I would suggest that to even begin to talk about peace in this part of the world we should stop referring to it as the "Holy" Land.

In Reality it is no more "holy" than any other geographical location.
In 2011 it is much more like a vast lunatic asylum - one of the most benighted places on the planet.

When was the last time a truly Holy person or Divine Incarnation (man or woman) appeared there? A Holy person who taught and demonstrated unconditional love.

Speaking of women none of these three traditions are even hospitable to the idea of a female Divine Incarnation or even Saint.

"only a negotiation in which all of Jerusalem is placed on the table will suffice"

Forget it! Do you seriously consider the residents of western-Jerusalem ever ceasing to be part of the state of Israel?

Let the border be put back in place.
Let Jordan take back its land and resume its guardianship over the "holy" places.
Let Jews who want to visit their "holy" wall, be allowed to visit there with passports and visas.
Let the rest of the world be firm and not wait for those silly endless negotiations, just say: "You're on that side of the border, You're on the other side, stay there and no more quarreling!"

I can't see much chance of anything changing in this conflict until both sides are willing to compromise. However that won't happen until pressure is placed by the Super Powers that "Enough is Enough!" Nothing will change until then.

For peace to commence the truth must be told and applied.

Please, watch the following video here: http://www.israpundit.com/archives/32368

Dr Jacques P Gauthier, a lawyer who specializes in international law and who wrote a 1400 page book about the legal status of Jerusalem which includes 3000 foot-notes -- a 20 years research. He says: “Jerusalem legally belongs to Jews” And he is not Jewish.

The link above is a must watch video if one seeks the truth.

And please, be aware, Jordan illegally occupied Judea and Samaria after 1948. King Hussein never went to pray in the holy-mount because Mecca is the holy shrine of the Muslims. And further more according to international law and historically Judea and Samaria is also legally belong to the Jews. go to www.CILR.org and see other links there.

Palestine indeed is equaling Israel, the Hebrew State. Also, there was never such people-hood called "Palestinians" and they do not exist even as we speak; they are Arabs who mostly came en mass in the early 1920's when the Jews began to reestablish their ancestral homeland. Many of the Jews return to their homeland in the mid to late 19th century joining the Jews who never left that land.

And why should the Hebrew State carve the 23rd Arab country from the spec of land it has? Let the Arab world absorb their own, they have enough land and resources.

Truly enough with the Arab world greed, lies and hatred. They have received 99.9% of the land mass that fell in the hands of the allies after WWI. But that is not enough for them, they want it all, they want America too, they want Islam to rule the world.

Truly shame on the Arab world. Only if they cherish the Jewish people they would prosper and not be so backward, I think. Indeed it is a miracle that Israel exist and excelled despite the horror she has endured by her intractable enemy, the Arabs along with the Jew haters.

Peace to all,

p.s. Personally, I care less about anyone's religion but I respect it.

Dear Terryr,

I agree that there are no Palestinian people as such. The Arabs which live in israel and around, at least those who cultivate the lands (as opposed to Beduin nomads) are primarily the descendents of the original Jewish population who held tight to their land all through the past 2000 years, but converted to Islam over the centuries following the Muslim invasion in order to avoid the heavy tax on non-Muslims. As such, BTW, they are entitled to their land at least as any other Jew.

In any case, this whole notion whereby land should belong to one nation or another, sounds feudal and is indeed only a source of too many feuds. It wrongly presumes that life is a game of monopoly where the winner is the one who owns most lands. A much healthier approach is that the land belongs to the people who live on it (and/or financially own it) and further, the whole concept of nations is outdated, unnecessary and detrimental. It is true that people who live in a certain area, especially if they have some common lifestyle, may form states for convenience and protection, but that's only a practical arrangement, nothing to do with ideology nor a good reason to identify oneself with a group.

P.S. Why would you mention "religion" in the last sentence? those silly national quarrels have nothing to do with religion, even while both national sides often abuse the name of "religion" to further their land-grabbing greed.

Whatever else can be said about the Jewish state of Israel is that it is essentially a welfare state propped up and paid for by the much suffering USA taxpayers.

All of the conservative, orthodox and ultra-orthodox "settlers" depend on the welfare state. Many/most of the men do not work (they study the Torah instead) and who are exempt from military service are effectively on social welfare benefits paid for by the taxpayers of the USA.

Which is doubly and tragically ironic because the remnants of what there was of a welfare state in the USA are rapidly being demolished - even more so in the immediate future with the GOP now controlling the House. Even by those who have an open ended commitment to keeping the status quo in place in Israel.

Ho Hum,

The ultra-orthodox and the settlers are totally different groups, so the economic problems that you describe, while interesting, have nothing to do with this subject of peace, war and the status of Jerusalem. Note that, as opposed to the settlers, most of those ultra-orthodox Jews are anti-zionist and some even consider themselves Palestinian!

As for the American support and Israel supposedly being a "welfare state", all that support accounts for about a sixth of Israel's enormous defense budget. Had there been peace, Israel could have been prosperous and financially-independent DESPITE its ultra-orthodox issue.

Talking about finances, the real big and unresloved issue is who's going to open their purse to pay for compenstaing the settlers with alternative housing within Israel. Once you find that donor, the middle-east problems would be half-over.

First question I always ask - have you ever lived in Jerusalem or its environs, Ms Haidary? You may get good marx for your idea of borderless nations but, oh dear, you have much to learn, especially about that part of the world and Jerusalem in particular.

I suspect - if your name is not a pseudonym - that you are an Islamist apologist, and judging by what you've written, it's just another variant of a false premise put out by the terrorist organizations, HAMAS and the PLO (which now called itself the 'Palestinian Authority'). Your article contains a number of blatant lies. HAMAS and the PLO have absolutely no intention of any kind of peaceful coexistence with Israel. There 'Charters' (Constitutions) demand the total destruction of the State of Israel, and HAMAS goes further and advocates (and attempts) the total genocide of all Jews (and the expulsion of Christians).

If you lived in Gaza, you'd be under Sharia law and wouldn't be allowed to attend university and your husband / male family members could beat you at will for any perceived infringements of their misogynist ideology.

The Jerusalem / Gaza / 'Palestinian' issue has nothing to do with land or new building in Jerusalem - it's a death struggle between cultures; liberal, Western, democratic Jewish / Christian vs medievalist, Eastern, autocratic theocratic Islamist supremists.

"it's a death struggle between cultures; liberal, Western, democratic Jewish / Christian vs medievalist, Eastern, autocratic theocratic Islamist supremists"

- Good observation, except that some of the Jews are in the other camp. They are not Islamist of course, technically, but had they been in power you would practically feel hardly different under their rule than under the Hamas in Gaza.

About half of the Jewish settlers live where they live for the explicit mystical purpose of bringing over their Messiah, and once that Messiah comes you can forget about anything liberal, western or democratic - he will establish a masculine, authocratic, theocratic, supremist regime just as in Gaza and Iran. You may consider that a nonsense superstition, but once the settlers have the numbers, they would in fact be unable to resist the temptation to crown one of them as "Messiah", who will then start a rule of terror.

@ RichardJoachim

Hi Richard.. I was banned for a month before I had a chance to address your concerns about various issues expressed on the State Sponsored Jew hatred thread....

I'm happy to do that, but not here.. as I might be sin binned again.

You can write to me at adl777@y7mail.com

Hope to hear from you soon.
cheers