Jewish Identity Can't Depend on Violence

ANONYMOUSE,

Too bad for you that the Israelis are not the unarmed Jews of WW2 nazi infested Europe.

Islamofascism will be defeated as your nazis were defeated.

It is sad that there is no true 'freedom of speech' in our supposed Democratic country. Mr. Gandhi's statements, although too broad and overencompassing, did touch on the truth. The truth that our Jewish heritage does not allow us to swallow. We can not continue to rely on and blame the Holocaust for everything bad or negative in our present.
It is also unjustified and unprovable to call someone's opinions anti-semitic. Antisemitism is an emotive, expressive hositility towards Jews as a religious, racial, or ethnic group. To classify someone's opinions as anti-semitic is simply uncultured, irrational and illogical.

That what Mr Ghandy choosed to say on the american newspaper. Other issues from his region seems to be less important. So, I assume this propogandist belongs to the political "nonviolent wing" of modern Nazi movement. BTW, Gebbels didn't operate the gas chambers by himself. May he also could be called "nonviolent".

Tony Silver,

It's a ridiculous PR stunt at best to call the situation in Israel apartheid and even more insulting to those who actually had to live through the realities of apartheid. You should be ashamed.

As a general rule, do not comment unless you actual know the facts, which it is clear you do not. I encourage you to find a nice home in the Gaza Strip as a likely white Christian man. I am sure you will be welcomed with opened arms with your wisdom and revisionist history. Why don't you go to Israel before you perpetuate Palestinian marketing tactics.

Socrate's son too, there is a rumour, was not really a genius.

Mercy,

Funny, I don't think many of our Jewish ancestors who were persecuted would agree with you. Jews must be pretty talented if they can start wars and oppress people throughout the ages when for the past few thousand years, they have been oppressed by Christians, Muslims, Romans, and everyone who came before.

I do agree that the Christians have historically caused far more of a menace, but given their positions of power and head start, it makes sense. I think it's only a matter of time before Muslims catch up as they are really applying themselves.

I would be ashamed to be Muslim these days and find myself lumped in with your Jihadist idiots. When in the Muslim community going to do something sincere and in public about their own internal problems. As it stands, statistically no other religion currently is pursuing violence with such vigor.

It is easy to picture the response if Ghandi has posted this fluff and replaced the word Jewish with Muslim and Israel with Saudia Arabia. I think at best his life might amount to the contents of a jar by this time today.

For the record, I do not believe in organized religion so do not lump me in with anyone.

The holocaust was not just the result of a warped individual, but many collaborators.

Boatloads of refugees arrived in other countries, including Canada and America, only to be turned back to Europe and the gas chambers.

"The world did feel sorry for the episode.." The Holocaust was just an "episode?" Is this much like 9-11 being just a "hiccup" in both American and World History?

Gandhi's apology was short sighted; in fact, I didn't even interpret it as being sincere. In my eyes, this blog should never have been accepted. Humans rely on history in order to construct a better future. Without the past, lessons are never learned and the same mistakes occur time and again.

Regardless of his personal feelings toward an entire race or country, he leads an institute which devotes itself to furthering peaceful intervention, interaction and education. Maybe Gandhi needs to concentrate more on his own institute rather than on his own bigoted feelings.

That's not much of an apology! Now Arun is essentially saying, "well, as long as a Jew hates Israel and thinks Israel shouldn't defend itself against murderous Arab terror attacks, then he's okay with me. But the rest of those Jews,the ones who think that Israel needs a military to defend its citizens, I include them with the Israelis, who I think are going to cause the destruction of humanity." Are you kidding me? He still doesn't get what is morally wrong with his statements.

It's a mystery why he would focus on Israel as the creator of "snake pits" and violence, rather than the Palestinians, who have based their entire culture on extremism, incitement, martyrdom and murderous terror attacks. Israel has reached out in peace to the Arabs repeatedly and been bombed in return. Arun, you are an embarrassment to all decent people.

(And it should also be the Washington Post and Newsweek who should be apologizing for allowing such a bigoted screed to be featured on their website as if it were remotely socially acceptable to bash Israel and the Jews for simply wanting to live)

I have read all the comments to Mr. Gandhi's article. As always the Jewish commentators are ignorant of the history of Israel and they repeat like parrots the AIPAC/ADL version of events. If they knew the history of Israel, they'll know that the Israelites never considered a dialog and a compromise that benefited both, them and the people they were displacing, them and their neighbors. On the contrary they arrived in Palestine totally armed, and used terrorism to displace the inhabitants of the land. Then, they proceed to arm themselves to the teeth (they have more than 200 nuclear warheads) with the help of our various administrations and our Congresspeople which have submitted to the political and economic blackmail of the AIPAC/ADL.
As for the Muslim menace, please read history and tell if there has been any civilization that has caused more destruction to the world in favor of Europe, and then the USA, than the Jewish-Christian Civilization. Read history of Asia, Africa, Oceania and Latin America.

Does the Washington Post believe that Ghandi's proclaiming that "Israel and the Jews are the biggest players" in the "Culture of Violence" (that) " is eventually going to destroy humanity"? In view of the history of Arab initiated violence such as the Lebanese war of 2006, the continuous rocket attacks from Gaza, the refusal by so many of them to even recognize Israel's right to exist, etc., etc., that Israel is what Ghandi says it is? Does his screed fit your rules regarding defamation, degradation based on ethnicity, etc.? If so, how can you allow it to be posted on your web site?

Mr. Ghandi;

J'Accuse!

If one assumes the president of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence is intellectually capable of understanding "violence", to oppose its appearances in the real world, one would be WRONG!.

Your recent posting "We have created a culture of violence (Israel and the Jews are the biggest players) and that Culture of Violence is eventually going to destroy humanity", proves you lack both the intellectual capacity to understand "violence" and the ability (or willingness) to oppose its appearances in the real world.

Calling Israel and the Jews the biggest players in provoking violence, while ignoring the daily TV, radio, and media coverage of Iran's President, Osama Ben Laden, Hezbollah, Hamas, and countless Islamic Clerics and other official Islamic sources urging their 1.5 BILLION Muslim followers to murder Jews and annihilate Israel is an Orwellian inversion of fact.

Such inversions must be child's play for an intellectual, moral giant like you. You, who attacks Israel for building a fence to deter suicide bombers and terrorists (most Muslim) from entering and murdering its citizens, while your beknighted India is building a much larger, longer fence for the the same purpose.

SHAME on you. And SHAME on the Washington Post for publishing such intellectually and morally bankrupt garbage.

We respectfully await your reply.

Richard Senturia, Director
Citizens for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Middle East
231 S. Bemiston, suite 800
Clayton, MO 63105

314-854-9128 (office)
314-397-5230 (personal cell)

Having just re-read the "rules" of commentary on this site, it disturbs me that the Post is not responsible for the content of any comments by third parties, but seems to be very irresponsible with regard to the article by Gandhi.
In an ideal world, one can preach non-violence and "love thy neighbor" but that's a hell of a lot harder to do when you have not one but thousands of guns and rockets pointed at your home and family.
As Burke said, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, if for good men to do nothing." It is a little late to reach out to neighbors who have sworn to commit themselves to your destruction. If you think, Mr. Gandhi, that you can reason with a rabid dog, then I invite you to sit down with some of the more militant Arab leaders, but until you do, please don't excoriate Israel and the Jews (a rather broad generalization, to say the least) for self-defensive postures.
Israel has probably done more in the last 50 years to improve the lot of the average Palestinian family, through advances in medicine and technology, than all the Arab country governments put together. Wake up!

So in the opinion of the author, and many commenters in this forum "Israel and the Jews are the biggest players in the culture that will destroy humanity".
So it would seem that to "save humanity"- you'd better stop the Jews! Only by excising the Jews from the world can humanity be saved. From this perspective the Holocaust was really an attempt to "save humanity". Just ask Hitler!

"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: 'by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.' -Adolf Hitler (Mein Kampf)

...the personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew. -Mein Kampf

"If only one country, for whatever reason, tolerates a Jewish family in it, that family will become the germ center for fresh sedition. If one little Jewish boy survives without any Jewish education, with no synagogue and no Hebrew school, it [Judaism] is in his soul. Even if there had never been a synagogue or a Jewish school or an Old Testament, the Jewish spirit would still exist and exert its influence. It has been there from the beginning and there is no Jew, not a single one, who does not personify it."

- Robert Wistrich, Hitler's Apocalypse, p. 122; from a conversation with Croatian Foreign Minister General Kvaternik, July 21, 1941

"The internal expurgation of the Jewish spirit is not possible in any platonic way. For the Jewish spirit as the product of the Jewish person. Unless we expel the Jewish people. Unless we expel the Jewish people soon, they will have judaized our people within a very short time."

- Jackel, Hitler's Worldview, p. 52; from a speech at Nuremberg, January 13, 1923

So to everyone who insists that this author in NOT anti-semitic, and who jump to delegitimize any complaints of anti-semitism, where do YOU draw the line? Or was Hitler right in your opinion? I don't see very much difference between these quotes from Hitler, this author's opinions, and many comments in this forum.

Terrible article.

Israel is the leader of "culture of violence"???

