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Politicians know that their status in the public eye and their continued campaign funding are contingent on their unwavering support for Israel.

Educators, too, are being coerced not to criticize Israel. In recent years there have been various campus-watch groups set up by the likes of Lynne Cheney, Joe Lieberman, Daniel Pipes and David Horowitz encouraging college students to challenge or to inform on professors who criticize U.S. foreign policy or Israeli policies. Some activist professors have been harassed and even received death threats.

To stand out as someone seeking objectivity on Mideast issues is to risk becoming a pariah, to be labeled an anti-Semite, a Nazi, or a "self-hating Jew" (if you happen to be Jewish).

Myself, I am an admirer of the Jewish people. Never in the history of humanity has one tiny contingent of people continually risen to the top of society wherever they had been dispersed. I'm not speaking in terms of financial success, but more in terms of intellectual, creative, and humanitarian endeavors.

As a follower of Jesus Christ, I've come to understand that God expected Jews to be a light unto the Gentiles, to set the example. For the Christian people who isolated the Jews into ghettoes, who persecuted them for not converting, and who scapegoated them during political turmoil, there has never been a real atonement. Every one of us has to attempt to understand the damage done to the collective Jewish psyche by the pogroms and the death camps. Will the Jewish people ever feel safe? Under what conditions can Israel lay down its arms?

The facts concerning the birth of Zionism and the history of Israel seem to differ quite a bit from conventional wisdom, from what we as Americans (myself included, until recently) have been conditioned to believe. I've read accounts by a number of American Jews (Noam Chomsky, William Blum, Lenni Brenner, Norman Finkelstein) who give testimony to Zionist aggression and conquest and Arab suffering and dispossession. Israeli commentators like Uri Averny, Neve Gordon, Jeff Halper, and Raul Hilberg attest to the same. The Jewish folks in my inner circle tell me that Israel has a shameful past and is run by fanatics.

Believe me, nobody is whitewashing the Arabs, but these seem to be the facts: The land was deliberately taken by force (and Western complicity); Israel has no intention of allowing a Palestinian state; and Israel (backed by U.S. might) desires to be the Mideast hegemony.

There is obviously great cause for alarm should U.S./Israeli policies continue. Our children will not be safe from growing terrorist threats. Reason must prevail, tempers soothed, feuds ended, atonements made.

We are all God's children. Everyone matters, every life is precious. Nobody wins unless everyone wins. Peace now.

Peter Nichols-Hamilton

Israel attacks UN convoy amid ceasefire

Israeli forces have reportedly opened fire on a UN relief agency convoy in the Gaza Strip during its 3-hour military ceasefire.

UN spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna said Thursday that Israeli soldiers attacked a relief truck even though the United Nations had coordinated the delivery with Tel Aviv and the vehicle was marked with a UN flag and insignia.

"It has resulted tragically in the death of the injury of two others," said the head of the UN relief agency in Gaza, John Ging.

Tel Aviv declared a three-hour lull in its 13-day incursion into Gaza on Thursday to allow humanitarian aid pass into the beleaguered strip.

This comes as Israeli attacks on three UN-run schools has killed at least 43 civilians and injured over 150 others -- most of whom were seeking shelter inside the school to escape the arbitrary Israeli strikes.

The United Nations had reacted in shock to the incident and stepped up calls for an independent inquiry into the attack -- the deadliest since the Israeli offensive in Gaza began Dec. 27

"There must be a serious and independent investigation into the shocking loss of civilian life that took place near the UN school and that has characterized this conflict," said deputy Middle East director for Human Rights Watch, Joe Stork.

"The building was clearly waving a UN flag, there is no safe haven in Gaza. Look at what happened in Jabaliya yesterday," said Chris Gunness the spokesman for the UNWRA, the UN agency running the school.

Tel Aviv tried to justify the incident as an attack on a militant stronghold.

The UN, however, has dismissed the Israeli claims.

Israel waged war on the Gaza Strip on December 27 and began what it claims to be a "long-term" ground offensive on the Palestinian territory last Saturday.

Thus far, the Israeli aggression has killed at least 763 Palestinians and injured over 3,100 others -- a large number of casualties are civilians.

Terrorists -- Racism -- Scum -- in the Israeli

World Protest.

George Galloway | Stop Gaza Massacre protest London Saturday 3 January 2009

Ken Livingstone | Stop Gaza Massacre protest London

John Rees | Stop Gaza Massacre protest London

Gaza in Need - Human Appeal

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