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Dueling protests over Gaza shut streets, force homeless from accustomed spots on the Common, change nobody's minds

Palestinian supporters in front of Trinity Church

Pro Palestinians and pro Israelis, their ranks for the most part separated by police, spent the early evening screaming at each other as they demanded justice from the other side.

The co-protests started on the steps of the BPL in Copley Square, moved over to Trinity Church, then went up Boylston, Charles and Beacon streets to the steps of the State House and then down onto the Common. There were far more people supporting the Palestinians than Israel.

After the protests dispersed, some pro-Palestinian protesters stuck around and lay down on Beacon Street, but police declined the chance to make them martyrs and refused to arrest them.

Protest

At the BPL, the pro-Israel forces briefly struck up a chant of "You bombed the Marathon!"

Protest

Throughout the protest, the pro Palestinians struck up chants of "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!" Oops, no room for Israel.

Protest: From River to Sea
Protest: Another Jew

The party at Trinity Church didn't really get underway until the Israel-hating ultra-religious Jews showed up:

Protest: Rebbe

The younger ones sported red-white-and-green scarves and waved Palestinian flags. Later, on the Common, some of the pro Israelis took time away from yelling about Hamas to scream "You're not really Jewish!" at them.

Ad. More photos below.


Protest: For Palestine

Fairly clear message:

Protest: Four-letter word

Cops were no-nonsense in keeping order:

Protest: Cop

Organizers of the pro-Palestinian march had security down pat: Whenever the pro-Israelis seemed ready to get in their faces, peacekeepers, many in orange safety vests, linked hands to keep them away:

Protest

They also rushed to any individuals who tried getting into it up close and personal with pro Israelis to pull them away, although that didn't work on the Common when a Moroccan woman with a megaphone and a terrified child got into it with an Israeli (she said her son was terrified because he was afraid of getting bombed, although it seemed like he just might be upset his mother was screaming at some stranger a foot away with a megaphone):

Police shut Beacon Street in advance of the marches:

Protest: Beacon Street

Once the street was filled from sidewalk to sidewalk, some police officers escorted Beacon Hill residents on their evening constitutionals through the crowds.

At the State House, bicycle cops used their bikes as a barrier to keep the pro Israelis back:

Protest: bicycle cops
Protest: Blood on your hands
Protest: Yelling back
Protest: Flag
Neighborhoods: 
Topics: 


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Comments

The citizens of the united States are paying to have little palestinian kids heads blown off. It's time for Isreal to give back the United States the Welfare card we lent you!! There are enough Jewish billionaires in the United States that should financially support Isreals defense system..

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shooting their rockets and storing weapons in schools (see the complaints from the UN relief agency after finding their buildings used that way), hospitals, and mosques, and telling families to purposely put themselves in harms way.

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Hamas and Bibi pretty reprehensible, you've got to face some facts on this one. You can go on about how Hamas is "bombing the hell" out of Israel but the truth is--now and for the most part--the ones dying are Palestinian civilians. Israel has one if the world's most sophisticated defense systems and powerful militaries on earth while the folks in Gaza are essentially trapped and completely powerless. The numbers speak for themselves--when Netanyahu decided to up the ante, literally one Israeli had been killed vs hundreds of Palestinians, mostly civilians--woman and kids. Now what? 25 dead Israeli soldiers and thousands of dead and injured civilians. It's just not justifiable, in the name of "self-defense" or anything else. And you're saying that they're putting civilians in harm's way--where are they supposed to go? There's nowhere safe. They can't leave. There are no bomb shelters. Even the hospitals are getting bombed. And sorry, but when, as a nation, you decide to bomb hospitals because you think there's a chance your enemy may be launching (mostly useless, harmless) rockets from there, then something has gone terribly wrong.

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When you poke the bear, don't be surprised when it mauls your face. This idea that because Israel is more advanced that they shouldn't defend themselves is absurd. Israel has been under attack since its creation. They have every right to remind people not to mess with them

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The creation of a state in land that belonged to Arabs, by people who weren't Arabs...Can't figure out why they'd be upset with that...

