Ed Harges, June 8 at 3:25 pm,

I think Israel is in a quandary and acting irrationally, because there is a possibility that there was never Extraterritorial Rights paperwork filed where the Palestinians gave up their Extraterritorial Rights and Helen Thomas is right.  There is a good possibility that Israel doesn’t have the right to run the Palestinians off their land and Israel is really trying to kill them all because of it, but killing them all is not the solution, the solution is to deal with the situation and make peace with the Palestinians.

It really angers me that the flotilla attack has disappeared from the front page of
truthdig just as the personal accounts of the passengers, many of them
Americans, are becoming available.

It was not just on the one ship where the 9 were killed, but on the other ships as
well, that passengers were beaten bloddy, tasered, and otherwise subjected to vile
mistreatment by these cowardly IDF thugs.

Look at this, for example, at the Toronto Globe and Mail:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/video/flotilla-activist-says-he-was-beaten-
tasered/article1595773/?cmpid=rss1

Ed Harges, June 8 at 11:18 am,

So long as the Israelis are solely interested in extraterritorial rights of colonization of Palestinian land in the absence of a Palestinian State, there is NO solution to the Palestinian/Israeli problem and it is fitting that it be so.

Mr. Sheer writes:

“This is no longer the Israel of the old Labor Party, which was capable of being rational.
Netanyahu is a zealot, believes in a Greater Israel which will control these areas, and they
believe that the way to peace is to destroy a viable Palestinian society.”

But Mr. Sheer, even the old Israel, the “good” Israel, was by its core principles a tangle of
illogic that was bound to unravel.

It’s true that Israel styled itself from the start as both a Jewish state built on
religious/ethnic privilege and a beacon of human rights and enlightenment. Those twin
principles are mutually contradictory, and only the first is really core to the self-
definition of the state. Consequently, it is the second principle that is being discarded.
Israel must reconstitute itself on wholly different lines in order to be viable.

To do this would not be to “cease to exist”. To be reborn as something better is not
“destruction”. Did South Africa cease to exist when apartheid ended? Were the whites
annihilated in a Holocaust (™ )?

Life for everyone, including Israeli Jews, could go on better than ever after the “death” of
a thing so evil as the present horror called Israel.

What people seem to have difficulty with is not realizing that Israel and Palestine are one and the same, and the Palestinians consider Jerusalem as Holy to their people, also.

Those who pray need to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

I’ve come across a curious investigation, carried out
by some Israeli historian named Schlomo Sand (here’s
his wiki article).
He considered it to be the so-called “deadend of the
national mythologization”.

I’ve come to know about the guy
here

hello. missed the article, as if Palestinians want to be demoted to being Jews. was not the PLO and Arafat instigated, propped, and supported by our CIA? was this not the clever faucet for radical extremist protestors? they organised the loose movement to locate and identify radicals. they never thought they would be intelligent enough to infiltrate our justice system. i am not pretending everything in life is a top down secret conspiracy, but riddle me this: petrodollars have brought American money to the middle east, and Mecca has flourished, and i am rehabilitating from an accident, yet can not ride my bicycle through the streets of Mecca, to admire what petrodollars have bought; because i am Christian. Arafat used to take American dollars from the CIA, while OPEC took American dollars from the consumer. suddenly green America wants to reduce the petrodollar umbilical- some even see the wisdom in eliminating oil consumption entirely, with alternative energy forms; and they fight the propaganda with complimentary solar energy solutions- which will be the decline in middle east incomes; for existing and planned projects. carbon taxes and global warming threaten their viable petrodollar income, so wisely and cowardly and effeminately, progressively they work: to undermine and subvert western economies and religions- so the transition away from oil will be stalled, or failed, or misdirected, or unfunded, or forgotten. so the Palestinians need to have freedom in Jerusalem, why can not i ride my bicycle, as a peaceful Christian, in Mecca? it is OK that they will kill me in Mecca, so it must be OK that they will kill Jews in Israel.

On the raw footage which contained a clip which was
used in the al Jazeera report, there is a shot of a
‘booklet’ of several roughly 5x7, 3-hole, laminated
pages, held together with binder rings, printed with
what appear to be photos and text. It has been
claimed that this was taken from (or dropped by) one
of the Israeli State terrorists during the defense of
the ship.  It is further claimed that this ‘booklet’
contained the names and photographs of ‘activist’
leaders and/or notables the IDF would be pleased to
see silenced if not eliminated.  I have not heard
anything about this in the corporate press (no big
surprise).  I am interested to know who is on that
list, and if it corresponds to those murdered.  Does
anyone have any more info on this?

