Meanwhile, Issandr's co-blogger @ arabist.net, Ursula Lindsey, wrote Feb. 16 about how depressing and scary Cairo has become, for The London Review of Books.

 So the Palestinians find themselves between a rock and a hard place. Which is Israel, is it the rock or is it the hard place? You acknowledge Israeli abuses but you seem to be suggesting that the blockade by Israel is justified, or at least should be understood and should not be held against them, and you base that idea on some immoral equivalency with a whacko religiously controlled authoritarian regime which is doing the same thing on Palestine's other border. I disagree. Palestine's only innocent border is with the uncaring sea.

 Who do you see advancing some meme that says  that Israel is blockading Gaza for the simple reason that it is mean and wants to punish the Palestinians there for no reason at all? Is there really anyone with any credibility anywhere saying that?

"I just will continue without apology to turn off folks who lead with false charges of Israeli blockades or genocide or whatever."

 Did you misspeak? What is false about charging Israel with blockading Palestine? And, how do you intend to "turn off" folks who comment on the nature of that blockade if you don’t happen to agree completely with the way they see it? A related question is: How, do you think, should people whom you see as deserving of being "turned off" in fact be "turned off"? And finally, another question: Is it fair, for an American citizen living in the middle of America and who is concerned with the I/P situation and trying to understand it, to give some credence to conclusions/opinions of Israeli Jews who have lived their lives and held respected positions of authority and action right in the middle of that situation as it played out over the years?

“Jewish self-righteousness is taken for granted among ourselves to such an extent that we fail to see what’s right in front of our eyes. It’s simply inconceivable that the ultimate victims, the Jews, can carry out evil deeds. Nevertheless, the state of Israel practices its own, quite violent, form of Apartheid with the native Palestinian population.” Shulamit Aloni, Minister for Education under Yitzhak Rabin, January, 2007.

 “[In 1967] We enthusiastically chose to become a colonial society, ignoring international treaties, expropriating lands, transferring settlers from Israel to the occupied territories, engaging in theft and finding justification for all these activities. Passionately desiring to keep the occupied territories, we developed two judicial systems: one – progressive, liberal – in Israel; and the other – cruel, injurious – in the occupied territories. In effect, we established an apartheid regime in the occupied territories immediately following their capture. That oppressive regime exists to this day.” Michael Ben-Yair, Israel’s attorney general from 1993-96, March, 2002.