Well they also banned pasta, and honey but apparently there was a hoo haa by Mercy Corps who said you can’t make bombs out of pasta.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008787298_macaroni26.html

craig, as the aid the israeli president said. we are going to put them “on a diet”

Another interesting point is that all those talk about hamas rockets. In June 2008 israel and hamas signed a ceasefire. Up until Nov 2008 when israel broke the ceasefire by raiding Gaza and executing hamas activists, israel concedes that No hamas rockets where fired.

So Israel could have continued the ceasefire but instead choose to execute 9 aid workers on a humanitarian ship

http://www.themediaoasis.com/Hamasrockets.htm

Well, donkeys and newspapers – a very dangerous combination, you know. Can’t be allowed. Jesus rode on a donkey, they say. Nasiruddin Hodja, too. You can think very deeply while riding a donkey.

Isn’t it a little akin to the prohibited lists in former ‘Communist’ countries? Doesn’t it carry the same ludicrous quality? The Warsaw Ghetto, a re-run. German shepherd-dogs.

Musical instruments. Well, there you go, Vronsky and the Jives, the gentleman bassist from Acoustic Butterfly. You are banned.

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/hodja.html

from the comments underneath the article…

“The Economist forgets how easily chickens can be weaponized in this day and age.”

They prohibit fabrics for clothing because they want Gazans to purchase the over priced clothes made in Israel. it is not security but pure blackmail to purchase goods which the rest of the world said NO to.

Does no-one get the message? The US and Israel see no need to justify anything to anyone else. They just want war.

bizarely, chemical fertiliser, something you can actually make weapons out of, has been permitted

got to be careful with those chickens though

Do they have even the most superficial of pretexts for interfering with exports and people leaving the Strip?

Does anyone who matters to them require even the most superficial of pretexts for interfering with exports and people leaving the Strip?

Chickens could also be trained to carry secret messages between bantustans, thus putting dozens of innocent checkpoints at risk of becoming chickpoints.

Well, if you eat too much coriander in hot weather, you know, it ends up coming out in your sweat. Which, if you’re sitting on a bus… So it’s really just a pro-social measure. Yes, that’s it. “Israel bans coriander in Gaza because it loves social interaction in an olfactorily benificent environment,” I hear the Vice-President of the USA intone.

And nutmeg, well, as an acid-head knows…

So they say.

But what about smoking banana-skins…? Clark… Richard Robinson… Vronsky…? Technicolour, come on, Technicolour, you’ve GOT to be an expert on these things, no?

How about haggis? You can get hallal haggis, you know. And of course, veggie haggis, too.

“The Economist forgets how easily chickens can be weaponized in this day and age.”

No laughing matter. Weaponised chicken here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTt-ewgKm5A

maybe they’re anti-semitic chickens

From the comments:

“No coriander. Gazan’s favorite national dishes? Molokhiya (ironically Jew’s Mallow) and Okra which both require lots of dried Coriander as the main spice. Talk about psychological warfare!”

Looks like there is reason behind the madness, after all.

Yes, funny and absurd though it is, if you read both lists bearing in mind that Israel has long had a policy of smashing the West Bank and Gaza economy to pieces, it makes a lunatic and grotesque sense. Raw materials for Gaza’s own economy are denied, while Israeli pre=packaged junk is let in – just enough to stop them dying though. The Israeli govmt calculated the exact calorie requirement by gender and age that Gazans would need in order to just survive and no more (shades of fascism – they keep such a detailed register of every inhabitant). This is also why fishermen have been restricted to a measly strip of sea for years, despite there being no good (military) reason. The calculated cruelty, sadism and desire to punish collectively everybody including 800,000 children is surely taking barbarism to new heights – second world war stories about ghettos should surely ring a bell with decent Israelis. But the bureaucratic tallying of life and death in such minute, utterly faceless, uncaring detail has a repulsive echo of fanatical, repressive regimes of the past.

I live without just about everything on the banned list on the left, except for seeds and nuts. I certainly don’t eat musical instruments except on special occasions.

Looks to me like a cynical attempt to starve them. Yes, allow in fresh and frozen food when they’re living in the stone-age with limited or no means to preserve their food, especially with power cuts. And then ban canned, dried food and livestock.

Bizarre, but no more so than the items we and the US embargoed in the blockade against Iraq during the 90s and which led to the deaths of 500,000 children.

