In a democracy, the ultimate responsibility for a nation's actions rests with its citizens. The top rung of government -- the entity with the ultimate power of governance -- is the asserted will of the people. Therefore, in any democracy, it is essential that its citizens be fully and accurately informed.

http://www.ifamericansknew.org/index.html

Great post!

You silly anti-Israel voting block are upsetting people..

I am not anti-Israel.

Am pro-peace.

I am not anti-Israel.

I believe that one can be an ardent supporter of Palestinian independence and a strong critic of Israeli government policy without resorting to antisemitism, or calling for the destruction of Israel. I strongly believe that the long-term security of Israel can only be guaranteed by making peace with the Palestinians, and making every effort to establish an independant, secure and autonomous Palestinian state.

^ Pro-peaceful solution

Ugggh! This one must have slipped by me. I just saw it now.

I am not going to argue that the images in this video have been fabricated because they happen to be real.

Here is the Haaretz article on the beating of the palestinians shown in the video:
<ahref="http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:JFiX7tfrlWEJ:www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/762943.html+soldiers+beating+Palestinian&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1">IDF soldiers suspected of beating Palestinian civilians"

Another article:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3306457,00.html

These soldiers were not acting on orders. They were a couple of thugs. Believe it or not it happens. Not all soldiers in the Israeli army are good people. I've met some real bastards myself.

"Prior to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, no serious movement existed for a Palestinian homeland.

Palestine never existed as a nation-state and has never been ruled by Arabs.

There is no language known as Palestinian. There is no distinct Palestinian culture and there has never been a land governed by Palestinians.

When the kingdom of Jordan ruled Palestine, the "Palestinians" never accused Jordan of "occupying" Palestinian land. Where were the Palestinians when Jordan occupied the entire West Bank, including Jerusalem? Why didn't they make claims of wanting their own state then?

Arabs who live in Israel are treated better and have more political, religious and economic freedoms than most Arab citizens in any of the other 22 Arab states, all of which are varying degrees of police states."

So pray tell, why must the democratic oasis of Israel be compromised and destroyed? To what end?

Could Palestinians be the Middle Eastern counterparts of those in America who blame "Whitey" for all their ills while ignoring the helping hands at the ends of their own arms???

"Arabs who live in Israel are treated better and have more political, religious and economic freedoms than most Arab citizens in any of the other 22 Arab states, all of which are varying degrees of police states."

- What World Server do you play on? Because clearly you don't know anything about the reality of life in Israel.

Sorry to everyone else for repeating this!

In response to QM's ill-informed comments: "Arabs who live in Israel are treated better and have more political, religious and economic freedoms than most Arab citizens in any of the other 22 Arab states, all of which are varying degrees of police states" and the reference to Israel as a "democratic oasis"

It always annoys me when people say that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. Firstly, this is just factually wrong, for example Kuwait is a democracy. Secondly, democracy does not simply mean the rule of the majority. A democracy is also measured by the way the majority treat the minorities - how they protect minority rights.

Israel is well known for treating its Arab population as second class citizens. In fact during the recent invasion of Lebanon, the majority of people killed by Hezbollah rockets in northern Israel were Arabs who were not given access to bomb shelters. Assad Ghanem, senior lecturer in political science at Israel's Haifa University has argued that "This is not a democracy, it is an ethnocracy...We are not full citizens, this country is only for the Jews." Arab Israelis now make up 20 percent of Israel's six million-plus population, but until very recently there was not a single Arab minister (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6254691.stm). The appointment of the first Arab minister is an important step, and one which should be applauded - but the backlash from many areas of the Israeli public shows what a divisive issue this is in Israel.

Formally, Israeli law guarantees equality to Israeli Arabs, but in reality Israeli Arabs experience discrimination in many aspects of life. A report by an Israeli judge (Theodor Or) who wrote 'The Report by the State Commission of Inquiry into the Events of October 2000', stated that:

"The Arab citizens of Israel live in a reality in which they experience discrimination as Arabs. This inequality has been documented in a large number of professional surveys and studies, has been confirmed in court judgments and government resolutions, and has also found expression in reports by the state comptroller and in other official documents. Although the Jewish majority’s awareness of this discrimination is often quite low, it plays a central role in the sensibilities and attitudes of Arab citizens. This discrimination is widely accepted, both within the Arab sector and outside it, and by official assessments, as a chief cause of agitation." Furthermore, the Orr Commission of Inquiry's report stated that the "Government handling of the Arab sector has been primarily neglectful and discriminatory", that the Government "did not show sufficient sensitivity to the needs of the Arab population, and did not take enough action to allocate state resources in an equal manner." As a result, "serious distress prevailed in the Arab sector in various areas. Evidence of distress included poverty, unemployment, a shortage of land, serious problems in the education system, and substantially defective infrastructure.'"

The National Committee for the Heads of the Arab Local Authorities in Israel addressed the unequal treatment of Israeli Arabs in a document produced in December 2006. They argued that: "The Israeli legal system includes a number of core laws that produce and reinforce inequality between the Arabs and the Jews in Israel (de jure) ... The official bias is not restricted to symbols such as the Israeli flag, but also to deeper legal issues concerning all Palestinian Arabs ... [t]he official definition of Israel as a Jewish state created a fortified ideological barrier in the face of obtaining full equality for the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel ... We, the Palestinians in Israel, are an integral part of this place ... Israel has tried over the past decades to disengage us from this place, not through physical transfer but through intellectual emotional transfer. Israel has tried to create a new identity on the basis of 'loyalty to the state' ... The State has not determined a position acceptable to us yet in terms of nurturing our Arab culture."

*promote

Re-promoting this video to the front page as a VideoSift Classic. Originally published on Saturday 27th January 2007 (promotion called by gold star member gwaan)

Every time Israel gives in to demands for peace and land they are yet again subjected to rocket attacks from the "peaceful" palistinian thugs. Don't the rest of you see this or are you blinded by liberal smoke and mirror shows of peace through communism?

I've seen Palestinian rockets and I've seen Israeli soldiers tie a child to the hood of a car as a shield.

Which is the lesser of those two evils, reason?

"I've seen Palestinian rockets and I've seen Israeli soldiers tie a child to the hood of a car as a shield.

Which is the lesser of those two evils, reason?"

And what of the Palestinian sniping and murdering an Israeli infant?

How about the Palestinians cruising around in an empty ambulance for photo ops and pulling the same body out of the same rubble 4 different times for 4 different photographers. I guess that's ok though if it makes Israel look bad. I been to the middle east and dealt with the people there. You keep defending a culture that treats half of it's own citizens as property. Grow up and open your eyes.

*dead

This video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by jonny.