of Israel. You know, we, Israelis, have the right to be, to exist, and the IMF supports with its money organizations that would attempt to ensure that Israel as the national home of the Jewish people is a thing of the past. That is why it is a pain in the ..... as you put it.

both freedom of expression rights and the divine mission we have to deny Jews the right to a country of their own. Join me and Matty Groves against this Zionist tyranny because everyone else is allowed to frequently post but not us, unlike Arabic media outlets where no one is allowed to post, period!

As a Zionist he will not tolerate... what? Democratic debate over policies of our democratically elected gov't? NIF is as "anti-Israel" as was David ben Gurion, who in 1967 called for the return of the West Bank, lest it destroy Israel, and undermines our democracy and society. This is what the kibbush has done thanks mostly to such right wing nutjobs as this Likud back bencher.

# 33 is on the money... we have lost our way...no modern ay prophets as in the Bible so we have NGOs telling us to look in the mirror..... A shame that after 60 years the Zionist dream is being seduced by myths and "Power" of the majority...

paid whom to influence opinion. such non-transparency is not acceptable in a democracy.

seek new friends like you, because I upset so many people that they abandon me and I must find new ones who I can offend and then they will abandon me too. Would you like to be my best friend after which you will become my best abandoned friend?

A country is democratic, when its government is powered by the country's people, and the people therefore have the right to conduct public debates in order to influence their decision makers in the government. However, when elements from OUTSIDE the country attempt to hijack the public debate (using huge sums of money spent in propaganda) in order to influence the country's decision makers, this is not a democracy - this is more akin to a hostile takeover. The USA, Russia, Britain, France, and other empires throughout history, have done this a lot - took over weaker countries and influenced their actions. Therefore, keeping Israel's politics clean from the effect of external elements, is actually protecting Israel's democracy! You conveniently ignored Danon's precise addressing of this important point: "It is the responsibility of the Israeli government to protect its own democracy from Trojan horses that use foreign funding to push a destructive and divisive agenda. This is not an issue of left or right wing politics but rather one of national sovereignty." And this renders all your whinings about "democracy" completely incongruous and irrelevant.

The fund's grantees include Adalah, Breaking the Silence, B'Tselem, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, Yesh Din and the Israeli branch of Physicians for Human Rights. In January 2010, a Zionist student group, Im Tirtzu, accused NIF of direct responsibility for the United Nations report on the Gaza War. # Out of 1377 quotes in the Goldstone report, the vast majority (67%) were from foreign, UN or Palestinian sources. Only 450 (33%) comments in the Goldstone report were from Israeli sources. Of these, most came from the news media, the Israeli government and organizations not affiliated with NIF.

who at the beginning of the century in Russia and up to WW2 in Poland had a pluralistic vision, with a slight Jewish character, and were against the Zionists who wanted to create an exclusive Jewish homeland. The vast majority of Jews in eastern Europe followed the Bund, did not leave for Israel and the tragic results are well known. So is NIF with their "pluralistic" ideas, if given free reign the outcome will be the destruction of the existing Jewish homeland and Jewry some food for thought for you........

embarrassing how critical real Israelis are of their own country, too much so in my opinion. Of course, how would you know, comforting himself as it were in his Atlantic Ocean sailboat. You are nearly always (with one positive exception) so kneejerking critical of Israel but it's obvious you've never spent time here nor anywhere in the mideast. Why don't you just try it; sailor that you say you are? You could just make a trip through the Atlantic and then past the Rock of Girbraltar and onto the Mediterranean and into the small boat harbour of Tel Aviv, a truly European city. You could stay in Jerusalem, meet the Chareidim, visit our villages in Judea and Samaria, go to the important port city of Haifa and then travel north to visit the old Roman city of Acre where a large number of Israeli Arabs reside. You could then visit the plains of The Golan as well as the treed grounds of the Galilee. Make it a point to meet and talk to people and try to understand their fears and aspirations. After three months, you might have learned a little something. Right now, it's just too damnned easy to be an armchair critic, right Mike?

Danon is correct. It is ludicrous to allow Jew and Israel haters to immensely damage our sole, tiny Homeland through funding groups like the NIF and "Peace Now". It is very likely the NIF and "Peace Now" are funded by many of the same entities. "Peace Now" should be exposed next. Israeli law should make such despicable actions severely punishable.

stopped.

be stopped. Allowing treason in ones own country is not democracy but fatal stupidity.

and free speech is from democracy .. i see it is the best to support both democracy and free speech by money or funds if you have the money .. but i think the better to support human rights by the money ..i think many organisations do it for humanity more than democracy

Mr. Danon is correct but action should go further. These traitor's should be prosecuted as enemies of the state 9essentially foreighn agent or spies" and their citizenship taken away. People will then think twice before taking such action again.