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"Even the hospitals are getting bombed. And sorry, but when, as a nation, you decide to bomb hospitals because you think there's a chance your enemy may be launching (mostly useless, harmless) rockets from there, then something has gone terribly wrong."

Well, stop launching useless, harmless rockets from civilian population centers. But then again, Hamas needs martyrs.

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Yep. Great international PR move for Israel. Taking out the kids on the beach in front of a raft of top international reporters...ya huh. Super smart way to win friends.

Look. When it comes to rockets, where would you prefer they launch them from? Their military bases? Their aircraft carriers? They have none. These rockets literally have landed on virtually nothing aside from open ground, have killed ONE person and have been effectively stopped by the Iron Dome defense system. Whereas the rockets and bombs coming from Israel have killed hundreds of people who are helpless to flee. This is like a caged housecat fighting a tiger. No matter how the cat is clawing and spitting, it would behoove the tiger to show some restraint and not just smash the cage.

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I'd prefer that Hamas didn't launch rockets.

What legitimate purpose is there for firing rockets indiscriminately into civilian areas in Israel?

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What kind of parents let their kids run out onto a beach in the middle of an air attack?!

Just goes to show you how much the Palestinians care about their kids vs. their need to be perceived as martyrs.

Israeli parents, by contrast, who have only 15 seconds to get themselves sheltered during an attack would never let their kids run along a beach under threat of imminent danger.

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are, I dunno, some of the 500 dead?

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It wasn't the middle of an air attack, you daft idiot. The beach was NOT in any kind of battle zone--the reporters had been kicking a ball around with the kids only minutes earlier. No one has come up with any reasonable explanation why these kids who were plainly visible as CHILDREN not militants, terrorists, enemy combatants, etc. were blown to smithereens. But hey--don't let facts get in the ways of your psychotic racist rant.

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...blown to bits when they went up to the roof of their house to feed their pigeons (also no ongoing attack when they went up).

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Israel is losing the moral high ground fast when it's roof knocking and blowing up apartment complexes because one unit might belong to a Hamas leader. Hell, from the independent reporting coming out of Gaza, it seems like anyone with a distant cousin is being made an example of. Severn degrees of Kevin Bacon isn't kosher in war.

That's terrorism. And Israel is no more right than Hamas there.

It be like someone bombing the neighborhood Remy Sr lives in to make a point just because he has a shit bag son.

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are instead buying Democrat and Republican politicians to send tax dollars from all Americans to fund killing of hundreds of children by Israelis, directly with bombs or indirectly with poverty and isolation of Gaza. The US is about the only friend in the world Israel has, thanks to these Jewish billionaires making political donations.

Side question: Where is Jimmy Carter? He had previously been outspoken in favor of freedom for Palestine, and finally just made a statement..

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Just learn to spell Israel.

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This whole Clusterfuck is about as compelling an argument for Atheism as there is today (among many, many others).

People are fighting over a strip of desert because they lay claim to it as a holy land because they read it in a made up book.

All that aside, naiively suggesting that either side is 100% right is absurd. However, Hamas is more to blame because of their callous disregard for human life in general, whether it's that of their own civilians or that of Israelis.

For the pro-Palestinian "activists" yelling about how the casualty numbers are so lopsided, point the finger at Hamas for putting their citizens at risk and deploying capital to everything else other than their citizens.

Israel shares the blame as well - forcing people out of homes for the purposes of expanding Jewish settlement on the basis of religious right to the land is idiotic and shameful. However, until Palestinians disavow terrorist organizations as their choice of government, they will live with the consequences.

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They get to have a small taste of what its like to not be able to easily travel in and out of a territory/prison camp.

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i feel like Jews have had their "taste" of prison camps. FOOL!

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Then they would have a bit more compassion for the people of Gaza and Palestine in general, now wouldn't they?

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Israel sends aid packages daily, all while rockets are headed in their direction. They leaflet the areas that they intend to attack.

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Do they get more than 45 seconds between when the leaflets hit the ground and the bombs start dropping? Or is this more like the "knock on the roof" in paperback edition?