... Look at the entire arab world

Anti-semetic spew...

well below the WP standards

"Would it not be better to befriend those who hate you?"

This policy was an abysmal failure with Hitler in Nazi Germany. The British tried appeasement. The Jews wore the stars, moved into the ghettos, and got on the trains. Hitler took Europe. And every last Jew was shot, gassed, or burned alive.

Ghandi KNOWS this. To suggest appeasement of radical Islamists dedicated to Israels's death -- who democratically elected leaders to this platform and who march to the chant "Death to Israel, Death to the Jews" -- is to suggest Jewish suicide.

No wonder Ghandi thinks the future of Jews is bleak. He is so arrogant as to presume we would be foolish enough to accept his advice!

Mr. Ghandi supposedly represents an organization dedicated to resolving conflicts by exploring solutions. Yet, his article posted, on the Washington Post web site, represents a viewpoint that is contrary to the goals of his organization. It is one of the most biased article I have ever read. It contains some of the same kind of calumny the world witnessed in the 1930s and hear today from the Islamic world. Is this how his organization finds solutions to world problems?

For example, Ghandi's application of the term "Culture of Violence" is revealing. He smears Israel and Jews when he equates the term "Culture of Violence" with Israel's efforts at defending itself.

The Washington Post, a major news outlet, has allowing itself to be used as a pawn in the on-going effort to demonize and delegitimize the State of Israel. At the very least, if the Post permits an article of this nature, it should similarly post scholarly articles that refute scurrelious comments such as are contained in Ghandi's opinion piece.

Journalistic ethics demands this !!

That fact is Israel is nothing but a FORTRESS seving the American Jewish Imperialists.
It looks like a CANCER put by Imperiaists in the HEART OF THE ARAB WORLD.

Thanks to the powerful American Zionist Lobby,that baby Israel exists.

Israel is an apartheid State of TERROR !

Sad to know all those facts.

Ghandi's right, and he's wrong: there is indeed a cult of violence, but it is centered in Hamas' and surrounding Arab countries' unwillingness to live in peace with Israel. The Israeli reaction to this is forceful and not warm and fuzzy, but Lord knows, there's enough reason for that. And it's not out of proportion.
Ghandi and The Post should ask "Who makes the violence?" "Who's prepared to accept a two-state solution, and who not?" Making nice by Israel won't fix the problem. Accepting Israel's right to live in peace will.

I belive that Mr.Ghandi point of view is quite right.
Israel needs to stop its apartheid policy and its abuse of its military machines in order to live in peace in the heart of the Arab World.

This article by Arun Gandhi is outrageous, especially given that Gandhi is supposed to be a supporter of non-violence.

Israelis all know that in peacetime, Israel will survive and prosper. It is not the Israelis who want war! Yes, Israel occasionally defends itself. I wonder just what Gandhi would prefer it to do? Simply dying is no good: that merely enables one's killers.

If we want to preserve human civilization, I think we need to start with truth. We humans fare poorly without truth. And truth includes distinguishing between aggressors and victims.

One befriends allies. One befriends neutrals. One befriends former enemies. But one ought not enable outright enemies. I think Gandhi's suggestions are a poor idea. In addition, I think there was no need for a major newspaper to sully its reputation by publishing them.

" It is hard to reason with, negotiate with, or create a working relationship with, forces who insist on your ultimate demise."

No Steven. What it is, is impossible!

As a Jew (and non religious) I have to agree with one point made. It does seem like we want the world to weep into eternity.
Well, I for one am suffering from, compassion fatigue! I really am quite tired of hearing about the holocaust, as awful as it was. I've been so inundated I no longer care much. It's over and done.
I'm tired of it.

Hakim says "Here's a guy who exercises his right to free speech and gets hit with over 377 vitriolic messages. Shame on you, jews."

So Jews don't have the same rights to free speech. Shame on you Hakim

I'm a Jew, and while I think my co-religionists can sometimes overreact, I don't think this is such a case.

Mr. Gandhi's comments about Israel, Jews and the Holocaust may be the saddest I have ever read, considering the source. Like most bigots, he is blithely unaware of his prejudice. What he wrote is simply anti-Semitic. Period.

I think Jon Meacham, who so often cloaks himself in the spirit of religion, should be particularly ashamed to be associated with this web site.

For someone whose credibility is presumably grounded in his grrandfather's status as a historical figure, Mr. Gandhi is remarkably historically ignorant. He suggests that the Israelis "reach out" to the Palestinians in friendship. The Israeli's have attempted this numerous times over the years (e.g. Camp David; Ehud Barak's proposal; and others). The Palestinians' response in each case has ultimately been "We want you dead." It is hard to reason with, negotiate with, or create a working relationship with, forces who insist on your ultimate demise.

The brutal assaults on Mr. Ghandi's character and integrity in these pages because he dared to write some truths about Israel is an example of what happens to any journalist, newspaper, magazine, or television program that dares to publish even so much of a hint that Israel is not totally a benevolent, innocent, peace loving country under assault from all sides by hordes of high tech armies of Arabs. It follows that the media can't or won't stand up to such assaults, and visits by prominent Jewish authorities and customers, so they revert to constant repetition of the ADL/AIPAC propaganda lines about a peaceful, helpless Israel, our only ally in the Middle East, which is about to be driven into the sea by godless Arabs intent on conquering the world.

There are a few canards that run through the posts in defense of Israel and attacks on Mr. Ghandi and the Washington Post. One is that Israel only wants peace with its ungrateful and untrustworthy neighbors, another is that the Arabs always attacked Israel first, and a third is that Israel does not have to give back land it conquered in its "defensive" wars.

Israel wants peace to be sure but only on terms that make peace impossible and that is the complete surrender, subservience, and ghettoization of the Palestinians and the surrender of all the territory Israel wants....at this time. Israel and its partner, the United States, believe they can force those terms on the Palestinians but it hasn't worked so far and it is unlikely to work in the future.

Israel was the aggressor in the 1967 war, a fact that was admitted to by Prime Minister and former terrorist war criminal Menachim Begin who was quoted on the pages of the New York Times. No quote was really necessary, the no warning Pearl Harbor-style surprise attack, "A day that will live in infamy" in another context, on Egypt, Jordan and Syria are facts that only AIPAC/ADL could deny. Israel's attack was planned long before the actual invasion.

Finally, Israel is a member of the United Nations as are all countries on the planet and a protocol in the United Nations Charter that Israel accepted is that no nation can acquire territory by conquest. So that canard won't stand up unless Talmudic rules that affirm that it is ok, even required, to swear falsely for the benefit of Jews, is invoked, i.e., we really didn't mean it.

There are legitimate arguments to be made for and against Israel but let's keep out the propaganda such as that cited above, even though most Americans now believe such propaganda to be true, out of the discussion, shall we.

Mr Gandhi is totally wrong like his ancestor Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi. He was in Indian context " 100 chuhey kha ke Haj ko jana "( cat going to Haj pilgrimage after eating 100 rats !).So was his Lt. Mr. Nehru. When in 1947 partition mayhem was going on , both these gentelmen were rejoicing in Delhi in Parliament House. One was speaking "Tryst of Destiny" in English little or not understood by Indian masses.He was impressing people in London and Washington etc.Indians are gullible . Historically they never had good leaders and thats why they were subjected first to Mohdn. Rule ,right from Mir Qasim in 750 AD (appx.)and that continued in one form or the other and subsequently overtaken ( thankfully releasing Hindus free from the Mohdn. Embryonic embrace !!)by the British. British had mostly Trade Relations and unlike Mohdns. did not interfere with the prevailing indigenous Indian culture. But they shared Modernity with India and Aga Khan ( founder of Indian Muslim Leage in 1906 ), Mohd. Ali Jinnah , Nehru , Gandhi ( Mahtma.), Ambedkar , Rajaji, Patel et al etc. were all products of "Western Thought" who imbibed them so well that they hit back the same at British. They Indianised those concepts but it is still incomplete as majority of Indians still live in its villages with bare facilities in poverty and illiteracy and sickness. They do not understand English and unfortunately for them that thats the only medium through which the masses of India can be empowered and not Hindi or anyother regional laguage. Today English is acceptable to all Indians irrespective of their religion or cast or region. Indian leaders should do this hard work without missing on anymore time and Introduce English at Village Levels.It is a difficult job. But thats the only way to unite India , understand India without prejudice. That does not mean that we reject our own culture. Preserve it by all means .Those Indians and Non Indians , who are interested can study that. How many Indians have read and understood "RigVeda"?. Not one may be. No Gandhi , no Nehru. But they all beleaved in it without reading it or understanding it. Today it is a "Preserved" documents like so many others. Idea is to be HONEST in thinking or else you get only confussion.

Ghandi was a racist:

"Gandhi branded racist as Johannesburg honours freedom fighter

Rory Carroll in Johannesburg
Friday October 17, 2003
The Guardian

It was supposed to honour his resistance to racism in South Africa, but a new statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Johannesburg has triggered a row over his alleged contempt for black people.
The 2.5 metre high (8ft) bronze statue depicting Gandhi as a dashing young human rights lawyer has been welcomed by Nelson Mandela, among others, for recognising the Indian who launched the fight against white minority rule at the turn of the last century.

