This morning, blogger Yochanan Gordon published an op-ed on the Times of Israel website arguing that Israel should commit genocide against all people living in the Gaza Strip. Suffice it to say, his idea was not received well.

The Times and the Five Towns Jewish Post, which both ran the editorial initially, quickly removed the post and vowed to put better editorial standards in place. (According to Tablet writer Yair Rosenberg, the Times doesn’t edit or moderate their contributors’ blogs at all, meaning anyone can put anything on their site without editorial oversight. Safe to guess that policy is likely to change.)

But Gordon — whose Times profile links to his Twitter handle, @ygordon5t — wasn’t about to back down in the face of criticism:

http://www.mediaite.com/online/the-author-of-that-gaza-genocide-op-ed-is-not-backing-down/

No one is following this guy. He is not an adviser to the cabinet.
Try to post something relevant to the thread next time.

Thank you for your time.

How does that compare to Hamas' charter?

And useful as indicators of how things are going, in the sense that one expects belligerent and gleeful triumphalism when things are going well.

and the other is a lone hot-head who just retracted it.

Hardly comparable.

I never intended to call to harm any people although my words may have conveyed that message.

I wish to express deep regret and beg forgiveness for an article I authored which was posted on 5TJT.com, Times of Israel and was tweeted and shared the world over.

I never intended to call to harm any people although my words may have conveyed that message.

With that said I pray and hope for a quick peaceful end to the hostilities and that all people learn to coexist with each other in creating a better world for us all.

Yochanan Gordon

http://5tjt.com/apology-from-yochanan-gordon/

/ignore list.

So what? Do you support the targeting of civilians by Hamas?
How are terrorists not barbaric?

...

In the West Bank Israel burns and uproots olive trees while building illegal settlements. This "if you play by the rules" narrative is ridiculous.

If anyone dares to object in come the bulldozers, tanks and soldiers.

This post is breaking the new posting rules including the following:

•New threads must be based on a recently-published news item or op-ed piece. They may not be based on editorial cartoons or photographs. Citations and references should include a link to the original source. Exceptions will be allowed if, based on prior approval, the moderators feel a thread is appropriate.

Is there a forum at this site where Democrats are allowed to show support for Israel?

What can and cannot be posted in the General Discussion forum
This discussion thread is pinned and locked. It is closed to new replies.
The Statement of Purpose for the General Discussion forum says this:

Discuss politics, issues, and current events. Posts about Israel/Palestine, religion, guns, showbiz, or sports are restricted in this forum. Conspiracy theories and disruptive meta-discussion are forbidden.

In an effort to provide greater clarity to members posting in this forum -- and to hosts trying to enforce this statement of purpose -- here is a detailed list of examples that should give some idea of where the line is drawn. As much as possible, we have attempted to describe current hosting practices rather than to place greater restrictions on what can be posted.

ISRAEL/PALESTINE

Threads about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict are not permitted under normal circumstances and should be posted in the Israel/Palestine Group.

Open discussion of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict is permitted during very high-profile news events which are heavily covered across all newsmedia.

Hopefully you'll use one of them to support Israel rather than just attack Palestinians, too. Good luck!

And this is the number one reason you don't get Democratic Party reps or candidates linking to DU website.
A site that supports the party.

But according to western racists it's only bad when the brown people do it.

First of all, Israel doesn't allow human shields. That a few rogue soldiers violated policy and broke the law is very different than having a government plan relying on it as an approved tactic.

Beyond that, Israelis and Arabs are on average the same color. This isn't a racial thing.

Israelis are mostly white Europeans. It has everything to do with race.

A solid majority of Israelis are middle eastern, either as native palestinian Arabs, Druze and Jews, or descended from mizrahi immigrants from elsewhere in the ME.

Israel is by far the most diverse state in the region. Obviously racism exists there, and isn't particularly hard to find either. But to assume that the basis of this conflict stems from racism is to admit ignorance of even the basic history.

The others are mostly of recent Middle Eastern origin. And most of these (and some of the Europaeans) look pretty much like Arabs.

If there is such a thing as 'looking like Arabs' anyway! Arabs are defined much more in terms of speaking Arabic as a first language, than anything to do with appearance or colour. I've known one Arab who could have been taken for a Scandinavian by appearance, and several who looked Western Europaean.

