This is getting wierder and weirder.

CNN ran a short piece this morning about the innovative care given to autism patients IN ISRAEL.

It's being studied by a couple from the US whose grandson is autistic.

Sophia: Do you really think this kind of thinking needs to be countered?

Noga, I think it does. Rational, well-educated people won't believe it but the misinformation about Israel, Jews and "zionists," particularly the latter, which has become a word synonymous with evil, is rampant.

Children are being indoctrinated and it's especially hard to combat when backed up by a religious or patriarchal leadership. Even American university students are getting an earful; respected media outlets like WaPo now garner blog posts reminiscent of the 1930's.

Look at this - attacks on Jews rising world-wide, with a particularly disturbing trend to really serious incidents:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3537786,00.html

Other current articles in ynet reflect Israeli fears that Eretz Israel lives under an existential threat - with survivors of the last Holocaust expressing fears that another is quite possible.

The portrayal of Israel as evil is echoing with rising global attacks on Jews per se. Propaganda like this absolutely constitutes a serious threat - regardless of the source. This is on the loony end of the scale but consider the fact that Libya recently compared Gaza to a WWII era concentration camp - at the UN. This kind of invective is becoming more and more common - words and history are being blurred and distorted.

In the past this has had devastating consequences - as of course you know. So I take this very seriously, especially when national and religious leaders speak in similar terms.

hamas tv or palestenian tv lacks essential money to operate and produce good programes.

thats a reason that this tv is always problem.

about the holocust its i big massacare, but those palestenians dont and should not feel 1% guilt on the holocaust, thats way they talk about the holocaust always and people interpert it diffrently, although palestenians usually denay it or minimiliaze it for reasons I think are clear, not because the feel insensitive or they are a death cult.

good bye

Arabian, with respect please check the history of WWII. There most certainly are connections between events in the Middle East, beginning in the 1920's and 1930's, and the Holocaust.

I will not make many specific statements, just trust that you will study on your own.

Should the living feel guilt for the deeds of the dead? No - but I do believe the national consciousness of ANY people must realize the full scope of its history. Lives were forfeit that could have been saved. War erupted where tolerance would have created miracles. A little bit of compassion might have saved multitudes. There were a few bright lights - read "Among the Righteous" by Satloff - but also - study the dark side, the Nazis and their allies. Study their lives and the lives of their political descendants, and how they continue to affect the Middle East. Ask yourself why the forces of violence and extremism and intolerance so frequently prevail.

In Israel, around the Jewish world, even as Independence Day is celebrated, so too the naqba is remembered. We recognize and respect Arab suffering and seek solutions so we can go forward together. You are part of us. We are linked by blood and history. We should not be at war. But if we simply ignored the naqba, the tragic effects of violence and fear, this could not be seen at all.

Meanwhile, the young people of Israel should bear no guilt for a war that was brought against their nation 60 years ago - yet they are constantly attacked, blamed and vilified for having survived it.

Worse, both Christians and Muslims blame Jews for all manner of supposed crimes - and those of us living today bear the stain of events that supposedly happened 2,000 years ago or more. We are blamed for all kinds of conspiracies - ranging from horrible crimes like 9/11 to making penises disappear in Africa - and now - for the Holocaust itself.

It is dreadful and absurd and libels like this have reduced our population to a handful of people, only a few million among more than 6 billion.

Meanwhile I don't believe there is any excuse for this kind of poisonous blather and I fail to see what Hamas TV's supposed lack of money to create good programs has to do with vicious propaganda intended to harm innocent people and blacken the pages of history. It's also demeaning to the Palestinians and to Arabs as a whole.

Arabian echoes the staple Palestinian argument that they had no responsibility whatsoever for what happened to the Jews. But they did. They bear at least the same responsibility as as every country that ever refused to accept Jews who were looking to get out of Europe.

I said "at least" because there is a strong case to be made that they were not merely indifferent bystanders. They were actively engaged in obstructing Jewish survival. They cannot pretend the innocence of ignorance when they were directly addressed by the Peel Report, in 1937, with a warning of what may befall the Jews.

http://contentious-centrist.blogspot.com/2007/10/peel-commission-report-july-1937-as-one.html

The so-called palestinian thieves are upset that the Jewish owners have returned and reclaimed their property.