But critics have attacked the gesture for overlooking racist statements attributed to Gandhi, which suggest he viewed black people as lazy savages who were barely human.

Newspapers continue to publish letters from indignant readers: "Gandhi had no love for Africans. To [him], Africans were no better than the 'Untouchables' of India," said a correspondent to The Citizen.

Others are harsher, claiming the civil rights icon "hated" black people and ignored their suffering at the hands of colonial masters while championing the cause of Indians."

http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/artsandhumanities/story/0,,1065103,00.html

Looks like he later also added Jews to his list of peoples he hated.

All in the name of "justice" of course.

Mr. Gandhi's pious pronouncements about the efficacy of "non-violence" kind of lose their force when you discover his deep, irrational hatred of all things Israeli and Jewish.

Washington Post, please spare us from worthless, bigoted pieces like this. They shed no light on anything, except Mr. Gandhi's prejudices, and certainly do nothing to futher the cause of Middle East peace.

I knew Mohatmas Gandhi and Arun you are no Mohatmas Gandhi. The Mohatmas would never countenance anti-semitic ramblings in order to appease your Islamic enemies in Pakistan.

Instead India should take your lead and "show the love" to the extremists in Pakistan and Kashmir as well as to those spoil sports in Arabia who control your oil spigot. Tread slowly though, there is all this talk about a Pakistan atom bomb.

Frankly your anti-semitic diatribe sounds silly and unfashionable in 2008. Not worthy of your namesake. Methinks you are confusing non-violence with appeasement. And it is so transparent it makes you sound foolish grandson.
Steve Laitman
13 Playhouse Sq
Westport, Ct 06880

Jan 8, 2008

The Central Rabbinical Congress of the U.S.A. and Canada placed a quarter-page ad in today's New York Times, affirming the opposition of hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Jews to Zionism and Jewish rule over the Holy Land during exile, and denouncing religious Zionist groups as falsifiers of the Torah. The ad appeared in the newspaper on page A-20.

The text of the ad was as follows:

A Clarification of Torah Doctrine

Issued by the Central Rabbinical Congress of the USA and Canada

Consistently, throughout the peace process in the Middle East, various Jewish religious organizations and parties have raised their voices in opposition to the return of territories to the Arabs, issuing statements that, according to the Torah, Jews are forbidden to give up any land in the Holy Land (especially part of Jerusalem).

Accordingly, it has become a commonplace that religious Jews are supportive of stopping the peace process. In the public mind, the policies of these parties became synonymous with Torah Doctrine. Moreover, they are portrayed in the media as ‘ultra-nationalists’ willing to exchange ‘peace’ for ‘land’.

This impression is utterly false. All forms of Zionism, be they secular or religious, are inherently antithetical to the teaching of our faith! The great sages and saints of our people have always been opposed to the existence of the Zionist State. Indeed, when an obscure Viennese journalist first challenged the Torah approach to exile and redemption, over one hundred years ago, he was immediately attacked by the Torah sages of that time. Those orthodox Jews who support the Israeli state and ‘Greater Israel’ are falsifiers of Torah doctrine. They have abandoned the principles of their predecessors.

The harm of observant Jews supporting the Zionist state is compounded by the Israeli government’s consistent, public rebellion against G-d’s kingship. It is a state which constantly violates Torah law, and actively seeks to persecute its observers, via cemetery desecrations, autopsies, drafting of women, etc. Accordingly, when observant Jews wax enthusiastic over the state and its leaders, it creates a monstrous desecration of G-d’s name.

Torah true Jews who have remained loyal to their ancestral faith are not ‘nationalists’ who desire land at the price of peace. Throughout history, dating back to Temple days, the faithful Jews have opposed secular, militaristic solutions to Jewish problems. In Israel today these Jews do not participate in the electoral process of the Zionist state, nor do they accept its financial benefits. Frequently ignored by the media, they number in the hundreds of thousands worldwide. It is they who have remained firmly devoted to Judaism as received and taught throughout the millennia.

It is in their name that we restate the fundamental beliefs of our faith:

Torah Jewry sees its exile from the Holy Land as the result of a Divine decree. The land was given to us according to G-D’s will, and when our sins accumulated we were exiled from it. This exile is in essence a spiritual state that cannot and must not be remedied by temporal means. Until G-D chooses to redeem us, we are commanded by Him to live as cooperative, law abiding and patriotic citizens in our countries of residence. Accordingly, the Jewish people have no ‘claim’ to the Holy Land at present. They have no right to conquer or to rule over it.

Clearly, the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 was in no way a fulfillment of the Jewish people’s millennia-long yearning for redemption. It was a bizarre, secularist substitute for that redemption. The doctrine of constantly leading the Jewish people into confrontations with other nations is the dogma of Zionism not of the Holy Torah. We are commanded by G-D to live in dignity and piety wherever Providence has so ordained.

Therefore, we declare that the Zionist state of Israel is not the legitimate representative of our people. Our position on the ceding of land is quite simple: Any Jewish sovereignty over the Holy Land before the Messianic Epoch is sinful and sure to lead to tragedy. And it is certainly absurd to sacrifice even one human life for this illegitimate state.

May all mankind be worthy of true Redemption when the ‘Swords will be beaten into
plowshares’ and G-D’s Glory will fill the world.

CENTRAL RABBINICAL CONGRESS OF THE U.S.A. & CANADA

85 Division Avenue - Brooklyn, N.Y. 11211 - Tel: (718) 384-6765/6 - Fax: (718) 963-0494

The Central Rabbinical Congress, established in 1952, is a worldwide organization representing over 150 Orthodox communities.

It's a shame that Arun Gandhi did not inherit his grandfather's sensibilities. Jewish identity can't depend on violence??? DAILY rockets are launched by Hamas against Israel - even when the U.S. President was visiting. Hamas refuses to accept the state of Israel. Palestinian terrorists were blowing up busses of civilians, attacking schools, etc. The security fence was erected as a non-violent defensive measure to protect her citizens. Since the fence, the number of homocide bombings have drastically decreased. Perhaps Mr. Gandhi feels the security fence is infringing on the rights of terrorists to freely conduct more bombings. Israel has the might to strike back in force, but has shown greater restraint than any other country I can think of. Mr. Gandhi has an agenda, and that is his right. Keeping his harmful insights out of the Washing Post should also be an exercised right.

Mr Ghandi has an interesting-sounding last name. If it weren't for that name, no one would be paying any attention to his meanderings.
As was stated earlier, the Holocaust cannot be relegated to a historical blip. It did more than anything else before it in human history to prove that the jewish people need a country of their own, but that need desperately needed proving.
I am a secular jew who does not feel the creation of Israel was a mistake. And the snakepit mr Ghandi refers to was a snakepit before the first jew to follow Herzl's plan ever set foot in (then) Palestine.

As for anti-Semitism (more properly called anti-Judaism), it seems the anti-Semites have a new weapon in their arsenal: They can't be called anti-Semites anymore, because that term has lost all its meaning and power, having been used too often. Gee, I wonder how that happened?

How quickly people forget. The jews were promised a land of their own long before the Holocaust ever took place. The murder of six million jews only reemphasized the need for that homeland. The promise was broken again and again, more and more of their designated new homeland being sliced off and instead given to despotic Arabs. And the vast majority of the world feels even the last crumbs of the original mandate should not belong to the jews, but instead to more of the same Arabs, who already have twenty-two sovereign (and for all practical purposes indistinguishable) countries. All ruled by tyrants, despots, dicators. None ruled in a fashion even remotely resembling a modern democracy where human rights and freedoms are respected.

Arabs are members of the Israeli parliament. Jews cannot even own land in many Arab countries, and are not even allowed entry into Saudi-Arabia, let alone take any form of office. The Israeli supreme court has ruled in favor of Arabs against its own government more than once (the Fence and other land disputes), but tourists with an Israeli stamp in their passports can forget entering Arab countries.

The Arabs currently calling themselves Palestinians have been offered a country of their own (it would be the second Palestinian-Arab state, the first one being Jordan) several times. They always turned it down. They were not offered one by Jordan and Egypt when those countries had occupied and annexed the 'Westbank' and Gazastrip respectively, nor were they harboring any such desires!

What are we to make of people who wilfully ignore these FACTS, but keep harping on perceived Israeli wrongs? When it talks, walks and smells like an anti-Semite, chances are it's an anti-Semite.

This article is blatantly anti-Semitic. It is truely a shame that a publication like the Washington Post would give voice to such hate.

Gandi: “We have created a culture of violence (Israel and the Jews are the biggest players) and that Culture of Violence is eventually going to destroy humanity.” No matter how you care to view these hateful words, this is a glaring example of vicious anti-Semitism.

I, for one, am disgusted and insulted by this vile screed.

Nice little piece of racism.

Ghandi must be turning in his grave.

How sad to see some people wish to resurrect the work of the NAZIs.

Bwahahahahhahaha

Arun,

You are just miffed that Jews have guns now and know how to use them.

Suck it up, pal, and live with the fact that when/if you come to get us it's going to HURT !!

Bwahahahhaa

Go sit in the corner with the rest of the bigots unless you have the balls to eat lead.

