i have no problem with prodi calling hamas whatever he likes.he is not involved.he has no family members living in israel and is probably not jewish. we who are involved however see hamas as beasts and worse.you richard may also view them as freedom fighters.i have no problem with that at all. do not however seek to change our views for then i would be offended.

i would guess that the real reason much of the UK press doesnt call a terrorist what he/she is, but instead say freedom fighter rebel insurgent etc.......they think that it will prevent another set of train bombings or the like (coming from internally ) The problem is that certain people will continue to hate regardless of everyone/anyone censoring every bit of politically incorrect stuff palis are arabs and most arabs are moslem and every moslem I ever met has issues with Israel. Funny thing is I never heard anyone say that their country shouldn't exist. I never heard the expression drive the arabs into the sea....lmao why? because intead of arabs living in arabia.....they live in Holland? lol morrocco algeria tunisia libya egypt lebanon syria jordan iraq and many more including now eurabia. how did this all happen? I believe it is because Islam is violent. And they became an ever more violent race that subjagated and exterminated native races so much that now almost all people living from morrocco to iraq are moslem arabs. The berbers are the only people that still are a freestanding race that I can think of. And even they are 2nd class citizens. I suppose there are a few assyrians left in iraq, but the terrorists are killing and driving the last of them out. whats the point? if holland germany france and the rest of europe invite vast amounts of moslem arabs into their nations....nay in fact pay for them to live there. All in the hope that their offspring will be the workers in the future to prop up the states financial system. But they dont work! They cost money....and when the baby boomers are all in the retirement homes there will be a disaster in the making. why? because inviting and subsidizing an invasive race with different values and culture and language can only bring about a quicker disintegration of the historic occupants.

Why are you writing Isreal instead of Israel? Can't be all by mistake?

Richard, 1. thanks for answering. I appreciate your being an excellent historian, but I regret to say that you’re not a careful reader: just go to Ynetnews.com’s search engine and try typing the word “militants”; it will be opened a list of 220 articles containing that word, mostly referring to Palestinian fighters. 2. As for the issue of calling them “resistance fighters”, I don’t and will never agree with you. Methodology is of the essence. What separates a partisan from a terrorist is his rifle being aimed toward an enemy soldier or an innocent civilian. I still think that my hero of the resistance pro-uncle, if he was alive, would react vehemently if anyone dared to compare his actions against nazi soldiers to the acts of the Dolphinarium suicide bomber or of the cold-blooded murder of 8 months pregnant Tali Hatuel and her 4 daughters, whose age ranged between 11 and 2 years. 3. I also know how the Russians would have labelled the Italian soldier: an “enemy”, an “invader”, an “occupier”, but certainly not a “terrorist”, because Italian soldiers in Russia never acted against the civilians; many of them enjoyed Russian help during the retreat, since our German “allies” reserved mechanized transport for themselves and left the Italian foot-infantry to die of cold in the Russian winter. A lot of them, listed as “missing in action”, wrote to their families in Italy, once the war was over, that they weren’t to come back in Italy, because they were happily married to Russian girls. By the way, Richard, if we are willing to continue this nice epistolary exchange, we should exchange our e-mail addresses, to the purpose of not abusing our website hosts courtesy, and not boring the other talkback readers. Many greetings and thank again for your kindness and politeness.

"Judah's Scepter and Joseph's Birthright" which are university level texts that trace the migration of the ten tribes. The Celtics are Israelites. The Prophet Jeremiah took Princes Tia Tephe and established the throne of Judah in Northern Ireland. The Bible says there will be four overturns of the Throne of Judah, but the Throne of Judah (David) would last until Shiloh (Messiah) comes. The Throne went from Jerusalem to Northern Ireland then to Scotland and then to London. Next it will go back to Jerusalem. British means covenant man in Hebrew. The most prized possession in all of Britain is the stone of scone under the British throne: Jacob's pillow stone. After a British Monarch is crowned there is a second crowning as the King or Queen of Israel in private. Before calling what I say rubbish, I suggest you research this so that you will be more knowledgeable about your own culture. America is Manasseh and the British Commonwealth is Ephraim. Those are the sons of Joseph that Jacob told would become a great nation and a multitude of nations with the gates of their enemies. Half of the Great Seal of America and Britain are Egyptian, as Manasseh and Ephraim were half Egyptian. The Tribe of Joseph is described in the Bible as the HAMMER OF THE WHOLE EARTH. That is America and the British Commonwealth (formerly Empire). There are no vowels in Hebrew so look for D-N and you will find much evidence of the tribe of Dan (D-N) in European cities and rivers and other areas where the Israelites settled.

