The president, in my view, was neither unduly raising expectations nor was he trying to undermine the Netanyahu government. What he was doing was appealing to the best instincts of the Israeli people.

For supporters of political reform in the Middle East, the contradictory postures of Samira Ibrahim -- the Egyptian feminist activist who publicly shared her hostile views of America, Jews and Israel -- is an opportunity to address prevalent hatreds and intolerance that endure in the "new" Egypt.

It is clear that however well-meaning the sponsors and researchers of the textbook study may have been, the lack of sufficient historical, social and geopolitical context distort the findings and render this study distorted and counterproductive.

Aside from Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List, which in 1993 so greatly elevated public awareness of one rescuer in particular, the stories of the righteous gentiles who stepped up to make a profound, life-altering choice have been largely forgotten to history.

It is incumbent upon all good people who reject hateful conspiracy theories and anti-Semitism to stand up and speak out, so that these unacceptable views remain marginalized and relegated to the far fringes of society and the darkest corners of cyberspace.

The onus is now on the Palestinians to make the right choice and to return to negotiations. The alternative will leave the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict unresolved and festering with no framework in place to negotiate the issues.

We should also be standing with Israel because if we don't, the scourge of missiles targeting civilian populations will become a world-wide epidemic.

We thought that once the story got out that the filmmaker of was a Coptic Christian, and not Jewish, the conspiracy theory would die down, and the anti-Semitism with it. But instead it has gone viral at warp speed.