Mahatma Gandhi's thoughts in his 1940 'open letter' to the British:

"I want you to lay down the arms you have as being useless for saving you or humanity. You will invite Herr Hitler and Signor Mussolini to take what they want of the countries you call your possessions. Let them take possession of your beautiful island with your many beautiful buildings... If these gentlemen choose to occupy your homes, you will vacate them. If they do not give you free passage out, you will allow yourself, man, woman and child to be slaughtered... I am telling His Excellency the Viceroy that my services are at the disposal of His Majesty's government, should they consider them of any practical use in enhancing my appeal." (From Professor Stanley Wolpert's Jinnah of Pakistan.)

It seems that Arun Gandhi is no less a crackpot than his grandfather.
By the way, have you noticed the resemblance (both physical and in the views they express) between Arun Gandhi and Jimmy Carter. Are they by any chance related?

And Gandhi's absurd analysis shows what happens when people cut themselves adrift from history. The man is clearly destined for obscurity - thank goodness.

The writer has ironically done more to validate the need for Jews worldwide to live in a state of preparedness lest those of his ilk aspire to once again challenge the right of the Jewish people to survive. I grew up amongst those who lost entire families in the holocaust and had numbers burned into their flesh to serve as a daily reminder. I believe that it takes a man of diminished perspective and atrophied morality to refer to the systematic extermination of half of Europe's Jewish population a mere 63 years ago as a "historical experience". I submit that ramblings from this brazenly ignorant and hateful man are well beneath the minimum journalistic standards of the Post. It does not offend as a result of any opposing viewpoint, but due to it's complete lack of anything resembling reason or fact to support the writer's outrageous and repugnant assertions. What's in next weeks Post? Perhaps an offering from Adolph's grandson Ralph Hitler claiming that the concentration camps were really just weight loss spas.

To the riled up "white" man above, your heroes declared War on the US on December 11, 1941. That as four days after the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor by Imperial Japan.

In the end your heroes SURRENDERED, UNCONDITIONALLY, to the US, UK and Soviet Union on May 7, 1945.

I demand that your current day heroes, the Islamofascists surrender, unconditionally as well.

Your Islamofascist heroes who committed

- 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center
- Bombing of Pan Am 103
- Bombing of the Marine Barracks in Beiruit
- Bombing of USS Cole
- Bombing of Khobar Towers in saudi arabia
- Bombing of two US Embassies in Africa
- Destruction of two 1,500 year old Buddahs in Afghanistan
- 7/7 Bombing in London
- 3/11 bombings in Madrid
- Summer 2007 SUV jihad in the UK
- Beslan school massacre
- Death Fatwa against Salman Rushdie for writing a book of fiction
- Riots over Mohammed Cartoons
- Beltway sniper John Mohammed
- Failed sneaker bomber Richard Reid
- "white" fascist timothy mcveighs bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City

The Finsbury Park Mosque in the UK hails "The Magnificent 19" behind the 9/11 sneak attack on the US. Their tribute doesn't seem to distance themselves from that sneak attack on the US.

ANONYMOUS, your pathetic attempts to blame others for the murderous acts of "The Religion of Peace" are laughable.

Lets see....

Jimmy Carter (noble prize winner), Arun Gandhi (peace activist and philosopher), and the two highly respected academics who wrote "The Israel Lobby" are all suddenly "anti semites" because they dare become critics of the Jewish State of Israel or the neo conservative movement which advocated endless, pre-emptive war in the name of our and Israel's interests????

Get real, people!

Look at YOUR actions and you will see cause for conflict.

Stop using the victim card!

We have created a culture of violence (Israel and the Jews are the biggest players)

Really? So not Darfur, Iraq, Drug lords, War Lords, Suicide bombers? Israel and the Jews are the biggest players?

Explain how this is not anti-semetic

providence candlelight,

One need only go to tenc dot net, read the 'British Record on Partition' from 'The Nation' Magazine in 1948 to realize that you are spewing fiction and hatred.

Far from being hapless victims of colonialist imperialism, the Arabs were aided by the British and various German Nazi POWs in their attempts to crush Israel, in exchange for giving the British military base rights in the region.

Oh, and there was no land 'stolen' in 1948. The Arab effendi (including the prominent Husseini and Nashishibi families) gladly sold all their land to the Zionists, as well as killing fellow Arabs that sought to do likewise. Then they bought their land for pennies on the dollar and sold it too to the Jews.

Some Arabs fled at the behest of their leaders, some were driven out b/c they could not be trusted to refrain from attacking nearby Jews. But in any case, a larger number of Jews were forcibly expelled from the Arab countries.

I will trust that you are merely ignorant, and not deliberately spreading antisemitic lies in an attempt to stir up hatred of Jews.

A riled up Jewish man writes "God Bless America for giving the Jews the means to defend themselves and crush their avowed enemies."

The period of neo conservative / AIPAC hijacking of American politics is almost over. The founders of the neo con movement were all jewish (Strauss, Kristol and Podhoretz), btw.

Not war on Iran for you sake, Ari...

Are Jewish people not introspective, or what? Anti-semitism is not irrational.

Look at their involvement in early communism or the neo conservative movement.

THESE POLITICAL MOVEMENTS cause anti-semitism! Not religion.

I gasped when I read this article. It is simply evil to burden the Jewish state of Israel for all of the conflict in the Middle East. This is a classic characteristic of an anti-semite. To identify a religion/race/state as inherently violent is hatred, pure and simple. This is precisely why the Jews need a state of their own to shelter themselves from people like Mr. Gandhi who blame them for every damn thing!

What a disgrace and shame on the Washington Post for publishing this vile article. Disgusting and unforgivable.

I am amazed at the scope of Mr. Ghandi's ignorance. He does not seem to understand the Holocaust at all; it was a great deal more than the wrongheadedness of one man and his influence on his followers. The whole world was involved in it---much of Europe felt the same hatred of Jews and were happy to lend a hand in the destruction. Even America which in most ways has been very generous to the Jewish people, failed to help them during the war. And Mr. Ghandi knows nothing about Israel or the history of its relations with the Arabs. You cannot befriend people who dream of being not your friend but your killer. The Palestinians have had several chances to have a
state of their own, but have sabotaged every offer. The reason is simple: they do not want a state of their own unless the state is all of Palestine, with Israel destroyed and all the Jews dead or gone

Judith: You cannot stay safely in Palestine - ever. What can we do to bring the Hebrews to American where they are wanted and needed?

WTF (your initials? interesting)

Thank you for reading and responding in such detail to my post. I will do my best to return the courtesy.

wtf:

Providence Candlelight,

You wrote:
I do not even know where to begin with your stupidity, hopefully your writing is pure sarcasm. First of all, who says "Hebrews?" This is nearly akin to calling African Americans "colored.

My reponse:
Doing my best, wtf: afterall the language is called Hebrew not Jew. Further, the term Jew is often used in the context of religion. Please note that no African language to my knowledge is called *colored language*. Further, I resent any insinuation intended or otherwise that I might be remotely racist.

You wrote:
Secondly, you wrote, "Allow the Palestinians to govern themselves without the constant threat of terror." What terror are you referring? Do you see Israeli children in the streets with rocket launchers or celebrating when a Palestinian kid dies? The only terror in the region is from Muslims, this is a fact that even pains most sane Muslims.

My response:
The terrorists, since the 1930's have been the Zionist followed by others like them. The Palestinians want the land that was stolen back. No Hebrew can stay safely in Palestine. Israel is a failed state - founded illegally and immorally - we are not surprised at the past (60 years), present, and future prospects.

You wrote:
"Occupiers?" Israelis have put up with nothing but occupation for centuries. You had all kinds of tribes they fought with in the area, and then later Greeks, Romans, and Arabs, and more recently Ottoman Empire, and the British. How would you feel if someone continually claimed your home as your own, forced you out, and then said well, since we killed or kicked most of you out a long time ago, you have no right to return? This is ludicrous. Some of the oldest documents in recorded history refer specifically to the owners of this land and I will tell you it was not Arabs or Muslims. Perhaps the Greeks should get a claim?

My response:
Palestinians were deceitfully and forcefully disenfranchised by Hebrew terrorist (Rabin, et.al.) with the encouragement of the British and the military support of the British, French, and the US (I am sure you do not need a schooling in 19th and 20th century history).

You bring in smoke and mirrors with your references to so many irrelevant people - characteristic of a weak or none existent argument.

With respect to your documents (as yet unnamed nor provided) they likely have no relevance in that they cannot be enforced. Please get back to me with respect to your "documents".

You wrote
As for the Palestinians who "lost their land," there are certainly some who did, but what country did this not happen in? Did they have a right to the land in the first place? Probably not. Many came from places such as Jordan and Syria with promises of a place where they could rule, but plans did not work out. Frankly, they dug their own graves. The few that did have legitimate claims could have stayed if not for the violent positions of their own people.

My response:
More smoke and mirrors. Using your logic, two wrong do make a right. I do not agree. There are valid title holders - Palestinians with more perfect claim to the property expropriated by the Zionist Hebrew occupiers of Palestine. Palestinians want it returned; they will die for it and they will kill you for it. Unlike the Native American, the Palestinians have champions who will continue to make the theft of Palestine untenable for the thieves. For that reason let us bring the Hebrews to American where they are wanted and needed and where they can thrive in peace and be morally clean.