are from the tribe of DAN, but many of the people are. The more ferocious Germans are the Bavarians whose ancestry is traced to the Assyrians by scholars. Just because a Tribe loses its place in the Heavenly Jerusalem and is not listed in Revelation does not mean that every person from the tribe of Dan throughout history is unsaved eternally. There has to be a place for those who loved the Lord and were chosen by Him as you describe there is. But the STATUS as a tribe is lost because of things Danites did to Jews for example. London or LN-DN (DN for Dan) balked on the agreement to give the Jews a homeland in Palestine after the FIRST World War which they agreed to do if the Jewish inventor of explosives the British wanted to use would let them use his patent. He did and the British renegged on their promise until after World War II when the UN gave the Jews a homeland.

You choose the right side, belive me...God bless you.

It is not true. There is much debate (but oviously from the respect). And there is much debate because they don't fully integrate. The Netherlands and Europe is getting worse and worse with this uncontrolled migration. We need to keep our rights and the laycity of the State!

"Mr Gerstenfeld is a right-wing Dutch immigrant, with very close (ties) to the settlers' ideology (and) opinions. (It is) very easy to accuse foreign Dutch journalists of being biased, anti-Israel and even anti-Semitic." Likewise, Conny, it is very easy to accuse mr. Gerstenfeld of being 'a right-wing' Dutch immigrant with 'very close (ties) to the settlers' ideology (and) opinions'. Actually, it EXACTLY illustrates the mechanism you use in your reportts on Israel. Discrediting persons and countries instead of balancing views and ARGUMENTS. Conny, you know there are more comments on your bias towards Israel in Holland... act on it!

The reason the Dutch learned to hate Israel is Salomon Bouwman. A Dutch Jew who writes for the best Dutch Right-wing newspaper (NRC), Bouwman spent his time since 1992 writing the most anti-semitic and anti-Israeli vitriol he could, in line with his extreme-left Meretz ideology. His writing was filled with distortions and lies. A Dutchman has no reason to be more Zionistic than the Jew Bouwman. Gerstenfeld should attack Bouwman, not the Dutch

Much of what you say is true, but not not all of the dutch media is the same.... there are a few standouts. But they are papers and are not on tv

Richard, I don't know what planet you are on but the press here is obsessed with pointing to every negative aspect of Israel, covering (eg) the harm of the occupation by Israel way more than even our own occupations. If you look at programmes covering the aftermath of bombings with civilian casualties, it'll go on for days re Israel, with journalists popping over to chat with bereaved families etc; but almost silence re Helmand or Basra. The press buys up any claim of massacre or genocide when this would never be reported as such in reference to NATO operations in Afg. say. It's disgusting - a typical example of scapegoating if ever I saw one: use Israel to keep civil society so detained in boycotts of Israel etc, that we can't even attend to the business of holding our own executive to account for its occupations & wars. How else do you explain the different nature of coverage of the early stages of the war in Afghanistan, when daisy cutters were used, compared to coverage of the war last summer in Lebanon? Did we hear much about the victims of those bombs? Anything like the level of reporting, enquiries etc in reference to Israel's military operations? How can it be justified for the BBC to have its largest press office, other than Wash DC, in J'em? The country's barely the size of Wales! And if they like the country so much, why don't they cover it reasonably? Why does it have to emerge from the press as evil incarnate, placed under higher standards (which it's therefore bound to fail) than any other nation? That's antisemitism, according to the EU Monitoring Centre.

the dumb, fat sparrow again shows that he hasn't a clue what's going on here. go back to holland stupid fuck

