Will this increase or decrease the likelihood of terrorist actions in America, Europe and the rest of the world?

If you were a member of a family murdered in this conflict, would you be seeking revenge?

Should Tzipi Livni and Ehud Olmert, be tried for war crimes if or when this conflict comes to an end?

What will the price of oil be in 4 weeks time?

I'm beginning to feel a tiny bit of pity for the parrot. There's just not much there is there..............

http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery04282009.html

An article written by an Israeli on the rise of fascism in Israel.

Wrong thread

riverton, south australia

Doublespeak (sometimes called doubletalk) is language that deliberately disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., "downsizing" for layoffs), making the truth less unpleasant, without denying its nature. It may also be deployed as intentional ambiguity, or reversal of meaning (for example, naming a state of war "peace"). In such cases, doublespeak disguises the nature of the truth, producing a communication bypass.

Masoud Ganaim, an Israeli Arab Minister of Knesset (MK), representative of the Islamic Movement in Israel, and member of the Knesset Education Committee, promised on Thursday to bring discuss with Israeli Education Minister Gideon Sayer the issue of the school principal in Jaffa who banned students from speaking Arabic in his classrooms.

Arab students make up about half of School Z in Jaffa, where the incident occurred, and the principals justification was that Arabic was indecent. According to Ganaim, there was a double standard present in which Arabican official language of Israelwas banned whereas Russian Israeli students were allowed to speak Russian.

Ganaim said he would ask Sayer to take effective steps against the principal as an example to counter what he said was a growing tide of racism in Israeli schools. Earlier this week, students families demonstrated outside of the school in Jaffa.

On December 24, Ecuador became the fifth Latin American country to recognize 'the Palestine state as free and independent within its borders since 1967.'

An accompanying statement read: "Sadly, the Middle East continues to face wars and violent events that have led to the death of many innocent people, a situation contrary to the humane and pacifist position established by the Ecuadorian Constitution. This recognition is meant to reinforce the valid and legitimate wish of the Palestin(ian) people to have their own free and independent state." Having it is "fundamental to achieve the peaceful co-existence of the nations in the region through dialogue and mediation."

On December 23, Uruguay said it planned to join Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia in granting recognition, though would formerly do so in January 2011.

Israelis are about evenly split in support and opposition to the plan of a group of rabbis who say Jews should avoid selling or renting property to non-Jews, according to a recent survey.

Dozens of senior rabbis recently signed a letter advising Jews not to sell or rent property to non-Jews.

The new survey shows that 44 percent of Israelis are in favor of the letter's call while 48 percent oppose it.

Haystack: "a group of rabbis who say Jews should avoid selling or renting property to non-Jews" So what's your point?

In the interests of evenhandedness, do you know what the penalty is in the West Bank for selling property to Jews?

Did you know that the seller is likely to face the death penalty?

I don't expect a response from Haystack to this post. He'll turn the usual blind eye.

Palestinians sell property to Israelis all the time. There are constant complaints from Palestinians about this. There are no penalties for it. It is happening every day. A law does exist that specifies the death penalty, but it has never been used. In particular Palestinians in Jerusalem often sell their houses to Israelis. It is usually under threat of having them confiscated or demolished.

More bullshit from Haystack. Get your facts straight for once.

Palestinian land laws
BBC report on death sentence

Didn't you read this bit

"Correspondents say the sentence, which has to be approved by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, is not expected to be carried out.

The Palestinian leader has withheld his approval in several similar cases."

In practice nothing is done about it. This is mainly becauses several highly placed Palesinian leaders have been implicated in land deals with Israelis.

Haystack

You condemn a small group of rabbis for suggesting that jews should avoid selling property to non jews - a proposal rejected by the majority of Israelis.

I wonder, now, if your twisted mind and double standards will prevent you from also condemning the Palestinian authorities who have not shown such restraint and have gone so far as to legislate against selling land to Jews and Christians - as an offence where the maximum penalty is death.

You're going to have to make that condemnation - because Double Standards are a sure sign of bigotry.

Of course it is wrong for the Palestian Authority to legislate in that way. Part of the problem was to attempt to stop Israel illegaly settling in the West Bank. Unfortunately it did not work and Israel continues to steal Palestinian land, farms and house. There is also the distinction that the Arabs living in Israel proper are supposed to be equal citizens. This is clearly not the case and it is what makes Israel and apartheid state. In the West Bank you are talking about an occupying force. It would be as if Germany was occupying England during the war. I can easily imagine that a law might be passed prohibiting English citizens from selling to Germans punishable by death.

So, to be clear,

1) you condemn a small group of rabbis for suggesting that Jews shouldn't sell land to arabs, with no further comment.

2) You state that it is wrong for the PA to legislate against selling land to non arabs, but then back-pedal and explain how you are sympathetic to their reasons for doing so.

Double standards. Bigot.

"The 3D Test of Anti-Semitism: Demonization, Double Standards, Delegitimization". You managed all three in one post.

The point is that in Israel Arabs are supposed to be equal as citizens.

In the West Bank Israel is an occupying force and Palesinians selling property would be regarded as collaborators as were French people who aided the enemy. The actual Palestnian Land law specifies the 'selling of land to the enemy'. that is a law that might well be enacted in any country that was being forcibly occupied. The law was introduced when the 1967 was was on and Israel was establishing illegal settlements in captured territory. The law was kept when Israel captuted the West Bank from Jordan. It is not a helpful law and should be abolished, but it is quite understandable that it exists.

The reason why I condemn the Rabbis for suggesting that Isralis do not rent or sell property to Arabs is that the Arabs live there as part of Israel. The West Bank is NOT Israel. Israel is in someone elses territory.

No.

The point is that you continue to apply double standards.

You condemn Israel for a proposal that isn't even policy, yet you refuse to condemn the PA for a mirror image policy which they have made law. Worse still, you are blind to the irony in your seeking to justify the PA law.

People reading this will be laughing at you Haystack. You're making yourself look very foolish. Take a deep breath, have a think, condemn the PA unreservedly for this law, and change your position to a defensible one on this solitary point if you want to be taken even slightly seriously.

In fact I do condemn the PA for almost everything that they do. They are collaborators with Israel and the US. They have no proper basis to exist as they were an interim body and their tenure finished several years ago. As I have said above Palesinians trading with Isralis are collaborators and should be dealt with as such. The death penalty is absurd, but there should be severe penalties. At the end of the day Israel is occupying someone else's land and should expect to be treated in that way. Arabs in israel are no different from French people in England. Israelis in the West Bank are an occupying army.

ROFLMAO

several things .... H (and others) should read the whole article in Telegraph (no doubt elsewhere too) about schools/arabic, jews/palestinians renting, jews/palestinians dating - lots of local jewish condemnation therein ..... i confess that i don't read most posts on here because they are so hopelessly verbose and blinkered and biased, usually starting from faulty/debatable premise, but i don't recollect seeing H mentioning said condemnation - but perhaps i'm wrong and H did indeed post a balanced comment, exceedingly unlikely as that may be.

now for a different question or two ....

exactly who are the palestinians?
i was under the impression that they are just an amorphous bunch of mixed arab tribes, but perhaps i'm wrong

why does H (and others) rabbit on about "the land known (worldwide) as israel" being palestinian land?
as far as i can see, it is just on the basis that this mysterious "they" and their progeny/ancestors have lived there for a couple of centuries - but of course so have many jews for far far longer.

=======

and before H goes off on his usual ranting tangent, my views on israel's aggressive and continued expansion into the west bank and its treatment of the truly indigenous arab population are already well-posted