While there is oil in the Middle East, there is no chance that the US will stand by and allow any group to destabilise the governments of their allies, no matter how unpopular they might be with the locals. They have given the Israelis the most up to date weapons to ensure that they have enough force to "take care of business" should it be necessary. No one in the US is the least bit concerned about the fate of the Palestinians. If they were, there would have been an outcry when GW and company refused to recognise that Hamas had legitimately won the election.

The US needs to tread warily in their dealings with Iran. If they don't they might suffer from a reduction in their supply of oil. In this regard, all the other oil states have the whip hand. Oil is what drives the politics of the area, humanitarianism or democracy have nothing to do with it.

It is the Arab world which does not want a peaceful solution to the Israel/Palestine problem. The Palestinians are pawns in a game which diverts attention from problems within several Middle Eastern countries.Iran is the best example.
Why else does no Middle Eastern country other than Jordan allow Palestinians to become citizens?
And why else does the rocket launching increase every time someone mentions peace?

THE ARTICLE IS SEDITIOUS. .. and possibly illegal.

Did anyone see the very last paragraph ?

"There is hope. The Left is quietly rebuilding its support among workers in the puppet countries, waiting for and helping to build the mass upsurges that could send Bush’s allies to the gallows and liberate Palestine."

POINT 1.. This author is confessing that a movement he supports 'The Left' is.. quietly white anting regimes which include Australia's allies by virtue of the Anzus treaty. The allies of OUR Allies are also our allies.

POINT 2. This author is clearly invisaging VIOLENT REVOLUTION. He is referring to the very thing that many of us are claiming is occurring among the Muslim community in Australia 'quietly building and waiting.....'

POINT 3. He is as close as it gets to advocating real genocide when he mentions 'liberate' Palestine. No one, even in their most irrational moments could think that the Radicals among Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Fatah etc would do anything other than mass slaughter of Israelis if they had half the chance.

POINT 4. He has no hesitation in stating the end game "Bush's allies to the GALLOWS"

It seems to me that this author is in reality glorifying terrorism, advocating violent revolution, and is thus infringing the anti terrorism laws.

LONDON 2006 "EXTERMINATE those who insult Islam." (Protest signs)

AUSTRALIA 2008 LIBERATE PALESTINE-allies to the GALLOWS"

ILLEGAL ? This article fosters hatred, incites violence and specifically connects socialist 'hope' with violent revolution and killings of political opponents.

If ever there was a case for the AFP under the terrorism laws, this would be it.

and OLO published it ?

Anyone who says anything critical of Israel in Australia is a brave person. As Anthony Loewenstein found out, to suggest that Israel's policy of extra-judical assasination and collective punishment of a captive population may not be the right things to do, immediately earns one the label of "anti-semetic holocaust denier".

(When it is used in a middle east context "anti-semetic" must be one of the most oxymoronic pejorative terms of all time - given that the majority of semites in the world happen to be arabs).

Boaz_david says the AFP should charge John for terrorism for his article. His logic is a bit unclear but I would remind him that John also wrote an article about the possible class forces that could overthrow the Chinese dictatorship. Presumably the AFP should prosecute John for that article too. Perhaps Boaz_david should have a cup of tea, a bex and a good lie down.

If people think the idea of democratically overthrowing the despots in the Middle East is madness, a strike at the biggest textile mill in the Middle east (27,000 workers) recently saw the workers demand not only an increase in the minimum wage (which hasn't changed since 1984) but also for Mubarak to go.

The day of reckoning for the US supported dictators will come.

The struggle for democracy is not a crime, Boaz_david.

Seneca says:

"It is the Arab world which does not want a peaceful solution to the Israel/Palestine problem. The Palestinians are pawns in a game which diverts attention from problems within several Middle Eastern countries.Iran is the best example.
"Why else does no Middle Eastern country other than Jordan allow Palestinians to become citizens?
"And why else does the rocket launching increase every time someone mentions peace?"

I think it is true that Arab and Muslim regimes in the region do use Israel to divert attention away from their own problems. I doubt in places like Egypt or Syria or Saudi Arabia that it cuts much ice - the regimes have no legitimacy so such bleatings about an enemy carry little weight.

Conversely Israel uses the so-called threat from poorly armed Palestinians to suppress a people and deny them their homeland.

Palestinians want to be citizens of Palestine, not Jordan or Lebanon or Syria or wherever they fled to or were driven to. They want their homes back.

Hamas offered an unconditional ceasefire to Israel. Israel rejected it. Israel now imposes collective punishment on the Gazans. The rockets are the pathetic response of a failed strategy.

Hamas is the democratically elected Government of the Palestinian people. Israel should accept their ceasefire offer. But the Israeli Government does not see it as being in its interests to do so. Far better to confine millions of Palestinians in Gaza so that Israel can send the clear message it rules the area, with US assistance and for long-term US interests (as well as for their own colonial settler state interests).