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... white phosphorus is so convenient.

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If these two groups got on at the same stop and got on the same train there would have been a riot.

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If these two groups got on at the same stop and got on the same train there would have been a riot.

Unlikely. One side would probably settle for the Green Line, the other is having no part of it.

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Quick correction/tidbit: Neturei Karta isn't hassidiche. They're mostly Hungarian and Litvische misnagdim who wouldn't piss on a Lubavitcher if his Borsalino was on fire.

Not everyone who wears the garb has the same hashkafa.

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Thanks.

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...you should have known that. Look, I'm not Jewish, I just think the situation is a friggin train wreck. Hamas, for all you want to say about them, wants to push Israel into the sea. They are a violent terrorist organization. Thousands of missiles, if they could aim them, goodbye Iron Dome.

A long read, so maybe too long for a bumper sticker, but full of information:

http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/israel/articles/20140720.aspx

" So far Israeli warplanes have hit over 2,500 targets in Gaza and 44 percent of these strikes were against rocket launchers. Hamas has fired over 1,400 rockets at Israel so far, and would have fired more if Israeli bombing and artillery had not destroyed over a thousand rockets on the ground. Over 60,000 reservists have been mobilized and thousands of these are now operating inside Gaza.
Over a thousand air strikes were aborted because too many civilians were in the area. "

Hamas is capable of a lot of noise, but if this is an attack on Israel, it's not going according to any rational plan.

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I mean, yes, I knew about Neturei Karta, but not enough to know they weren't just a lunatic-fringe Hasidic group (so now I know they're sui generis lunatic fringe).

For what it's worth, I couldn't tell you the difference between reform and reconstructionist, either.

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Didn't mean to bust your hump about it.

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Money is disbursed.
Protests are dispersed.

Nice coverage.

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Yes, I should know that.

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No comment is safe!

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between cousins arguing about sky gods and real estate went south after someone shot Yitzhak Rabin.

I was thinking about him the other day, looked him up and discovered he was an atheist. I had all I could do to not start bawling right then and there.

A Jewish friend of mine noted,like, years ago.. "Why do they care about Israel..Look ..we got California and New York."

I mainly feel bad for the harmless Arabic bystanders and what's left of Rabin's following.

Here.. let Mr Lydon take it away.

http://youtu.be/C4dwXkTCtd0

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"Real estate went south" - do you mean that literally, because figuratively it's just the opposite. The population in the area is rapidly growing, and both the Israeli's and Palestinians are still popping out babies like crazy. All those people want land. That's what this conflict is all about.

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"I was thinking about him the other day, looked him up and discovered he was an atheist."

Maybe the Middle East could use a good dose of if not atheism, at least a little agnosticism.
Oh, and some calm.

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..real hope for figuring out a solid and eventually amicable future for all parties 'went south' when some superstitious nutjob shot Yitzakh Rabin.

It might come back some day, who knows.

My old Tufts aquaintence, Mouin Rabbani aptly notes that, Gaza, after all, is about the size of metro Glasgow in area. It's not like it's going to be doing any sea push back any time soon.

: ‘The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger.’ He was not speaking metaphorically: it later emerged that the Israeli defence ministry had conducted detailed research on how to translate his vision into reality, and arrived at a figure of 2279 calories per person per day – some 8 per cent less than a previous calculation because the research team had originally neglected to account for ‘culture and experience’ in determining nutritional ‘red lines’.

This wasn’t an academic exercise. After pursuing a policy of enforced integration between 1967 and the late 1980s, Israeli policy shifted towards separation during the 1987-93 uprising, and then fragmentation during the Oslo years. For the Gaza Strip, an area about the size of Greater Glasgow, these changes entailed a gradual severance from the outside world, with the movement of persons and goods into and out of the territory increasingly restricted.

