Long-term liberals and leftists can only be disheartened by the level of vitriol directed against Israel in this blog. When the extremist left uses epithets that even the moderate and progressive Arab States have stopped using, you wonder about the agenda of many of the writers on this blog. Rather than supporting groups like Hamas and Hesbollah, dedicated to destroying every vestige of a people, of a religion, of a nation, we should all be allying ourselves with the progressive minority of Palestinians and Lebanonese who with to live in peace and prosperity with their neighbors.
To judge from a number of writers to this blog, they seem unaware of a number of simple truths. Israel returned Gaza to Palestine,in the hopes that would encourage peace in return. All the world - except Hamas and its funders and enablers understood that. The response from Hamas - use the returned land to continue murderous assaults on civilians in Israel, kidnap citizens for ransom, etc. No good deed goes unpunished.
Similarly, Israel returned every inch of Lebanon in 2000, based upon certain iron-clad UN guarantees regarding disarming Hesbollah. Not only were the promises that Israel depended on not kept, but Iran funded and Syria aided Hezbollah turned Southern Lebanon into a fortress of missles, rockets, gun emplacements, etc. In order not to be one-upped by Hamas at terrorist conventions, they have utilized the same terrorist against civilians that Hamas does. No good deed goes unpounished.
The Paelstinian people had a choice in an election after the death of their corrupt dictator Arafat. They could go the way of peace or vote to exterminate Israel. Alas, for the progressives and feminists in Palestine, they went for war. This is the group celebrated by the infantile leftists ( c.f. Lenin's use of that phrase) on DKos. I don't see the Egyptians or the the Saudi's or the Jordanians or the Danes, for that matter, rooting for Hizbollah. Just the infantile leftists on DKos, together withsyria and iran. Gee,not even Libya!
As a rule, I don't recommend movements or leaders unless I would want to live with my family under them. I certainly wouldn't want my wife or daughter or myself to live under the kind of Islamic fundamentalism that is routinely cheered on this blog. Progressives in Lebanon and Palestine and Egypt and Saudi Arabia are a small minority in their countries. They deserve our support. The supporters of Islamic terrorism and adventurism on this blog do progressives everywhere a disservice.
And, yes, when you don't equally or in greater measure protest blowing up Israeli pizzarias with attendant deaths of children and teenagers, nor protest suicide bombing of Israeli weddings nor protest putting bombs on Israeli buses - then you reveal yourselves for what you truly are. And to yu folks, we say Never Again.