of the many other attrocities commited by the Zionist and how our government was complicit in their coverup. justin, your pain of disillusionment is still very palpable since i have been going through the same process. my "love" affair with israel started with the 6-day-war and had i not only been 12 i would have volunteered to help fight the bad, bad arabs. from then on i followed middle-east politics closely, would have loved to work in a kibbuz and read every book on jewish history, the holocaust and the state of israel that i could get my hands on. exodus i read at least 3 times. the israelis were my heroes and every support for them was justified. i also assumed, after all the jews went through in 2000 years, not to mention the holocaust, this must have produced an almost superior being: tolerant, social, caring and what not, and that treating others the way they had been treated would be totally alien to them. thus, they would be a shining example to the rest of the world. one might say, oh, that's already several generations ago and gradually disappearing from the public mind, but, of course, we know that in israeli schools and public discourse they are making damn sure not one iota will ever be forgotten. it's their whole raison d'etre. like you, we were only projecting our hopes and wishes on israel and projecting things on others, even if well founded, always is a mistake and