very touching
very Human
Thank you very much for getting down to a human level
may God bless you

Dearest Rich

Thank you for the very touching song and the righteous words.
now more than ever the righteous among us need to speak up, and rise above short term politics seeking a long term peace.

once again on behalf of my 3 daughters 1-8 we thank you sincerely and pray that God will bless you and your Emily.

Peace, Salam, Shalom

Absolutely beautiful, Rich. Thank you so much. Your song & playing moved me to tears. You speak for many of us around the world.

Brave, beautiful, kind.
— a Palestinian in Jerusalem

I admire your courage. Not many people have this high level of courage.

Thank you

Rich & Dave,

Words cannot describe what emotions I feel because of your courage, humanity and talent. This is very soul touching and I am not just saying that because I am of Palestinian origins. I have always wondered if real solution was ever possible, your initiative convinced me that there is a real hope for co-existence in peace.

Dearest Richard,
Thank you so much for a beautiful song, strong enough to carry a powerful message that the world and especially Israel needs to hear and feel. Please write the name and dedication of the little angel Abir, in your opening credits. She is the fire in the torch you are holding. The world NEEDS to finally feel, reflect respond to your words.
I also applaud your brave logic, yes, LIKE SOUTH AFRICA. Boycott, isolate. I used to have quite a few "refusenik" friends in Israel, that energy seems to have dissapated. There needs to be a drive for unity on this, I'm a doc filmaker, if I can help, let me know. thank you!!!!

You have touched many hearts. I have shown you DVD to several people in Australia and all of them have been moved. Thank you for adding your voice to amking the suffering of the Gzanz to the world, and exposing Zionism for waht it is.

Beautiful.
Thanks for your courage and thanks for the beautiful song.

thank very much , a very beautiful song , very meaningful too . From a Greek piano student studying Belgium with a god hearted Jewish piano professor ...
Peace , in this lifetime , is possible .

Absolutely ecstatic to meet you Rich. I lived the same lies being raised in a similar family in New Jersey and favored the same perspective also feeling quite confident that those that I was surrounded by as a youth were lied to and hardly responsible.

I know my relatives well. My mother died when I was 6 and my relationship with them was very close as a result as might be expected in an upper middle class Jewish family. Thus, I know they are filled with shame at the behavior of the Zionists, the death and misery, the genocidal dictats. The Jews didn't fight back in the Warsaw Ghetto in any measurable way. I'm glad those in Gaza and the occupied territories do. It's their right.

In spite of these recognitions I wish for peace for not just Gaza but all of mankind.

We are governed by an economic elite that, masterfully, are able to garner public support for the profits they glean from war and political and social instability. Great profits, greater then any of mans other endeavors.

I have often repeated that, "the Sociopaths are in charge of the asylum," and have not only seen no evidence to the contrary but a plethora of evidence to support my conclusions.

Peace

Well, we did a great deal today by commenting and managing public opinion. If we were able to mobilize more people to do just that...

You have a couple of groups. Israel has people, both paid and unpaid making comments across the internet to sway public opinion and they've done this with a public announcement of same, no shame. In fact they've made it clear that these people will not be identifying themselves but acting like regular people making comments.

So, why not do the same? How about starting a Facebook group that keeps tabs on internet posts at mainstream media sites that allow public commentary and play the same game? A group that keeps tabs and then mobilizes with action.

Someone mentioned, where we commented today, that people were coming from "somewhere" and swaying opinion and they were right. It was us. Betty did good. Why not make it a policy?

You really left me speechless.
God bless you

Boy, the truth really does ring clear. Thank you.

Hi Rich. I'm grew up in A Zionist home, like you. But I stayed with it. I live in Israel. I won't argue the original sin issue (not that I agree, but there is little point in it).
Your idea of a "multinational country" for everyone sounds nice, but is unrealistic. For one thing- if the Jews still live here on Arab land, how will the need for Justice (in Arab eyes) be fulfilled? You'd have to convince one side to give up on their honor and their sense of justice, and the other to give up on a sanctuary and historic homeland for it to work.
One thing I find highly perturbing is that things were a lot better for everybody not that long ago. 15-20years ago Palestinians worked in Israel. Israelis shopped in Palestine (in Jenin!). Hamas wasn't in Gaza. There was no security fence / "apartheid wall". Not your dream of a multicultural country, but a lot better than today.
Things fell apart, largely because of terror.

