they live and die for terror. they should not be rewarded for their behavior. We need to stop positively reinforcing bad behavior from crazies or it will never end

that settlements are LEGAL. We never told the world THERE IS NO OCCUPATION. We are in the full legal and moral right but nobody knows it. And it's Israel's fault for not making this FACT (which is the pimary cause of all anti-semitism today AND reason many Jews side with the Palis) known!!! Israeli politicians: LOOK IN THE MIRROR

The problem amongst Jews in the Left, with which I have personal experience, is that they have no idea that Jewish Identity is underscored by the fact that Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people and that is where our culture, religion, language, history and thus identity was nourished for more than 1000 years. Many are vastly opposed to any sort of religious affiliation to the land and would rather spend time focusing on Israel's "faults" according to the world's perception of"international law". To separate Jews from the land of Israel is to debase not only our history, but our identity as a people. Which is what I suspect many a self-hating/uneducated Jew is hoping for.

Earth, but "Palestinian People"??? What box did they jump out of? The intelligent man's curse : to be able to see everything from many angles, (including the squarness of circle:-) is a Jewish trait, that may do us in one sunny day.... For Islam/Jihad (one& same thing) there is no doubt: Everything is round!!!

This (ultra rightrousness to the point of self annulment and destruction)) is why there is a chesed and adin, a right and left side. Chesed can spill and waste when not protected by the walls, fences and borders that contain it in din. When there is no "Enough! Di! Maspik!"- it counteracts the original intention of goodness and torpedos on you. Israel has the right to it's borders that G-d specifically put down in the bible- there is no way to even live safely without them -Good piece of work and I'm proud of you, Y net for publishing it!

All DNA studies have shown that almost all the Jewish communities still have the majority of their DNA in common in spite of color difference. Being the chosen people means we were chosen to take the responsibility of keeping 613 commandments instead of just 10

The problem started with Oslo, when Rabin and Peres shook hands with a terrorist murderer and allowed him and his fellow terrorists to return to the land of Israel. Add the leftist israeli media which is on the side of the arabs and against the Jews. Add a high court of justice and Israeli judiciary which is favorable and supports the arab narrative and is against the rights of Jews in Judea and Samaria. Add Israeli Prime Ministers, Rabin, Peres, Barak, Sharon and Olmert who used and legitimized the term occupation, land for peace, really land for terror, death and murder. Add, assimilated and ignorant American Jewry, who have no idea what is going on in the middle east. Add uncle Tom Friedman, George Soros, JIhad Street, Aharon Barak, post Zionist academics, ,Beinart, Gordis etc., etc. and an Jewish, Israeli hating world looking for these confused malignant self haters of the Jews, and you understand that the Jewish people's big problem is the Jews.

The fact that this article or some groups attach "being open" as meaning you are with the enemy is at the heart of Jewish oppression. It is a ball and chain painted pink and sold as "good" as if the people are part of some Milgram experiment. Clearly the target of this article is not those pesky radical peace groups but rather control of the minds of those who are not part of them. This is done by equating closed facist ideas as good and open righteous ideas as being with the enemy. Fact is righteousness is open and clear and doesn't require such rhetoric. To be a light to all nations is to share Jewish though with goyim and showing the the good and right way to do things. It is not based on fear that by sharing we would loose ourselves and fall into an abyss. Such fear belongs in a cave. No one we must become like the others to share values and be open. Such assertions are the oppression of Jews.

For decades, the Israeli government has been hiding incontrovertible legal proof that we own Judea and Samaria. It has been supplied by many world leading international law experts. The rational course of action would be to serve our proof on the U.N., E.U., all world governments, media, religious institutions etc. Instead, Israel's government has been hiding it! There is no sane reason for this. We should prove our claim to Judea and Samaria immediately and end the "Palestinian" rubbish claim once and for all.

Many Jews of the Zionist left do indeed disagree with the policies of the Israeli government and so in my opinion they should. At the same time groups on the right led by the likes of Sheldon Adelson and the ZOA have never hesitated to criticize in the harshest language the policies of the Rabin and Barak government during those governments tenure. Adelson's Pravda like rag of a newspaper and Moskowitz's land dealings are a far more insidious encroachment on Israeli sovereignty than any actions taken by diaspora liberals. Zionism encourages Diaspora adherents and fans take sides. Unless you are going to limit engagement to only resident Israelis the country must learn to live with it's family yentas right and left.

the ability of her body and her soul to live together at peace. While the soul needs a sane body to accomplish her vision , the body needs the soul to overcome despaired situations ,since ,when something fires the soul,impossibilities vanish.