The screws were turned tighter during the 2000-5 uprising, and in 2007 the Gaza Strip was effectively sealed shut. All exports were banned, and just 131 truckloads of foodstuffs and other essential products were permitted entry per day. Israel also strictly controlled which products could and could not be imported. Prohibited items have included A4 paper, chocolate, coriander, crayons, jam, pasta, shampoo, shoes and wheelchairs.

http://interviews.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/18633/israel-mows-the-lawn,

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It's on the Mediterranean. It could be a gold mine. A tourist mec-um, destination?"

If nothing's getting blown up and everyone's making a few dinero, well, that would be good for the Palestinians, right?

So, lose Hamas and import coriander and no rockets.

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Most Muslims don't want -non-muslims visiting their country. Kinda kills a great deal of your market!

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It's just cilantro seed.

And as to the other nonsense.. Muslims blah blah blah..

Except the ones that do. See Egypt, Indonesia and any number of others..Turkey...

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Sick if heating about it.

Also Hama is a terrorist organization, lots of support on UHub for Islamic extremist.

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I am shocked the blog moderator allowed this post to filter through! Again to my theory that only things that sway towards Adam's personal opinion are actually posted.

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a high tolerance level for freedom of speech, even though it only applies to Government freedoms and it's his blog.

So go to whatever anonymous place you hide in and be shocked alone. Oh, Adam apparently went there and took pics. Your opinion is welcome. Cheap shots aren't.

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It would be nice if Adam started filtering out anonymous posts with appalling spelling and grammar, but it's his blog after all.

For my two cents I'm impressed by the fact that I literally get no indication from his post of what "side" he is on. Many of us do prefer to take the facts about this agonizingly complex conflict as they come and not declare that we support one "side" or another unequivocally.

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There are no sides to take on this, both sides are equally wrong as they are right. Whatever misguided perception they (read: both sides) have that leads them to create such chaos, and evil certainly will not be affected by our pandering on a local news blog.

In the wise words of Bob Marely, "Light up the darkness".

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Where is the appalling spelling grammar you speak of Ms. Sally No-last name? We are all anonymous here accept Adam Gaffin....

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Does that read like intelligible, edited prose to you?

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So kill people for how they voted? Next, you'll be calling Democrats or Republicans terrorists!

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A Democratically elected terrorist organisation.

So what you're saying is that the majority of Palestinians support Islamic extremism, otherwise why would they elect a terrorist organisation?

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So we should have never attacked Nazi Germany? Innocent German citizens were killed as a result of how they voted!

Hamas supports ethnic cleansing, and i guess so do you!

From Hama's charter:

"That is because they were rebellious and used to transgress.” Surat Al-Imran (III), verses 109-111 Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors."

Israel has every right to defend itself from these lunatic and their belief that they should kill every Jew in Israel.

Also, im not Jewish. Im just not delusional, nor do i sympathize with radical islam!

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So kill people for how they voted?

Their government has declared war on their neighbors. And by war, I mean calling for the total annihilation of Israel, and has taken actions towards that end. No country would ignore that, and simply hope their shield alone would protect them.

In contrast, I'd like to bring your attention to the PLO-run West Bank, which is currently not lobbing thousands of missiles into Israel, and also isn't being invaded. See, it is possible for Palestinians and Israelis to co-exist.

The Gazans voted for Hamas, and now they have to deal with the consequences. Very unfortunate, very sad, but also very inevitable.

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If civilians are sufficiently responsible for the actions of the government that is elected (typically without a unanimous vote, or even a majority in some cases), that attacks on the civilians are justified, wouldn't that mean that attacks on Israel are also legitimate? And that rationale was expressly endorsed by bin Laden to justify attacks on the US, so aren't you saying that was legitimate too?

I can't say I find your argument convincing against anyone.

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Which Israel is currently taking over with settlements...

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"The only way to make sense of Hamas’ behavior is to recognize that its goal is not to stop the killing but to exploit it." - William Saletan

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The conflict allows the bigots on both sides to cheer on the murder of their respective hated group.

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People who care should move over there.

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You should get a prescription for that myopia

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And I will concede your argument not to care.

I don't like my hard earned tax dollars used to kill people.

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Thank you!

