. Can you? Mike

You want to talk about abuse of Palestinians and their rights? Do they sometimes suffer abuse from Israelis ?of course they do .Did they lose what they consider to be their Lands? yes .But what really gets my Goat ,and where you can not be honest,is that you never mention this is in the context of a War ,a long standing and Bitter war.A war of survival .An " us or them " situation.Your lack of this context is what is dishonest,like the dishonest media such as B.B C. A visitor from another Planet may read an argument such as your one and conclude wrongly that any abuse of Palestinians is for no reason ,and just for the hell of it.Also there is a time and a place for everything and this article is about China and their unforgettable opening ceremony.Please do not rain on their Parade.

People like to hijack the Bandwagon and are trying to look for some hidden Kabbalistic meaning to the olympic ceremony.Why cant you just grab a coffee or Beer or whatever and,like children,just enjoy it on a simple level .There is probably no more to it than that.It is fireworks ,bells and whistles and a little joy in this miserable nasty world.It has nothing to do with Global emissions of greenhouse gases or the credit crunch or the palestinians or the war between russia and Georgia or even chinese occupatoion in Tibet.Just happy times.that is all folks.

read this please http://www.worldjewishdigest.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=CB27327E82124709B36B65A2AE5CF657

The Olympic motto of "Citius, Altius, Fortius" (Latin for "Swifter, Higher, Stronger") should remind us all about what the Olympics truly are. No, Mr. Wegman, not politics, Nazis, or the Communists, but about bringing countries together meet, greet, and compete at a global level. To better and challenge past and future Olympics and, yes, show off what your country has got to offer. To call this a "Horror show" is quite rude and equally unjustified. As a 16 year old residing in Canada, I find it extremely disrespectful for you to compare and raise London's political policies over China's. What I find even more outrageous are your accusations that London's opening games to be a more balancing and more important message to the billions of viewers worldwide. Are you saying that the better you are, the more likely you are to kill, purge, and destroy? So our choice is: demonstrate skills and effort and be accused of resembling regimes such as the Nazis or to give up and never demonstrate our true potential. Sorry sir, but it seems like our world is going to go downhill either way if those are our choices. There are various things I would usually take the time to question and challenge in your article, but I would rather not be accused of something as outlandish as what are you concluding of the Chinese in your pitiful article. Plus, I cherish my time and my words for something more worthwhile. Tell me, is this jealousy or this an actual factual article? How can you relate these two completely incomparable things? The art and history of the Chinese extends beyond that of your knowledge and beyond the history of many “Free” countries. “The Chinese regime chose to display its power and impress the entire world with a show based on thousands of gymnasts and dancers who moved in harmony that imitated a giant monster, which changed its shape and colors constantly. The event conveyed a message of complete control not only over the bodies of the thousands of participants, but also over the bodies and souls of the millions of people living outside the Chinese stadium. This monster you speak of has been rehearsing, practicing, and laboring for numerous months to show off to the world the art and legacy of Chinese history, language, and culture. For you to demean such hard work in an exaggerated and poorly justified article is an insult to those who have shed volumes of sweat and blood into putting on a magnificent show. But, as I view your article, you may view my post unjustified and outrageous. (But considering how cloudy and mislead your vision may be) you can also ask the billions of viewers. The “Free” world as you put it and as I am taking it, relies on democracy to justify decisions. And what is democracy but the consensus of the majority in simple terms? And, I am very much assured that the majority will agree that the opening ceremonies were fantastic, magical, and carefully planned. This brings us back to the Olympic motto “Citius, Altius, Fortius” that the Chinese lived up to, word for word. I hope your next article will also live up to the Olympic standards.

The whole thing is an orchestrated farce and the question should be asked of the IOC "Who in the right mind allowed the most repressive state in the world to hold the Olympic Games?" I can't really blame the athletes though although it would be rather nice if some big names declined to receive their medals from the Chinese IOC Members. On the brighter side, out athletes have done us proud! Kol Ha Kavod to all of them!

If you are from "world that hates jews", why you coming to israeli news sites? Is masohism is not forbidded by Quran? Hisballastan also have her type of superiority display: Nasrallah moronic parades and shows with enthusiastic crowds of imbeciles.

I go to a university with many Chinese students. Many times I see a large group doing synchronized dancing on campus. I think that it reflects their culture, although I also found it kind of disturbing.

One wonders why Taiwan, a vibrant democracy of 23 million people with a long list of technological contributions cannot get a single post in multinational NGO but "Palestine" who main contributions are hate and suicide bombings get the red carpet. Another item of shame for the UN, IRC, WTO etc.

thousands of Isrealis' lives when no single country dare to accept them during WWII

I cannot believe these words from a Jewish's mouth? From my memory, Palestinian children are still blowing into pieces in the day to day world news by Jewish's missile (which made in U.S.), and you Jewish guys talking about human rights, Tibet blah blah blah in China, how hypocritical?

have family in china, usa, russia, israel, new zealand, australia ... you get the idea. advise: promoting hatred between the jews of the east (aka chinese) and the west is a bad bad idea. cheers, j

the pathetic promoters of hate on this thread (i) collectively forgot which city of what culture in the world opened its embrace to the jewish refugees when they were turned away elsewhere, and (ii) must in the aggregate believe that making chinese culture into an enemy culture is a brilliant idea. interpreting 2008 drummer saying "friends visit from afar, how happy we are" as precurser to nazism? any other astute comments from the lot so practiced in group think? advice: reflection is always a good idea, and from a basis of solid knowledge, even better

Open your eyes and read from your own compatriot Maurice Hank Greenberg http://www.forbes.com/2008/05/03/china-olympics-jews-oped-cx_mrhg_0504china.html Excerpt: There is a significant Jewish settlement in Shanghai today. The Ohel Rachel Synagogue in Shanghai is symbolic in many ways of the Jewish history in China. Rebuilt after its destruction in World War II, today it is a prominent Jewish place of worship. Moreover, China was a refuge for Jews escaping the revolution and pogroms in Russia in the early 1900s and it was a refuge for Jews escaping Nazi Germany. In fact, history records three great waves of emigration where Jews sought China as a safe haven: --the first wave before 1920 when Baghdad refugees built the large synagogue in Shanghai; --the influx of escaping Russian Jews who fled pogroms and the revolution from 1920 to 1937; --the third wave from 1938 to 1952 with Jews escaping persecution in Europe and Nazi Germany. I do not understand how we could be so forgetful about the role of China over centuries in providing a safe haven for Jews who were escaping persecution, death and annihilation elsewhere. visit: http://www.chinationreport.com/ for your daily balanced news and views about China

Israel Dear Yehuda Wgman: Don't hate the player hate the game.

What a Fantastic and moving opening Ceremony.By comparison,the other opening ceremonies of other countries look like a damp squib.

First, China is an authoritarian communist regime, not a fascist one. While there are similarities between the two on the surface they are fundamentally different. If you want to be an expert, you have to get your facts straight. Second, this is a surprise. One of the world's best known nationalist authoritarian communist regimes makes a patriotic quasi-military display and its presented as news worthy? This was a surprise?

The author of this article Yehuda Wegman, can't seem to handle that a communist country is making it BIG. Not everybody has to be a capitalist. There must be a balance and if communism works for them, great. Don't rain on their parade. Love thy neighbor and stop teaching people fear. As master Yoda once said, "fear leads to anger and anger leads to hate".