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Helen Thomas is more than politically savvy enough to know that resigning now and letting Israel's right-wing lobby take credit for forcing the end to her career does far more damage to their cause of Uncriticizable Israel than anything else she could do.

Juan Cole writes clearly what I have frequently said before— the right wing nutjobs with access to military weaponry in both the Israeli (primarily the government) and Palestinian populations consciously try to provoke a cycle of violence that keeps them in power (without having to provide anything that people actually want, like meaningful work and health care and in some cases food and stuff).

To anyone who thinks that killing more and more people, and destroying more and more of people's homes and hospitals and businesses and infrastructure, is any kind of solution – short of total genocide – to rockets and occasional suicide bombing attacks, I have one question:

Have you ever been in a fight?

Even if the guy attacking you weighs over 200 pounds and you weigh 100 pounds, you are going to try to fight back.

Note that, on the other hand, you are much less likely to start or re-start any fight.

"Israel and the Diaspora: A Growing, Difficult Bridge to Gap"
Yes, read that last part of the headline again, and know that's the way it's printed in the magazine. Poor Uriel Heilman has a right to major grievances against his editors.

"A state monopoly on religion in Israel is emerging as a major impedient for Diaspora-Israel relations, the Jewish identity of Israelis, and aliyah," [president of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland, Stephen] Hoffman says.