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Don't know if anyone reads this so much later, but I had to respond to a few things. 1st, Peter, Muslims aren't a monolithic society (even beyond Sunni/Shi'a), & not all Muslims do the kinds of things you list. Unfortunately, the ones who do are the ones we hear about. And yes, understanding is a 2-way street, but that means both parties are responsible for how they drive on it. It's not an either/or question. Finally, I'm sorry to see you're back to saying "Palestinians" rather than specifically Hamas use children as human shields.

2nd, hjs, barely 30 years ago, women in the US were reluctant to report being raped, because of the humiliating way they were treated by the police & the courts & had their names reported by the media & their reputations ruined. Yeah, it's backwards, but we're not so far ahead of those societies.

OK, I've got more, but I already lost this post once & I don't have time to get into te rest, esp. since at this point nobody may see it!

The way I see Jews are hating Muslim and openly cursing Muslim. I don't see any mutual respect. I see a war need to exploded. Once, Jews influence will die out they need to watch out. The way they are behaving toward Muslim and these disgraceful Jews were protected by Muslim for thousand years and now they are dancing on our blood. I don't see their any mutual respect. I see a bloodied war nothing else.

I deplore the alleged criminal behavior of the CIA Station Chief in Allegeria. If guilty, he should be punished.
But conservative and radical Islamic cultures are responsible for more suffering by women in their societies, than anything an American has done to them: Genital mutilation, severe restrictions on movement, stoning for showing an ankle, denial of education and employment opportunities, severe abuse within the family, denial of legal rights, even murder of women and homosexuals - not counting being blamed for being raped!
How about doing something about Shia and other Islamic groups' treatment of women?? Western feminists orgs have been working for years to relieve some of this suffering. What is your guests' news organization doing about it? Does it even REPORT it?????

the US supports the oppressive arab dictators. you know the history. wouldn't the world be better if in 1917 after the west craved the turkish empire up they 'created' one democratic arab republic instead of the mess they left us with?

on the other point being blunt can persuade some into rethinking their stand. calling a spade a spade. sure some will hold there stand, look at the people who want the 1950's back but smart people are willing to hear other POVs and rethink.

hjs,

your argument is fair, except, I disagree about the 80 years of oppression. I think that the US and Israel actually treat Arabs and Muslims with more respect then their own rulers.
Ask any Arab if he would rather be in Israel or Lebanon, most will choose the former.

peter
OK [but i don't think anyone is persuaded by me anyway and i don't know that i was trying to persuade anyone]
"effort to re-establish mutual respect " is not an apology but the USA has supported dictators for the last 80 years
would you say this contributes to the medieval culture of the middle east and the impotency of muslim men, instead of apolozing we should stop supporting oppressive governments.
2nd we should not expect people to act like adults or human beings if we don't treat them like human beings.

hjs,

I would call it wrong, abusive, misguided, oppressive and backwards too. As I said, I think you are right, I just don’t think that such language persuades. But I also use strong language so your point is very well taken.

The bottom line for me is that with all of America's faults, we are heads and tails above any other country in regards to freedom. We don't owe the Middle East an apology, that much is certain.

peter
OK what would u call it?
(coming from u this is rich after all the things you've said over the past weeks)

Adam,

It is possible that more civilians died then Hamas terrorists, but so what, the civilian deaths were caused by Palestinians using their own children as human shields. That is sad and a tragedy, but it is not Israel’s problem, that is a Palestinian moral issue. The Palestinian elected government should be prosecuted for war crimes because of their public call to use children as human shields.

hjs,

My heart says you are correct on this, but calling people backwards will certainly not persuade.

Laiah
is hearing someone else's point of view "kowtowing"
when the west and israel starts treating the people of the arab world as if the were human beings and adults then we will be able to start moving away from this 80 year mess!

Your guest made two false comments that you did not reply to :

A) that Iranian weapons were not being used against Israel in significant numbers; and

B) that most of the Palestinian fatalities in the Gaza War were civilians.

You need to fact check and follow up on this interview.

there will never be peace in the middle east as long as the USA is supporting dictatorships

peter
sorry
if u've ever read anything i wrote u know i support human rights everywhere, all the time.
blaming a woman for being rape is always backwards to me.

why do you guys kowtow to the Arab media? Laiah Raphael

Golda Meir once said (a long time ago) that there will never be peace in the Middle East until the Arabs begin to love their children more than they hate the Jews. Laiah Raphael

ebun,

Trying to understand Muslims is very different then having to “re-establish” mutual respect. Perhaps understanding is a two way street? The summary of this show was clearly making it US responsibility to apologize when in fact it is the Muslim world that has a lot to think about.

Wow hjs, a rare momoent of us agreeing, except, the word "backwards" is a bit strong, but from you, it says a lot.

At what point did America *not* become a colonial power? There were people here when Europeans came. I think Native Americans/Mexicans would think there is a colonial history. Hawaii, the Phillipines, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guantanamo Bay? Certainly a slightly different take on colonialism but only slightly.

BHO said "america was not born as a colonial power" tell it to the natives who were living here

peter..they should apologize for their way of life? we may not understand it but the things you list are just the way things are and rather than demand change, we can start by understanding the muslim world..

"rape brings shame on the victim." sounds like a backwards culture to me.

I find the intro to this segment poorly worded, inaccurate and offensive. President Obama does not have to “re-establish mutual respect with the Muslim world.” Perhaps the Muslim world needs to re-establish respect with the West, but it is just wrong to suggest that the West or the US has disrespected Muslims. Muslims could start re-establishing respect with the West by:

Apologizing for S. Rushdie,
Apologizing for the lack of democracy and freedom,
Apologizing for treating gays and lesbians even worse then the US,
Apologizing for inventing international terrorism,
Apologizing for killing reporters,
Apologizing for loosing their minds over Mohammed cartoons,
Apologizing for supporting the use of Palestinian children as human shields,
Apologizing for institutionalized anti-Semitism,
And the list goes on and on…