Don’t understand why they’re still banning fishing rods, though. Given that millions of litres of raw sewage have polluted the sea off Gaza since last year’s bombing raids on the treatment plants, it would make sense to let them go fish and get ill from eating their by now very polluted catch. Besides, the IDF is so fond of shooting at those little fishing boats, I’m sure they’d welcome more choice for target practice.

… and haven’t the trolls gone quiet?

“I live without just about everything on the banned list on the left, except for seeds and nuts”

then maybe you could think about living in Gaza for a bit then

you could keep a diary

I think you miss the bigger picture here craig.

Israel is aware of this, and so should you….the A-Team had the biggest following in Gaza and the West Bank.

Now we dont was those pesky people thinking about ingenious ways of making the next WMD out of musical instruments and chickens do we?

maybe there should be a boycott to Israel of similar goods

Madam Miaow – that way they can also be sure that Gazans cannot store food – perfect if you plan to cut off all supplies should you wish to punish them even further at any time in the future. Allows for maximum effect within the shortest possible time.

Is Marmite still on the menu? That was supposed to solve the crisis, if I remember correctly.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/de-bonos-marmite-plan-for-peace-in-middle-yeast-1133338.html

I’ve studied my family tree way back. The first Jewish member was, I suppose one would call him a ‘financial consultant’ to a minor German prince in the 18th century. Did a pretty good job too, for a while, seemingly able to ‘conjure’ money out of thin air. Then it dawned on them that they’ed be safer if they allied themselves with a powerful gentile family with a strong military background, so they ‘converted’ to Christianity and became assimilated. Money and power like two strong hands rubbing together, at least until the Second World War when things really got out of control, and distant branches paid the ultimate price, killed by the same bloody war-machine many of them had become part of and paid for. There is ghastly irony there, which probably means something profound.

Anyway, to see ‘my people’, who aren’t ‘my people’ anymore, as I choose not to have a people, turing Gaza into a gigantic ghetto and punishing an entire people in a fashion that reminds one of the ghettos we escaped from centuries ago, is very painful indeed.

It’s like we’ve learned and remember nothing of real value from our past, and what we have learned and remember are the wrong things. All our suffering hasn’t led us towards understanding and wisdom, but has blinded us to reality, the reality of what really makes one safe and secure. Being feared and hated, doesn’t, in the end, make one safe. It’s like being the fastest gun in the west. Somewhere, someday, there is always someone just that little bit faster.

Craig,

It gets even worse. A year ago, Uri Blau and Yotam Feldman published an expose in Ha’aretz newspaper explaining how that list is made.

The original version in Hebrew is here:

http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/1092125.html

And translated into English:

http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/189-israel-palestine/48016-gaza-bonanza.html

of course, people have been banged up in the UK for possession of less – flour, sugar, black pepper, toothbrushes, fruit…

e.g.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/ricin-the-plot-that-never-was-489582.html

makes you wonder why we in the West spend so much money on ‘defence’ when we can pick up all we need to slaughter thousands along with our baked beans at Tescos

I can only think this is a tricky one and the zionist trolls have had to go back for instructions

“got to be careful with those chickens though”

Chickens are antisemites!

I think the trolls were called away, to deal with the Helen Thomas issue.

After all, they prefer to attack, not defend.

They did make one silly comment here:

“I live without just about everything on the banned list on the left, except for seeds and nuts. I certainly don’t eat musical instruments except on special occasions.

Posted by: Michael Petek at June 7, 2010 9:58 PM

“

Proof that chickens are antisemites:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3291/2669378067_184a0f8210.jpg?v=0

Just realised the list is silent on the matter of guns, rockets and WMD. Are they allowed or am I missing something here?

Fabulous and very revealing article by the brave Ken O’Keefe on what happened on the Marmara. Ken disarmed two of the commandos, as somebody beside him had been shot, or as he calls it, executed.

http://www.counterpunch.com/okeefe06072010.html

‘Cowards with guns’, he calls them, and points out that if they were really terrorists and all the other pathetic smears they could have easily killed the three crying Israeli soldiers they held.

Another point which nobody has raised: why were all the murdered only Turkish, when there were people from 30 countries there? Sheer chance, or perhaps a deliberate policy, which would chime with Israel’s new propaganda campaign against Turkey – they are desperate to delegitimise Turkey for organising a solution to the Iranian nuclear issue. There are also witnesses who say that one of the captured soldiers had a list in Hebrew with photos of the ‘wanted’ men. Don’t forget that this operation was planned for a week, and that Israel admits they had agents involved, presumably on the boats.

