Predictable ignorance

" Scott Anderson is right on the money.

It is historical amnesia that predisposes the politically correct to disregard Israel’s right to self-determination. There is a history of Israel and the Jewish people. There is no history of a Palestine (except as a British mandate following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire) or a Palestinian people. Jerusalem’s Grand Mufti staged pogroms against Jews prior to the creation of the modern Israeli state; he also spent much of WWII as Hitler’s guest promoting the Final Solution. The Jews who staged uprisings, joined partisans and resistance movements and fought the perpetrators of the Holocaust were on the winning side. Historically, that has significance for borders redrawn and nations established in the aftermath of war.

Another aspect of the amnesia is that the so called Palestinian territories were never "Palestinian". Gaza was part of Egypt and the West Bank part of Jordan before 1967. Neither of those two countries want the land back. They are happy to be rid of a cancer in their midst or they would be scraeming to get back those areas. "

" I think Utah would have been a much better place to create the state of Israel. "

" Scott Anderson writes: "Israel has no designs on her neighbors’ territory."

Really?

I'm not as sure of that as he seems to be, because with a little bit of effort, he can, as I did, Google maps that will show Israel's astonishingly steady (and illegal) encroachment into the West Bank.

But Mr. Anderson is quite correct in writing that "information is the bane of an ideologue."

Possibly, after he views the maps, he might even like to re-consider the cheap, ideological shot he took at Ms. Wortman.

Which was that when she - or anyone - who dares to question any action taken by Israel, whatsoever, is, at once labled as an anti-semite.

He might even be prompted to post an apology here? "

" Perhaps Mr. McGarvey does not remember that the West bank was Jordanian land taken after Jordan attacked Israel.

As far as Ms. Wortman, "if it walks like a duck..." Perhaps also, Mr. McGarvey is not aware of Ms. Wortman's Pro-Palestinian stance and sponsorship of one-sided programs. "

" Fred writes: " I think Utah would have been a much better place to create the state of Israel. "

Very funny, Fred! "

" I've never heard of the Supreme Court referred to as the Supremes. Makes you wonder what Diana Ross has to say about this. "

" As correctly stated by several above, Gaza, Golan, West Bank, AND Sinai were taken in wars in which Israel was not the aggressor, although she was the victor. Defeated aggressors do not get to determine the terms of the ceasefire or treaty, although Hamas and Hezbollah seem ready to accept a "ceasefire" whenever they are losing. Translation, buy time to live to terrorize Israel another day. All it took for Israel to give back the Sinai (more than 50% of her land mass at the time) to Egypt was a peace treaty, a simple peace of paper with a gentleman's agreement. That was all it would take for Gaza and West Bank, were the Palestinians, or at least their leadership, capable of coexisting (popular bumper sticker currently with religious symbols depicting letters - tell that to the Islamofascists) as peaceful neighbors with Israel. They are not.

Jack, Scott Anderson made no cheap shot. The blatantly and perpetually anti-Semitic ideology espoused June Wortman comes at great expense to Israel's security and future. She goes beyond moral equivalence arguments and transcends into moral skewing, current-events revisionism if you will. There is no apology necessary for calling her out on the carpet. Thankfully, her personal voice is feeble, dimwitted, local, and met head-on by those in the know.

I have criticized Israel's leadership plenty when they have backed down and not finished the fight, leaving civilians exposed once again to rockets and suicide bombers. Criticism of the State of Israel and her actions to defend her most precious resource, her children, is anti-Semitism, especially when your far flung and incomplete fantasy, Jack, supplants historical fact with an insidious and sinister agenda. You're entitled to an opinion, not facts, and your opinion means little to nothing when not entrenched in reality.

P.S. You either have no idea what Israel is up against with complete lack of understanding of the nature of their (and our) enemies, even though it's written in the Charters of Hamas, Hezbollah, al Qaeda, etc., for all to see, or you know and don't care, condemning the Jews of Israel to another Holocaust. Ergo, you're an anti-Semite, and idiot, or both, and you won't get an apology from me either. "