You wrote:
Further, if they are so called refugees, why did no other Arab country accept them? The simple answer is no one wants them and what they did years ago in Jordan did not help the situation. Did you know when that happened many actually fled from Jordan into Israel for safety? Irony sucks, doesn't it?

My response:
Your remarks are irrelevant. The US did not welcome the Hebrews as they should have during the early part of the 20th century. Today, Hebrews are not only welcome, they are respected, successful, and bring great advantage. Should they stay in Palestine, they have only death as their future. I cannot abide that.

You wrote:
I also think you do not realize that many "Hebrews" do not want to live in the US. Many have left the US because it is a Christian country that historically not only did not protect them, but turned a blind eye to discrimination of not only the Jews, but others.

My response.
Yes, I do know that. I am not advocating a forced evacuation. I am advocating an opportunity to the Hebrews in Palestine - some are my kin - to return Palestine to the rightful owners and to come and be strong with us in America.

You wrote:
The fact remains that Israel is the only sane, tolerant, and modern state in the region. Many religious groups such as the Druz have fled to Israel even because of the "excellent" treatment given by Muslims.

My response:
There is nothing sane about the existence of Israel. Just the opposite is true. Anecdotally, insanity is continuing the same behaviour and expecting a different result. What could be more insane that remaining in Palestine?

You wrote:
Somehow, other Arab Israelis have managed to make a comfortable home within Israel for themselves without blowing everything up. I don't think you could find many Arab Israelis who would want to leave the so called "failed state" in favor of any country in the entire middle east.

My response:
You are disingenuous to a moral fault. I know not one Arab living in occupied Palestine who support the occupiers.

You wrote:
Unfortunately, the loudest voices in this whole conflict seem to be extremists and people who are incapable of exploring and understanding history.

My response:
Rhetoric. The loudest voices cannot be distinguished. Extremists? (e.g. Zionists) yes. Incapable of exploring and understanding history?
What a silly statement. I doubt that you want to "explore" history with me - though - you would be a better person for having done so.

Please do not forget to get back to me with respect to the documents of which you speak.

Thank you,

Providence

criticism of Israel has everything to do with antisemitism. Anti-Israelites are merely too cowardly to come out of the closet with their antisemitism.

And no--there is nothing wrong with Israel. There is only something wrong with the Husseini-Eichmann spawned vermin known as the PLO. And this movement is entirely and covertly supported by the US State Department and CIA, which were created by absorbing the entire Nazi intelligence apparatus after WWII.

Is it any wonder that the MSM controlled by such apparati attack Israel relentlessly, while lying about Israel and whitewashing the genocidal nazis that attack Israel to this day?

Read hirhome dot com to get the truth.

When did the Washington Post become the mouthpiece for vile, old fashioned Jew hatred? I urge Mr. Gandhi to focus less on the Jewish "snake pit" that he calls Israel and more on the far more violent and hate filled conflict between his own nation of India and their neighbor Pakistan. I urge Mr. Gandhi to focus his efforts on disarming his own nation of nuclear weapons and to dismantle the barbed wire and heavily mined "wall" between India and Pakistan before he lectures Israel on befriending their enemies.

Gandhi's post contains perhaps the most explicitly hostile attitudes towards Jews and Israel that I've ever seen in the mainstream media. Do the editors of the Post believe this to be a reasonable critique of the world's Jews? "We have created a culture of violence (Israel and the Jews are the biggest players) and that Culture of Violence is eventually going to destroy humanity" That Gandhi believes the Jews have a proclivity towards violence which will eventually destroy the world is extremely disappointing, but it is completely indefensible for a "progressive" paper like the Washington Post to give legitimacy to such a hateful view.

By nameing "the Jews" as the "biggest players" in a "culture of violence" Mr. Arund Gandhi makes it clear that if the Jews were wiped out violence in the World would end and peace will reign. How does this belief of Mr. Gandhi's fit in with his institute for "Nonviolence"? How does his hatred of Jews fit in with his call for neighborly affection?
Interesting that he does not mention the hundreds of children and families blown to tiny fragments before the security fence was constructed. Oh silly me, killing Jews isn't really violence, is it? What a sad, sorry and hateful man this grandson of the Mahatma is. How pathetic. I cannot believe this was even published. This site has really deteriorated.

Arun Gandhis essay doesn't play the coy game that he "only hates Israel". He explicitly hates Jews as well, blaming Jews for their "biggest" role in violence in the World.

I'd rather have Arun and his fellow fascists hate Jews for not playing their age old role as victim.

God Bless America for giving the Jews the means to defend themselves and crush their avowed enemies.

Another hateful, biased and factless article that unfairly attacks Jews by some hateful person that attempts to make himself look credible.

First of all if the author has issues with Israel, state that. But somehow the message seems to be about all Jews, which is something all Jew haters do.

There are about 12-18 million Jews on this planet. There are 6 billion people. First of all Jews are one of the least violent groups out there. Additionally, this small group of people, Jews, have and continue to provide enormous contributions to this planet in every area: medicine, technology, science, etc. that enable all of us to thrive and have a better life.

Lets stop the hate against Jews. Please speak up against it!

The Jewish People have survived for over three thousand years.

(The earliest reference to Israel is from the funery stela of the Egyptian Pharoah Merneptah, now in the Cairo Museum, which dates to 1209 B.C.)

All other empires that persecuted the Jews, from the Arameans to the Moabites, from the Babylonians to the Assyrians to the Selucids, from the Romans to the Spanish Inquisition to the Nazis to Communists, have fallen.

Yet the Jewish People are still here.

Yes, they are very tiny: there are only 13.2 million Jews in the world, compared to 1.7 Billion Muslims and 2 Billion Christians. However, I believe they will continue to survive.

Today, every Jew by birth that is alive is not only a descendent of the people of ancient Israel, but a descendent of those who survived great persecution and pressure to convert over countless centuries.

This is a great privilage and an incredible legacy.

Yet, today many Jews are ignorant of their own heritage, from the Hebrew Bible itself to the archaeology of Israel, from the Dead Sea Scrolls to the great works of the Rabbinic Era.

Thus, in this country and others they are intermarrying, turning away from the sacrifices of their ancestors and casting out this heritage.

Pressured by societies that still hold true to the ideas of Replacement Theology--the theology that the Church, or the Islamic Ummah, has replaced the Jewish People as G-d's choosen--they often want to assimilate into the maintstream.

Without the knowledge of their history, the Jewish People cannot understand the religious roots of Replacement Theology and how it evolved into anti-Judaism and then anti-Semitism.

They cannot understand how their tiny group can be so hated. After, all they were expelled by the Roman Empire and forced into millenia of Exile. Centuries of pogroms and explusion culminated in wholesale slaughter of gas chambers and mass graves that saw 1/3 of all Jews, including 2 million children, killed off in 4 years. Then final expulsion from the Arab world. Finally, a miraculous return to their ancestral homeland. Yet, no sympathy or support, only continual hatred.

They forget that Jesus was a Jew, as was Mary, Joseph, John the Baptist, Peter, Paul, all the Disciples, Isaiah, Jeremiah, all the Prophets, King David, Solomon, Jacob, Isaac, and Moses...

Thus, the Jewish People, simply, and tragically, internalize the word's hatred.

So, will they disappear over time?

No, it cannot be a coincidence that after 2,000 years of Exile the Jews have returned to their ancestral homeland to build a state, as it was predicted by Jeremiah and Isaiah.

Here is the future of the Jewish People, and as they have done for three millenium, they will--however small their numbers become--continue to survive and continue their ancestral legacy.

Mr Gandhi appears to be completely ignorant of what Jewish identity means to Jews. A few relevant points: 1) It has almost nothing to do with the Nazi Holocaust in modern times, but a bit more to do with the ancient Roman holocaust that resulted in a large Jewish Diaspora. 2) His assertion/observation that "Jews today not only want the Germans to feel guilty but the whole world must regret what happened to the Jews" is a complete fabrication with not a shred of basis in fact. 3) The meaning of the Holocaust to Jews today is simply lost loved ones and lost community. It is appropriately memorialized within the remaining Jewish community. 4) The fact that non-Jews have sought to memorialize the Holocaust cannot be attributed to the world's tiny Jewish community. However, Jews are prominently active in anti-genocide movements where the victims are not Jews. Darfur is an excellent example of the latter. 5) Mr Gandhi appears to imply that Jews nonviolently resist attempts to exterminate them, something his grandfather is said to have urged upon them in the midst of the Holocaust. Many members of the Jewish community did just that. They were exterminated. Had the advice worked, certainly Israel would use only nonviolent means to defend itself today.

