While Israel was burying the five members of the Fogel family, whose throats were slit,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/13/israel-expand-settlements-family-killing

Palestinians in the West Bank were celebrating a terrorist who killed 37 Israelis. This type of event can only go ahead if it is condoned and endorsed by the society as a whole.
http://www.thejc.com/news/israel-news/46548/palestinians-celebrate-terrorist-who-killed-37-israelis

Palestinians in Gaza were distributing candy to 'celebrate' the fact that a baby of three months and her older siblings had their throats slit.
http://www.daylife.com/photo/08jh93AeYP8fv?q=Gaza+Strip

It matters not what Phillips says or doesn't say. Just as it matters not how vociferously you protest about her words. The rest of the world has eyes to see.

The baby aged three months was decapitated.

http://ricochet.com/main-feed/Writing-in-Cold-Blood-About-Itamar

Some questions arise from such extreme brutality.

Does that make the killer feel heroic?

Do those who distributed candy in Gaza consider him a hero?

What does it say about a society in which such events are cause for celebration, in the streets, for all to see?

No, we are not in need of any commentators to tell us.

This much is clear: such a society gradually turns the brutality inwards and eventually consumes itself.

There is a God in heaven.

If you're (rightly) going to condemn this act, condemn the murder of 1,400 mainly civilian people (of which 252 were children) by Israel in their assault on Gaza in Dec 2008-Jan 2009.

Otherwise, you just come across as a hypocrite

To Anonymous @ 14.23

We can all learn something about the correct usage of the word hypocrisy from this column.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php?n=cheir-anaka-la-taktol-2011-03-15

This article shames us, so you are unlikely to post it.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4043536,00.html

I am honest shocked that any editing company would allow such a "barbaric" woman to write wuch terrifying things online and publish it. How someone can call a person or a group of people heroic or commend their efforts after killing innocent children and civilians. I hope she doesn't have children of her own. No one with such an attitude deserves to have children. It is clear she does not have a heart, along with the people who actually gave her the opportunity to blog such articles

I have visited the West Bank and can personally attest to the sick and violent thuggery of some of the Israeli settlers. There are constant reports of settlers uprooting Palestinian's olive trees, vandalising Palestinians' homes, taunting and harrassing them, and assaulting them. The vast majority of these attacks are unprovoked and are done to terrorise local Palestinians into packing up and leaving. Worst of all, Israeli soliders generally don't intervene in these situations unless a Palestinian dares to retaliate (at which point the Palestinian will be treated as the culprit and detained).

The Israeli government is fully aware of the situation but does nothing to stop it. In fact as we all know, the Israeli government is constantly transporting more settlers across to the West Bank. The only words to describe this phenomenon is "Israeli state sanctioned terrorism". So, whilst I sympathise on an indvidual with the Fogel family, I cannot have any sympathy whatsoever for Israeli settlers as a whole.

Anyone reading the Israeli news reports over the past few days will already know that settlers across the West Bank have been mounting "price tag" attacks against innocent Palestinians as a form of collective punishment for the Fogel family murders. And is the Israeli government intervening to stop the price tag attacks? No. We're talking about war crimes - the Israeli state allowing illegal settlers to run rampant terrorising the natives either without provocation or as a form of collective punishment for the deeds of one person.

So, let's get this clear - settlers as a whole are the perpetrators, not the victims.

Would you please read her article correctly. She was voicing the view that many of us has and that being:

Innocent children with their throats cut are not the act of a nation that is civilised

'Innocent children with their throats cut are not the act of a nation that is civilised'.

But bombing children and shooting them with sniper rifles is? Think before you speak.

And this wasn't a 'nation' which cut their throats - it was an individual. I know collective punishment is ingrained in the mind of a regime as cold and heartless as Israel's, but let's see some sense from everyone else.

To those posters who attempt to rationalise the decapitating of a 3-month-old baby: doing so makes you complicit.

Anonymous @ 15.10:

There is no room for naivety. Sadly, it was indeed a "a 'nation' which cut their throats". While the family was being buried, Palestinians in the West Bank were celebrating a terrorist who killed 37 Israelis. Glorifying a terrorist is tanatamount to encouraging the next incident.

The only 'collective punishment' we have seen over the last few weeks has been perpetrated by Arabs against other Arabs. You do a great disservice to fellow-Arabs each time you ignore such travesties. The message is loud and clear: other Arabs do not count.

As you said, "Think before you speak."

Melanie Phillips' blog entries not only incite racial hatred - they are also in breach of the PCC code of practice with respect to accuracy. At the time the blogs were published, the Israeli authorities had not yet charged anyone over the murders, yet Melanie presents it as a given that Arabs committed the crimes. Last I checked, some newspapers were talking about the possibility that a foreign worker committed the murders (this may or may not be the case - I of course have no way of knowing). But either way, Melanie completely fails to distinguish between conjecture and fact and launches into a vitriolic attack against all "Arabs" before the identity of the culprit has even been confirmed. I'm not usually one for protesting against free speech, but Melanie Phillips applies a double standard. She feels free to make all manner of vitriolic comments about Arabs, yet she'd be the first to cry victim if another journalist made overt anti-semitic remarks. The same rules need to be applied to everyone, including her.

