Sarah, it would be hard to be more ignorant than you are. The return to Zion goes back to the Babylonian Exile, 2,500 years ago. Political Zionism goes back to the 1st half of the 19th century, with Rabbi Alkalai and Moses Hess. It was organized into a formal movement by Herzl in 1897. Bear in mind that Jews in Muslim-ruled lands generally and in the Land of Israel particularly were oppressed and exploited by the Muslims for nearly 1400 years.

Ali, when are the Arabs, including palestinianArabs, going to expiate their crimes against Jews, such as oppressing and exploiting Jews as dhimmis for nearly 1400 years, and for collaborating with the Nazis in the Holocaust, especially in the person of Haj Amin el-Husseini???

in fact true justice and morality must be based on facts. Israel's hostile critics do not have the facts most of the time. Hence, their moral poses are unjust. Moreover, Western culture likes to induce guilt in Jews because of basic, traditional hatreds. Most accusations against Israel are either totally imaginary or hyperbolic. And when factual they overlook what Israel's Arab and Western enemies are doing. One big problem that we have is that certain so-called Jewish leaders, including rabbis, especially among the Reform Jews, know how to play on Jewish guilt feelings.

In the USA, very often the "tenured radicals" got to take over university departments with the help of the Establishment

But the palestinian Arabs have long had the support of the Arab world, the larger Muslim world [organized in the OIC], and much of the West which is looking for excuses for its own traditional Judeophobia and its own role in the Holocaust.

...who were 38.5% of Stalin's top security apparatus, who systematically murdered millions of Kulaks in nearby Ukraine in 1932-33. And, Hitler and Germans, feared and despised German Jews, who controlled over 20% of the German economy, £12 Billion (1933) equal to $1-5 Trillion today. Holodomor gave rise to the Holocaust, genocide by starvation.

..and making a twist in your talkback to blame the jewish people for the Holocaust. Please read the history all over again, and question why Holodomor was done, what Stalin had in mind and HIS actions...then your "assumption" for Holodomor giving rise to the Holocaust is wrong..(study the history again...). In addition, blaming the jewes for economic power actually reveals you have to refresh WHY the jews had "finesse" in economics throughout time in the history in Europe (the world...). Then your "answer" regarding Hitlers actions is baseless,.. There are tons of books analyzing this subject, start reading...

I think that the Jewish problem is that we have too few moral people, "Narcissists" or otherwise. On the other hand we have a multitude of self styled "intellectual" Neocons, like the writer of this article, who help push America to unnecessary wars "for Israel". When the blowback comes, and it will, it will be the rest of us Jews who will take the heat, not the likes of Lawrence J. Epstein.

How would you define a proportionate response? Hamas targets innocent civilians, schools, busses, etc. Israel pays a dear price for taking extreme measures to avoid civilians. Were do you get the nerve? You are like Goldstone and his ilk.

They also live in Israel, England, So.Africa, and wherever Jews live. They are no different from the kapos in the concentration camps.

The Evil genie is out of the Bottle. It all began in 1967 when the Israeli Forces reclaimed all of Jerusalem but in a moment of weakness and misguided secular-Jewish largesse decided to allow the Muslim's Al Aksa Mosque to remain undisturbed on Temple Mount. Temple Mount is a Spiritual Vortex, given to the Jewish Nation to safeguard by the Holy ONE, the Omnipotent Force of all Forces in the Universe, with strict instructions as to what is allowed and forbidden on this most Awesome and powerful Spiritual Powerplant on planet earth. The Jewish People have no Spiritual claim to the Holy Land when they do not fulfill their 'part of the bargain', that is, their G-d given responsibility under the Covenant to serve as Custodians of the Mount. In effect, fulfilling that responsibility, more than any historical claims or 'legal' titles of ownership is what gives legitimacy to the Jewish possession of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. On a deep and subconscious spiritual level this truth is felt if not understood not only by the European Union and United Nations but particularly by our half brothers in the Muslim world who have rightfully concluded the weakness and spiritual faithlessness of the Jewish Nation in spurning G-d's Will. Their fraudulent possession of Temple Mount and the Israeli Government's complicity in reinforcing of this fraud by officially forbidding any Jewish prayer or even for Jews to set foot there has caused a world-shattering metaphysical imbalance, a short-circuit so to speak. Since 1967 the cancer of Radical Islam has metastasized world-wide, threatening every civilization with physical and spiritual destruction. The 9-11 attacks, Islamic unrest and Sharia in Europe, everywhere Islam has a presence, the dread and unspeakable menace of two nuclear armed Islamic States, Pakistan and soon Iran just to name a very few nightmares. Is this a coincidence? Is it a coincidence that all three major religions hold Jerusalem as sacred ground to be fought and died for? A coincidence that Jerusalem is never mentioned in Islam's holiest book, Koran, yet thousands of times in Jewish Scripture! The truth is that nothing can stop this Cancer from spreading. Not Armed forces, Drone assassinations, Civil laws or security checkpoints. Not even the false panacea of a 'successful' political settlement with Arab Palestinians in Judea/Samaria for 'Palestinian' Statehood there will turn the tide and return the 'Genie' to the 'box'. Those are nothing but band-aids on soon-to-be terminal cancer. And more and more as the nations of the world, including formerly friendly ones in European Capitols and Washington D.C. Quietly have begun to openly question the merits, even the 'legitimacy' of the Jewish State, the situation facing Israel has become dire. Far worse than Iranian nukes is this other threat. Sadly, more and more American Jews have come to question Israeli status in that region. The BDS movement grows on American University campuses, most troubling as it now includes growing numbers of young liberal Jewish students, men and women. Militarily, politically, philosophically, morally ...Israel is becoming weakened on many fronts. It is not certain the Jewish State can survive much longer under the expanded front. Unless...The Jewish Nation will do what should have been done in 1967. Remove the Al Aksa from Temple Mount. Restore the balance to the Spiritual Vortex as was intended by the Holy ONE. There Is No Other Way. Yes, it will be painful. The region and world will bleed with Muslim fury and world-violence. For a while. And then, the cancer will die as the Genie of Spiritual imbalance is returned to the Bottle. There Is No Other Way. And Time Is Running Out.

Historically, from Moses to Esther, to Rome, to Germany, to Russia, Jews were at height of their power, before disaster strikes. Just like everyone else, and every other empire.

Perhaps you would care to expound to us just what is the biblical Israel of the prophecies. I doubt you know.