Josephus,

"Violence is part of the resistance to occupation.
The basic fact is not the violence; the basic fact is
the occupation. Violence is a symptom; the occupation
is the disease - the mortal disease for everybody concerned,
the occupied and the occupiers."
( Uri Avnery).

Josephus wrote,

“When the Mayflower ventured to America, the occupants were looking for a place to practise their faith unhindered.”

The above is not true. The Puritans were free to practice their faith unhindered in the Netherlands. The Netherlands had freedom of religion. However, the Puritans had to live with people with other religions. Some Puritans turned away from their religion and turned to other faiths or rejected religion entirely. The Puritans wanted to set up a theocracy.

The Puritans came to North America to set up a theocracy where only their religion could be practiced. They hanged Quakers and exiled dissidents.

One of the dissidents who left Massachusetts was Roger Williams, a minister, who set up the Rhode Island colony which was the first unit of government anywhere in the world to have separation of religion and state in its law.

Dear Josephus,

In any democracy which has separation of religion and state one is free to practice one's religious faith. It is only when the religious faith restricts the freedom of others that the faith needs a special enclave.

In a democracy one is free to marry who one chooses to marry.

In Israel there is no civil marriage. Marriage must be approved by clergy.

In the US and Australia a Jew may practice what type of Judaism he or she believes in to the extent he or she wishes.

In Israel until very recently Orthodox Judaism was the only kind of Judaism recognized by the government.

I contribute to IRAC which is The Israel Religious Action Center and works for pluralism and religious freedom in Israel.

Foxy,

The Guardian is well known for being rabidly anti-Israel and makes no pretence of being unbiased and in some cases crossing the line into antisemitism.

https://honestreporting.com/tag/the-guardian/

On top of that, the opinion piece you linked to has several factual errors.

The undeniable fact is that twice in recent history peace treaties have been drawn up that would have given the Palestinians nearly everything they asked for and they walked when the Israelis had accepted them.

Pauliar,

Nearly everything you post is a lie and your recent posts are no exception.

SHONKY, to you the uncomfortable truth is a lie. So be it.

JOSE'

Are you one of those self-righteous PURITANS?

The PURITANS settled the Connecticut River Valley from 1620 onwards, they soon began a symptomatic GENOCIDE of the Native Tribes. In 1637 PURITAN leaders John Mason and John Underhill along with several hundred others raid the PEQUOT village of Mystic, setting it on fire, killing 300 to 400 PEQUOT men, women and children. Mason writing later of the event said; "The Lord was pleased to smite our enemies in the hinder parts, and to give us their land as our inheritance." Over the following months the PURITENS dissolved the PEQUOT Nation, banning the mention of the tribes name. Some surviving PEQUOT were given over to the Narragansetts and Mohegants as slaves, others were sold off into slavery in Bermuda and the West Indies.

The PURITANS committed GENOCIDE against the PEQUOT and other Native Americans.

Pauliar,

You are a liar and a fraud and wouldn't know the truth if it bit you on the arse.

Perhaps you could show proof of young Israeli protesters being taken out and shot?

shonky,

You certainly won't read about it in the Jerusalem Rag, or the Murdoch Gutter Press, your favourite source's of "news". Its all over the net, go look.