Dear Tom, most nations are in a historical sense new. The USA did not exist until 1776, and the colonies that preceded it were only born the 17th ecentury. Australians have a history dating back 200 years at most. Before that, their continent had not been colonized by Western settlers. Would you now state that Americans and Australians do not exist, that such nationalities do not exist? That would be a bold claim :-) Sure, in 1776 many Englishmen would have said the same thing as you: "Americans? What box did they jump out of?" Well. they did jump out of the box, and how! You are probably witnessing the very birth of a new nation and a new nationality, the Palestinians. It's birth may be difficult, as it was for the Americans, but who knows what the future holds in store? To end on an optimistic note: the newly created Americans and their former countrymen the English could not stand each other in the first 100 years. They even fought two wars, the war of indepencence and the war of 1812, as well as many smaller conflicts. But, after a while they became the very best of friends, as we all know. What a few hundred years can do to conflicts, it is amazing.

Dear Harmen, I might be wrong because I thought that the palestinian nation you are telling us about was not existent before 1964. Well, I used to refer to them just as Arabs. Can you tell me where does the palestinian nation come historically from? Where can I learn this new HISTORY you are revealing to us?

Your attention to the historical background is welcomed. The pages of history teach us that "Historical Palestine" has always been contained both a SINGLE Hebrew-speaking community and a SINGLE non-Hebrew-speaking community. The Brit-colonialist creation of a Arabic-speaking Kingdom palac'ed in Amman fulfilled the duality. There is no need or room for, a THIRD sovereign nation in Historical Palestine. The Muqata and the Hashemis will have to fight it out for who gets to be Kingof the Hill on their side of the River. If we end up with Palestine citizens living in Israel as Lawful Residents, that's no problem. They vote-absentee by mailbox to their side of the River.

Here in Ithaca some of the most vocal Palestinian-supportive elements are Israeli grad students. My husband's grandparents were Palestinian refugees - kicked out by the Turks in 1914 and shipped off to Alexandria. I would believe in a 2 state solution IF I did not think it was suicide for Israel. All the complaints about how Israel restricts Palestinian life omits the fact that before 2002 and all the suicide bombings, there was no separation barrier. Without this barrier, Israel would be Iraq with bombings every day. Without meaning to get political, I like what Emmanuel Navon says - and I paraphrase - You never hear Abbas talk about 2 states for 2 peoples - he has stated that the West Bank should be Judenrein and all the refugees should go back to pre 67 Israel. Still, I pray for peace and prosperity for all peoples

the aritlcle--needs some serious editing and re-writing to get whatever its message is more clearly stated--gets just enough comments to again show the diversity of opinion among readers. ps: another way to look at Chosen is to suggest that Jews were chosen to bring monotheism to the world.

There is nothing wrong with a big tent that holds a wide range of pro-Israel views, even if there are differences regarding crucial issues such as settlements. Unity does not and should not require uniformity. Fascists, Communists and other totalitarians demand uniformity. Zionism on the other hand has always been a big tent movement, and efforts to close the tent to dissenters are shortsighted and will only hurt Israel in the long term.

Unfortunately Chaim, there are people in this world who no matter how often you wave the evidence in front of their eyes they still refuse to see the truth.

70% of American Jews, along with majorities in both Israel and the West Bank, support a two-state solution. Romirowsky is unilaterally declaring his opinion the "mainstream," but J Street is more mainstream.

#10 Avramele. There is a world of difference between patriotic critics and leftist critics. Patriotic critics seek a strong self respecting Israel. Leftist critics seek a weak appeasing Israel. Moreover, the left has been wrong on every major issue since Israel's founding. From Oslo to freeing terrorists, to Disengagement to...everything. Not only wrong but dangerously wrong.

Since Jews are the genetic blood brothers of the Syrians, Lebanese and Palestinians, they are also God's "chosen."

"Being the chosen people means we were chosen to take the responsibility of keeping 613 commandments instead of just 10" You can see almost all of them on the he walls of pharaoh's tumbs called "the book of the dead" or "the papyrus of Ani", engraved there1600 years before Moses was born, if you believe that he ever existed.

the body is nothing without soul so soul can fire he body if it is evil not the opposite

First BG was absolutely right in accepting partition in 1948 and in the conduct of that war. It resulted in a Jewish state with a Jewish majority. More to the point your assertion that right wing critics of government policy are permissible and those from the left are not turns democracy on it's head. To avoid armed confrontation all voices must be allowed in the public sphere and differences must be settled through the clash of ideas not weapons. Your right to an opinion is sacred to me even if I find your often stated belief in theocracy and the dictatorship of a (future) dati majority reprehensible. Let a thousand Israeli flowers bloom!