I wander if the Fogel family forced one of the poor Palestine families out of their homes. I can understand the anger of the Palestine people

...residents of an illegal settlement in the West Bank.

What a relief! I thought the barbaric murder of five innocent Jews-including decapitating an infant-was perhaps a bit on the extreme side. Thanks for correcting that impression, dhimmi liberals.

These are the same folks who cheered and danced on 9/11. Gutless baby killers. Typical Palestinian scum.

Everything she said is right. What the government should do is round up all non-native Muslims and ship them out.

Engage my ass. I've read your book. You don't want to engage you want to conquer.

Again, I repeat my point - think before you speak. You fail to mention the celebrations in these illegal colonial outposts ('settlements') that go on whenever Palestinians are bombed to shreds.

How about Israeli children taught to glorify murder of Palestinians when they're signing shells that are used to bomb others?

I would say you do a disservice to your fellow Zionist apologists, but you don't - you attempt the same, pathetic tricks.

Bring me reports of Israeli colonisers crying over the murder of Palestinian babies and then come back and ask for condemnation.

Sarah: your 'understanding' (instead of zero tolerance) renders you complicit in the decapitation of a 3-month old infant. Such high moral standards!

Anonymous 7.43: how typical to project onto others what the Arab side does in its 'celebrations' and sweet-distribution after murders. Yes, make it up as you go along...

"Israeli colonisers" do far better than "crying over the murder of Palestinian babies". They save them, and they save their mothers.

Open this link if you dare: it has photos of the decapitated baby, and a photo of the Palestinian baby saved by "Israeli colonisers".
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4043536,00.html

But you won't open it, will you? Too off-message for the cosy narrative off which you feed! You prefer to keep your hatreds intact.

If I'm living in a bubble, feeding off a cosy narrative, then you're in the same bubble, mate.

The killing of that child was wrong. Just as the killing of a Palestinian child is wrong.

Don't come to me trying to get on a moral high horse without acknowledging Zionist crimes.

You can recount all the 'crimes' that keep your hatreds festering, for as long as you like, and however often as you like; but do the decent thing and acknowledge the daily acts of Israeli humanity towards her neighbours -- the story cited above of "Israeli colonisers" saving the lives of a newborn and her mother is one of thousands.

According to Khaled Abu Toameh:
"Last year alone, some 180,000 Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip entered Israel to receive medical treatment. Many were treated despite the fact that they did not have enough money to cover the bill. In Israel, even a suicide bomber who is -- only! -- wounded while trying to kill Jews is entitled to the finest medical treatment. And there have been many instances where Palestinians who were injured in attacks on Israel later ended up in some of Israel's best hospitals."

http://www.hudson-ny.org/1953/arab-apartheid

It is scratching the depths of incivility and boorishness to ignore this reality. This is most certainly not part of Islamic teaching.

You ignore the fundamental point:

There would be no suicide bombings; no Palestinian mothers being forced to deliver their kids at check points; no need for treatment of Palestinian victims by Zionists if the colonisation of Palestinian land hadn't happened.

Those colonisers commit genocide against the native population and then their apologists come here and try to laude a few cases where they treated the other side? Bullshit.

'Bullshit' is not an islamic word. Do try to keep your exchanges civilised. What would the Prophet (pbuh) say?

The less grounds you have to incubate your hatreds, the more intemperate you are becoming. One thing I have learnt is that once an interlocutor descends to using expletives, that interlocutor is irrational and has lost the argument.

By no stretch of the imagination can 180,000 Palestinians treated by Jews, as reported by Khaled Abu Toameh, be considered "a few cases", unless the onlooker is wilfully blind. Nor are these Palestinians treated in Israeli hospitals 'victims' of anything other than illnesses that affect people the world over.

All your embellished claims are undermined by the word 'genocide'. From empirical evidence, we know that when a genocide occurs, the population falls -- even if it does not fall drastically, it still falls. The population in Gaza and the WB has risen exponentially since they were lost by Egypt and Jordan in 1967.

All your note proves is that you harbour such an all-consuming hatred that you will do or say anything to put the worst possible slant on facts. Manipulating words or inserting emotive ones is all in a day's work.

This is called dissembling. It is contrary to Islamic teachings, and most unbecoming of an Islamic website.

lol you're right. I don't need to use expletives. So, on a more rational footing (and since you've ignored my comment that there would be no need for Palestinians to go to others to seek treatment if it weren't for the colonisation of their country by foreigners - they would do it themselves): are you saying that more people have been treated in Israeli hospitals than have been displaced and killed by Israeli forces?

