If indeed "Israel is the only democracy in the ME" that fact is completely useless as a defence of the policy of slow annihilation of the Palestinians. Are Israel's human right violations, all developed and committed after proper parliamentary procedure, somehow sanitised by the process?

The USA is a great democracy which has committed an alarming number of atrocities in the course of its history and gross errors of judgement, one of the most despicable, is its uncritical support of Israel.

'[PA] in breach of its obligations under the Oslo Accords and the Roadmap...'

You really have no shame. Is there any part of the Oslo Accords or Road Crash that the Israeli's kept?

We can only hope that one day there will be a one state solution where Palestinians and Israelis live together. European jews of no relation to their semetic cousins (both Jew and Arab) will continue to form the ruling class but at least the Palestinians won't have to live under occupation and Israli arabs won't have ot submit to Nuremburg type racial purity laws.

We can only hope Iran gets a couple of hundred nuclear bombs. At the moment Israel has complete military supremacy and so will never make peace. Only when they are really challenged will there be real peace.

Apparently the French gave Israel important nuclear secrets when developing their bomb. Maybe in a decade or two when muslims are rising through French society, French muslims will help Iran.

Either way, as an ethnically pure Jewish state, Israel will not last. All states built on such inequality fail eventually.

David Singer why do you not live in Israel ?

Australia has over a hundred nationalities and religions which have a high degree of tolerance and co-operatio.Why cannot God's chosen people get along with one? ie the Palistinians.

Geoff of Perth:

“Israel is a fascist state, ruled and run by fascists, and a falsely established state by the British at the end of WWII”

Incorrect. Israel was established by a UN resolution, DESPITE British objection. The Brits preferred supporting the Arab states at the time as a way of maintaining their influence in the Middle East.
Do you consider a UN resolution to be “false”?

Regarding the "fascist state" claim:

"Fascists seek rejuvenation of their nation...through a totalitarian single-party state"

(Wikipedia entry for Fascism)

Seems to me like this definition is suitable for most of the states in the Middle East - except for Israel.

“The state of Israel was established to retain British and US interests in the Middle East…”

As I mentioned, the Brits were actually against it. The US had mixed feelings as well, and in 1948 tried to convince Israel to postpone independence.

“Jews in Israel should be thoroughly ashamed of their apartheid government”

Other than re-using a popular slogan, do you actually know what apartheid means?

Regarding Israeli attacks in Gaza and Lebanon: these attacks were in response to terror attacks from these areas into Israel. Any independent country is expected to defend its citizens from foreign attackers. It is the continuous rocket attacks into Israeli territory that trigger Israeli response, not the other way around.

Regarding the expulsion of Palestinian Arabs from areas in Israel, yes, unfortunately it did happen. But so did the expulsion of Jews from the Arab Middle East – I don’t see you shedding a tear for them, or even acknowledging their existence.

“Israeli democracy a myth… [because] the September 4 Israeli elections have been cancelled”

You are confusing political games with the idea of democracy. The elections in Israel were scheduled to take place late next year. Netanyahu believed he has a good chance to improve his position if he goes for early elections now, but changed his mind when Mofaz joined his coalition. The elections will take place as originally scheduled, late next year. Political games, like in any democracy.

I look forward to your clarifications

Well we have the usual group here ... and another

Geoff of Perth,

You know nothing about Israel/Palestinian history; you write about fascism and apartheid ... clearly you know nothing of these either. To write 'apartheid' in the same sentence as Israel is to diminish, even negate, the terrible experiences of those who suffered under it in South Africa.

You plagiarize - an unforgivable sin ... and not intelligent either. Your argument consists of uncritically taking whole chunks and regurgitating from:

http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=19294 and
http://911caper.com/tag/media-coverup/

The sites speak for themselves ... 911caper a conspiracy site. You now share the same page with Arjay.