Calling the comments sections of stories involving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict lively is an understatement. Most participants are far more interested in scoring comments feels more like watching a blood sport than engaging in a debate. Though there is nastiness coming from both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli participants, it seems the level of vituperativeness is greater from the pro-Israeli side. That's just my impression. I could be wrong. What I am certain of though, is that the number of people posting for Israel and against the Palestinians is far greater than the number posting from the Palestinian point of view.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's office just posted a video on Youtube blaming Palestinians for violence on the Temple Mount, despite Israeli pledges to maintain the status quo. Please watch this video before reading further.

Haim Saban and Sheldon Adelson were two of the biggest stars of the show at the Israeli-American Council's first conference yesterday.   Adelson, as you may recall, once advocated that the U.S. should start nuclear negotiations with Iran by dropping a nuke on an Iranian desert and threatening to nuke Tehran if Iran didn't roll over and give the U.S. and Israel everything they wanted.

I am greatly concerned by the Temple Institute's use of Indiegogo to raise $100,000 to draw up architectural plans for the construction of the Third Temple on the Temple Mount.  As you probably know, it will be located on what Muslims call the Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary).  This is the third holiest site for Muslims around the world, and any attempt to build the Temple there will explode in violence.

Dear Secretary Kerry:

Israel has just announced that it is grabbing 988 acres of land from five Palestinian villages in the West Bank to build a new settlement named Gvaot.  They claim that this is in response to kidnapping and murder of three teenagers earlier this summer.  The U.S. government has responded by saying that this is counterproductive to negotiating a two-state solution and meekly urging Israel to reverse its decision.

Could the U.S. one day find itself called upon in desperation by Israel to help it put down an uprising in the illegally occupied West Bank? The question seems preposterous. Israel is a military juggernaut. Neither the First nor the Second Intifada posed a serious military threat to Israel. And Israel has crushed Gaza repeatedly. The Palestinians are weak, and no matter what they do, they will never pose a real military threat to Israel.

Hamas's Charter is a bloody document that calls for the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews. It considers all of the Palestinian Mandate, including Israel, to be part of an Islamic waqf, and no one has the right to give up an inch of this territory for peace. I have discussed Hamas's Charter in much more detail here.

Sean Hannity invited Yousef Munayyer on his show a few weeks ago to "discuss" the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.  I put the word "discuss" in quotations, because Hannity didn't allow much of a discussion.  It would be more accurate if I had written "yell at".  See for yourself.

Israel and its ardent defenders proudly proclaim that Israel has the most moral army in the world. On July 18,

Israel provoked the latest round of rocket attacks from Gaza when it overreacted to the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens by a rogue element of Hamas. The moral responsibility for provoking a war that has led to nearly 650 deaths in Gaza rests mainly with Israel. Hamas does indeed share some responsibility for the war.