And not knowing what's going on in IP at all .

Where do you get your opinions on Israel from because it's clear you have never been there and don't even know the makeup of the population nor the essence of the conflict .

Israelis at certainly NOT mostly white Europeans and this conflict had NOTHING to do with race.

There you have been corrected.

That same racist woman said that the Palestinians didn't really exist.....

Give me a break. That quote hardly implies racism.

She was bigoted against Arabs. Zionism in itself is racist by definition.


If I said blacks or asians "don't love their children" that would be a racist unacceptable statement. I know racism against Arabs is allowed by some liberals for whatever reason, but it's still racism and still abhorrent.

You're one of those "Zionism is racism" types.

May I ask, are all ethnic nations racist by definition, or is it just Zionism?

“Attacks by extremist Israeli settlers against Palestinian residents, property, and places of worship in the West Bank continued and were largely unprosecuted according to UN and NGO sources,” the report read.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/olive-trees-uprooted-in-west-bank-price-tag-attack/



Yep those West Bank residents are really left alone. The amount of lies the supporters of child murdering Israel come up with is unreal.

just who provoked this war and how? The first claim was that Hamas had kidnapped and killed 3 teenagers in the West Bank that was rather debunked. the perps called themselves Hamas apparently perhaps after calling themselves ISIS who did claim responsibility or parties calling themselves ISIS did, then it was the terror tunnels the problem there is that Israel has been very aware of these tunnels for year but hey any port in storm



60+ year ya say do you use Gazans as code for all Palestinians? That would be the only way your claim even begins to make sense



see my first comment



first off Hamas was not elected to run Gaza but if that works for you , but I guess that means vote for who Bush and Olmert wanted you to or else, 3 cheers for democracy



you fail to mention that all 3 schools were actually vacant buildings and mosques don't know about that except Israel has blown up 50 at least during this campaign



logical fallacy how are they human sheilds if they get blown up anyway?



interesting comment and possible ToS violation too as apparently by your own word Israel has influence on our elections



that's just hilarious really it is, look up Operation Brothers Keeper and that's just for starters

The Times of Israel liveblogged events as they unfolded through Friday, the 25th day of Operation Protective Edge. The US and UN announced a 72-hour truce from Friday morning to be followed by negotiations, but the truce quickly collapsed as Hamas carried out an attack in Rafah in which a soldier was kidnapped and two soldiers were killed.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/day-25-us-slams-indefensible-israeli-strike-pa-could-press-war-crimes-charges/#ixzz399YsEWGb

There are two sides to the Gaza/Israel dispute. Israel happens to have a better organized military. That makes Gaza appear to be a victim. But, Gazans do everything they can to tease and annoy their mighty neighbor.

The only answer is peace, but the Palestinians make achieving a peace very difficult. And the extremists in Israel are also not fully under control.

Both sides need to work for peace. It is a tough job, but as soon as peace is possibly in sight, some sector of the Palestinian people moves in to destroy the trust that is necessary for peace.

Fact remains. If one of our neighbors, say Cuba, built tunnels to infiltrate our country and kidnap our citizens or threw rocks or sent rockets into the US, we would retaliate with full military force. Any country would. That is what Israel is doing.

Palestinians need to be patient and negotiate for land, a better standard of living and peace. It is within their reach to achieve all those good things, but they cannot constantly tease Israel with annoying and immature, completely ineffective "attacks." What alternative does Israel have but to attack back?

I have compared the Palestinian attacks to the fleas on the back of a lion. What does the lion do when the fleas bite the lion? The lion swings its tail. That is a part of nature. That is what humans do when constantly subject to tiny attacks.

How else is Israel to respond? I can't see how.

it's own headlines until they came up with a satisfactory tale, mind you this was all between about 4 and 6 am when most Americans are fast asleep

and I would guess according to you Israel can do nothing except kill 1600+ and counting people

"you this was all between about 4 and 6 am when most Americans are fast asleep"

LOL

Another conspiracy theory ?

but reporters on the scene said they saw nothing coming from Palestinians just IDF open up shelling on Rafah

it's on this thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=860233

Do try to keep the unsourced Stadler-and-Waldorf style guffawing at the deaths of thirteen hundred people to GD, please.

1) Gazan's are not Hamas any more than Jews are Israel.

