Elizan says "perhaps those who criticize Jews for simply wanting to have their own State without constant fear of attack by Hamas should be the ones to experience life in the south of Israel before they make such flippant comments."

The vast majority of posters here do not have a problem with Jews wanting to have their own state. The fact is they already do. It is the fact that the Palestinians do not that concerns us. As far as living in fear of Hamas rockets, What of the Palestinians living in fear of the much more powerful and frequently used Israeli rockets, not to mention ,mortars, helicopter gun ships, air raids, house demolitions, extra judicial killings, abductions and arbitrary arrests. When you occupy someones land and treat them badly they will always respond with violence. The fact is that the vast majority of violence is from the Israelis, not the Palestinians.

Elizann says: "And unless we understand this covenant promise made around 4000 years ago we can have no real understanding of Judaism - and, indeed, of the current conflict in the Middle East."

So we inferior Goys just can't understand anything unless we accept superstitious nonsense that is said to have happened 4,000 years ago.

Me, I prefer to live in 2012 and embrace reality which is evidence-based.

Theological fairy tales are for those who need a crutch!

Elizan says "Since the time of Abraham, the Jewish religion has had as its very foundation God's promise to their ancestor "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates" - in other words, a considerably greater portion of land than that in which they currently reside."

Your religious beliefs do not give you a right to take someone elses land. Using it to Justify stealing someone elses land is the same as a fundamentalist Muslim saying their religion justifies killing infidels.

Your bizzare fantasy that you have been given great tracts of land by your imaginary god are about as reasonable as the 20th century German belief that they were a superior race and should therefore control the world. Look where that led.

The Jews have their own homelands, dozens of them. Australia is one of them. Each homeland is a state in which Jews are citizens with every right shared equally by all other citizens, even if David Singer wants something more on the ground of being "special".

Israel's days are numbered, and Mr Singer has correctly sensed that the UN resolution is some very early writing on the wall. The demographic bomb, and the slow erosion of Western patience with Israel's antics and of the region's oil supplies which underlie Israel's usefulness to America, point the way.

Th solution is RETURN. Exiles and foreign settlers to return to their own homelands. The easy way is negotiated creation of a democratic, secular, non-racist state for all who have a birthright to Palestine (all of it) as their home. The hard way if Israel continues to choose it is a nightmare for all, Jews and Arabs and others. Either way, racist Israel is finished.

Graham Y: Marilyn Shepherd posed a perfectly valid question that needs a response. When is OLO going to stop publishing this arrant nonsense from David Singer that is nothing more than ill-informed propaganda? And when are you going to provide space for the Palestinian viewpoint, or if that is too much to expect, some informed and balanced comment such as provided by Juan Cole, Alan Hart or even Robert Fisk?

It is interesting to read the comments from Jewish people in Australia,including the author, with their strong support for Israel.
If Israel is "The chosen land", why do you not live there seeing as you play the religous card
Could it be you may not have the same standard of living, that you enjoy in Australia.