Few guns, rockets and WMD are edible, which is what this list is about.

Israel and the USA have such ridiculous quantities of their own guns, rockets and WMD stockpiled already, and I can think of somewhere much better to put them.

Just because Israel and Washington share similar dark deathwishes, why does it follow we in the UK and Europe should be holding hands and rushing towards the same precipice?

Not for me thank you.

The only hope we seem to have is that the Con/LibDem coalition will decide it is too expensive to join in the Third World War Israel and Washington have scheduled.

Time to wake from our slumbers.

Look what the dogs put up of them humiliating a Palestinian woman:

http://www.youtube.com/user/eyalx16#p/a/u/1/pxFlmXbzY3I

Can someone duplicate it before the idiot takes it down

‘I can only think this is a tricky one and the zionist trolls have had to go back for instructions’

Shouldn’t take them long then as they work in a call centre environment based in Washington, D.C.

arsalan at June 7, 2010 11:03 PM

It’s not nice in any sense.

Had a security issue with it.

“There are also witnesses who say that one of the captured soldiers had a list in Hebrew with photos of the ‘wanted’ men”.

Yes. They had lists too of those to spare. There are photos of these lists. It was a well-planned assassination mission.

” It was a well-planned assassination mission.”

I am beginning to think that is the only logical explanation of the events. There was certainly no reason to storm a boat with deadly force in the dead of night, had the object been merely to stop it. Israel of course has form, in Dubai, Gaza, Syria, Lebanon. And it has the motive.

They also ban chocolate and children’s toys. Also banned are A4 paper, notebooks and writing implements which schoolchildren need. Measures like these, which adversely affect the quality of life for children, are to me among the worst aspects of this blockade, which is an immoral collective punishment against a whole population, and should be lifted.

Thanks for that Ken O’Keefe link.

“I am beginning to think that is the only logical explanation of the events. There was certainly no reason to storm a boat with deadly force in the dead of night, had the object been merely to stop it.”

Other boats were boarded without incident.

There were 100s of people on that boat. How would they know what specific individuals would attach the descending IDF soldiers?

Have you seen the video of the IDF soldiers being attacked as they descended? How could the IDF have orchestrated such stupidity on the part of that one single boat?

Read the Ken O”keefe report for yourself. Not that you will take heed of it. Other boats weren’t shot at and boarded in a lunatic way. Who said they shot only those who opposed them – Ken would have been shot in that case. If we saw the whole video we might know why the IDF crybaby soldiers were attacked for shooting first. And if they were the scary terrorists of Israeli legend, they could easily have killed the three frightened boys they captured.

The Zionists are clearly terrified of the prospect of Hamas firing incendiary fruitcakes over the border…

…to join all the incendiary fruitcakes already living in ‘Israel’, of course.

“How would they know what specific individuals would attach the descending IDF soldiers?”

They didn’t. It wasn’t those who were targeted. Read the eye-witness accounts for goodness sake.

Oh I get the musical instrument logic – it’s in case of a trumpet versus wall eventuality.

Hey Loony from ST Louis

“Have you seen the video of the IDF soldiers being attacked as they descended”

Do you read or research anything before you post garbage read this or are you a publiscist for this Israel Fairy tale?.

‘The hijacking of the truth: Film evidence ‘destroyed’http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-hijacking-of-the-truth-film-evidence-destroyed-1992517.html

And while you are at it read about the Lavon Affair you traitor You like American being killed by your Buddies?

Not stated in the Economist link, but reported by many other sources, is that the ‘list’ is subject to constant revision. Something that is permitted this month may not be next month. It is not even all that clear that there is a ‘list’ as such. Items seem to be permitted or disallowed often on a whim.

This sounds like a deliberate tactic to demoralization.

Why was one man responsible for six of the deaths and was subsequently given a medal? A specialist who had carried out orders? Questions that need some answers.

From Shay’s link (10.17pm), it looks like the list varies depending on what types of surplus Israeli producers need to offload.

Arsalan: I’ve managed to grab that video for you in MP4 format. Any suggestions how I could e-mail it to you?

Certain items were nearly prohibited but a clever Mossad agent expressed the view that they could not be construed as ‘sticks of dynamite’ because of size!

