your awareness and knowledge about Israel have changed. Israel was always the same as it is today. The difference is that the Internet has facilitated and allowed these truths to become widespread, well beyond Israel's borders. So instead of having to drive down to your local Borders store to read Ma'ariv in English, you are now able to get poll results straight from Ha'Aretz's website. This is but one example of how awareness has affected your perception about Israel. Not for me. I always saw the "chosen people" as an alien people. Completely alien to everything I stand for and was raised by. I wish Iran DOES wipe Israel off the map. If only they had the american governments backing! You can only believe in apartheid state if you believe what the Arabs say. But the truth is different. The Arabs do not desire peace; they want Israel gone, gone forever. Israeli politicians since before the establishment of the state desired to have Arabs in the country and to have peace with the Arabs. The real problem is that no Westerner reads the Koran. The Koran divides the world into 'dir al charev' and 'dir al islam'. Dir al Charev is the rest of the world that Islam must conquer. Dir al Islam is that portion of the world that has already been conquerer and brought under Islamic rule. Europe and USA is dir al charev and needs to be conquered, but Israel is dir al Islam since it was