To settle for statehood on a truncated rump of Palestine seems to me to be a short-sighted and desperate solution.
Palestine is one land, currently divided and occupied by European Zionists who continue to marginalise, brutalize and displace the rightful owners of that land - the Palestinians. The Palestinians are the rightful owners of that land by virtue of being the direct descendants of the Jews of Biblical times. They have since converted to Islam, possibly more as a result of the barbarism of the Crusades than from any other reason. But their conversion in no way negates their rightful ownership.
We in the west don't listen to their plight because of a very effective Zionist lobby that has blinded our political leaders to the truth.
It can't last, of course. In the WWII Holocaust, 6 million Jews died in fear and horror, and the Zionists have been dining out on them ever since. Their guilt-tripping of the west over that horror will eventually come to an ignoble end, as will the horrors of Zionist Israel.
But first the current situation has a way to go before it plays itself out. It is, however, running out of steam. The Crusaders occupied the Holy Land for less than 200 years. Zionist Israel may or may not last that long. If only they were to make peace and common cause with all their citizens, rather than build fences and stockpile nuclear weapons....If only!
Meanwhile we can only help the Palestinians as and when we can and wait with them for this injustice to end.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard and others in the Australian Parliament need to be encouraged by all Australian citizens to play a more balanced and constructive role in bringing about a sustainable political and social justice solution in support of Israel and the Palestinian people and the Palestinian state. The recent decision this month to increase the level of Australian aid to impoverished Palestinians is a step in the right direction.

Australia and friends of Israel and the Palestinians can can look at the power sharing model in Macedonia which ended the hostilities in 2001 between the Macedonians and the Albanians. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Halduall says: "Meanwhile we can only help the Palestinians as and when we can and wait with them for this injustice to end."

This injustice against the Palestinians will never end, not while Israel and its imperial bully brother,the U.S. are running the show. And not while Gillard loves all things Jewish. And not while the Jewish lobby has such ownership of the MSM around the world. And not while deranged Christians think they are part-Jewish.

@David G
I think the current injustice will end, if for no other reason than it is so unbalanced. Whenever a dynamic gets this unbalanced, something topples over.
As to the when of it, perhaps not until Judaism confronts its inner Gollum, Zionism.

Ilan Pappé, celebrated Israeli historian and author, explains here - amidst all the other options people have put forth - why the international Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions movement is the best means to end Israel's oppressive occupation and prevent another Nakba: http://bitly.com/LttVtI But it takes courage and much broader participation. We need to get on with it here in Australia.

http://bitly.com/KgUHFC is another good example if an increasing number of rabbinical leaders within Israel who have turned the corner against Zionism and started sharing from the heart about their deep sense of injustice in all this. But this sort of thing has gained very little press in the Western MSM -- at least not here. Share these stories to give more people courage!

Jim Barr
"The sooner Israel realises it has no option other than to make peace with its Arab neighbours, the better it will be for all"

So what about the Palestinians constantly launching rockets into Israel?
Do they have some responsibility to make peace as well?

How exactly does an occupied people make peace with their brutal, nuclear-armed, conscienceless, fanatical occupiers, Aristocrat?

It's rather like cutting off the arms and legs of a person then telling them to swim!

Dear David,

I take it from your response that you support the launching of rockets into Israel.

<<How exactly does an occupied people make peace with their brutal, nuclear-armed, conscienceless, fanatical occupiers, Aristocrat?>>

By making their enemies even more brutal, more fierce, more conscienceless, more fanatical?
Well, that's what they've tried so far and look what they've achieved!

They managed to create hell for ordinary Israelis who had nothing against them but good-will, they also managed to drive some good Israelis out, increase the birth-rate of bad Israelis and bring more of them in from America. How charming!

I'll leave it for historians to decide who is right and who is wrong in the middle-east, but it's easy to tell who is wise there and who is a fool - and the Palestinians are NOT on the side of wisdom. If they took Gandhi's non-violent example, they would have had the whole place to themselves decades ago. There would indeed be no Israel if they did, but it's Israel's good luck that those fools enjoy planting bombs and shooting rockets more than they care for their families having a life.

I don't believe that you care either about allowing those poor Palestinians to have a life - for you they are merely pawns in your struggle to create a new world-order.

David G
"How exactly does an occupied people make peace with their brutal, nuclear-armed, conscienceless, fanatical occupiers, Aristocrat?"

A two state solution will work if Hamas and other Palestinian, Arab, and lefty extremists accept Israel's right to exist. This includes ceasing to lob rockets into Israel.
Israel isn't going anywhere so it's best to be pragmatic about the situation and work toward a two-state solution.

@Yuyutsu
"They managed to create hell for ordinary Israelis who had nothing against them but good-will"
Read your history Yuyutsu. Read the link provided by Clair above. The Zionists have NEVER shown good-will to the Palestinians.

"Many of those Palestinians and their descendants are still living in refugee camps in neighbouring countries without rights and without hope". One could also add "and without any criticism of those neighbouring countries by either the UN or the international community, who, like Rev. Bar, seem more interested in finding fault with Israel than finding solutions." Fully half of the population of Israel is made up of Jews that were forcibly expelled from those same neighbouring countries, some from communities that predate Jesus. When will their voices be heard?