Louise – I just read that as well. A whole long tale of corruption and selfserving exports dressed as humanitarian concerns. The needs of the Palestinians are clearly secondary to the needs of Israeli growers and marketeers. Judging from what they report and what they imply, the list is changed according to whoever has the most money for a bribe or who has the most clout/ the best argument for helping the Israeli economy.

Until now, I held onto the hope that while they may only bring in a quarter of what’s needed, the people have at least that much food to eat. This article utterly defeats that hope – most of the things are brought in for sale, for profit – but with such high unemployment and poverty many Gazans are unable to buy at the market.

So, stating that enough calories per person are allowed through so that no one starves, is telling only part of the truth. What good are even those sparsely allocated calories if you don’t have the money to pay for them?

MJ at June 8, 2010 12:59 AM

A technique for privately exchanging e-mails:

Both of you go to http://www.play3dpool.com

Click play pool and register.

You can exchange your registered names publicly before going there and playing each other with chat turned on. The chat between you is private and so you can exchange e-mail addresses.

Hope that helps – it does work.

We’re all Palestinians now…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHy1xpznE48&feature=related

Day by day, it’s becoming clearer and clearer that the only real terrorists are the Israelis and their paymasters in the USA.

These Israelis are animalistic barbarians, as if we didn’t already know.

And they revel in their racism. Look at their blogs. Look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/user/eyalx16#p/a/u/1/pxFlmXbzY3I

Oops.

Now German Jews are sending a flotilla to break the fascist, racist and Israeli terrorist blockade of Gaza.

Suddenly it’s all falling apart for these Zionist terrorists and their fat American paymasters.

http://jewish-ship-to-gaza.jimdo.com/home/home/

That video has been up for a couple of years so there appears to be no hurry in taking it down

the comments, from both sides of this wretched struggle, make for depressing reading

Black art of news management

“IN his latest column for the New Statesman, JOHN PILGER describes the “master illusions” which have formed the basis of black propaganda and provided “false flags” for political chicanery and for wars and atrocities, such as Iraq and the Israeli assault on the Gaza peace flotilla.

How do wars begin? With a “master illusion”, according to Ralph McGehee, one of the CIA’s pioneers in “black propaganda”, known today as “news management”.

In 1983, he described to this writer how the CIA had faked an “incident” that became the “conclusive proof of North Vietnam’s aggression”. This followed a claim, also fake, that North Vietnamese torpedo boats had attacked an American warship in the Gulf of Tonkin in August 1964.

“The CIA,” he said, “loaded up a junk, a North Vietnamese junk, with communist weapons ?” the Agency maintains communist arsenals in the United States and around the world.

They floated this junk off the coast of central Vietnam. Then they shot it up and made it look like a fire-fight had taken place, and they brought in the American Press. Based on this evidence, two Marine landing teams went into Danang and a week after that the American air force began regular bombing of North Vietnam.”

An invasion that took three million lives was under way. The Israelis have played this murderous game since 1948. The massacre of peace activists in international waters on May 31 was “spun” to the Israeli public for most of last week, preparing them for yet more murder by their government, with the unarmed flotilla of humanitarians described as terrorists or dupes of terrorists.

The BBC was so intimidated that it reported the atrocity primarily as a “potential public relations disaster for Israel”, the perspective of the killers, and a disgrace for journalism.”

http://www1.herald.co.zw/inside.aspx?sectid=19775&cat=10

Yvonne Ridley explains why the BBC is now seen as such a heap of crap by so many people, both licence payers and even its own journalists:

“For many, he (Mark Thompson) left an indelible stain on the BBC’s reputation when he refused to broadcast the Palestinian charity appeal in the aftermath of Operation Cast Lead in which more than 1,400 Palestinian civilians, one-third of them children, were killed by Israeli bombs and bullets.

Real and lasting damage, however, was done when, in November 2005, Thompson and his wife Jane Blumberg travelled to Israel for what the Independent on Sunday called “peace talks” with the then “hard-line” Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon. The IoS claimed that, “Thompson… intends to build bridges with the country’s political class”. Never before had any BBC Director-General embarked on such a meeting and references to it are removed continually from Thompson’s biography on Wikipedia, an indication of just how sensitive the whole event remains.”

“Thompson pledged in an email in July 2007 that the BBC would restore its damaged reputation for honesty and accuracy and around the same time he made an undertaking to Gavin Esler on BBC 2′s Newsnight that, “From now on, if it [deceiving the public] happens we will show people the door.”

