Kumars, I am glad to see your post from May 2 when you say you are against the policies of the Isreali government but not against the concept of the State of Isreal. I suspect that part of the flak you are catching may be related to a miscommunication of your ideas. That would be unfortunate because I think it is useful for everyone to have a sincere debate about this long-standing and troubling conflict. Specifically, I for one have a no problem with your above statement, but do object very much to your repeated use of the word genocide in reference to the policies of the Isreali government. The Webster definition of genocide is "the systematic killing or extermination of a whole people or nation" and the word was first applied to the attempted extermination of the Jews by Nazi Germany. (An attempt which came very close to success, given that half the World population of Jews was killed, with a near complete elimination of European Jews.) Note that genocide does not include the horrible "collatoral" damage which occurs during every war. It does not even include the purposeful murder of civilians by soldiers during war, either on a small or large scale, as in a massacre by out of control soldiers or on a smaller scale by individual soldiers. It does not incude purposeful but terrible policies- for instance the fire bombing of Dresden during World War II or, for a more relevant example on a much more individual scale, the targeted killing of Palestinians by the IDF. It does not even include tageted killings of certain ethnic groups- for instance the killing of Jews during the pograms of Eastern Europe. Rather the definition of genocide is very clearly restricted to the purposeful and systematic implementation of a system for killing a large fraction of a particular population. Unless you can show me evidence of mass graves, of crematories with the ashes of large numbers of the Palestinian population, and demographics showing that a significant fraction of the Palestinian population has disappeared, I will accuse you of using this word improperly. If this improper use is unintentional then you should be more specific and precise in describing exactly what you hate about Isreali policies and actions. My guess is that if you do this you might indeed find common ground with some of your fellow students who have been giving you a hard time. But if this is intentional, then you will continue to be accused of Anti-|Semitism as the only apparent explanation for your choice of language. Andrew Belmont