Joel- First, this is really for comments on my video and I'd like for it to remain just that. If you want to have an ongoing conversation, that's fine, but please contact me through my web-site. Second, there is something very distasteful about a pissing contest between two Jews about who knows more Arabs. Suggests the racism that we are both at least claiming to oppose.

Your point here, if I can paraphrase, seems to be that Israel has made a variety of offers that you feel are somehow very nice- you haven't used the word justice and I appreciate that. And you think that Israel's very nice offers should result in a sort of peace- with Israel retaining 78% of historic Palestine as a Jewish-exclusivist state on stolen land without allowing the refugees to return, and with an Arab minority which has to suck it up to a Jewish flag, a Jewish national anthem, and generally 2nd class status, while the Arabs in the territories get a non-contiguous micro-state on 22% of what was once all theirs, and they should be satisfied with this.

The Oslo accords were designed to fail. Israel did not then, and does not now, intend to relinquish the territories. Oslo died when Netanyahu was elected, by design of the Israeli voters. "Pulling out" of Gaza, was not pulling out at all. It was a dismantling of settlements, and it was done in Gaza as a smoke-screen for the expansion of settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. "Pulling out" of Lebanon- you use the term "pulling out" so much I think you may be a closet Catholic practicing the rhythm method- should we really CREDIT Israel for pulling out of Lebanon? What do we say about the USA "pulling out" of Vietnam? We say we were defeated. We say we never should have been there in the first place. And these things are of course, true of Israel in Lebanon. We never CREDIT America for pulling out of Vietnam, and yet you want CREDIT for Israel's exit from Lebanon.

You are failing to look at the root cause of the conflict, and in continuing to fail to consider this, you will continue to be frustrated- believing in a "peace process" which is designed to sometimes be a process, sometimes be nothing at all, but never be about actually bringing peace.

The root cause of the conflict is this: Zionism has been a political agenda to create a Jewish-exclusivist state on stolen Palestinian land. It accomplished its objective in 1948 by making three quarters of a million people homeless through massacres, campaigns of fear, and military forced mass expulsions. Until it addresses this monstrous crime against humanity, until it invites the refugees to return (as it has been required to do since 1948 by UN resolution 194) and until it ends all Jewish-exclusivist laws and policies- until it becomes the land of all its rightful citizens and actually BECOMES the democracy it has pretended to be for 62 years, it will not have peace. Peace will come with justice. It's that simple. And you would rather choose to believe that there is justice in pretending to offer a non-contiguous micro-state on 22% of Palestine- and in not even being sincere in that offer. This is your Israel. This is what it has done, what it does, and what it will continue to do until it is actively prevented from doing so. WAKE UP!

You are right- I started the pissing contest. Whether having a conversation with me is "worth the bother" is for you to decide.

Rich, you are a man after my own heart - seeking out the truth wherever it leads. Though I am not Jewish, I've been doing the same for the last couple of years because of the important part the U.S. plays enabling Israeli governments to do as they please. My outrage and shame at what I have been supporting has resulted in a blog that I call Daylight between America and Israel - directed at waking up Americans to the bedtime story we've been told that has put us to sleep as others suffer.

On an emotional subject, your video provides a calm yet quietly passionate statement and it boils down to something so simple, what you call the original sin. So much special pleading has been made in the United States that John Q. Public has almost no idea there is another side to the issue. But that's changing.

You are obviously a very talented musician and a clear thinker. To put one's talents, one's skills, one's best into the service of justice is what the world needs from all of us. Thank you for a powerful contribution!

The blog is at endoccupation.blogspot.com/ and I think you'll like the latest posting : )

BTW - I found the reference to your video in the lastest issue of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, a magazine I always read cover to cover.

What can I add that others haven't already said. You are a very special human being Rich. I too, have an Emily, our precious 7 year old granddaughter. I will share your message.

Good work Rich

Thank you both for stepping up and speaking out.

Also, may I point you to three items:

guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/04/palestinians-secular-state

zochrot.org/en/video/refugees-waiting

amazon.com/Other-Side-Israel-Journey-Jewish-Arab/dp/0007195117/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1312783803&sr=8-2

Courageous and beautiful. Thank you.

AAA+++
This tell it all

Thank you Rich! Your humanity rings clear as the bell that is awakening the world to the plight of the Palestinians right now.