is that people like this author and those who agree with him "do not even notice how much their opinions are the complete mirror image of 1930s racist ideology." MK Hasson wrote: “Under the auspices of democracy … we are responding passively and facing the process of growing agitation amongst Israel’s Arabs who are not willing to accept the fact the country is a Jewish one." This is a well known fact. It is well known too that increasingly Israel's Arab citizens are sympathetic to suicide bombings and other atrocities committed against innocent Jewish women and children; sympathetic to terrorists groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. Many Israeli Arabs stood solidly with Hezbollah last summer even as they pummeled Israel's cities along with many Arab inhabitants and as they pummeled Arab towns in the north. Still Israel's Arabs were sympathetic to Hezbollah's goal of eliminating the Jewish state. How can a nation survive with enemy citizens in her midst? Were Muslim Americans to brazenly identify as openly with Al Qaeda as British Muslims identify with Great Britain's enemies, Americans would be calling for mass arrests, incarceration or expulsion from the U.S. as we witnessed during WWI and WWII. Americans would not tolerate from Muslim Americans what Israelis tolerate on a daily basis; suicide bombings,open identification with America's enemies, etc. If you believe Americans would tolerate what Jews tolerate, you don't know much about America.

Hasson is saying what everyone knows. It's time for Israel's arab citizens to decide. Whoever wants to be loyal to the state, welcome. Anyone who doesn't, the state should treat them accordingly.

If someone says you don't live here, I'll shut-up because i don't, but Israel- Where is your honor? I thought that Shalit was supposed to be a done deal when you ended whatever conflict that the last one was?

Israel should do as he says: put an ultimatum to the terrorists to release Shalit now. And after he is released, (or before if he is not) attack them in Gaza and South Lebanon as a warning to everyone else in the area.

Sounds like scare tactics to me. Who says just because you are Arab you like Hamas? Many Arabs (I work closely with families in Tayibe and Tirah) are proud to be Israeli and recognize the benefits of living in a democracy (even though Arabs are discriminated against) they realize that their lives are better off here than lets say in Jordan or Syria etc... if they were to move, anyway now back to the racist Mizrachi Syrian Jew because in all acutality Mr Israel Hasson is an Arab-Jew... Arabs are either Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Budhist, Druze, non-affiliated etc... The way in which this MK blanket generalizes the whole Arab (1.2 million) population is disheartening, seriously if the Arabs were revolting we would know...an Israeli intifada ...yet this isn't happening...because the government keeps the Arabs here on the bare minimum of sustinence but just enough to not make the people snap and revolt...if comments like these keep popping up, against Arabs, we might find ourselves with an ACTIVE angry mob...that is justified in every way to demand more rights and respect... How much longer can the pressure cooker be held shut? Policies need to change, more egalitarian and promote Israeli identity instead of Jewish identity

Progressive yearning & fantasizing aside, bret, if others don't really respect your rights, what obliges you to grant them & more, to people who, truth be told, despise you? Respect is earned & must always be a mutual affair. Pandering to those who loathe you is a poor recipe for maintaining your self-respect, let alone your life, bret. Get real, son, that 'pressure cooker' is permanent simply because you are a Jew & they are Arabs(don't ask more of reality than it can give).

You wrote: "Policies need to change, more egalitarian and promote Israeli identity instead of Jewish identity." Wasn't Israel founded as a Jewish state? Why shouldn't we be entitled to a Jewish state? Israel's neighbors call themselves Islamic states. There are no Jewish citizens in the Islamic state of Saudi Arabia. Very few in the Islamic Republic of Iran. No Jews are allowed in Saudi Arabia, Muhammad's birth place. Am I right? How many Jews live in Muslim states make demands for more egalitarianism and instead of Muslim identity, Yemeni identity or Saudi Arabian identity or Iranian identity instead of Islamic identity? Where are Jews making these demands in the Muslim or Arab world? Ynet Ahiya Raved Published: 03.18.07, 20:42 / Israel News Half of Israeli Arabs justify Hizbullah kidnapping Prof Sammy Smooha from Haifa University finds surprising support for Shiite organization among Israeli Arabs. 'The Katyusha rockets endangered them too,' he says Almost 50 percent of Israeli Arabs justify Hizbullah's kidnapping of soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, and 90 percent regard the IDF bombings in Lebanon during the last war as war crimes. Moreover, the vast majority of Israeli Arabs continues to express anti-Israeli views, showed a survey conducted by Haifa University's Dean of Social Studies Sammy Smooha: Some 48 percent justify the launching of rockets at Israel by Hizbullah during the last war. Only 44 percent thought it was a war crime...... Thursday, August 10, 2006 Israeli Arabs in support of Hezbollah -- Updated Palestinian Media Watch reports: Israeli Arabs in support of Hezbollah In Nazareth Israeli Arabs Demonstrate in support of Hezbollah “Occupation and invasion = terror” “Resistance = right and obligation” [July 16, 2006] As Israel counts more than 100 dead in its war against the Hezbollah terror organization, numerous Israeli Arabs, including Arab Knesset members, have come out in support of the enemy. A number of demonstrations and marches in support of Hezbollah have likewise been held by Israel's Arabs. Ra’oda Att’allah, Director of the Arab Culture Society in Haifa: "The popularity of Hezbollah has grown substantially among the Arabs in Israel… the first time there is a feeling of returning the honor, and that the people are feeling for the first time that there is a group which resists [fights-ed.] and stands firm against the Israeli army."[Al-Ayyam, August 8, 2006] Ali Mana, relative of 2 Israeli Arabs killed by Hezbollah missile: “Hezbollah raised our heads and lifted our spirit.” [Al-Ayyam, August 8, 2006] Wasil Taha, Arab Knesset Member: “Resistance [Hezbollah attacks] is not terror but it is a moral value. As for terror, the state [Israel] carries it out." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, August 6, 2006] Arab Knesset Member, Chairman of Balad Party, Azmi Bishara: "Solidarity with these heroes [Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorists] is the least [we can do]." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 16, 2006]...

if we are racist so b it. after all we are the smartest people on the planet. just leave us alone and stick to your pakistany comunity. you cant change us, you are wasting your time!!!!!! WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO PROVE???