Papyrus of Ani coms from the 19th dynasty of ancient Egypt, c. 1250 B.C. That's later than Moses. According to the latest reading of Egyptian hyreoglyphic records, the Israelites were already in Canaan 1300-1400 BC. The Merneptah Stele (c. 1210 B.C) also records the Israelites in Canaan. Not that there is any truth to what you say about alleged similiarities between the Papyrus of Ani and the 613 commandments in the Torah.

#24 Avramele. It would take a pretty strange reading on my posts to see any advocacy of theocracy. I never once did so. Nor would I ever do so. Nor do I believe that anyone should be denied free speech. However, we must face the fact that the left has been infallibly wrong on every major issue. A few months ago, leftist "elites" advocated ceding the Golan!!! Thankfully, Israel ignored leftist lunacy this time. The infallible wrongness of the left should be kept in mind when formulating Israeli policies.

For all the Israeli and Diaspora Jews who stand up and champion the Arab and denigrate, condemn and overtly harm the Jews, perhaps it's time to ask them to literally choose on the matter. Them, or us. If it's them, please abandon your Jewish identity, never set foot in a shul again and if you're ever in the Mideast please by all means make your stay anywhere but Israel. To mean their stance will be exactly like millions of other antisemites and Israel haters all over the world and that's fine. The only things I ask of them are 1) stop leaning on your so called Jewish identity as a crutch to somehow lend your hatred more credence and 2) don't ever come to the land you love to despise ever or ever again. Let's just go our separate ways.

"The earliest known versions date from the 16th century BC during the 18th Dynasty (ca. 1580 BC–1350 BC). It partly incorporated two previous collections of Egyptian religious literature, known as the Coffin Texts (ca. 2000 BC) and the Pyramid Texts (ca. 2600 BC-2300 BC), both of which were eventually superseded by the Book of the Dead" My point; The Ten Commandments and 613 principles of Torah's law observed by Jews are a copy of an Egyptian Book of Dead recorded on the walls of their tumbs around 2600 BCE. That's around 1300 years before Moses was born according to the timeline and Jewish calculations. By the way, the Genesis narrative was "borrowed" from the Book of Gilgamesh ,...

Jews ALWAYS disagreed! Put 10 Jews in a room and you get 10 different opinions. Nothing new here. There were always fights & feuds, but when it mattered 90% pulled together and always made sure Judaism survived. It won't be different this time. Judaism is strong enough to allow strong disagreements, fights & feuds. It shows how varied & democratic Judaism realy is! Be proud of that and continue to disagree....it will keep us awake & alive.

Indeed, Sarah, we never told the world about our legal rights, recognized in International Law. All documents and facts in relation with our legal rights were swept under the carpet and even vanished from Jewish and Zionist literature. A few examples: the San Remo Conference, the historical vote at the League of Nations in 1922, called the Mandate for Palestine, having as goal the creation of the Jewish National, Home, in clear, a State. The British-American Treaty to guarantee the Mandate. Article 80 of the Charter of the United Nations reaffirming Israel's Right to settle between the Sea and the Jordan River..Who, one year ago, knew about these facts ? Not even the majority of those who have been educated in Israel ! How could that be ? Well shortly after Herzl's death, his movement became left oriented, being blinded by Marxism and Bolshevism. Nahum Sokolow who became the Chairman of the World Zionist Organization till 1933, wrote in the introduction of his two volume book "The History of Zionism" the following: "It has been said, and is still being obstinately repeated by anti-Zionists again and again, that Zionism aims at the creation of an independent Jewish State. But this is wholly fallacious. The Jewish State was never a part of the Zionist programme. The "Jewish State" was the title of Herzl's first pamphlet, which had the supreme merit of forcing people to think..." When in 1922, the League of Nations voted unanimously, by all its 51 members, for the creation of a Jewish State in the making, it was rejected by the left oriented majority of the Zionist Movement. This had as consequence the tragedy of the Shoah, although a Jewish State, could have been born in the late twenties. The disowning of the Jewish State at that time, by the left, must till today remain, by all means secret, even at a risk of another catastrophe. This is the reason,Sarah, why we never told what you mention in your post !