Israeli policies are certainly racially discriminatory, and lead to mass killings, but a check-list approach to definitions won't help.
What is missing in the equation is that Israel, unlike Nazi Germany, is not author if its destiny, but a dependent state, that would be incapable of acting without US, and yes, European sponsorship.
Certainly today the characterisation of Israel as totalitarian dictatorship misses the point that Zionism has been in retreat for the last decade - retreating from Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank. Granted that the retreat is a vicious one (even a scorched earth one, though I don't want to kick up a whole new load of bad comparisons). Still there it is Israel has failed to hold control the occupied territories and now to subdue Lebanon. For the Israeli governing class, who have only ever managed to organise their state on the basis of a permanent cycle of victories and advances, this is very bad news.
For Jews and Arabs in the Middle East, the best solution is to take the politics out of the relationship between the communities, if that is possible. Both Palestinians and Jews have been made surrogates for other goals - Arab nationalism, and Western imperialism. Better for both if they can learn to relate on another basis altogether, though right now the Israeli state can only tend towards more and more hysterical actions, especially as the US support is not as solid as it appears. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20060902/238c9cf6/attachment.htm>