Obviously someone close to Thompson believes that the best way to rebut his Zionist and pro-Israel allegiances is by erasing from Wikipedia any reference to them which ?” like his meeting with Ariel Sharon ?” lay bare his political bias. Lest anyone is still in doubt, analyse the BBC’s coverage of this latest Israeli atrocity. No amount of whitewash on Wikipedia can hide the facts.”

http://www.counterpunch.org/ridley06072010.html

If Israel wants to use the BBC as its propaganda outlet, as it is so obviously doing, I’d much prefer that the Zionist terrorists pay for it themselves.

Fair enough?

I’m certainly not paying for it anymore.

Hullo Craig,

Have you ever read the talmud mate? It’s worth doing.

http://churchofnobody.blogspot.com/2009/05/dutch-fact-checking-talmud.html

Head-scratchers like this list will be cast in a new light.

Hey. This is good.

Apparently these Israeli criminals are to conduct their own investigation into their criminality.

Well. That’s alright then. Can’t wait to read that.

I was worried for a while that the Israeli terrorists weren’t taking this seriously.

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-06-08/israeli-military-announces-own-examination-of-gaza-flotilla-raid.html

I heard a rumour that the following items for children have also been banned:

Military fatigue uniforms.

Imitation rifles, child-sized.

Toy reproductions of Farfour the Mouse.

The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion picture-book version.

And for adults:

DVDs of the motion pictures Der Ewige Jude and Jud Suss (1940 versions).

can we make sure that when we talk about this particular set of Jewish citizens that we correctly refer to them as Jewish Extremists.

I have a sneaking suspicion that there are more supportive Jews out there who similarly abhor what’s going on in the West Bank and Gaza. Lets not taint the all from the same brush.

Better still if someone could come up with an acronym JE… (Jewish Extremist…, EJ… Extremist Jewish

Watch the dirty filthy Israeli animals in one of their routine terrorist ops.

They didn’t want you to see this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJaPZLNLBu8&feature=related

How can scum like these conduct their own investigation into their criminality?

Has the world gone mad that it allows evil shit like this to murder, slaughter, starve and humiliate with total impunity?

I wonder how closely the list of embargoed goods resembles the UN sanctions regime against Iraq.

You know the cosy old UN that killed a million or so infant Iraqis?

The sanctions regime preceded the cull implemented through occupation,instigated civil war and Negroponte-run assassination campaigns against Iraqi professionals.

Underestimating the evil against which humanity is up against has gone on for far too long.

With engineered economic meltdown and WW3 round the corner we are going to be forming the next queue of chickens for slaughter.

Don’t think you guys are getting it yet.

“I heard a rumour that the following items for children have also been banned:

Military fatigue uniforms.

Imitation rifles, child-sized…”

the Israeli kids, of course, get to play with the real thing…

http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/5165044-israeli-children-sign-bombs-destined-for-lebanon/images

awwwwwww so cute

Notwithstanding all the vituperation lashed down on poor little Israel by comment board contributors here-many seem quite ready to buy into BBC/Israeli propaganda re-the fatality figure for flotilla massacre victims.

As Kawther Salam points out the actual figure is actually 19.The German Parliamentarian, Inge Hoege, told a large Berlin demo Sunday that Israel was witholding the names of the missing 10 victims.

Salam also rports that there is evidence that the Israelis stole passports from the activists.

http://www.kawther/info.wpr

Comment boards at left-gatekeeper sites will link to mainstream corporate or other left-gatekeeper media.

Real independent research is a little frightening for these sources because they are terrified of having their misconceptions and credibility shattered.This is why they are research-averse and generally believe that if they supplement knowledge they have gleaned from the corporate media with the left-gatekeeper sources they know all that it’s necessary to know!

They are only ready for the truth in very small doses.

Because they prefer the world served up for them on a plate and have never sat down and thought for themselves they simply never even start asking the right questions.

Posed over the last week has been the unmissable resemblances between Zionism and Nazism.Exactly this parallel was raised with the Gaza massacre in 2009.

Who started Reform Judaism?

What did the “ZI” in NAZI stand for?

Why were there so many Jews in the Nazi leadership?

Was Hitler a Jew?

Who were the sonderkommandos?

Who was Trebitsch-Lincoln?