I would like to take what you take; I love sometimes to feel so detached with reality. I am very surprised at the complete ignorance of your thoughts. The future of the Jews is no bleaker than in 720 BC when 80% of the Jews were exiled and lost, by the Asyrians (no longer around) the 10 lost tribes, then again in 586 BC when exiled and Jerusalem destroyed by the Babilonians (long since gone!) or spiritually decimated by the Greeks and Helenists in the second-third Centuries BC (long gone), or after the exile by the Romans (have you seen any lately) or after the expulsion from Spain and the inquisition (where are they?) or during the pogroms of Tzarist Russia (anybody home) or after the Holocaust...(where are you mine Furhrer?) You see, THE JEWS SURVIVE THEM ALL, AND WILL ALWAYS BE HERE TILL THE END OF TIMES...
By the way, your nation, India, also relies on the BOMB and INDIA still lives in the past, way in the past, most in the stone age, burning widows with their deceased husbands, the Caste system, "sacred cows"...need I say more? What tolerance do the Indian Hindus have towards the Indian Muslims? what "friendship" do you extend to Pakistan? who are you kidding? Don't you have the Bomb?
Like Jesus say: "He who is free of sin may throw the first stone"...

The Nazis murdered half of my family while the world largely stood by and did nothing. The Communists killed the another half of what was left.

Now the entire Arab and most of the Muslim world is united in their visceral Jew-hatred while the world is busily debating what should the next concession to terrorism that Israel should make.

What are you, India, EU or US are going to do after Arabs overrun Tel-Aviv and Haifa? Write a strongly worded letter to the US Security Consul? So, call me a snake, Mr. Arun Gandhi, but I think I’ll carry a gun to protect myself.

This moron is worthy of a blog at your paper?? What next political commentary by Nasrallah ??

It's funny how the hindus and muslims couldn't live together and evetually partitioned into two countries with fences and troop. They still however kill eachother in much higher numbers per year than Israelis and Arabs.Look at the siutation like in Kashmir where India and Pakistan stand gun to gun.

But according to this writer, Israel is somehow supposed to permit Islamist terrorists to attack them without complaint.

Jewish identity during the holocaust revolved around victimhood. The perpertrators often got away, the collaborator hide. Never again.

Build the wall.

For those who say that Israel is the only Democracy in the Middle east...did you forget about Turkey?

It's a fight between the Crips and the Bloods...no one is innocent in any of it. I do not like the policies of the Jews..I think they enjoy the power; Building walls segregating those they look down on,some roads are ok for those Others to travel on, some not. Reminds me of certain people getting off the side walk or labeled water fountains. People needing passes to travel outside of their villages...homes bulldozed at the whim of those in power.

And this is a democracy? It is apartheid.

terra

Creating a snake pit? You call that logic? Why don't you first explain why your grandfather's country has nuclear weapons? And then tell me when was the last time the Jews threatened the Hindus?

"Israel and the Jews are the biggest players in a culture of voilence that will eventually destroy humanity," saids Ghandi.

Emphasis on the word "biggest."

If that statement doesn't constitute blatant Anti-Semitism and racism, then what exactly does these days?

In any case, I do suppose that the thousands of Hindus who die from terror attacks and riots in Ghandi's native country of India every year are actually murdered by Jews.

Jews are overplaying the Holocaust to the point where good "friends" like Ghandi are repulsed. Tut, tut...that should be a real cause for concern for Jews.

By the same token, would it be fair to also say that African Americans are overplaying their slavery experience? Or even better - third world countries like India overplaying their past experience with White colonalisation? Why can't all these people just move on, ey?

Whatever the case maybe, I can personally say with great confidence that Muslims are certainly downplaying all their alleged grievances. Just look at the 9/11 attacks, 7/7 London bombings, Madrid bombings, Bali, the French riots, the Danish riots or the fact that Muslims are involved in 95% of the world's conflicts including India, etc, etc.

Perhaps Jews should downplay their grievance by sending suicide bombers to Germany or at least start up riots there?

Is this what Ghandi is actually proposing?

Dear Mr. Ghandi,
I guess it can't be said too often: if the Muslims put down their weapons there will be no war- if the Israelis put down their weapons there will be no Israel.
Do you see how your words opened the floodgates for an outpouring of Jew hatred barely disguised as purportedly neutral anti-Zionism? Some of the wilful ignorance is astounding. Do bigots even read the thoughtful, well written comments based on historical fact? Apparently the most reasoned arguments cannot overcome the impulse to blame the Jews.

I'm afraid that Mr. Gandi is seeing the world upside down. Israel and the Jews are the biggest players in the culture of violence? Israel is daily the victim of rocket fire from Gaza, and has had to endure years of random terrorist attacks on innocent civilians (in discos, schools, restaurants - not military facilities). The snakes are outside of Israel. The separation barrier is the only way, so far, that Israel has been able to limit these attacks. Israel and the Jews have been seeking peace with their neighbors since the founding of the country. Has Mr. Gandi read the Israel Declaration of Independence? The wish for peaceful coexistence and cooperation is in black and white. Has he read the charter of Hamas which declares it's goal is the destruction of Israel? Furthermore, Mr. Gandi criticizes Israel for not sharing her technologies with her neighbors. That is a very difficult thing to do when most of the neighbors are boycotting you. Mr. Gandi you must learn the truth about Israel and the Jews, not make it up to conform to your own obvious hatred of us.

It would be nice to see the Post acknowledge that they exercised terrible judgement by giving this hate-monger a forum.

I'm not going to hold my breath.

Mr. Gandhi.
A reveiw of what is going on in Israel would show that Israel is being bombarded every day with rockets. I think it would be more appropriate for the Palestinians to put forth the hand of peace and stop their terrorist acts against Israel. Israel is the only democratic country in the Middle East and the Arab countries that circle them would do well to emulate them. They treat women like human beings and not as cattle. They have given the world a good deal of its technology and share wonderful discoveries in healing medicines with us. Why there is this world hatred against them I simply do not understand. All the Arab nations would do well to leave them alone and perhaps one day when they extend the hand of peace there will be real peace in this world.

Your grandfather told the Jews that "satyagragha" is the way to fight Hitler. He threatened to fast till death when Nehru refused to hand over to Pakistan a portion of the treasury that the British wanted him to give to Pakistan at partition. Your grandfather forgot that the same money will be used to finance and arm the tribals and Pakistani regulars who were marching towards Kashmir.
Its a great shame that your grandfather thought that Hitler would behave just like the British. The British didn't shoot the non-violence demonstrators. Nazis would and did. Jews of todays world want to live in peace but the Arabs don't want to allow them that luxury. Your grandfather's non violence would not have worked with Imperial Japan either. Yep, he had all praise for Muhammad too but strangely he didn't become a Muhamedan.
Why didn't you ask your idiotic question to the Arabs? They are the ones who are behaving like snakes.
May be the Jews are using the Holocaust too much but one thing is certain. You are using your grandfather's name way too much. Your opinion is idiotic. It's a shame that you are using that name to sell such a virulent idea.

The Culture of Violence is indeed rampant- but it is the Arab nations that are perpetuating and reinforcing it. The Arab nations teach little children that is their destiny to wear bombs and blow up the Jews while killing themselves. The Arab nations teach hate and try to infiltrate into Israel to blow up innocent civilians. Israel has already given back the Sinai and Gaza and offered about 98% of the West Bank and the Arabs are still not satisfied. What is wrong here?

What a vile man.

Israel has always sought peace with her neighbors, but the Muslim militants will not have it.

This is little more than leftist anti-semetic drivel, the kind of which that Code Pink and International ANSWER would cling onto like flies to horse manure.

It is amusing to see all of the rabid posters on this board accusing Arun Gandhi (and that's GANDHI you ignorant dolts, not GHANDI; are you blind as well?) of racism in the most racist terms themselves. It is amusing to see them bring up Mr. Gandhi's ancestry to ridicule his ideas! Kinda like the mozzie fundoos who go "islam is peaceful, and anyone who says otherwise should be killed!".

I guess the take away from this board is that there is no difference between jihadis and these rabid jews and others we see here. Mr. Gandhi should stop worrying about the snakepit: snakes in the pit and outside!

Perhaps Gandhi lacks an understanding even of how the Muslims treated (and will treat) Hindus and so, why protection by arms is necessary, pretty much forever. The problem in the Middle East is not "Palestinian" anything, but the inability of the Arab states to see through their religion and culture, the cause of their despotism and backwardness.

Ghandi's perception is so wrong, so warped.

Mr. Gandhi,

I would expect this hateful rhetoric against Jews on Washingon Post by its esteemed panelists and Islamic terrorist apologists like Eboo Patel and Fareed Zakaria ( I believe both Indian Muslims).

But certainly not from an Indian Hindu as your own community has been a target and victim of Islamic terrorism for centuries.

How revolting to publish an article blaming Jews for creating a culture of violence that will ultimately destroy the world.

His grandfather believed that those Jews who tried to escape from concentration camps should not have because collective suicide is heroic. In Judaism life is sacred and defending yourself is not only allowed but demanded. What does Arun Ghandi have to say about those that are forcing the Jews to defend themselves? Aren't they to blame?

The vast majority of Israelis have always wanted good relations with their neighbors. The same neighbors who from day one of Israel's existence have been trying to exterminate her. The vast majority of the Arab world have made it clear that they won't accept Israel and never will. Israel has a duty to protect her citizens.

Dear Mr. Gandhi,

Pacifism brings out the humanity in one's opponents. Pacifism assumes humanity in one's opponents.

Unfortunately, peace has been brought about historically when the good guys win in war. Evil persons can not always be compelled to goodness.

Jewish identity doesn't depend on violence...it is preserved by the protection that the rifle affords.

