1 I do not understand somethings and I hope you can help me. I do not understand the majority of journalists that seem to think Israel is evil and Palestine is the poor underdog who should be championed by the rest of the world. What justification do they have for this way of thinking? Also, I am baffled by a majority of Jews in this country that are voting for Kerry...even after that criminal Arrafat endorsed him? Can you help me with these questions please? More and more these days I just want to cry at the path the world and this country is taking. I just want to cry...

2 The short answer is that a lot of lefties (and most journalists are lefties) look at the living conditions of the Palestinians and feel compassion, without seeing that the situation is being manipulated by Arab states that use "Palestine" (a made-up name for Arabs from real Arab states) as a stick to beat Israel with. The Arabs attempted to subdue Israel by force. They were unsuccessful, so now they use public opinion. And, unfortunately, many on the left see success (Israel, the U.S.) and assume it comes because someone has taken something that rightly belongs to someone else. I'm trying to remember where I read the point that after all these years, and billions of dollars in foreign aid, the Palestinians don't even have medical facilities to treat Arafat; he had to be taken to Paris. The Arab world is, in a lot of cases, underdeveloped because of poor leadership. A tremendous amount of effort goes into destruction and the idolization of death, rather than creative ways to solve problems and generate revenue. Being anti-Capitalist (except, of course, as regards themselves), many American and West European journalists don't see this.

3 ferretbait - look at the casualty numbers on both sides of the conflict. If that's all you look at, it appears that Israel is beating the crap out of the so-called Palestinians. Between 2000 and 2003, about 700 Israelis were killed, and about 2,000 Palestinians were killed. If that's all you see, it's easy to feel sympathy for the Palestinians. But there's more to it than that. (not all of the dead were killed by the other side. Not all of the dead were combatants, etc...) Take a look at the larger story: http://www.ict.org.il/articles/articledet.cfm?articleid=439