Egypt's friendship with the Palestinians is based on their mutual hatred of Israel. Otherwise, they wouldn't pass weapons to Hamas through the tunnels connecting the Sinai and the Gaza strip. As we know this is one of Hamas' main sources of ammunition against Israel. This is called peace between Israel and Egypt?!? This is called "let's say we have peace with Israel, and let Hamas do our dirty work" which Hamas is most happy to do. Hamas deliberately launches rockets into civilian areas because obviously they have no regard for life. They are stupid because knowing that Israel will defend itself by returning fire, Hamas continues with its rocket attack on Israeli population centers. The Egyptians are simply smarter, not more humane "peace-seekers" than Hamas

How many "Stop the War" rallies have Jews like you organized? How many Jews have appeared at such rallies? Phil Weiss showed a photo on his anti-Zionist web site of such a rally in Los Angeles and we see three (3) protestors in the photo. Has "J-Street" made such a rally? In Israel, the Left is solidly behind the war, so in Israel we aren't seeing such things.

See this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/world/middleeast/13israel.html?_r=1&hp

Jews are voting with their feet by not coming to such rallies. This proves the Jews are not on your side.

In any event, you hand-wringing over "the children" as expressed in an earlier thread is merely crocodile tears. You couldn't care less about Palestinian children. All you care about is making sure your image as a "Jewish progressive" is clean. How do I know this. Because before Oslo in 1993 you were one of those "progressives" who insisted that Israel bring Arafat in and impose him on the Palestinian people. Just like your failed Jewish 'peace mafia' people...Kurtzer, Indyk, Miller, Ross, etc...with their impressive record of failure. They also supported Israel's adventure with Arafat. Well, what was Arafat's record before 1993? He ignited bloody civil wars in Jordan and Lebanon with tens of thousands of dead. What about those Jordanian and Lebanese children who died? (I am ignoring the Jewish children murdered by Arafat's terror groups before 1993, because you will explain that terror away as being "understandable", just like you do with HAMAS's today). You knew this, but you didn't care about them. You just wanted to feel good about yourself by being in the "progressive" column. Well, just like the dead German children in Dresden and Hamburg were the responsibility of Hitler, and NOT the RAF or USAF, the dead Palestinian children should be on the conciences of those in HAMAS who cynically use them as human shields and who, on their own initiative and at their declaration, announced they were ending the "tahadiya" cease-fire.

MJ, you may be off on this one. The ice/snow storm on Saturday and the Giants-Eagles playoff game at 1 p.m. on Sunday are the most likely proximate causes for low turnout. Surely the Brooklyn Hassids and right-wing Jews from the UES and Long Island would have made a better showing if not for those two events.

I had this precise discussion yesterday. I also wonder the extent to which there is opposition and at least disapproval for this war among American Jews. We will never know; the supporters of every Israel move (no matter how heinous) are organized, well-funded, well-connected and with access to mainstream media to amplify their position. But I think there is a very sizable body of Jews increasingly estranged from Israeli policy. I am sure that the "Death to Israel" signs and sentiments that sometimes arise in anti-Israel protests, keep many Jews away from explicit protest (more say than by the ubiquitous but by now ineffective charge of "self-hating Jewish anti-Semite" coming from the AIPAC-loving crowd.

Jewish communities, in the main, support Israel because they feel somewhat simplistically that it is their duty to so - whether they live in NY, London or Paris. As a generality, thinking Jews and academics are more circumspect and critical and recognize that Israel's bombing and killing of Palestinian women and children is counter-productive to say the least and at the worst will hasten the demise of the Zionist state, as it is now constituted and governed.

The concept of a tiny country on the shores of the Mediterranean, of just 6 million in barely 20,000 M2 having such a grossly disproportionate influence not only over America but also over the EU, is so ludicrous that it would make a good comic film script, were it not so tragic.

Every day, the world's media is full of the actions and utterances of Israeli politicians, and, of course, their remote 24/7 audio transmitting station in AIPAC. All this when the world has hugely serious economic and political problems that do not depend on a few million illegal settlers in Israel or on whether Livni or Barak or some other Likudnik gets into office again.

The international community needs to rethink its priorities urgently. The Israeli conflict certainly needs resolving before more hundreds of innocents civilians are killed and a nuclear war breaks out in the Middle East - but our lives must not be structured and defined by political Zionism.

It's become an article of faith on the left that any use of force by Israel works to the advantage of its enemies. We are told that by invading Lebanon, the Israelis strengthened Hezbollah and Iran. There may be some truth to this. No doubt Hezbollah is much stronger, politically, than it was before the war, but as Israel's northern front remains quiet it seems an open question as to whether that conflict had some salutary effects. Likewise, it is presumed that the Israelis are strengthening Hamas in Gaza, and that like the war in Lebanon, there is no end game for the Israelis which will not leave Hamas able to declare victory and rearm for the next fight. I'm not so sure that's true. We've seen in Iraq that terrorist groups hiding among a civilian population -- even a relatively sympathetic civilian population as was the case with the Mahdi Army in Basra and Sadr City -- can be marginalized through the use of force. Coalition successes in Iraq came on the heels of repeated failures, but lessons were learned and applied on the battlefield. Israel seems to have adapted as well, particularly with regard to playing the expectations game. Just look at the statements of Israeli figures over the past couple of days. Olmert says that "Israel is nearing the goals it set for itself," essentially declaring victory before Hamas has the chance to do the same. Likewise, Israeli officials are hard at work pushing a story that has the Hamas leadership in Gaza desperate for a ceasefire:

Thanks for sharing!

slander! they should sue

Interesting David D brings up Darfur, because I don't see anyone saying "Those stupid casualties brought in on themselves in Darfur." But I certainly here that about casualties in Gaza.

I probably do live in a bubble. During the recent election, I figured out (with a couple of my friends) that (a) none of us knew anybody voting for John McCain and (b) we had no friends who believed in God -- which we all did recognize was kind of amazing considering what's happened in America recently.

But I can't shake the feeling that it does nobody any good to keep equating the Jewish community (which is a pretty loose community if it exists) with Israel. Hell, I even know Israelis who've permanently left Israel who don't believe in God and don't involve themselves in discussions of Israeli politics.

I think it's a human responsibility to care about what's happening in Gaza, and for Americans, whose tax dollars fund the weaponry being used in this war, there's an added responsibilty. But this is mythology that Jews are responsible for what happens in Isreal. A myth that serves no one's best interests.