I am sorry to see that you found it necessary to resort to personal attacks, BooMan. Of course, you do not know me at all, so you have no basis for making comments about my level of self-awareness or anything else personal.

From my point of view it looks pretty hypocritical to sit in your nice comfy chair in your nice comfy, warm, safe, secure house and pontificate about morality to people who have had imposed on them for decades conditions and circumstances that you cannot even imagine.

And you are right. I do not respect power. Never have, even as a tiny tot. And I recognize and despise abuse of power. Always have. Even as a tiny tot. You might see that as a problem. I do not.

Your comparison with Gandhi and MLK is neither apt nor fair.

1. They were never subjected to anything close to what the Palestinians have been subjected to for 60-plus years.

2. Each of them came along at just the right point for their methods to be effective. In Gandhi's time the British Empire was fading, its end was only a matter of time. Gandhi might have hastened the end of British colonial rule, but it was nearing its end anyway, and the British were in the process of accepting that. MLK no doubt made a huge contribution to the civil rights movement, but he was also there at a time when there was already a strong impetus in that direction.

3. Both the liberation of India and the civil rights movement in the U.S. (and the end of apartheid in South Africa) involved violent elements that were probably as critical to their trajectories as were the non-violent movements of Gandhi, MLK, and Mandela.

Most people are not even aware of the amount and kinds of non-violent actions that Palestinians have engaged in, often in conjunction with Israelis, and how they have been quickly and quietly, and often brutally squashed and kept invisible. I don't recall ever seeing anything in the MSM about any non-violent actions on the part of anyone in Palestine, let alone how many Palestinians - including no small number of children - who have been killed and maimed while taking part. The only reason I know about it is that I have been deeply involved for decades with Palestinian issues, and kept in touch with groups conducting and reporting on these activities.

When you are dealing with an overwhelmingly powerful party who is absolutely determined to get what they want by any means necessary, and is not ready to relinquish or modify its goals, and particularly when that party also is as good at "perception management" as Israel has been, strict adherence to non-violence is not going to get you anywhere but screwed. The Palestinians found that out during the first decades of the occupation, as Israel quietly gobbled up and colonize their land. Their efforts to use diplomacy, legal means, and to appeal to the various international bodies were worse than useless, and kept their plight invisible.

I know, you will say that their own violence is what has gotten the Palestinians screwed. Ironically (yes, BooMan, I actually do recognize and appreciate irony), that is the only thing that has made them visible enough to even be noticed. Chances are had they never used violence, the land of Israel would extend uninterrupted from the Mediterranean to the River Jordan, and the Palestinians would be in the process of fading to a blip in history.

Please do not interpret any of this as advocacy of violence on my part. It isn't. I would love it if non-violence were a realistic solution. On the other ahnd I cannot condemn equally those who abuse power to violently squash a weaker party, and those who use violence to survive.