Just so we're clear

To the poster who states "Glorifying a terrorist is tantamount to encouraging the next incident", I agree with you. That's why I suggest you take a look at these pieces of footage:

Coverage of 1994 Hebron massacre by deranged Jewish settler terrorist Baruch Goldstein (at least 30 Palestinians killed and scores more badly injured):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqHebGw8v-c

Footage of Jewish settlers celebrating the actions of Baruch Goldstein:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psVxOnXbyYQ

Most UK citizens don't realise that there is a fringe Jewish settler movement who still celebrate the 1994 massacre and see Baruch Goldstein as a holy martyr. See this wikipedia entry for more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baruch_Goldstein

And whilst we're on the subject of celebrating terrorists, I trust that Israel hasn't erected any monuments celebrating the life of Israeli war criminal and terrorist Ariel Sharon?

So, the only "cosy narrative" I see happening here is a magnificently blind Israeli narrative. The terrorism has gone both ways since Israel's inception - to suggest otherwise is a shameful lie.

Glad to see that you will stop using expletives. Never in all my reading of the Qur'an or hadeeth have I come across 'bullshit'. Not once.

I did not ignore your comment that there would be no need for Palestinians to go to others to seek treatment "if it weren't for the colonisation of their country by foreigners".

I deemed it not worth answering, for the simple reason that you were obviously too cowardly to read the article I linked earlier. I know you didn't read it because you wrote that Palestinian mothers were being "forced to deliver their kids at check points".

Far from Palestinian mothers being "forced to deliver their kids at check points", the Palestinian mother sought out those dreaded "Jewish settlers", upon whom she knew she could count on for help. Yes -- those very same "Jewish settlers" whom you expend much of your waking hours denigrating and dehumanising.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4043536,00.html

The article said that just as the Chief of Staff arrived "to offer his condolences, a Palestinian cab raced towards the community's entrance. In it, soldiers and paramedics discovered a Palestinian woman in her 20s in advanced stages of labor and facing a life-threatening situation: The umbilical cord was wrapped around the young baby girl's neck, endangering both her and her mother. The quick action of settler paramedics and IDF troops deployed in the area saved the mother's and baby's life, prompting great excitement and emotions at the site where residents are still mourning the brutal death of five local family members."

Your last question was: are you saying that more people have been treated in Israeli hospitals than have been displaced and killed by Israeli forces?

You must learn to read accurately before asking a question. Khaled Abu Toameh said: "Last year alone, some 180,000 Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip entered Israel to receive medical treatment."

Not even you, who sees a "Jewish settler" under every bed, could claim that Israel killed that number since the beginning of the conflict over 60 years ago, let alone in the last year.

True, hundreds of thousands were displaced in 1948; but why do we close our eyes to the hundreds of thousands of Jews displaced soon afterwards from Arab countries?

On second thoughts, that is a silly question. We love to maintain that we are the only victims; we also refuse to acknowledge that over half of the Jews in Israel are refugees from Arab countries and their descendants. If we were to acknowledge that, we would be admitting to another lie we love to spread -- that all Jews in Israel are 'european colonialists'. Jews from Arab lands are indigenous to that part of the world.

Do you expect those Jews also to 'go back' to where they came from, even as all fellow-Muslims who can escape from those benighted Arab countries do so at the first opportunity?

Thankfully, some Arabs are beginning to look beyond the slogans -- even while fellow-Muslims in the West continue to nurse precious hatreds.

Abdulateef al-Mulhim, a retired commodore in the Saudi navy, wrote an excellent column called: What if Arabs had recognized the State of Israel in 1948?

http://arabnews.com/opinion/columns/article322715.ece

Peace will come because of people like Abdulateef. Just let us make sure we do not stand in his way by entrenching hatred. Eventually, we are all answerable to allah. He will wonder what has become of the faith he gave us if intolerance defines us.

Melanie Phillips views are strong, but it would be stupid to think that they are not part of the spectrum of opinion in Britain.
It is very foolish indeed to call on the authorities to censor Phillips' views, which is what you have done by calling in the Press Complaints Commission
It is foolish because if it works it will not stop people believing those things, it will only stop their views being reported - arguing with those that disagree with you is the best way to sway opinion, silencing your opponents is not.
It is even more foolish because the authorities that you appeal to to silence Phillips are just as likely to silence you, or other progressive opinion.
Only reactionary prejudices find shelter under censorship. The truth needs no assistance to win out.
Calling in the umpire is the mark of the losing side.

Notably, the comments by anonomous at 2011-03-22 20:14:10 was not questioned or wronged by the fellow objective counterpart of a contributor.

The IS morale, and there is RIGHT and Wrong.

Thank you Anon 2011-03-22 20:14:10

Lets see, slitting a baby's throat, using children as suicide bombers, threatening another Holocaust...

But oh no! The leftards call it racist!