2) "Don't spend 60 plus years targeting Israeli civilians"? - the Palestinians in Gaza have not spent that time targeting civilians, most have been too busy surviving is the refugee camps assigned to them by the Israeli government. Only a very few have been able to fight and those are not the majority.

3) The Gazans (Palestinians in Gaza) did not break the cease fire. A few members of a fragmented terrorist group did that and they were wrong to do so. Punishing all persons in an area for the sins of a few is not a proportionate response.

4) "Don't elect terrorists to run your country"? I agree the Israelis should not have elected members of Lehi to positions of power. Gaza is not a country, the Palestinian authority is not a government and the Israelis refused to talk to the elected Hamas members. If Britain had refused to talk to Sinn Fein there would still be troubles in Northern Ireland.

5) The schools and mosques where rockets were found were not blown up, the rockets were removed. However other schools, hospitals and mosques have been the targets of Israeli air attacks and bombardment on no evidence whatsoever.

6) Don't use human shields - evidence please and not just the unsupported word of the Israeli propaganda machine, unless you mean that every Palestinian in Gaza is a member of Hamas and they are using each other for human shields.

7) Oh, dear me I - have - made - a - hateful - post pointing out how wrong you and all the other foolish mouthpieces are. Oh, and if outside support and pressure have no effect then why did the UK and Sinn Fein finally end the troubles in Northern Ireland?

The West Bank, hmmmm, you didn't hear about the protests on the West Bank 2 or 3 days ago. Israel was very careful to keep reporting of that down to a minimum. As to malls and the like, you mean the ones being built on land seized from the Palestinians in the first place.

Now to Golda Meir - "When the arabs love their children more than they hate us, then we will have peace" Most sane people would read that as a threat to hold children hostage for good behaviour without any attempt by the hostage takers to right the massive wrongs done to the Palestinians by the Israelis.

Israel isn't blameless. They could be doing things "cleaner" in my opinion. They could be better developing precision strike technologies. Use professional trained and maintained special forces to surgically take out the heads of Hamas. They should have come up with a list of where Hamas's people were at. Launched a surprise attack, took out as much of Hamas's people while limiting collateral damage. Packed up, headed home, and started looking for tunnels.

They should ease their restrictions on their civilians so they can arm up and form government regulated militias (to take on possible Hamas incursions). They should be air dropping food and medical supplies. They need to stop their punitive retaliations (because that's what this is becoming, and no the Gazans won't "learn" from this experience, you'll only get more radicals till the whole thing boils over, which granted might be what is wanted by the warhawks, to get Gaza to actually try a stand up fight).

They need to strengthen the Iron Dome, build more bomb shelters and underground passage ways for their populous (Hamas is managing it). All they are doing is playing into the hands of an impotent U.N., impotent NATO, impotent Hamas, and radical Islam. Israel has gotten too totalitarian for my tastes and should be smarter than this. They could be smarter than this. They have been smarter than this.

I'm not saying stop killing Hamas. I'm saying do it smarter, "cleaner", and a hell of a lot better. Otherwise you're helping Hamas's recruitment goals get reached.

Here is a list of websites that contain lists and information about Palestinian terrorist attacks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Terrorist_attacks_attributed_to_Palestinian_militant_groups

It is incredibly long.

I remember many of these events. It's just horrifying how many terrorist attacks, often against completely random individuals or groups of people around the world who may or may not have had any tie to Israel, have been performed by Palestinians. The anger and hunger for vengeance is inexcusable.

The Palestinians have a lot of sympathy on DU, but they have not shown themselves to be capable of selecting a government than can agree to peace terms.

The Israelis have a democracy that includes Palestinians who live in Palestine as voters. But the Israeli voters vote for the right-wing because they are afraid. They cannot trust the Palestinians. If you look at the website I linked to above, you will understand why.

The only answer is peace. But the Palestinians have to stop building tunnels, negotiate peace for land and support from Israel, punish their own militants who violate cease-fires and peace treaties and start acting like a nation instead of like a bunch of pirates.

That is the Israeli point of view. (I am not Jewish or Israeli but I want peace there and I think the Palestinian point of view is more than adequately represented on DU.)

The only way that people in that region can have peace is to keep the peace. If the Palestinians want peace, they have to bargain with Israel for it and then enforce any agreements they reach. Enforcing peace agreements has been difficult for them.