"you can create a snake pit -- with many deadly snakes in it"

"Would it not be better to befriend those who hate you?"

"Can you not reach out and share your technological advancement with your neighbors and build a relationship?"

Even if you hate Jews, you must admit this man writes like a 12 year old.

Mr Ghandi,
For a man of your supposed credentials, I must admit- I was not only flabbergasted at the complete lack of authenticity, and knowledge that you exhibit in your tacky essay, but quite stymied by the fact that the editors of the Washington Post even allowed such an unabashed ranting of anti-Semitism to be posted. You are nothing more that a hate-monger, a racist, and a pseudo-intellectual exploiting the illustrious name of your heritage.
Your opening statements clearly show your hatred of the Jewish people, and so to argue your points would be demeaning and disrespectful to the greatest civilization mankind has ever known. Perhaps you need to review your history, prior to the Holocaust, the worst genocide ever manifested against a people by supposedly the most "civilized" civilization to date-the Germans. The achievements of the Jewish people span lifetimes-thousands of years-in every category of the human spectrum- but especially in their unshakeable faith in God and God's commandments to perform acts of kindness, justice and mercy-commandments of such a godly caliber, that subsequent nations, including one of the greatest ever-the United States of America, based their constitutions on.
FYI-there have been many holocausts in Jewish history- four thousand years- of so much peril and decimation to a people that never had armies, weapons or the like- but were pursued, tortured, murdered by rogues of every generation.
There have always been Jews in Israel from the time Abraham entered the Land to now, and their "good neighbors" continually tried to exhile them, if not annihilate them.
In spite of 60 years of continually living under the threat of sporadic wars, the murder of innocent civilians, and terrorism by people who behave in subhuman ways, who lie and cheat blatantly, who can't seem to grow up and behave in any kind of moral fashion despite the offers of peace and land- the Israelis continue to tolerate an intolerable people-the Palestinians. Palestinians who have from the get-go refused to be a nation of Palestinians when it was offered to them in 1947, and instead chose war, murder, deceit, and destruction. Still,Israel continues to deal with them as if they really had the will to be a nation among nations, continues to supply them with water, electricity, pick up their garbage, give them health care and all the benefits that their own people or fellow Arabs have refused to do. Israel, my friend, does not cry, "Woe are we, look what the Holocaust did to us". Israel is way past that- a dynamic country, made up of people from all over the world, of every color and race. We have turned deserts into gardens, turned energy into technology,and share it with all the world. We have done what no other civilization has accomplished ever-survived! And survived well. And by the way, Mr. Ghandi, Israel and the Jews have "forgiven" Germany,not the Germans of the Third Reich, but the Germany of today who makes amends and rejoins the free world. Israel has good relations with Poland, in spite of Poland's betrayal of the Jewish people, watching in silence the smoke of the crematorium. Did you know Mr Ghandi,the significant role the Jews played in the development of Poland over a period of 600 years? We Jews do not forget, Mr. Ghandi, but we do forgive, and we have proved that time and time again.
And so Mr. Ghandi, what exactly is your problem? Envy? Jealousy? Frustration? Or just simple-mindedness and illiteracy? Would the world be a better place for you without Jews and without Israel? In your own twisted mind, you may nod yes, but I will caution you that your ignorance and racism will ultimately be the cause of your own undoing and shame.

Today, Palenstinians launced 12 rockets into civilian areas in Israel. Israel responded by striking a terrorist cell in Gaza.

So, one targets civilians. The other targets the ones targeting civilians.

So, Mr. Ghandi, remind us again who the ones are inciting all the violence?

This is an incorrect summary of the MidEast conflict. Ghandi ignores the many attacks and constant propaganda from the Palestinian terrorists. This is from a group of Ismalists stuck in the past, not Israelis. Israel has built a forward-looking progressive society. The Palestinians have built rockets to aim at Israel.

1.Like you, I look forward to the day when the fence can come down. The fact is before the barrier, there was the Palestinian bomber. Why isn’t it clear that the barrier can be dismantled, but the bomber's victims are gone forever?

2.Both the charters of the PLO and Hamas call for the destruction of Israel. Who will tell the self-appointed martyrs of Islam to give up their dream of annihilating Israel so the fence can come down?

I think George Orwell in his Essays, over sixty years ago, had an answer to indian non violence when you are being shot or "peacefully, escort to extermination camps.

Mr. Gandhi's vile attack on Judaism and Israel should be seen for the anti-Semitic nonsense it is. The Jewish state has a right to exist, recognized by international law and by any sane moral outlook; and by the same standards it has a right to defend itself. To call self-defense part of a "culture of violence" is to blame the victim for aggression, and thus Mr. Gandhi is taking the side of those who wish to destroy the Jews and their nation.

Perhaps Mr.Gandhi should focus his energies on India's own "snake pit" as he's defined it. Has he forgotten the 340+ mile fence protecting Indian nationals at the DISPUTED Kashmir border? (Washington Post, July 30, 2003) Or, more likely, he's expressing his own prejudice: What he's really saying is 'it's okay to protect people as long as they're not Jews.'

Bigotry, even when written by someone credentialed by riding the coattails of his esteemed grandfather, is still nothing more than bigotry. Correcting the rest of his erroneous statement, a fatuous concoction of misstatements designed to justify his bias, is a waste of time.

The Washington Post should be embarrassed to condone and perpetuate such blatant bias.

I just read Arun Ghandi's anti-Semitic posting, Jewish Identity Can't Depend on Violence, on your website, and I am shocked! This is a free country, and Ghandi has a right to be anti-Semitic if he chooses. But, have you at Washington Post / Newsweek no standards of decency? Has openly anti-Semitic slander become acceptable to the Washington Post and Newsweek? The comments on this site are, presumably, monitored and screened because you indicate that "User reviews and comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site." Since you have not removed them, are we to conclude that you find Ghandi's scurrilous anti-Jewish comments to be "appropriate"? Shame on you!

Carl Goldberg
Tempe, Arizona

It's fairly disturbing to see an ostensibly intelligent man disgorge such ignorant tripe.

It is even more disturbing to see the Washington Post give him a platform to do so.

Ghandi's grandson apparently doesn't recognize the difference between dealing with a civilized society (the British) the way his grandfather did and dealing with a hateful, Middle Age group of people (Israel's Arab enemies, including the Palestinian Arabs) dedicated to exterminating you, the way the Israelis have to.

Non-violence works when dealing with people like the British; when used when dealing with Israel's enemies, it's a prescription for suicide.

Gandi's grandson obviously has a problem with Jews.
Not quite the family namesake.

Mr. Ghandi, Hitler would have been proud of you. You are a nazi. The University of Rochester should condemn you, and then fire you. I hope all of your funding is pulled. You are a vile Jew-hater, and now you've shown it to the world. Why don't you go live in Iran, as you'd obviouly get along brilliantly with Amedinejad. Get out of my country! America doesn't need your worthless opinions.

Like many committed to the idea that it is sufficient for one side to want peace for peace to prevail, Mr. Gandhi suggests this route for Jews.

I wonder whether he suggests the same for Muslims in their dealings with Hindus, as well as with Christians and Jews. Members of all three of these groups have been targets of Muslim violence for some fourteen centuries, since long before there was a security barrier, checkpoints, refugees, or any of the other issues offered up as excuses for denigrating Israel.

Rational policy, and peace, can follow only when one is prepared to think clearly about who is doing what, and why, and respond accordingly. In the conflict between Israel and its neighbors, the problem has always been that Muslims believe that Israel's very existence is contrary to their religion. If Mr. Gandhi really wants peace, he should focus on how Muslims could abandon this belief.

Is not this piece which shows such a total lack of understanding of Israel's history and position an embarrassment to Newsweek? In fact does not writing like this only encourage the Arab leaders not to make peace and prolong the problems of their own people?

Like many committed to the idea that it is sufficient for one side to want peace for peace to prevail, Mr. Gandhi suggests this route for Jews.

I wonder whether he suggests the same for Muslims in their dealings with Hindus, as well as with Christians and Jews. Members of all three of these groups have been targets of Muslim violence for some fourteen centuries, since long before there was a security barrier, checkpoints, refugees, or any of the other issues offered up as excuses for denigrating Israel.

Rational policy, and peace, can follow only when one is prepared to think clearly about who is doing what, and why, and respond accordingly. In the conflict between Israel and its neighbors, the problem has always been that Muslims believe that Israel's very existence is contrary to their religion. If Mr. Gandhi really wants peace, he should focus on how Muslims could abandon this belief.

This is not a "conversation on religion". It is a politically twisted distortion of reality. Israel gave Arafat 97% of what he demanded and received the Intifada. Gaza was given and Israel received Kassam rockests. Who is dominating whom?
This article is vicious in its content and morally reprehensible.

This is nothing short of a hideously inaccurate hate crime. Shame on you Mr. Gandhi. You disrespect not only my family, but yours.

You need to get a grip on Reality! "The World" as well as the German people are responsible for the Holocaust as well as the Terrorism throughout the World today!

They talk, negotiate, and Discuss(UN) while Atrocities take place around the world!

How's that go, "When good men do nothing,....."

"Rome Burned While Nero Fiddled!"

