One thing I have always had a real problem with is the lack of any American support for the Palestinians. Usually, there are at least two sides to an issue; with most Americans, you are either For ISRAEL or against ISRAEL. The muslims never seem to be part of the discussion, unless it is to condemn them.

I think that we have a huge tendency in AMerica to shed no tears for Muslim people. It may have to do with policy, with our own imaginations and stereotypes, or even with what we have seen on the news for the last 25 years. We are likely to have the embedded image of shouting, angry and violent mustached men and boys, either throwing rocks at tanks, blowing up cars, or burning the American flag.

9/11 only made this impression worse, and made it an almost patriotic thing to suspect Muslims of planning violent acts.

The sad and unfortunate thing is that Muslims are people too, and we treat them much as whites treated blacks during Jim Crow. Many muslims are peaceful and God-fearing, perhaps moreso than many of us Christians are. They have lived under a different society, face different obstacles, and suffer death and destruction more in silence than we would here in America. Many Jews and Christians believe that they are God's chosen people; but some Arabs could just as easily believe that they are God's FORGOTTEN people.

Many of them simply do not want to westernize; they understandably want the centuries old traditional world (centered around God's law) to continue. For them, anyone who will fight their battles is welcomed, even if it can only be a terrorist. They see the West and Globalization as unfair, and imposed upon them. They feel as the Kiowa and the Sioux once did in this country. That is a cause that I can't help but be just the slightest bit sympathetic with.

We don't identify with them, we do not feel moved. We just feel sickened, and want it all to go away.

Getting justice for 9/11 is very important to me. Terrorism must be stopped, and innocent civilians should not be targets. But if one of the underlying causes of 9/11 was turning a blind eye to the struggles of the muslim world, perhaps we should open our hearts a bit, rather than just seek a taste of revenge with every islamic death on TV.

Israel may be an ally, but the other side should be considered in our hearts and minds too. To think that all muslims hate America, love Osama Bin Laden, are terrorists, and just want to blow things up is just 21st century racism.

I problem I have as a Jew with strong ties to Israel, I hear stuff that Israel never admits in public. I see the dark underside in that country. That does not deter me from still believing in a strong Jewish homeland in Israel.

Is this article what you mean by the dark side? How real is this Israeli apartheid described here. Is it true there are different levels of citizenship as stated? I was shocked to read this. An excerpt:

The apartheid state in question is, of course, Israel.  Its first class citizens are Israeli Jews, the majority of them of European or sometimes American origin.  The second class citizens are Israeli Arabs, who enjoy significant but limited rights under the law including token representation in the Knesset.  The eleventh class citizens are not citizens at all.  They are Palestinians.  One expects to be able to say that Palestinians live in Palestine and are governed by Palestinians, but the truth is something different.  The areas in which Palestinians may inhabit have shrunk nearly every year since the Nakba, their  name for the wave of mass deportations, murders, the dispossession, destruction and exile of whole Arab towns, cities and regions that attended the 1948 founding of the state of Israel.  As the whole world, except for the US public knows, Palestinians have lived under military occupation, without land, without rights, without hope, for nearly sixty years now.