I must say that I am also terribly ashamed at the US
for its continued support for Israeli war crimes, as
well as this administrations blindness to our own war
crimes of the last 10 years and more.  I am ashamed
at this country for not escorting aid to Palestine
itself. Why must Turkey do it?  The US is certainly
military strong, as it must be, to enforce its own
injustice, and from a moral perspective, Israel, as
the US’s cop on the beat, becomes entitled to any and
every outrage under the flimsiest claim of National
Security and/or Defense as its imperial benefactor. 
The weak do not have the right of defense?  Only the
criminals are allowed the use of deadly force?  I am
again ashamed of my country and its elected corporate
whores for its lack of morality cowardly hiding
behind ‘pragmatism’ and ‘moderation’.  Was there ever
such a thing as the Rule of Law?  Who will enforce
the Geneva Conventions against the empire’s
unauthorized use of force, or for crimes of
collective punishment.  Who will restrain empire when
it spoils (as ever) for a fight?

Hamas, democratically elected, is declared a
terrorist organization by the US establishment, both
Left and Right. The designation is suspect, insofar
as ANY people or nation that resists US corporate
goals are terrorists.  The label means nothing when
used by those blind to the massive terrorism done
under the US flag.  As William Blum said, “A
terrorist is someone who has a bomb, but doesn’t have
an Air Force.” What is clear is that 1) the ships
were bringing aid, not weapons, and that any claim of
Israeli self-defense is therefore illegitimate (as
are most of Israel’s claims of self-defense); 2)
Israel would like nothing better than to be rid of
the Palestinians, and seeks to hasten their leaving
by collective punishment (an outlawed crime of war)
and all manner of restrictions and encroachments,
from its very founding, and has made no secret of it. 

I am again and again reminded by such institutional
cruelty and imperial arrogance of how little humanity
has changed over all the centuries, how petty and
deceitful our leaders are, and I wonder what lessons
are to be learned when a people as victimized as the
Jews have been throughout history, establish a State
as venal and ruthless as Israel, supported by an even
more ruthless and venal United States.  What hope
does humanity have?

brewerstroupe, June 6 at 12:31 am,

I read your Jan. 21, 2010 Breaking News story in the Jerusalem Post about Hamas being willing to recognize the State of Israel as a nation and nullify its charter, which does seem like a huge break to me in the Middle East Wars.  Maybe peace will not be too far away, if Israel will work out a peaceable resolution for the Palestinians, instead of treating them like they have no rights whatsoever, when Israel is also their homeland.

Dear Mr Scheer.
I have been a regular contributor to your Truthdig’s comments page and I thank you for providing that forum.

My question it, why is it that this story has never gained any traction:“Hamas has accepted Israel’s right to exist and would be prepared to nullify its charter”

Mr. Scheer…Just want say many thanks for this latest article & others regarding the Palestinians.

I have noticed that we hardly see any pictures of Palestinian victims with many of the articles on TD & other media.

I know that during last year when Israel unleashed its massive weapons, including white phosphorus, on a mostly unarmed Palestinian population in Gaza, we hardly saw any pictures of victims/tragedy. As you know about 1400 Palestinians were killed in Gaza by Israel’s IDF.

Is it possible to consider this suggestion?

Best wishes & regards.

Scheer nonsense all of it, When it comes to Israel Jews in General Scheer Nonsense, the ship of fools tries to run a legal blockade, and Israel not suppose to inspect, they are at war with Hamas, no recognizing the war, is Scheer nonsense, not recognizing Israel`s right to the blockade in time of war, Scheer nonsense, Suporting Killers HAMAs Scheer nonsense, Siding with Turkey who killed 1.5 million Armenians, and denies it, And that is what folks support the IRANIAN regime that executes gays and Jounalists, The Supreme leader that is who you support, SCHEER NONSENSE I SAY!

If only people would listen.
Kudos to you Mr. Scheer
When will the people of the USA open their eyes and see the injustice our $$$ create; dollars that we do not have!