there are ways to create peace, lying about the reality is not one of them. blindly supporting the palestinians and their situation is not either. I’m sure there are hardships for them and I’m sure some Israeli soldiers treat them poorly, but that is a sliver of the whole picture. why is the world demonstrating against the so called Israeli occupation and few demonstrate against the palestinian lies and atrocities of their terrorism and even the entire palestinian situation being fabricated as admitted by its originators?

and good for the Israeli government to play into this stupid mess.

again, well done, great reporting on the reality.

is any media covering this properly? Is anyone else also checking these facts? I mean photos or videos of the crossing could be shown. the accompanying photo wonderfully shows a gazan mart is not quite like people would think based on typical reporting.

Whoever travelled the ME knows that a lot of regular cities are no different from what one sees in Gaza, but here a mostly self-inflicted tragedy.

My point being that, yes, some people here in the UK don’t like Jews, for the same illogical reasons that they don’t like gays and/or black and/or Muslims. Every country has its bigots and its hate-mongers, but there presence doesn’t mean that EVERYONE in that country feels the same way. They are a minority!

Judy, NYC: If the scientist was banned because he was Jewish, then yes, that is an anti-Semitic act! If he was banned as part if this stupid row British academia has going with Israel, then it would be a left-wing political act, which almost no one in Britain outside of academia supports! These academics DO NOT represent the majority of British opinion!

As for the 3% figure, yes it did indeed come from the official UK census, carried out every ten years, which it is a legal requirement for everyone to complete accurately.

Stockholm Syndrome? OK, you are right, of course someone living in the New York would be more far more clued-up about everyday life for British Jews than those who actually live here in the UK! Those Jews, including members of your own family, are clearly all deluded, whilst your ‘all seeing eye’ allows you to see the real picture all the way from the other side of the Atlantic. I bow to your superior knowledge and will tell my partner and friends that they are deluding themselves and that they are actually living under some kind of Muslim fascist dictatorship. I’ll also remind the Muslim fascist that they have a Jewish Foreign Secretary (and potential prime minister if certain people in the labour party have their way), just in case they haven’t noticed, I’ll also point out how many more Jewish politicians there are than Muslims, just so they can have them kicked out of parliament too! I’m very sorry to have ever doubted you, you obviously know far more about life in Britain than those who actually live here!

I won’t question your superior knowledge any further, please accept my humble apologies!

Monty: Here, here! You’ve hit the nail on the head. Especially as Lauren Booth has taken up certain causes as much to embarrass Tony Blair as anything else!

She’s a bloody embarrassment, like her dad. I hope she get’s stuck there forever. It was her decision to go. Then it was her decision to stay. Now she is bleating because two other sovereign states won’t let her cross into their territory?

No, let her fester where she is.

Well, that argument hardly holds water. There is a pretty well established theory outt here that Hitler was not really antisemitic, that he used antisemitism because it was an “easy popular cause” around which to attract and mobilize people.

If there is a difference, I just can’t see it.

I don’t hate you personally but I’m on a mission. And that mission requires that I use the hatred others have for you, so I’m going to do it, even if it means that you are going to suffer for it.

The issue is the blockade is utterly ineffective and propaganda victory for Gaza. If there was a complete and utter cutoff from Israel – no people in, no people out, no goods out, no goods in and no fuel supplied, no “humanitarian aid”, no money, no taxes – nothing. Just say as far as we are concerned Gaza simply doesn’t exist and most importantly keep to it then it might have been worthwhile. What is happening now is the worse of both worlds, that Hamas gets the PR victory without much of the pain. Useless Israeli politicians boast about what they will do when every person with two brain cells know nothing is going to be done. That’s the objection – which I think Ms Goldman is referring to.

Judy, whilst I would love to think that “anti-semiticism” is the reason, I am afraid most of the “academics” are ignorant sheep and condemning Israel because it is a easy popular cause that ticks off the boxes – supporting “underdog”, tick; anti-american, tick; unlikely to have any consequences on my travel or academic arrangements, tick; unlikely to endanger me, tick; popular down the pub without having to learn any details, tick.

If I was not charitable I would call you a bad name and say that it was people like you, with a different orientation, who got Rinat to stop blogging, a big loss to Israel and the mid-east in general. (Though I am limited in knowing her because I only read English.)