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Palestinian civilians bear the brunt of justified Israeli retaliations because Hamas leadership spends money on arms, missiles, tunnels for contraband and luxury hotel suites in Qatar. Shame on them for subjecting their "citizens" to the horrors of being used as tools of propaganda. Israeli civilians are relatively safe because the government invests in bomb shelters and other protective measures in order to shield the population from terrorist attacks.

Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and the people elected a terrorist organization to rule; here we are nearly a decade later after conflicts in 2006. 2009, 2012 and now again. How sad that the government/terrorist organization entrusted to protect and improve peoples' lives sees its population as a tool for leverage rather than a responsibility.

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That's about the most ignorant, misleading, outright bullshit thing I've ever seen uttered.

Par for the course for the AIPAC side that will say anything to depict the civilians they're blowing to smithereens in a bad light.

The whole situation disgusts me, but what makes me even angrier is that I, as a taxpaying American, am subsidizing the slaughter of innocent children.

Fact: Israel is in violation of UN decree. It has taken over Jerusalem and has built settlements against UN treaties and resolutions.

Seems to me like enough of a reason for US taxpayers to stop buying them guns and bombs...perhaps that is an unpopular opinion...

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That's about the most ignorant, misleading, outright bullshit thing I've ever seen uttered.

How about "Jews back to Birkenau"?

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I'm sorry, is that sentence accusing the Jewish people of murdering people that they absolutely had nothing to do with murdering? Is that preying on a tragedy that happened in the city in which you live in order to foment hatred and bigotry toward Jewish people?

No. It's not. It's certainly a terrible thing to say. But it's not even close to the same thing. To use the Marathon bombings, and in any way equate them with Palestinians in Gaza is disgusting and outrageous. But please, defend these people and show your true colors even more.

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Please show me where I defended the statement, bozo.

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Nice coverage, Adam.

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n/t

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Here's a quote from today's NYT (7/23)......

...Now, this conflict has demonstrated that while Hamas governed over 1.7 million people mired in poverty, its leaders were pouring resources into its military and expanding its ability to fight Israel......

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spoken more truth. Nicely done, Adam.

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Best headline ever... bravo.

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Thank you for showing photos of a protest where both sides are represented equally. Big news media doesn't usually do that and this is the reason I love Universal Hub.

http://visualizingpalestine.org

Its interesting to note that in a society where the media is controlled by a few hands and is very biased, Gaza is winning on social media because civilians are speaking, not super pacs. Its important to do your own research rather than by looking at news headlines. There is continually updated research by the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International that shows the kinds of crimes going on. Additionally, a majority of Israeli people would like a voting ban for new-Jewish people. Suppression goes against the basic rule of democracy.

As most folks know, European Jews escaped persecution and established their own state in their ancestral homeland and have found one way or another to continually build new settlements on Palestinian private property. Because Jerusalem is home to more than one religion, more than one group of people consider it their ancestral homeland.

Israel attempted to expand their state with violent land grabs. Palestinians who have had homes there for hundreds of years defend themselves, sometimes violently, from Israeli human rights violations including water shut-offs. Take a moment to review the poll data provided by the Association for Civil Rights in Israel which documents increasing racism in Israel against non-Jews.

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Well that solves that long-standing foreign crisis. What's next?

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Out West, and plates have been marked down to the bargain price of $25,000 per person!

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In this endless mess? Do people think it's just like watching soccer? And all those blown up kids aren't real?

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Well, God forbid the homeless not be able to sit around shitfaced and/or high on the Common for a couple hours. This is the real tragedy here..

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Adam - truly *awesome* post, you are a treasure.

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I see quite a few here think Israel has every right to bomb the terrorists into the ground, and I definitely agree with that. But doesn't Assad have the same right? Didn't Saddam or Kadaffi? Or is that right only reserved for the friendly regimes, and any terrorists fighting an unfriendly regime are in fact freedom fighters? I mean, look at Ukraine and Syria - same thing, essentially, except the rebels in Ukraine are terrorists and rebels in Syria are honorable freedom fighters.

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So let me get this straight.... You're equating Saddam and Assad's regimes to the government of Israel? Quite a leap my friend.

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