A lot of what I read here is way over the top. All the articles quoted by Mr Gerstenfeld were minor things. As were the articles about Israel. Holland does not have a negative view on Israel, we don't have a positive view either, at least not in general. There are organizations in the Netherlands that speak out for the Palestinians completely ignoring the conflict and there are people who say talking has no use and bombing them would be a better solution. Thankfully most people here are smart enough to realize that neither option is really beneficial or wanted. Israel is not the evil guy here and it's not innocent either. The Dutch news channels realize that. As for the people here that I know, none of us hate the Israelis. There is no great group of people out there looking to hunt down all Jews, of course there are some but then again there were nazi's in Israel too not to long ago. It happens, that's how the world works. If you will only look at the negative then you will a lot wrong with the country. But our news channels don't do that. I would hope that Israel it's news channels would be smart enough to not do that either. But you have to remember that blood sells, making story's about Israel is easier when they are at war or somebody just committed a suicide attack on a bus then when something good happens. This is a global thing however, and has nothing to do with Israel. Israel just seems to have a lot of problems meaning they get in the news a lot. Which also means Dutch people are interested in Israel otherwise the news channels wouldn't bother.

This is just getting a little too much. Stop telling other people how to view certain issues. Just live and let live.

If you really think the news on Israel is being reported fairly anywhere in Europe I think you need to broaden your horizon a bit. I suggest you start reading blogs such as littlegreenfootballs and jihadwatch, or the excellent news reports by Michelle Malkin. On those blogs the "unbiased" reporting of the BBC has earned it the nickname British Brainwashing Corporation. Not to mention AP(Associated-with-terrorists Press and Al Reuters. Remember last year's war with Hezbollah? The whining about the "disproportionately violence" of Israeli retaliation? Somehow Israel seems to be the only country in the world that is not allowed to defend itself when it is harassed, attacked, dragged through the mud and falsely accused. And dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, good luck and success with your "Bad News About the Netherlands" project. I hope you will soon be able to extend the courtesy to other EU countries. Some people only learn the hard way. In the end, you are probably doing my country a favour. Those of us who stand with Israel will not take your attacks personal.

Wow....you are all so stupid! You all say everything about mr Mus in Chigago and every other god forbidden place, but mr Mus never is on the Tele there, he only is here on Dutch RTL News so you dont know anything about him. Mr. Mus is a very good, honest journalist and I say that as a pro-Israel guy. That mr. Gerstenberg is not telling to truth about all these things he said about Holland. Its like a lot of conservative stupid Americans do about us, about our abortion policy for example. Telling only half the story. Mr. Mus, and i agree with mr. Gerstenberg about other Dutch journalists, tells about the situation in Israel as it is. He is in his work not left, not right not pro this or pro that. He is an independ good journalist, unlike mr. Gerstenberg.

You say :".. BBC (has) its (second) largest press office in Jerusalem ". "Second largest" will imply that the BBC has to invent news - even where there is NO news - in order to function as a news press office. I think we should ask BBC to scale-down their office in Jerusalem. TOO big office results in journalists becoming news-creators -- and that is something which should NOT be desired by a REAL news-reporter. "BBC second largest office" in Jerusalem is like 'an outsider allowed to live in my house, and than giving me a good beating -- in my own house'. IT doesn't bode well for Israel. CONCLUSION : BBC should STOP this kind of behaviour immediately !! THIS kind of behaviour of BBC is unworthy of a gentleman.

You say :"Mr. Gerstenberg is not telling the truth ..". WELL, all the three news items mentioned by Mr. Gerstenberg DID appear on Dutch National Television at length and in detail for some days -- and in the big newspapers for some weeks. You please tell me where Mr. Gerstenberg is not telling the truth !!! You say :".. you don't know anything about him (Mr. Mus)". ONE doesn't always has to see a person in order to understand him. JUST by listening (even without seeing him), or by reading his words -- one can understand a person. BTW Kees is a Dutch name -- reading your talkback you sound like a Muslim, whose parents came from a different country, don't they ?

