Sepharad,

Thank you so much….
After reading this blog everyday for the past few weeks, i was beginning to think I was insane to be the only one on this site acknowledging the immense bias on this site. Your words have reassured me that I don’t post my comments in vain.

To the other posters-
Let me make it clear, that its not that I have an issue per say with the information and articles published, its that I have a problem with the fact that this website cherry-picks the information to support only thier extreme perspective. I think this site would be more truthful if they didn’t continue to ignore and omit the evidence and arguments which challenge theirs. Democratic discourse is essential to having a free flow of ideas which leads to progress and establishing a common ground among people on both sides of the issue.

Thank you.

Thank you Russian Paul and Ed Harges for your very sophisticated and well-informed opinions.

Paul, you say that all (or even most) of the civillian Palestinian population supports Hamas. If this were true then Hamas would have won the elections by more than the 51% which got them elected.
Secondly, lets say that hypothetically all the Palestinian civillians did in fact share Hamas views and agenda, then it would mean that peace between Israel and Palestine would never ever be possible. why you ask? here’s a little “Hammas 101” for you:

Hamas is a ruthless and perhaps to the western mind irrational terrorist organization. In truth, it is not only Islamist, but also Salafist, meaning that it seeks to return to ways of Mohammed and the first Muslims. It has decided to impose Islamic law in Gaza and to impose punishments such as amputation and public stoning.  The small Christian Arab population in Gaza has been persecuted and in some cases killed. Hamas forces have systematically murdered or kneecapped hundreds of members of the rival Fatah organization.
To Hamas, holy war (jihad) is the supreme value and the suffering of the Palestinians is inconsequential, except to the extent that it might to endanger their rule.

All who perish in Jihad are shuhada (holy martyrs) so one should not mourn their death. Indeed sweets are passed out at the mourning tents, just as sweets are passed out at the news of a successful terrorist attack killing Israelis.  Of course, when Israel attempts to strike at the planners and perpetrators of such attacks, then that is Israeli aggression.  For Hamas there can be no peace until Israel is destroyed.
That is why they only speak of cease fires with Israel and not peace agreements.  As Salafists there can never be peace between a Muslim and Jewish state.  Ceasefires are permitted only in order to allow the Muslims time to gather their strength and to eventually defeat their enemy. This is in the tradition of Hudna al Hudaibiyyah when Mohammed signed a 10 year truce with the tribes of Mecca , only one and a half years later once he had gathered sufficient strength he found a pretext for violating the truce and to conquer Mecca . Anyone who fails to recognize the true nature of Hamas is either stupid or blind, or maybe then again, just hopelessly biased.

Peace Man—

“Disheartened” is mild compared to some of the feelings TruthDiggers evoked in me until I realized that the site is crawling with seemingly-professional Israel-haters. There are, however, a handful of us who believe that Israel has a right to exist, even if we don’t agree with every single policy of the government, and we do make our arguments based on facts. Usually the hardliners ignore these facts, calling them Zionist propaganda, but it’s important to put them out there anyway, because once in awhile someone is open enough to recognize a truth when they see one—such as the link you posted from BBC which, as you say, is heavily biased but not nearly as biased as this site.

I ventured onto the site about a year ago, in search of more substantive progressive/liberal material than Huffington and Daily Kos offered. I’m an American secular Jew and Zionist, a supporter (like my family here and in Israel) of Peace Now and the Amos Oz school of thought. My hope is that Israel will be able to forge economic ties with an independent Palestinian state and thereby improve the situation in the region, maybe a Middle Eastern Union, economically. I see Hamas and other Islamist movements such as Hezbollah as major threats not only to the survival of Israel but also to any possibility for a decent life for the Palestinians. Trust is fragile, fear is strong, and unreasoning hatred absolutely death to any compromise that will lead to a better life for both peoples.

Although it did take me awhile to reconcile myself with the notion that Judea is no longer OK for Jews to claim as part of their motherland, which it is, I’ve long since adapted to the impossibility of holding on to any part of the West Bank despite the considerable security risk of a small country’s exceedingly narrow waist, subject to being cut in half in times of war. The Arabs are not going to take the Arabs of Palestine in, so Israel has to make it possible for them to live in the West Bank and remove most of the Jewish settlers (though the results of returning land in Gaza are not very reassuring).

If Livni hangs onto her lead and is able to form a government. I’ll be greatly relieved. I’d been afraid that Netanyahu would win because of Hamas’ effect on Israelis, and the results reconfirm my confidence that the Israeli people remain brave and pragmatic, this in spite of the amount of vilification in the international press and on so-called progressive forums. (I’m a former civil rights activist, FoI Act advocate and journalist—now a researchr/writer/historian.)

Please hang in there and keep posting on TruthDig. If nothing else, the progressive movement needs to be reminded what the word actually means.

A Plan For Ending The Israel-Palestine Conflict And Simultaneously Protecting The Homeland

“Namely?”

“Pressured by the public the Obama administration demands that the settler-state agree to an immediate cease-fire and to sitting down with Hamas’ leaders for the purpose of figuring things out.”

“Based on?”

“One equals one.”

“Anything else?’

“Liberty and justice for all.”

“Which will bring peace and justice to the Mideast but how will it keep us safe from terrorists?”

“Israel’s USA-supported massacres of Palestinians and Lebanese is what stokes the hatred and violence that underlies the messianic terrorist movements in the Mideast and elsewhere.”

“Fires out, terrorism stops?”

“Exactly?’

“And then what?”

“Peace on earth and goodwill to all living beings, that’s what.”

I don’t know who wrote this post but clearly the person has not done their research…

I find it disheartening that on a website called “Truthdig”, I would find such blatantly biased and subjective coverage of events.

Why are you emphasizing only the criticism the UN has toward Israel? Did you know that the UN halted aid to Gaza because Hamas was caught confiscating the aid twice and giving it only to its supporters?

BBC is known to be heavily biased against Israel (though not quite as bad as this site)but even they covered this story:
://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7875171.stm

Israel certainly has much to be criticized for, but this web-site has no journalistic credibility when it only points fingers on the Israeli faults and refuses to investigate both sides of the conflict.

Given there are wrongs on both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian debacle, it is Israel who has the main carriage of bringing some sort of resolution to the dispute. Unless Israel makes a strong and meaningful attempt to deal with the real repeat real issues of the conflict (and not just the rockets into southern Israel) there will never be any peace. There is a view that Israel does not really want peace. That with peace the Palestinians would gain very little but the Israelis would lose a lot - particularly large amounts of no strings attached funding from the US plus almost unlimited supply of military hardware. If world reaction to the Gaza invasion is any indication of how Israel is viewed by the rest of the world, then ramping up hostilities and threats of dire consequences to Palestinans as outlined by the Right is a recipe for long term disintegration of Israel. Let us hope that common sense will prevail.