Hope-a-dopes...

He quoted an article by Anne Roiphe, an American Jewish liberal, which said that witnessing the popularity of Mr. Lieberman in Israel made her feel "as if my spouse had cheated on me with Mussolini."

She added: "We here in America are waiting as of this writing for a government to emerge in Jerusalem, and most of us keep on hoping that its shape will not preclude the peace process, will not doom a two-state solution, will not destroy the hope that our new president brings to the table."

Are there any liberals out there who can reason and evaluate beyond the level of a punch drunk three year old? This "hope" nonsense goes beyond annoying in that I feel pity and sympathy for those shallow and naïve enough to actually believe that this is a tangible and substantial quality.

Of course, for Israel's critics, including those who firmly support the existence of a Jewish state, the problem is not one of image but of policy. They say that four decades of occupation, the settling of half a million Israeli Jews on land captured in 1967, the economic strangling of Gaza for the past few years and the society's growing indifference toward a Palestinian state are all reasons Israel has lost favor abroad, and that no amount of image buffing will change that.

Israel's critics (such as the International Herald Tribune) which published un-vetted Hamas accounts of the latest skirmish in Gaza including inflated casualty reports etc. Or, are we referring to the anti-Semitic jackasses who haunt the halls of the United Nations? Let's not forget the required clarification when the 1967 War is noted by a media organization. Egypt, Jordan, and Syria amassed tanks and soldiers on the Israeli border and started a war in which they had their lunch handed to them. Israel, correctly, expanded their territory in the process. There are repercussions...you know...when you attack someone and lose.

As far as being indifferent to the Palestinians...I would be far from indifferent, and they wouldn't like it. They should be treated reflective of how they treat others. Form your own conclusions on that comment.