Dudes got stones.

I have deep suspicions of anyone, like the SF State U student, who refers to Israel as "Palestine-Israel". Also to anyone who refers to "Zionazis", though the Kahanists would seem to come closer than most to fitting that dodgy epithet.

I don't begrudge Mr Kaplan his fifteen minutes of fame. Rachel Corrie will be remembered when he's just a smear on the toilet pan of history. She was no saint, for sure, but I class people like Kaplan who reckon she 'got what was coming to her' as on a par with those who think the 9/11 victims deserved to die. Behold the present generation of American garbage. (And I mean the latter group as well as Kaplan.)

If Mr Kaplan were to vanish into a hole in the ground the next time the San Andreas gets restless, I fancy he would (like the Dixie Chicks' Earl) turn out to be "a missing person nobody missed at all". Until then, well, if he ain't breaking the law, let the nutter drool in peace.

"Dudes got stones."

Or you could say he's missing a few marbles.

"You might expect to see this kind of fury in the eyes of a Hezbollah fighter manning a rocket launcher, or anticipate such zealous talk in the kitchen of a West Bank settler's house. The passion that runs through those partisans also animates Kaplan — it's just manifested on a smaller scale. He, too, has abandoned diplomacy for offensive action; he, too, finds many reasons to seek vengeance."

Note the moral equivalence here. In the view of this writer, apparently, making obnoxious comments through a bullhorn...or simply living in a house on the West Bank...is equivalent to launching rockets intended to murder civilians.

Mr. Kaplan can take all the pics he pleases. Some people like the Leftist types do not like it. Too bad !!

If Rachel Corrie is remembered, it will be as a sorry example of a deluded young woman who died trying to assist terrorists in killing Jews and destroying the lives of Palestinians who, before the return of Arafat, were among the most well-educated and economically successful of all the arabs. Too bad she was neither smart enough nor intellectually honest enough to realize what a crummy legacy she would leave behind.

"Rachel Corrie will be remembered when he's just a smear on the toilet pan of history.

Rachel Corrie will be remembered as the prototypical useful idiot...the kind that defended the Soviet Union while Stalin was murdering Russians En Masse, all the while declaring what a great and humane civilization they were building in Moscow.

Corrie was killed by an israeli bulldozer that was going to destroy a palestinian home (which they do on a regular basis). She tried to prevent it. Why the vitriol towards her?

What did she do that was so bad that you say she is a toilet stain?

That's really bad taste.

You should read some of the quotes from your leaders past. They say some racist stuff, because israel's government is very racist:

"[The Palestinians are] beasts walking on two legs." Menahim Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, "Begin and the Beasts". New Statesman, 25 June 1982.

"When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle." Raphael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces, New York Times, 14 April 1983.

That's one of many... like I said, VERY racist culture.

Every culture has racists, and I am not going to defend those 2 comments. However, Israel as a society is one of the most multicultural on the planet. People of all races, religions, ethnic groups, all treated with more equality than in most of Europe for example, which pays lip service to multiculturalism, but resists letting immigrants blend in. Or than many Middle Eastern countries which have very restrictive immigration rules or ban certain religions.

Israel is most like the US in welcoming all sorts of immigrants and absorbing them well. Just look at photos of IDF soldiers and you can see the rainbow. Did you know Israel and jordan are the only two Middle Eastern countries which offer citizenship to Palestinian Arabs?

About Corrie: She was guarding a home being used as a smuggling tunnel. I don't know if she actually knew this. I don't agree with the sneering at her, it is in bad taste, and it's tragic that she was killed. But I think her cause is misconceived and she was doing a dangerous thing.

Someone did not read the article in question carefully. Strickland clearly states the video of Rachel Corrie's death showed she was not protecting a house but the entrance to a weapons smuggling tunnel...I can't wait to see it.

And it's not just weapons they smuggled through those tunnels, but drugs and women s*x slaves as well. Though the weapons were by far the most remunerative of these trades; which is why the tunnel building trade was closely controlled by only a few families in Gaza.

(The s*x is because otherwise the filter won't let the word through.)

'Corrie' - your vitriol might be better directed if you actually read the comment you're replying to. The person to whom I referred as a "smear on the toilet pan of history' was Mr Kaplan, not Ms. Corrie. The 'he' kind of gives that one away.

The reason for all the anti-Corrie vitriol is that for once a victim of the Israeli policy of collective punishment by demolition of villages wasn't a nameless 'raghead' but a US citizen. And as 9/11 showed, it takes an American victim before most of the US population recognise that a problem exists. (What, you mean there was terrorism before September 2001? In Europe, you say? In Israel, even? Wow.) So now the cat is out of the bag about the collective punishment policy, even in the US. Of course they're cross.

Corrie,

I've read the quotes you mentioned. I've read the rebuttals that they are not true.

Claim + Rebuttal + (no tangible evidence for either) = net zero.

An unsupported claim serves no purpose.
Is there anything you can offer other than propaganda? Any proof?

But you do not need Proof, corrie, right? You must come from a very racist culture. Surely, any culture who has produced at least one person with your level of racism must be absolutely racist in the extreme, every man woman and child, right?

Funny thing. When someone on the pro-terrorist side says something horrible and racist, they usually don't even bother with denials or rebuttals- they are quite proud of it. And yet you think the Israelis racist.

So now, how do you tell if a whole nation is acting out of bigotry? Well, possibly, if the national government actually puts up a highway sign telling drivers that only those belonging to a certain religious cult may proceed along a national highway to a place of cultural/historical significance. Like this:

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Middle_East/Saudi_Arabia/Mintaqat_Makkah/Mecca-1806764/Warnings_or_Dangers-Mecca-BR-1.html

Can you possibly imagine Israel posting "Jews only" on the approach to Jerusalem? You can? I knew YOU could, Corrie, so consider this: Waht you've just imagined is by definition unreal. It's imaginary. It's in your head. The highway sign in Saudi Arabia is quite real.

Ben

Rob,

Here's a good example of the equality you were talking about:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/752768.html

Rob lives in a fantasy world.