this is crazy trying to attack my precious people that bring prospur to the entire world.Manfred Gerstenfeld this man have lived in Holland he lived there in peace and order!!! while in his ''holy'' stolen land was a war(well war more like a local holocaust) and he gort the nurves to talk about us?!?!?!?!! thats unproportional! he should ask his countrry why the stole the homeland of the Palestinas. this man trys to distract us from the israelian war!! Israel is verry verry good in that! well lett the man come with some good articles. ohh no he dont thinks that thats gonna work so he wanna make war (like hehehe Israel used to! or not?!?!) speak out to this in words ruthless man hahaha holla from: a Dutch student

Maansingh...what is up that comment about Kees # 77being a Muslem??! Just because he happens to like mr. Mus and you don't? tell me, what is that comment based on and WHY are you saying it? Maansingh: For you and all the other ignorant people over here: Israel is an OCCUPYING force. If you want to occupy, you also have to deal with the consequences and criticism on it. don't give it that spin by saying people are anti semites or 'europe is overtaken by islamic powers' whenever they criticize Israel's occupying policy.

You say :".. my precious (i.e. Dutch) people ..". Well, Mattia, mentally sound people don't talk like that. Maybe you should get a mental-health check-up. BTW reading your TB you don't sound like a Dutch citizen. BTW I get the idea that Mattia #80 and Dutchee #81 are one and the same person, namely Kees #77 -- his identity questioned, he has become UPSET.

well, Maansingh, I can ensure you that I am not Kees or Mattia. don't agree with both of them (of what they are writing here). you keep writing these very hollow comments and trying to bash all the other commentators. But...why won't you answer my questions (see # 80)? I'd like to add to that question in # 80: what if Kees actually was a moslem (explain what this idea of you is based on), is that a problem to you? also: I don't understand your comment to Mattia: ' you don't sound like a Dutch citizen' .......what is a dutch citizen supposed to sound like, according to you?

You write :"what is a Dutch citizen supposed to sound like ..". For you to understand THAT you need to do some praying to Allah. You SHOULD ask Allah to give you some intelligence -- because you are lacking quite a bit. And now lets hear something from Mattia -- and HEY, what happened to Kees ?

A lot of reactions here are quite biased as well. "They hate us" "Let's hate them back" Just keep pushing Palestinians out of their country, and keep being surprised that they don't like that at all. Well, I wish you all good luck with your Israeli state. Just the way God would have wanted.

You write :"I wish you all good luck with your Israeli state". THANK you very much for your best wishes. ALLAH (i.e. God) will certainly bless you for your PIOUS thoughts.

As I wright in my article, i am pro Israel and not a muslim. But mr. Gerstenfeld is only telling half the story about lots of things. Now, that is just what he is intented to do and he claims that every Dutch journalist does the same with story's about Israel (which is not be a typical muslim thing) . As i also sad, i agree on this point with mr. Gerstenfeld about several Dutch journalists (which would also not be a typical muslim thing), but not this with Conny Mus. BTW: I realy dont understand how you can say you think someone is muslim who saids he is pro-Israel and agree with mr. Gerstenfeld about several other dutch journalists. That seems to me you dont have a clue what is going on in the Middle-East.

You write :".., I am pro-Israel ..". Kees, I am very pleased to learn you confirming your LOYALTY to Israel by stating that you are "pro-Israel" TWICE in your talkback #87. THANK you for your confirmation. You write :"Mr. Gerstenberg is only telling half the story about lots of things ". Could you please mention just ONE of those "lots of things"?

In mid-May, accusations of torture surfaced against Dutch soldiers serving in Iraq," a news item from Gerstenfeld's blog said. The soldiers were said to use an electric cable and other torture methods while interrogating Iraqis. He does not mention that after local investigation of MP the conclusion was that there was nothing happened that was against the law. Even the reporting and on this subject reveiling newpaper "Volkskrant" has admitted that their conclusion about the dutch soldiers was not based on thruth and was taken too soon. He also does not mention that the region were the dutch soldiers were was one of the most stabil and that the dutch soldiers has achieved a lot in that district, toghether with the local people with whom the dutch soldiers had a good relationship.

As a member of the Dutch Bn'ay Akiva I used to knew Manfred Gerstenfeld quite well. Have followed his career and writings for many years. His observations, analyses and recommendations are worth being read and reread. Shalom from Winnipeg, Canada, j.i.v.