Israeli bulldozers demolish most of a West Bank hamlet, displacing dozens of Palestinians

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35. Sorry it took me so long to get back to you on this one...

And I do appreciate yr answers. When I see something I'm struggling to understand, I'd rather ask and try to understand, rather than end up guessing and probably coming to the wrong conclusion.

I do think overly simplistic and rigidly judgemental stereotyping is part and parcel of a place like DU. People use shorthand and do dumb things down, and the more complex the topic, the worse it gets. Time to indulge in my own stereotyping here, but I've noticed over the years that Americans seem to love simplistically labelling just about everything. One example I've just seen poke its head up in this forum is 'anti-Israel'. It appears to be used to describe people who are critical of Israel's actions towards the Palestinian people, but misses the blatant fact that it's possible to be critical, yet still admire the early Zionists and understand why a homeland for the Jewish people was and still is needed. That's where I stand, anyway.

Israeli politics used to hold a real interest for me, and its every changing multiparty system was (and probably still is) both messy and fascinating and seems closer to the political system of my own country than that of the US. There's a lot I don't understand, though, and would always defer to an Israeli (thankfully we have one in this forum, though she posts sporadically) on their political system and how it operates.

I agree with you that Netanyahu is beholden to the extremists in his government, and his goal is much like Trump's, to stay in power so he can stay out of prison. But I think in his own right, he's a terrible person. I remember that Leah Rabin blamed him for the assassination of her husband and made a point of refusing to accept condolences from him. It was because of the incitement he sowed. I don't think he's changed and that he's an opportunistic sack of crap and Israel deserves a far better leader than him.