Arjay wrote: "If Labor had real courage and a sense of justice, they would have voted in the positive for Palestinian recognition."

Absolutely right! It seems Ms Gillard wanted to vote please sir thank you sir and got rolled by her colleagues. It must have taken a major revolt to impel Ms Gillard to disappoint America. It would be interesting to know how many, if any, showed real courage and a sense of justice. Anyone know any Labor insiders?

The key issue here that no-one seems to mention is where Australia's interests lie.

There is an old adage that applied to the Soviet Union during the second world war. It is:

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

The muslim extremists have repeatedly demonstrated their animosity to Australia in terrorist attacks (both implemented and planned) over the past decade.

Israel is the only middle east state with culture and values anywhere approaching Australia's.

The muslim extremists make no secret that Israel is their avowed enemy.

Israel is therefore a natural ally of Australia.

Plerdsus.Have a look at this site.http://ae911truth.org/ It is very unlikely that Muslims had any hand in the 911 attacks.The science of freefall says that it was impossible for 3 buildings at the World Trade Centre to collapse at virtual 9.8m/sec/sec like a rock falling off a cliff.

There is now absolute proof that they had to be a controlled demolition.

Emp Julian:

‘Actual people who lived there’ included both Jews and Arabs. That is why the land was divided between the two peoples. As for the ‘conquests since 1948’ you are referring to, it is very convenient to forget that those ‘conquests’ were made in self defence against the FOREIGN armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria. These foreign armies did not bother with obtaining any UN resolutions, they simply tried to take the country over by force.

“Oil: Israel renders a vital service by keeping the Middle East, even now extending to Iran, in constant uproar and threat”

It’s a simple formula really:

War + turmoil = interrupted oil supply -> price of oil skyrockets
Peace + stability = steady oil supply -> price of oil stable

You should perhaps review the logic of your statement.

Bribery – the need to satisfy the growing population of Middle Easter origin in Australia was specifically cited by the ALP. Do you not consider this as a vote buying exercise (ie bribery)?

“DEMOCRACY, a totally foreign concept to Zionists (and not a comfortable one for Hamas or Hezbollah or even Fatah either)”

You seem to imply that the concept of democracy is more foreign to Israel than it is to Hamas and the PA. Really? When was the last election run in Gaza? In the West Bank?
Other than parroting the usual hysterical cries of lack of democracy in Israel, do you have any evidence to back up your claims?

You support a one-state solution. I seem to remember this solution has already been tried several times around the world. It was attempted in Yugoslavia, how did that experiment turn out for you? How about in Lebanon? India? And you want to try it yet again. Repeating the same thing over and over again and expecting different results – isn’t that the definition of insanity?