Look at that long list of terrorist acts and then ask yourself what all that violence has gotten for the Palestinians. Nothing. Nada. So why don't they devote themselves to peace and improving their lives? I am puzzled.

Regarding the question you ask in the last sentence.I think that this is at least in part due to the fact that many Palestinians continue to embrace the now mythical concept of the 'Naqba', a generational concept of victimhood which teaches that Palestinians are innocent victims of a great catastrophe and that all Palestinians (including second generation expatriates who have never lived there) have an inherent right to return to their ancestral homes in what is today Israel. The corollary to this, not often publicly articulated but clearly understood nonetheless is that this can only occur when the Zionist occupiers have been cast out and driven into the sea. The myth rapidly comes face to face with the unpleasant reality that, whenever the Palestinians do take up arms against Israel they wind up losing. This in turn creates a serious issue of hurt Pride which is particularly difficult for many Palestinians to overcome. In response, they turn to leaders who promise violent removal of Israelis from the Sea to the River perhaps believing that better a temporary sense of self-worth than the agonizing realization that the long dreamed of 'Return' probably isn't going to happen any time soon.

And yet, living in Los Angeles, I have friends who are Jewish and friends who are Muslim. I love all of them.

Without casting aspersions on Muslims or Christians, I have to say that I am amazed at the depth and dedication within the Jewish community to give and support charitable projects that support people of all religions.

Giving, generosity and sharing based on my experience with my friends, is a part of the Jewish belief and culture just as it is of the Muslim and Christian cultures.

That is why I feel we can trust that if the Palestinians help to work toward lasting peace, they will achieve many of their dreams of living lives of dignity.

As I have often said in posts, my husband and I lived in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France in the 1960s. That area was fought over for 100 years. The Germans and French fought bitterly there. After WWII it ended up as an area in which people who speak German and people who speak French, people who eat coq au vin and people who eat sauekraut and sausages all live together in peace. I believe it is still the home of the European Parliament.

So I am optimistic that the situation in Palestine and Israel can end peacefully with prosperity for all who live in the area. But the Palestsinians have to demonstrate that they can control their extremists. They have never done that.

I will repeat what I have posted often in the past few days.

There are usually three ways to end war.
1) a negotiated peace between partners who have decided to work together to end the violence. This often involves voluntary regime change by one or both of the parties. Doesn't happen very often.

2) a stalemate. The ending of this conflict is often temporary, but there can be a negotiation. In this case, nobody wins, and both sides have to deal with that fact. Violations of the peace of cease-fire or agreement that ends the conflict have to be respected.

3. one side conquers the other. Israel could do that in Gaza. The Palestinians are close to being complete conquered. It doesn't mean everybody dies, but a negotiated peace means that the conqueror decides on the fate of those conquered.

Actually, there is a fourth possibility, but it almost never happens. The Mongolians just turned around and went home after a couple of their wars. One case was in Hungary where they had conquered all the feeding grounds for their horses and apparently when they realized they could not find fairly flat land and grass for their horses if they continued to drive West, they stopped their invasion.

Anyway, I am praying for peace. I am praying that the leaders on both sides be given the wisdom to negotiate a peace and to enforce that peace even against their own people.

Children don't just die in war. Those who survive a war live with the scars of trauma the rest of their lives. No child deserves that fate. No parent has the right to impose that fate on their child just for an idea that is most likely a fantasy in the first place.

Give Israel an inch and they bulldoze your home and burn your olive trees.

How about Israelis, Americans, Brits, Libyans, Russians, Sudanese, Congolese, etc. etc. trying to avoid getting into wars? It would make the world a much better place.

Only the Gazans are responsible for the conflict and the Israelis bear NO responsibility? (And I would also object to blaming solely the Israelis; and indeed have frequently expressed such objections.)

'"When the arabs love their children more than they hate us, then we will have peace."'

This saying (attributed but so far as I know without proof to Golda Meir) has always offended me. Even if I thought that the Arabs were 100% at fault in the Middle Eastern conflicts, it still wouldn't justify demonizing them as unnatural people who don't love their children. Almost all humans love their children. Sadly, humans also often hate and attack people of different ethnic or national groups. The two are not mutually contradictory.