Many of the comments posted here reflect a lot of bias and very little knowledge, either about Israel, about the sufferings of its people or about the history of the region.

For example, was there really any necessity for the war against the Jews in the Middle East?

Somehow lost in the claims that "Israel stole the Palestinians' land" is the fact that that Israel was attacked by several Arab states the minute it became a state. The rhetoric was bloodcurdling and threats against all the people of Israel echo to this day.

There have been several wars and countless acts of terrorism since 1948 and before that, the bloodshed predates the First World War.

In fact I don't think there's been a time since the before the Roman Empire that Jews have been secure even in their own homeland. In fact, even before Rome there were many catastrophes, attacks and near total destruction by more powerful neighbors.

Certainly Jews haven't been equals in any sense of the word under either Christianity or Islam.

Most recently of course the Nazis attempted to wipe out European Jewry and Middle Eastern Jews have been fighting for their lives ever since.

On occasion Jews elsewhere have been attacked, even in this hemisphere. There are plenty of blood libels and genocidal threats from state leaders, slanders from theoretically respectable sources, some not only antiIsrael but directly specifically at Jews in general. Many in the Middle East don't even believe the Shoah took place; neonazis and others lament that Hitler didn't finish the job.

Most of you probably don't realize there were direct links too between the Nazis and the war against Israel and other Middle Eastern Jews. An alarming amount of misojudaic bigotry is reflected in the Middle Eastern press, in speeches by leaders and religious figures, in films and television programs. The element of religious incitement against Israel is greatly underestimated and so is the continuing presence of classical European antisemitism, that has seeped into Middle Eastern discourse. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion form the very platforms of Hezbollah and Hamas.

Jews per se, let alone the state of Israel, are represented as sheer evil. "Zionists" are accused of running the world, of being responsible for calamities even including earthquakes and disease.

There is very little in the way of encouragement for the Palestinians to work with Israel and create a nation of their own, very little if any respect let alone warmth directed toward Israel from any Middle Eastern entity. Even President Obama has been unsuccessful in garnering any outreach whatsoever from influential Arab leaders, even the Saudi King. The boycott initiated against the Yishuv in the 1930's continues to this day.

Selling land to Jews is a capital crime in the PA and also in Jordan - which incidentally has begun dispossessing Palestinian Jordanians of their citizenship. In Lebanon Palestinians are kept in ghettos, unable to work at most jobs, acquire citizenship, buy businesses. Rather, Palestinian Arabs, even if settled in other nations often lack citizenship and full rights.

There is endless incitement and endless endorsement of "resistance", which means continuing violence and terror.

Shortly after World War II and the Shoah, pogroms broke out, victimizing Middle Eastern Jews. Ultimately this resulted in war against the new state of Israel.

The West Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem were siezed by Jordan and deliberately cleansed of all its Jewish citizens during Israel's War of Independence.

Before 1967 Jews weren't allowed to worship even at the Western Wall. Jewish holy sites became pissoirs. Jordan annexed these territories. There was no attempt to create a Palestinian Arab state.

Meanwhile, the threats and terrorist attacks and wars against Israel, which so many of you don't seem to see as a nation of human beings, continued unabated until now.

And, for all the Arab refugees of the 1948 war there were at least as many Jews dispossessed and threatened and victimized by waves of pogroms, who ultimately fled the Arab world and finally even Iran where obviously they didn't feel safe under Khomeini's regime. Most went to Israel, some elsewhere - most lost everything - the few remaining Jews - for example those of Yemen - are often under threat - yet who remembers them?

I think the tone in many of the comments linked reflects a real animus toward a state and a people the posters know very little about.

You apparently only see what is going on when violence breaks out, nothing about the causes for it, and there's very little evidence that the humanity of the people involved is perceived at all let alone their history, their stories, how they came to be citizens of Israel in the first place, or why the state came to life again in our time.

Look at all the examples where propaganda is thoughtlessly and even viciously repeated, with no critical thinking and no attempt to understand even the facts about the conflict in general or why there was conflict in Gaza or with Hezbollah or between Israel and the Arabs in the first place.

This includes the casualty figures from the Gaza war, which seem to be inflated in this thread, and consisting only of innocent children.

Do you honestly believe this? There were no fighters involved at all? That was the case during the war with Hezbollah also. The only victims of that contretemps, supposedly, were women and kids. Do you honestly believe this is the truth?

Similarly the body count in Jenin was supposedly in the thousands, this was repeated in the European press, and it turned out be something like 56. Likewise the Lebanese attack against Sabra and Shatilla continues to be blamed on the Israelis. So how about less noise, more thinking - or are you deliberately writing hateful propaganda?

Finally, there's no attempt to accept the fact that guerrilla wars fought against conventional armies - or against other guerrilla groups for that matter - are often fought among civilian populations.

That is part of their value.

Anybody who can't figure out that there is propaganda value in dead civilians needs to read about the Lebanese Civil War, and specifically about the tactics of Yasser Arafat. I'm sure there are many other examples.

In the case of Israel the media have been played like a violin.

This, and the criticisms of rights groups which often gloss over the inhumanity of the terrorists, have actually served to incite more violence and almost guarantee further acts of terror and further reprisals.

Thus, Bernstein's argument. Framing Israel as something it is not, framing her people as pariahs, will do nothing to create a climate in which human rights are fostered. It only helps create more war. It only helps create a bogeyman that prevents the rest of the region from grappling with its own serious internal problems.

Thus, I'm asking this: instead of the ott nasty condemndations of Israel, why not do some serious reading of history?

But more than that, please come up with a solution to thousands of deliberate attacks on a civilian population.

Nothing has worked so far except force and that has bought some peace and quiet and some normalcy, for awhile.

NYT published a piece by Bronner today also, reflecting this fact.

Sadly, if people tried harder just to see each other as human beings the war against Israel would never have started in the first place. But anti-Israel propaganda doesn't help anybody see the Israelis as human beings. It only creates more animus, more hatred and more war.

That being the case and given the clearly stated desire to "liberate" Israel "from the river to the sea" and various threats and countless acts of violence against the now 7 million people of Israel, what exactly do you guys think would work besides armed self defense?

Would you feel better if the Israeli body count were higher?

What do you think the US or France or heaven forbid Russia would do under similar situations? Would they wait for years before retaliating to attacks on their civilians?

What did Britain do when it was attacked by Nazi rockets? Did they drop leaflets, make phone calls to warn of impending attack, run food into the war zone to make sure their enemies didn't go hungry? Or did they send 1000 bomber fleets into the night skies armed with incendiaries, and aim them at German cities?

Put Gaza into the context of other wars, between other peoples, and you'll see it more clearly.

Put Israeli history into context, see the Israeli civilians as human beings whose army is trying to defend them, and you'll see this more clearly.

Try to see how Palestinian civilians are exploited, their lives deliberately put in danger by militants - and you'll see this more clearly.

Try to see how people who refuse to accept the very idea of Israel continue to promote vicious propaganda that results in violence, and you'll see this more clearly.

I hope.