In the coming war with the external and internal arabs, Olmert will not heed the words of General William Tecumseh Sherman, Grand Army of the Republic, American Civil War; as follows: "EVERY ATTEMPT TO MAKE WAR EASY AND SAFE WILL RESULT IN HUMILIATION AND DISASTER." Because Olmert has not and will never heed these words, Israel is DOOMED. (unless of course, Israel finds and elects its own General Sherman)Who will it be, and is there still time?

He's not talking about mass expulsions....he's suggesting, quite rightly, that MK's who commit treason should be stripped of their positions, tried, jailed or expelled from the country. Anybody can see that that is obvious. The connection between Israeli Arabs and terrorists who want to kill us deserves to be exemined in the sunlight. Any Israelis who oppose fighting this treason, Arab or Jew, shows how they feel about this country.

you may dream, but this will not help you Pali clientele at all

We should build up a Jewish/Beduin?Druze only civil guard and train and arm volunteers.No more M-1 carbines,but M-16s,Gallils,night vision equipment and light mortars. That force can protect the interior of the country while the army defends the borders and goes beyond.

seriously threatened. I'm sure the Israelis would be more than happy to provide a Sherman-style 'March to the Sea' for those who seem to really need it They have proved themselves too many times in the past to cause any true doubt.

I agree with you, rustum is not going to change us. It is ironic, someone from the UK is lecturing Jews about racism and bigotry. I do not believe MK Hasson's position is racist whatsoever. Not as I am reading it. It's a matter of survival in a very dangerous part of the world. Ultimately, Jews and Arabs co-existing together in peace in Israel is a pipe dream. I'm not sure I have the answer but it's not co-existence on equal terms. No way. Islam will not permit it. Only when the Jews are subjugated, converted or exterminated will the Arabs live in peace with what Jews remain in the land.

I think for jews, its a shame that a government created to protect jews, does nothing with in its regional military power to liberate Gilad Shalit or stop the constant vexation that israelis have to deal from this extrimist, instead all of the main goverment officials are involved in various coruption scams and are more concern for their own monetary wealth than the rest of am israel, it is for the best intrest of the existence of israel that this people are to be prosecuded and encarcerated to send a direct message to those in power, it is oure home (the people) but also theirs (those in power), internally we have to be strong so we can confrot the external existencial poblem with all means and to the last consecuences israel can not pursue with this way of life so let put a lot of beitzim and let make it better

Yakirati, As it is a free world, and as you do cannot control what people choose to think, I and others with similar opinions will continue to write here whenever we feel like it. I am not Pakistani, I am not Arab. I hold a British passport as do my parents and grandparents - and as you have confessed in your posting to being racist, perhaps it is you, yakirati, who should stop wasting your time. The racist ideology of Israel is happily on the wane and you and your thoughts will be swept out with the dregs and lees at the bottom of the bowl of dirty dishwater. Kul tuv lakh.

And I was beginning to think that Rustem was just playing devil's advoate or merely pursuing intellectual discoarse but in the end his true self appeared. Rustum is an anti-semite!!! So we now know what value should be placed on Rustems' thoughts . PS-Being a 3rd generation Brit your anti-semetic views are well understood - Motek

Please come to your senses. The zionist vision has been an absolute failure. More violence will not save a lifeless carcass. The only hope is to fully embrace the arab population and give the total equality, full equal rights. Its the last chance to save this country. Anything less will simply hasten the current road to collapse.

We rely on G_d's "will" and ........ tanks, artillery, gunships, jetfighters, bombs, machine guns and the precious lives of our young soldiers. I cannot speak for G_d, but for me it is an abomination. I hope it is for you as well. Peace.

"anyway now back to the racist Mizrachi Syrian Jew because in all acutality Mr Israel Hasson is an Arab-Jew... Arabs are either Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Budhist, Druze, non-affiliated etc... " First off, this term "Mizrachi" (Eastern) is the mother of all patronizing terminologies perpetrated by Leftists whose mind is perpetually in the uttermost West. Hasson is a proud Jew and the salt of the earth of the Land of Israel, who happens to have been born 30 miles from Haifa. This is not "eastern", this is "regional". You, on the other hand, are western. Jews like him who came from Damascus are not, as you claim, 'Arabs'. At the time that they lived in Damascus, their primary self-identity was Jewish, but as they were acclimatized to an Arabic environment they were often referred to as "Musta'arab", meaning "Arabicized", as opposed to "Arab". This word is directly akin to the class of "Mozarabs", Spanish Christians who lived under Moorish rule in medieval Andalus. They took on elements of Arabic culture and the Arabic language, but maintained Latin as the language of literature and liturgy. The Jews of Damascus, Beirut, Baghdad, and Cairo did exactly the same thing with respect to the Arabic culture and language, but absolutely did not consider themselves as "Arabs". What you are engaging in is typical Baath party imperialism and cultural erosion.