<< Assuming that everything you said is true, and it could very well be, why do you feel it denies anyone the right to criticize them when they behave badly?
I don't. I criticize Israel myself when I think they deserve it. But there are people who never say a word about Israel that is not critical. And I think a balanced approach would be to try to see the Israelis' side of things. That's what I try to point out. <<You assume that the only reason anyone could have any complaints or criticisms of Israel is because they hate Israel.>> I hope I don't come across that way. But there are people whose criticism certainly seems to indicate a hatred of Israel. They criticize Israel no matter what it does, they never say a positive word about Israel, and they ignore similar or worse things done by anyone else. They make no attempt to be fair. <<If you follow those lines, that automatically makes anyone who criticizes or complains about any Arab action an Arab hater. How would you like being called that whenever you have anything negative to say about an Arab country? Can't you see that trying to draw the lines in that way is insulting and hateful? Mr. Beck is far from the worst offender, but I've seen such arguments reduce what could have been an actual discussion into a shouting match much too often. >> Well, I never mention anyone else's name precisely to keep things from degenerating into a shouting match. And I have to watch myself carefully to keep from spouting bitter venom about the Arabs and Palestinians that I sometimes feel when my anger gets to be too much (I have an awful temper, which I really have to work very hard to control). Bigotry of any kind is wrong, and that includes me. I support Israel because I am Jewish, because as a historian I have seen what has happened to Jews in the past when they grew too reliant on the kindness of strangers, and because I think Israel as a democratic progressive free state can and should be a model for the developing world. It's a shame, because the Israelis and Palestinians really should be allies against the corrupt and backward Arab states that have oppressed Palestinians and their own people for so long. Something nobody wants to talk about - the Arab countries hate the Palestinians too, fearing them as dangerously overeducated secular radicals that will destabilize the traditionalistic hidebound obsolete Arab societies dominated by corrupt, squalid rulers. What did Marx say, the workers have no national interest, only class interest? Shame it's never been true... Tom Beck "I always knew I'd see the first man on the Moon. I didn't realize I'd also see the last." - Jerry Pournelle