I have lived in and/or visited many countries. Perhaps I should visit Israel. I can go to Lod and see where Palestinians once lived and were refused the right to return to their homes after the '48 war. Or see Bethlehem and its ugly wall. Or Gaza and see the destruction caused by 'Cast Lead' and the continued Israeli blockade. Oops, I'm sorry, I can't go to Gaza otherwise an Israeli patrol boat might ram my vessel or shoot at me. The problem, Robert is simple. You have determined to take others property and lives in order to impose a 'Jewish' state. You have resolved to treat the indigenous as 'sub-human' unapologetically. And, when someone points that fact out, you respond in the usual Israeli fashion: First deny, then point out that someone else does even worse, then admit and excuse. The premise of a 'Jewish'state is fatally flawed. Just like the isea of a 'Christian' or 'Islamic' state. A country is either answerable to all of its citizens, regardless of ethnicity or religion or it is doomed to be consigned to the dustbin of history. And watching the smiling faces of those who, at this time, have the 'upper hand' through violence does not, in the long term, lead to a viable nation-state. Actually, you have recreated something akin to Northern Ireland. Unless you are an expatriate of another country, your forbears were placed on the land through violence. And, unless you cede some of your power to the minority living in your midst, the cycle of violence and repression will continue. To my mind, there are only two real commandments. These are found but always buried in all religions, honored more in their breach trhan in ther practice. The first is: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you'. If pogroms against Jews was unacceptable in Russia, then so were massacres such as Deir Yassin or the use of white phosphorus in Gaza. The second is : "First, do no harm". We are all travelers through life in this Earth; Jews and Gentiles alike. And unless we attempt to live on this spaceship with other members of our species, then everything we hold dear: life, liberty and the pursuit of each individual to find his/her place in the world will continually be placed in a precarious position which will become more precarious in the future.

the results of your "voyage" to Israel. My point was, now that I've got your attention, that you have never visited the region and never for an extended period of time. A true voyage, like any adventure, will reveal remarkably new aspects and facets to the subjects of your concern provided you are open to learning. But from your posting, in spite of its intelligent and worthy sentiments, it still seems that you feel compelled to determine what you will find before you get there. I am suggesting, however, that you actually allow yourself to be open to what might lie before you. And, yes, visit Gaza and any of the other places which may pique your interest, of course. I am thinking of the wonderful poem called "Ithika" by that incredible 20th century Greek poet, Constantino Cavafy, translated into English by Rae Daelven. This poem, too, is about a sea voyage and, as a sailor, it might just appeal to a deep sense within yourself.

The issue is not whether or not I have predetermined my views on Israel and its policies. It is whether or not my views are justified. In early US history, the white colonialists took land from the indigenous peoples and slaughtered them without mercy. We palced them on reservations and, for the most part, treated them abominably. It is only within the last feww generations that most Americans realized the crimes committed and attempted to admit their complicity in the matter. The difference is that Israel is still committing the horrible atrocities against the indigenous Arab population. Look out your window. Imagine the generations of those who resided on your 'property' before you. Most of the prior residents are now consigned to live in the open-air prison called Gaza. Without their consent, or compensation for property lost, they have been herded onto their own reservation that is continually under siege. Do they deserve such treatment? And if not, what is your complicity in such treatment and how would you go about delivering at least a modicum of justice to such people? As I have repeated, you have created your own version of Northern Ireland. Only within the past few decades have the Northern Irish Protestants realized their forbears' complicity in the British colonization of that land. They, however, are not continuing their colonization and only a few want to flaunt, in their "Orange' marches, the use of the violence which their ancestors used to subjugate the indigenous peoples. Israel, on the orther hand, wishes to continue their colonization and occupation. They are the ones who wish to expand their holdings without regard to simple human justice. And they wish to keep the world, and their own people unaware of the continuation of their depredations. Yet, even when the people are made aware, the messge from the Israelis is that they somehow have the 'right' to treat the indigenous abominably. That argument is idefensible.

you write what you feel and read what the others feel ... it is the base .. even who wrote the bible wrote about jesuse .you read the bible about what the writer feel .. you believe what you feel if it is from your writing or reading but it is not true that the academics ar honest than any other one can read or can write