Dear Halduell,

<<The Zionists have NEVER shown good-will to the Palestinians.>>

That's not true, because "NEVER" means that there was not ever even a single case of good-will, and I could name a few. However, it's not what I was writing about (so please check it carefully again):

I am not writing about "Zionists", I am talking about ordinary citizens of Israel who are sometimes forced to become Zionists, or indoctrinated in school to become such, only because of the Arab/Palestinian threat. Ordinary Israelis, people who happened to be born there, or brought there as children, people who just want to have a life like me and you, are no less the victims of Zionism.

Bombs, rockets and Muslim extremists are all blind and do not distinguish between a Zionist and other human-beings.

Now for today's major intellectual challenge: Does a Lefty have the capacity to see the difference between a Zionist and an Israeli?

>>And not while the Jewish lobby has such ownership of the MSM around the world>>

LOL

Anyone else here get invited to James Murdoch's Bar Mitzvah?

It was an amazing affair. And young James' (Hebrew name Yakov) recital of his haftorah was flawless.

Man I still remember that gefilte fish. I must remember to ask Rupert where he gets it next time I see him.

:-)

Unfortunately I did not get invited to Saudi Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal's sons' Bar Mitzvahs. I would have loved to attend a Bar Mitzvah in Saudi Arabia.

The prince is a major stockholder in Fox News so he must be Jewish.

I wonder how many more Jewish Saudi princes there are.

@Yuyutsu
I imagine one good way to spot the difference between an Israeli and a Zionist would be to ask each their views on settlements, two-state solutions, rights of return for all, separate highways, house demolitions, and the list goes on.
Having asked those questions, perhaps it would not be so hard to spot the difference. The question then becomes is it possible to spot the difference the Israelis are making on the continuing degradation of Palestine/Israel.
Knowing what we know today about tobacco, it would be impossible to get the initial approval needed for its introduction.
Knowing what we know today about Israel, it would also be impossible to get the initial approval needed for its introduction.
My view is that Palestine/Israel is one land, and until it's governed as one state with one government, it will always be a land tearing itself apart in a civil war.

Dear Halduell,

Many Israelis are driven to Zionism ONLY because of the Palestinian terror. That's a pity and so counter-productive to those who want the pain to stop.

Perhaps you are right in hindsight that Israel should not have been created to begin with, but now it is there, those who formed it are either in their graves or in nursing homes (except the age-defying, nearly 89 y.o. president, Peres) and most citizens were simply born there and know no other home. Neither Zionism nor terror is their fault.

My views specific to your criteria:

Settlements - Absolutely wrong. Ideally remove them, but Israel itself is incapable because it would bring about a civil war which it couldn't survive, so either bring an international force to take the settlers out (but expect heavy casualties); or as the second-best option, leave them there to live (or die) under Palestinian rule.

Two-state solution - Certainly, AT LEAST two, probably more states are needed to accommodate the fundamental differences within both societies.

Right of return - Let those who can prove benevolence return, but one cannot allow hostile elements to enter and destroy one's country from within. Others should be compensated financially, including Jews who were expelled from Arab countries.

Separate highways - Absolutely wrong.

House demolitions - Wrong as a means of stealing land, but it's acceptable to destroy the houses of suicide-terrorists, as it's probably their only posthumous deterrent.

One-state solution - both impossible and undesirable (except for "religious" reasons by Hamas and the settlers). The cultural differences are enormous and it would impose an unnecessary burden and frictions over everyday issues. What will be the state's language? How for example to determine which day(s) of the week are the weekend? or should women be allowed to wear bikini on the beach? Czechoslovakia was split over lesser issues.

I think advocating for the hunger strikers is the worst disservice one can do for the Palestinian people. The majority of the hunger strikers detained in Israeli detention centers are convicted criminals. Cold blooded chid killers are amongst them. Do we really want to blindly follow extremist propaganda and link truly disadvantaged but law abiding Palestinian men, women and children with such people. The strikers on administrative detention are a handful. There are usually solid security reasons for their detention. Many countries have such provisions and singling out Israel for this is disingenuous. Ghandi was a known hunger striker. He never, unlike these deteinees perpetrated or supported violence. Let us not get our symbols of peaceful resistance polluted by supporting violent killers

Compare the current situation in Saudi Arabia, let alone Syria, with that in Israel.
This article is another example of so-called 'Human Rights' groups' aversion to criticism of Arab countries, holding them to a far lower standard than Israel, Australia and the West.

@ Gaggiagirl: Please at least try to get your facts straight! You can't ignore verified statistics. I took 15 seconds to Google for them and immediately was presented with several reports which jived well. Here is one batch of stats collected by Addameer - a prisoner rights organisation - in a chart at the bottom of its home page: http://www.addameer.org/index.php

The detainees' key demands, which are supported by a host of international human rights and prisoner advocacy groups, are an end to imprisonment without trial or charge ("administrative detention"), an end to solitary confinement; allowing families from Gaza to visit prisoners in Israeli jails; access to educational materials; and an end to strip searches and night-time raids on cells. Would you not agree those demands are important for any prisoner - especially in a country that claims to be a democracy - regardless of the charge against them?

The issue of prisoners' rights has strong resonance among the majority of Palestinian families, because most of whom have seen relatives jailed unjustly and without charge over the years.

The current situation: according to the Addameer on 1 May there were 4,635 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, including 308 on administrative detention, seven women and 218 children. Now, just how many of those do you think were violent murderers?

Lest people be unaware of how the state of Israel defines "administrative detention" and how it is practiced in incredibly oppressive ways, take ten minutes to watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQmhk8Z37ek&feature=player_embedded