O Jerusalem!

If President Obama thinks dealing with the Republicans is a nightmare, imagine what he thinks about dealing with Israel and the Palestinians...

The problem with even talking about Israel and the Palestinians is that you really can't do it honestly. If you do and you're Jewish you're labeled a 'self-hating' Jew and if you do and you're not Jewish you're labeled an anti-Semite.

Because to be honest about Israel is to point out the many faults and failures of its government and that is strictly forbidden. Israel is infallible. To doubt that, to question that, means that you want to destroy the Jewish people's homeland. And The Holocaust is the moral trump card.

"Never forget."

But do forget about the bombing of the King David hotel in 1946, because only Arabs are terrorists. Forget about the bulldozing of Palestinian settlements, because 'God gave us this land', an argument which should be treated as a fairy tale, but isn't. Forget that Jerusalem is considered a holy city by Muslims and Christians, too. And always, always, forget that the Palestinians had inhabited the land continuously for over 1200 years.

Forget also that the plan from Day 1 has been to try and force all of the Arabs out of Israel and to expand the boundaries until all of ancient Judea is under Jewish control. This is not something I made up--it is taken directly from the words of the Zionists who first began to repopulate Palestine in the late 1800's, on through Ben Gurion and the formation of modern Israel in 1948, and up to today's Likud party. They never had any intention of sharing 'their' land with the Palestinians.

The facts on the ground are what they are and the past is unchangeable. Atrocities have been committed by both sides. Israel isn't going away--and neither are the Palestinians. But the truth is still a good place to start in any negotiation.

Because, as Gandhi reminded us, 'an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.'