Arabs still live in Lod (& Ramla)

have little basis for your claims. For one thing, you are unfamiliar with the landscape. If you were, you'd know that there are many positive and dynamic relationships between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs both in Israel and in the Westbank. As to Gaza, I was in Ashdod when the mortars and rockets were launched on us. These missiles were meant to wound and kill Israeli citizens, to cause property damage and to cause havoc. Between 2000-2008, thirty-seven Israelis were killed not to mention the number wounded nor the considerable cases of PTSD, especially in Sderot and surrounding area. Of course, Israel was forced to step in and step in it did. And yes, Gaza is surrounded and contained, both by Israel and now Egypt. After all, Gaza is led by a group, Hamas, whose charter has it as a priority to destroy the state of Israel. Like it or not, Mike, Israel's Jewish population will never allow that to happen. It's echoed in the refrain, "Never again!" Incidentally, I recall the Cuban crisis when John F. Kennedy was president. What do you think would occur if Cuba were to hurl missiles at Florida, where you reside? No, Mike, it's apparent that you, an otherwise intelligent man, has a narrow belief system when it comes to your understanding of Israel and the region. You may dress it up your liberal conscience by citing knowledge of the depredations and extinctionsof Native Indian people by your own forebears but the situation is not equivalent in the region of Palestine/Israel. I would suggest you examine your motives because I think there is an obstacle there to clear thinking. I have made suggestions in former posts but you seem quick to react without genuine reflection evident. I appreciate the fact that you are very capable of such reflection but in the case of Israel you seem to have some typical and hostile kneejerk reactions which suggest motives which you may only be thinly aware of. Perhaps you will take the time to examine them.

It's actually clearer than the sun that you are anything but Zionist. Rather impostors and obfuscators who are hell-bent on fooling the readers here about your nefarious anti-Israeli agenda. NIF is the grave-digger of Israel as a Jewish state? It's clear that you cannot defend yourselves with rational and sharp counter-arguments to the facts presented by MK Danon. So please give up the dastardly misinformation campaign that you all pursue against a Zionistic Israel! Too bad that NOW we al know the truth about "NIF" and what kind of sinsiter organisations it has funded - from very shady sources...

No "Mikesailor" what is really indefensible is hypocritical anti-Semites who deny Isral's very right to exist, like your ilk becasue they are either closet neo-Nazis (KKK figures) or far-left Marxists. It's clear that what is really indefensible is your atrocious moral double standards and abominable Trotskist ideas that are on history's trash heap.

to refresh your knowledge base, one-fifth of the Israeli population (1.4 million) is made up of Palestinian Arabs, all of whom are Israeli citizens and all of whom benefit from national insurance including medical care and education. They are also represented in the Knesset, go to universityand and join the professional ranks. Arabic is the second official language of Israel. If you were to visit Israel, as I've suggested, you would note that all highway signs are printed in Arabic as well as Hebrew and (usually) English. Are there problems and inequities with respect to treatment of Israeli Arabs? Absolutely. There are also problems with respect to Ashkenazi relations with the Sephardim, with the post-communist Russian immigrants, with Ethiopians, with Druse and Bedouin. Of course, Israel has only had sixty years to work things out. That is a short time, wouldn't you agree, as compared to the length of time it has taken America to work out its injustices to the Black population. In Israel's case, it's actually quite a miracle that so much integration has taken place in such a small amount of time. with respect to the Westbank, what we identify as Judea and Samaria, these are our ancient and holy lands. Why shouldn't we Jews be allowed to reside there? Why should Arabs be allowed to live in Israel but no Jews be allowed in the Westbank? Why should the Westbank be "Judenfrei"? As to Gaza, we are not there at all now. In terms of our security, however, it was a big mistake to have pulled out. Ultimately, I think it depends on whether you think we Jews have a right to reside in Palestine/Israel. I won't go into the arguments, pro and con, nor why peaceful solutions were not possible. I reckon, at heart, you just don't believe that Jews have a place in the mideast. If that's the case, why don't you just post it. Then you'll make it clear where you're coming from.

J "Dead End" Street. Thats all you need to now about NIF... that, and they funded 92% of the Goldstone anti Israel report. Israeli taxpayers pay the afr left, unwittingly, to bash their country to the point just before sanctions. ...Id withhold taxes too. Ynet this is the 3rd time Ive written in, why dont you post? Afraid of non left opinions?

How can the NIF be allowed to fund anti-Israel groups? The alleged fact that NIF's donations are up 35% since Mr Danon exposed them are frightening, if true.

"As a Zionist I will not tolerate Israelis who masquerade on behalf of foreign interests and endanger national security." Do what you need to do. But be aware, you aren't the only Zionist, and you aren't the holder of the truth. I'm a Zionist, too (But not a Nazionist, a term that possibly better expresses what you are). And I won't tolerate Israelis like you. The fight is on, guy. I won't accept and I will fight all Jewish racists, fascists and all those who try to transform Zionism in Nazionism. Is it civil war beyond the horizon? Could be. Me and my best friends and family - at least - will do whatever it takes- to have Jewish or Israeli Goerings, Gobbels' or Eichmanns go to hell. Regards