This invites the question of what Israel is going to do about its growing Muslim minority & the lives of the millions of Muslims in the occupied lands it controls. How can it be a “Jewish state for a Jewish people” as the Muslim minority grows towards parity over the coming decades?

Many see the dangers of a “South Africa” solution with Muslims (even ones who are now Israeli citizens) herded into “Bantustans” to provide cheap industry for Israeli industry.

Would there not be a certain irony if Israel became a fascist state?

Your first paragraph about the story was an attempt to dismiss it by linking it to Jew-haters. Is this not true? If not, then why bother mentioned that some people will twist to their stories to their own ends? That will happen with any such atrocity.

P.

I must add that the religious veneer in US or Israel is negligible compared to the influence of religion in any Muslim country – including the ostensibly secular ones like Turkey or Tunisia.

That is true. Not all persons wearing a scull cap are extreme.

But it does occasionally raise its ugly head, often to the detriment of Israel’s reputation outside of Israel..

I presume Norman Geras and Christopher Hitchens are now among these “Jew-haters”.

What a stupid comment. I was referring to a variety of Jihadist supporting sites, as well as neo-Nazi sites (such as those of Hal Turner and David Duke), which are using this story to ‘prove’ their idea that Jews hate Gentiles and are conspiring against them.

Nobody here lacks concerns that some IDF soldiers may have committed war crimes in Gaza during Cast Lead or that there may be rabbis who are indoctrinating troops with religous bile. We’ve merely said that at this point these are allegations that have yet to be proven. Hitchens, who has come to the defence of the likes of Ed Said, Rashid Khalidi and Israel Shahak, cites the source of the Haaretz stories, Dany Zamir, whose credibility is suspect, and some of whose “witnesses” regarding Cast Lead, were only repeating hearsay.

As for Norm Geras — what exactly did he write that gave you any comfort? He said the reports were worrisome and should be investigated, and they are being investigated.

Israeli law and behaviour is primarily secular, with not much more of a religious veneer than (say) UK or US government and policy.

The article, for example, has not shown the typical IDF soldier took rabbinate documents seriously at all.

They fight for their country’s survival, and the surrounding hullabaloo (whether by Haaretz or by the Guardian or by Galloway) is only so much noise intended to advance the left’s increasingly firm yet vile dedication to another Holocaust in the Mideast.

You must never have been an 18 year old. When I was 18, I was firmly convinced I was a communist. Then I did a bit of reading and got out of the house.

P.