"The World" should learn from history, sadly, it seems like we never do!

Hopefully you'll get a clue some day, but I doubt it!

That arun is a grandson of Gandhi means nothing and Gandhi's philosophy worked only because the British were exhausted (they're ready to turn over the rule of their island to a foreign entity today!). And frankly, he spouts a lot of hot air--how's the caste system doing in India these days Mr. Gandhi? And as a Jew, you're damn right I won't forget what happened--just in case some jerk tries it again (which could be argued that it's happening now) I'll take a few with me! Finally, if another "cleansing" of Jews in Israel is coming then I say to Israel, "do it baby, let the nukes fly!!!" Ghandi, another leftist "fakir" full of his own BS.

Of course, the previous examples weren't supposed to be taken seriously.

Is there a "REPORT OFFENSE COMMENTS" button for the main article?

The Arab-Israeli conflict rates at #49 in the fatality rankings, and that's for over fifty years of conflict. There are much better options than the Jews for the "biggest players" in the "culture of violence":

Maybe it's the Chinese or the Russians, who are responsible for the deaths of dozens of millions in their manmade famines and gulags?

Or maybe it's the Catholics? I mean, nobody ever expected the Spanish Inquisition.

Or maybe the blacks are the most responsible? Look at what they did in Rwanda and the Congo, and they're still blaming the Americans and the French.

And what about the Arabs? Saddam wasn't the friendliest fellow, and didn't the Arabs start off the conflict with the Israelis?

Seriously, this article is despicable. His grandfather must be rolling in his grave!

Who is he to make these sweeping conclusions about millions of people? Suppose I stand up and start making generalizing speeches about India, Indians and Hinduism (and I know more about these than he does about Jews, Israel or Judaism). Suppose we all start inventing stereotypes and throwing them at each other. People like this are routinely called "racists" in the US. As is typical for such people, the stereotypes they throw at others are really about themselves. It is not that "Jewish identity in the past has been locked into the holocaust experience", it is that Arun Gandhi does not know much about his subject other than the Holocaust and "Israel oppresses Palestinians."

It is this combination of stunning ignorance and equally stunning arrogance that is the real source of much of the world's trouble.

As for "Jews... [are] eventually going to destroy humanity", we have been accused of this by anyone from Mel Gibson to Adolf Hitler, and before them for thousands of years. Yet humanity is still here, and still bent on destroying us. It seems that humanity is projecting on us what it wants to do to us.

And if this is not antisemitism, can anyone tell me what antisemitism is?

But it is disappointing to see the grandson of Gandhi in this crowd. Before pointing fingers at Jews, why don't you fix your problems with Pakistan, mister.

I ask Arun whether a very similar analysis could be made with respect to the Palestianians, for they surely fester in a wound which is almost exactly as old as the Holocaust - namely the refugee crisis created in the Isareli war for independence. Are the Palestianinas able to forgive? Do they prefer peaceful solutions?

Oh, I see, we are too tied to the Holocaust. Shame on me, I should have ignored the tattoed numbers on my mothers arm that she got in Auschwitz. I should forget the times when she would have a nervous breakdown and be sedated with electric shock, which I saw as a child. I should forget that this so traumatized her that she had to give up her children to foster care.

I should "move on" from the fact that I have no grandparents, cousins or relatives who remained from that Holocaust. We should instead "befriend those who hate you". I can see it now, as the Nazis were carting off the Jews to the camps, the Jews should have just "befriended" them. As they were butchering us in Babi Yar, and in the Warsaw Ghetto, we should have come offering candy and gifts.

To set Mr. Ghandi straight, it wasnt Hitler who personally manned the death camps or led the execution squads. It was ordinairy Germans.

Who says we want the world to feel guilty? I certainly don't. However, I certainly don't want the world to forget that man can be evil and those who don't learn from history will repeat it. Sorry, we refuse to go through that again. As for our "attitude" towards our neighbours, has this guy read the Hamas Charter lately? Has he watched Hamas TV?

What a vile, antisemitic article. The Jews and Israel are going to destroy the world? The writer has gone too far. He is way outside his caste on this one. Maybe a stray nuke from Pakistan hitting Mumbai would change his perspective a bit.

Arun Gandhi is NOT an anti-semite. He's a truth teller. Right now, Jews and israelis need a heavy dose of the truth serum.

At least in India they don't built walls around muslim villages, create checkpoints to harass their movement and force muslims to drive in some roads and not others because they are muslim. They don't built illegal settlements on muslim land either. Jews or Israelis are the lowest of low in the human scale. Actually they don't deserve to be called human either. If a muslim wants to buy a house in Tel Aviv or haifa, he's not allowed, but a jew can buy property anywhere. To me that is pure aparthield.

Mr. Gandhi's comments are anti-semitic, in my opinion.

Israel's Arab population has a higher rate of literacy than India's Hindus or Muslims. Israel's Arab population has a higher rate of land and home ownership than India's Hindus or Muslims. They have a lower rate of infant mortality, a higher life expectancy as well.
Why is Israel able to allow its Arab/Muslim population to prosper more than India allows for either its Hindu or Muslim populations.

After reading some of the commentary in here supporting Mr. Gandhi's ignorant and reprehensible statements, it becomes easier to understand how the German people allowed themselves to lulled by Hitler and become participants in mass murder.

It's like the 1930's all over again. Only this time around the excuse is called Palestine.

On this topic, some of you keep repeating 'facts' without bothering to check the sources, or perhaps seek additional ones to obtain a better-balanced understanding of region and the current conflict. Almost as a rule, you choose to parrot the pro-Palestinian byline, a narrative that is based largely on myths and outright lies. If some of you took the time to actually study the history of the region, you might not jump to conclusions so easily. Such ignorance allows you to be manipulated--pushing you from feeling indignation towards hatred, and finally to condoning murder.

No, maybe some of you aren't anti-Semites. But what gets me is that so many of you are willing to sacrifice the Jews and Israel in the name of 'peace.' What makes you think you can appease evil?

The Holocaust wasn't the first pogrom against the Jews, and I'm coming to the realization that it won't be the last.

I am not a Jew, but I for one, will not stand by and see it happen again without a fight.

Leave it to the Washington Post to propagate anti-semitism in a most virulent, liberal and chaotic manner - and it's readership ate it up like a bunch of rabid dogs (wearing foil hats).

It is quite intriguing to witness an ancestor of Mahatma Gandhi using his heritage as moral/ethical authority for spreading hate in an artical that shuns the use of historicism to establish an upper-hand, no less.

I'm sorry, but this is an absurd position. The Middle East has no love for Israel, none. To most people there, it doesn't even exist. To expect Israel to reach out to those that wish them destroyed is absurd.

Why can't the other countries of the Middle East reach out to Israel first? All they need to do is demostrate that their existence is wanted and desired.

If 200 million people want aid from 6 million, perhaps they should invite Israel into a economic partnership.

This Ghandi is a feeble, shallow and bigoted reproduction of the original.
As for the "warped individual" referred to in the article, it is clear many of his followers are alive and well in the WaPo readership.

regarding "But, it seems to me the Jews today not only want the Germans to feel guilty but the whole world must regret what happened to the Jews"

I am a jew and the son of a holocaust survivor. Although I abhor what the German's did during the holocaust (my father lost 6 brother and sisters and was orphaned), I don't waste my time wanting the Germans or the whole world to regret anything. I am too busy being a productive member of society. In fact, with the exception of this comment, I don't ever invoke the holocaust in my daily life. Perhaps Mr. Ghandi should stick to recounting his own miserable life experiences.
I resent Mr. Ghandi's generalization and I am deeply offended by his comments. He is a disgrace to his heritage.

India: millions of untouchables, massive pollution of air, earth and water, child labor on a grand scale, violent conflicts and an arms race with its nuclear armed neighbor that annually costs many more lives than Israeli/Arab conflicts -- hundreds of millions living in extreme poverty, and uncontrolled population growth -- and a still existent caste system despite claims to the contrary.

Pardon Gandhi, but what about Jews??

well...this pakistani muslim likes and respects Arun Gandhi a lot. I had the same respect for his grandfather who lost his life trying to smooth communal relationships in India. Here's a guy who exercises his right to free speech and gets hit with over 377 vitriolic messages. Shame on you, jews.

what a perfect idiot. analyzing it is a waste of time.

This man is an absolute idiot. Where does he live? How does he not see what goes on? Jews are the problem? How I wish I could drop ship him into Pakistan and see how easy it is for him to get the Muslims to like him. What a moron.

A history lesson for all the ignorant people here who beliee the Plo proaganda. There has never been a Palestinian country, people, language, or culture. Israel was re-named Palestine by the Romans and the name has no connection to the Arabs. Jews were the first to be called Palestinians because there was always a Jewish presence in Israel/Palestine.

The Plo in the late 1960's created they mythical "Palestinian people" and stole the historical connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel. It's the biggest fraud in the world! A co-founder of the Plo admitted in an interview two decades ago that a Palestinian people didn't exist.

Most of the Arabs who live in Israel and the surrounding area immigrated from Arabia during the last century. It is they who are the invadors and occupiers. Jews are indigenous to Israel/Palestine and it belongs to them!