Israel deserves to be castigated for what it has done in terms of the settlements. But the people here who choose to target that have never to my knowledge targeted Muslim activities that rational people would see as inhuman/e. Few have said a thing about human rights violations elsewhere in the Middle East because there are no Jews involved. I see them as Jew haters regardless their protestations of innocence, because it is always Israelis being singled out for their attacks. In the parlance, fuck 'em. The only violations they care to talk about are Israeli violations. Yes, there are many of them. There are also innumerable Muslim violations they never mention. Their silence about that speaks loudly.

That is simply unfair, Bruce. I don't see anyone around here singing the praises of undemocratic Arab or Islamic regimes. The fact is that we know about the outrages perpetrated in some of those countries, particularly with regard to treatment of women, gay people and other minorities. So why aren't there more threads about them? Why aren't there more threads about North Korea? Why aren't there more threads about the repression of Catholics by the Church in Africa? There simply isn't the passion to get stuff going, that's all. The reason there are lots of Israel threads is that there is a massive pro-Israel groundswell in the west, fed by pro-Israel lobby groups which also happen to have a firm hand on the tiller of the media. I contend that people in the US in particular, but in other western countries too, do not get anything like both sides of the story (and in my opinion it shows all too clearly). The people here who you're calling Jew-haters are trying to redress the balance. To put the other side. If you still think that Israel is a shining light of civilisation surrounded by a bunch of cut-throat tribal savages, then I'm afraid you're simply not looking past what Fox News or those of similar sentiment tell you. The human rights abuses that go on within the boundaries of Israel are no different to the ones we all condemned when they occurred in South Africa and those to which we look back in shame when they occurred in the deep south. The best land is stolen, families are divided, people are prevented from moving freely around, you are far more likely to be unemployed, etc. etc. Go on, why don't you tell me that the Israeli Arabs are inferior and have brought it all on themselves - and tar yourself with your own brush? We heard all that before in apartheid South Africa, in white Rhodesia and in the southern states before the civil rights movement. And the only people around here who keep mentioning Jews are the suckers who have fallen into the Zionist trap of calling all anti-Israel sentiment anti-Jew sentiment. It is no such thing, Bruce. As an ardent member of the camp you are so quick to denigrate, I can tell you that I would lock up anyone who threatened the existence of Israel, I would lock up anyone who publicly denied the Holocaust and I would lock up anyone preaching true antisemitism (which says that Jews are inferior or have undesirable traits en masse). I also condemn Hamas's rockets targeted at civilians. I have said these things many times, as have many of the other so-called "Jew-haters" you refer to, but I get the distinct impression that the pro-everything-Israel camp are so hoodwinked by their grooming by the media to hear only one side that they occasionally bring the trait over here as well. It's called denial, Bruce.