That is a huge pile of steaming horse shit....
Israel's warcrimes in the 2009 operation 'Cast Lead' were widely documented by various international humanitarian organizations. The entire operation was essentially a war crime, as the fourth most powerful army in the world attacked a couple of million malnourished civilians trapped behind an illegal barrier wall Israel is building, with American money.
Well, actually they attacked Hamas, but killed @ 1400 civilians in the process.
Nine Israelis were killed.
What do those numbers tell you about the nature of the conflict?
Think about it. We may not be talking about a fair fight here. More like a turkey shoot. More like one side with heavy weapons kicking the living shit out of a bunch of mainly unarmed civilians. Real heroes, the IDF. They haven't fought a real war in years, they're mainly used as the front end of Israel's ongoing colonization of the Palestinian territories, where they terrorize and harass the indigenous population and defend the various new encampments of extreme rightwing Jewish settlers. Who are usually European/Asian or American Jews, actively colonizing another people's land and heavily armed themselves. Feel free to look up ongoing persecution of indigenous Palestinians by extremist settlers. There's a lot of material there.
Anyone remember the Mavi Marmara? The IDF at its best: butchering unarmed pacifists from helicopters and speedboats.
People around the world were disgusted by incidents like the repeated use of white phosphorus munitions fired from helicopters into narrow streets packed with fleeing CIVILIANS, a war crime if you follow the Geneva Conventions. People around the world were horrified by reports of hospitals being shelled by IDF tanks - IDF maps distinguish civilian infrastructure from legitimate military targets. There were confirmed reports of IDF troops using Palestinian civilians as human shields during door-to-door operations, and entire families were killed in their homes. I won't bother with footnotes, just hit Wikipedia. The truth is out there. Its just that North Americans have been heavily propagandized by an extremely effective lobby. It always blows me away when I'm over there, listening to people there saying white is black and black is white with such heartfelt conviction. They haven't a fucking clue.
One of the chief aims of the propaganda has been to completely obscure the core truth of Israels' current modus operandi, which is to drive the Palestinians from the shrinking rump of what was supposed to be a viable and contiguous state. Take a look at Israel's shifting borders since it unilaterally willed itself into existence - against the loud objections of the indigenous Arab populations.
That map is worth a thousand words, and reveals the core 'problem' of the Middle East.
No, The hard truth is that Israel, under cover of 'defending itself' from scary towelheaded brownskinned Muslim terrorists who want to 'drive Israel into the sea' is engaged in doing precisely that: driving the Palestinians from their postage stamp of a Bantustan. They've done a good job of convincing you that its the crazy Muslims that surround them that are causing all the violence. But the truth is the violence is the natural product of their ongoing expansion into OTHER PEOPLE'S ALREADY OCCUPIED LANDS. What is the saying: 'Methinks he doth protest too much' - that's Israel whining about Palestinian 'terror'.
There is a clear if unstated policy to so degrade the Palestinian's quality of life and to so disrupt their attempts to run a functional economy that they emigrate. 'Accidentally' killing 13 civilians while dropping a one ton bomb on an apartment building in a crowded city to assassinate one ancient, wheelchair-bound enemy for example - Sheik Yassin I beleive - is entirely OK with the Netanyahu regime.
To conflate Israel with 'Jewishness' is a sophomoric error. Anyone who knows anything about Judaism - and I know very little, though I am part Jew myself - appreciates there are many of that faith including some of the more religous branches that are vehemently opposed to the Israeli state, considering it a blasphemy and an erroneous, literalist interpretation of Jewish scripture. While the majority of the current colonial population are Jewish, historically the land has been shared, usually peacably, among various communities: Arameans, various Christian sects, various Muslim strains, a Jewish minority, etc.
I must say I'm disappointed to see Uncle Buck wading in on the wrong side here: dude, you've been a marvel to behold but this is a serious misstep, a blind spot, if I may in your normally daunting sagacity. You should revisit the issue and address the facts of the matter in a genuinely non-partisan way, and distance yourself from the rabid nonsense peddled across North America - and Europe too, thanks to lingering German guilt. The Israeli state is an affront to the populations of the region, who lived happily with their Jewish brethren for millenia.
A lightbulb may go off in your head, as you suddenly realize WHY Arabs across the middle east are so incensed by the crimes perpetrated by this violent, expansionist, FOREIGN colony that suddenly appeared in its midst a few decades ago. They have a point! Israel's longterm future is dodgy: demography, the fact that the US is a waning power that will one day be unable to run cover for its crimes at the UN or funnel billions of dollars of weapons to it. Sooner or later it won't be the ONLY nuclear armed power in the region. Indeed, that's the only reason its been able to swagger about so confidently up till now. If Iran gets nukes though, Israel loses its status as principal bully and will start having to behave properly and get along with its neighbours, instead of trying to destabilize them and steal their shit.
And finally, comparisons with the Nazis are legit, though I think they're best avoided. Considering much of Israel's founding Jewish population were fresh from the horrors of the camps and Nazi pogroms, its no surprise they should be inordinately concerned with security and defending themselves. Nor is it so strange to find them behaving like their tormentors, its a widely noted phenomenon, that the abused grows up - to become the abuser. The father beats the son, who goes on to beat his own kids - its what they know.