Let’s help you with the last question.The last man was a double agent.A former Liberal MP in the British Parliament.It was Trebitsch-Lincoln who, over a few beers naturlich, put the idea into Hitler’s head to unite his party with the National Zionists.

Now why haven’t you heard of Trebitsch-Lincoln?

Why are there no streets named after him in Israel?

Are you ready to start asking the right questions?

I doubt it!

Do it before they start WW3 anyway-if you get time that is!

SAPS!

Waiting for the man with the scissors to stop you discovering what the internet is actually for…..

Yo,Apostate!

Ziofascism ran a post earlier this month on how it was Zionists who actually ran the Nazi concentration camps.

These were the sonderkommando,jawohl?

There’s also a link to Grodzinski’s book In The Shadow of the Holocaust that describes the level of violence brought by Zionists against Jewish DPs post-war who despite all they’d suffered still did not want to go to Palestine.

Moses Hesse started Reform Judaism.

Do I get full marks for doing my homework?

http://ziofascism.net/blog/2010/06/eustace-mullins-nazis-and-the-holocaust/

Shame the nuances get lost. Terrible regime; some killers: all Israelis bcomes ‘dirty filthy animals’; Hitler was a Jew; Jews were responsible for their own holocaust. Really tragic, Apostate/Steelback et al. Do you think all Burmese are military dictators? Do you think all British people are Iraqi killers? Do you know any Jewish people?

Ranaan@8.14 – “dirty filthy Israeli animals”.

Saw the video you posted about; true, awful beyond belief, but your comment above is hysterical and unfocussed. If you said ‘murderous troops’ well that would be accurate. So – dial it back to about 2, okay?

@Apostate – I think I have mentioned before that, if you look for a conspiracy in everything, you might find one.

But, let us put on hold your theories for the time being, whilst I ask these questions. Do you support peace and justice for the Palestinian and Israeli peoples? Are you opposed to racism directed at Palestinian people, at Israeli people, and indeed anyone because of their race? Do you agree that a huge number of people were put to death by the Nazi regime, and that a sizeable proportion of that number were killed for their Jewish background?

There’s no left-gatekeeper questions there that I can make out! No offence, but just making sure you are not motivated by racism.

Freeborn – it would be interesting if the number gets “revised” back to 19, the number originally quoted. If true, this will have to come out eventually.

I strongly disagree with the comments that pop up on these threads sometimes equating all Israelis with the actions of their government.

First, it’s too much like the Israeli state equating all Gazans with terrorists because Hamas won the election. In actual fact, if you do the math – ca 44% allowed to vote, 44% of those chosing Hamas – that means less than one in five of all Gazans voted for Hamas, but all of them are labelled terrorist supporters.

Second, because a sizeable percentage of Israelis are actually Palestinians who took Israeli citizenship, who most definitely do not agree with incidents like last week.

And third, because a great many other Israelis do not agree with their government’s policy either, but they have no voice anymore – not through the press or any other way – which is hardly surprising given the government’s crackdown on dissent, whether it’s expressed in legal form or not.

An astute assessment of this is presented in the following post on the Israeli public.

“Consider the following: About two-thirds of Israelis support the evacuation of most settlements as part of a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Yet at the same time, only 30 percent believe that this is the opinion held by the majority. (For the full polls mentioned in this article and other relevant surveys, please see http://www.geneva-accord.org/mainmenu/polls.)

Thus, a majority that supports the evacuation of most settlements as part of a peace agreement sees itself as a minority, while, perversely, a small but vocal minority that is against the evacuation acts as if it represents the general will.”

http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/05/19/an_israeli_public_lost_in_the_woods

Well said Mae.

Oh how funny – you are all so smart!!

Now if you had any knowledge of the issue you’d understand that Israel’s issue is with the packaging used to bring these items, so that Israel can better check the shipments for smuggling.

May look dumb to you – but hey, whose the dumb one?

And another ‘well said, Mae.’

I’m finding many of the posts on these boards deeply depressing.

How does the Shahada go again?

Flotilla illa Allah.

Michael, that’s hilarious.

Louise, please don’t be depressed about the threads – just continue to write rational ones like you, Jon, Mae, Clark and many others do. They shine through.

Allan Green, your post beautifully illustrated one of the satirical points I’d made earlier. You will be happy to learn that you are now the Vice-President of the United States of America.

A great way to introduce the concept of immigration to kids is to read them childrens books written by Nicole Wilson about her immigration experience.