One needs to ask why the 600,000 illegal settlers in the West Bank, who are there against rules of the Geneva Convention, are a problem that the Palestinians need to solve.

The Israeli government, against the rulings of the UN and international law, has allowed them entry, supported them and defended them.

It is heartening to note for the first time every the US State Department has begun listing West Bank settler violence as 'Terrorist Incidents'.

Israel needs to solve this issue rather than continue to add to it by announcing new illegal settlements.

As to the quote purportedly from Abbas saying “I'm willing to agree to a third party that would supervise the agreement, such as NATO forces, but I would not agree to having Jews among the NATO forces, or that there will live among us even a single Israeli on Palestinian land”. It is difficult to find any mention of it, either in Israeli media outside opinion pieces or international media.

It appears it originated in a Palestinian newspaper and was corrected within days by the same organisation. He apparently said “I will not agree that an Israeli, even if he is a Muslim, will be present on my land, but I’ll agree only (to the presence) of a third party.”

Where it got hyped over a month later was in an opinion piece by Jonathan Halevi, who is a senior researcher and fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, published here; http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3929819,00.html

The Center could be viewed as their version of our Institute of Public Affairs and according to Wikipedia “advocates the Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem and its lasting control of the West Bank and Golan Heights” and “opposes a unilateral Palestinian drive toward statehood”.

Perhaps though getting these things right are not what Mr Halevi nor Mr Singer are about.

So the Pope's pulling a rug from under the racists and they're getting desperate! Maybe they're sensing a tectonic shift as the world loses patience with their ambitions, their racism, their arrogance, their fluid borders, their incessant grabgrabgrabbing of Palestinian land for new race-based settlements. A secular, democratic, non-racist state (indeed almost any state)is a better future than an Islamic one, but if their intransigence leads to an Islamic future with Sharia Law then at least one can say it couldn't happen to a nicer mob.

Mr Singer, you must read Shlomo Sand's "The Invention of the Jewish People.". A historian who cuts the cackle. The Zionist narrative promotes "ethnocentricity" (racism being such an ugly word for the same thing) and the key to that is to elide the proselytisation of the Kazars from history. Professor Sand demonstrates that that just won't wash. Read it, Mr Singer, you'll love it. $10 as a Kindle edition from Amazon - Kindle for PC is a free download.

Btw, the nomination of Chuck Hagel as US Defence Secretary is another straw in the wind. The US blank cheque is looking as if it could begin to grow strings!

"It appears it originated in a Palestinian newspaper and was corrected within days by the same organisation." Just a slight misprint perhaps?

A revision of the Fatah Facebook page that illustrates a map of the 'new' Palistinian state wherein Israel has somehow ceased to exist is a slight misprint as well; know, the page glorifying Saddam Hussein, the bloke that gassed his own population.

I am sure that the Pope is fully aware of the desire of Abbas to negotiate in good faith and respect with Israel in finding a just solution for both people.

I am equally sure that the Pope, in ignoring previous agreements between the Vatical and Israel, is also some sort of easily explained misprint or mixup!

{{So what was Moussa hoping to achieve by his petulance in Petra? Clearly he is very frustrated as he sees the Roadmap disappearing down the diplomatic drain as the Arabs continue their intransigent demands that Israel return to the June 4, 1967 borders and that 450,000 Jews pack up and vacate their homes.}}

- David Singer, 1 July 2008

{{The Pope was apparently unaware that the only matter left to be negotiated between the parties as a result of "this initiative " was the timing of the eviction of 600000 Jews currently living in this " State of Palestine" as defined by the General Assembly.}}

- David Singer, 8 January 2013

So where there's a will there's a way. At this civil rate of migration of 150000J/4.5y, once Israel changes its direction it should now take 18 years for the problem to be peacefully solved by 2031. Had the direction changed at the time of Singer's first quote (http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7555&page=2), that time would be halved and the process completed by 2022.

One of my friends lives in the Eastern occupied part of Jerusalem. Those who oppose Israel may therefore condemn him as a "Jewish settler", one [plus family] of those bloody 600000 - but do those who support Israel believe that Singer is protecting the poor guy?

No! My friend hates the place, hates being there, always considered it Arab/foreign land, always voted against it, but when the government offered him a brand new 4-bedroom apartment across the border for the price of his old 2-bedroom apartment in Western Jerusalem that had rusty leaking water-pipes, given his poverty and growing family he reluctantly succumbed and accepted. Surviving on a very modest government salary, he is still waiting for the compensation package that will allow him to escape back home to Israel. Will the world help him to have his day?

#To csteele

1. The 600000 Jews are living there because they have the right to do so under the Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the UN Charter.

2. The article you refer to by Jonathan Halevi was published on 4 August 2010 just one week after Abbas's remarks were published - not as you allege "over a month later"

That article had appended to it the following note:

"Note: Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency published on July 28 its version of Abbas’ briefing to the Egyptian media, quoting him as saying: “I'm willing to agree to a third party that would supervise the agreement, such as NATO forces, but I would not agree to having Jews among the NATO forces, or that there will live among us even a single Israeli on Palestinian land”. This version was reprinted by Palestinian newspapers al-Quds and al-Hayat al-Jadida on July 30 and by other Arab newspapers.

A few days later Wafa published a new version of Abbas’ interview to the Egyptian media, where he was quoted as saying: “We have no objection to the presence of a third party after the (Palestinian) state is established, and we don’t oppose that the third party will be NATO or any other force. However, I will not agree that an Israeli, even if he is a Muslim, will be present on my land, but I’ll agree only (to the presence) of a third party. The reason for that is stemmed in the fact that the Israeli is the heir of the occupation, while the presence of the third party is temporary as are the Multinational Forces in your country (Egypt) and UNIFIL in Lebanon.”

Whichever version you adopt - Israelis - Arabs and Jews - will not be tolerated in the "State of Palestine".

Abbas heads an organization whose Charter proclaims its hatred of Jews

Abbas is desperately seeking to reconcile with Hamas who also have nasty views about Jews.

Doesn't sound like anyone in the PLO or Hamas likes Jews,

Whenever are you going to get things right?

Abbas was outlining his conditions for who could be present in a “negotiated” Palestine which was some sort of Bantustan archipelago separated from Israel. Neither translation Mr Singer quotes makes sense (any more than does a two state "solution"). There is no good reason why Jews or anyone else should be excluded from the separate "state" PROVIDED their sole allegiance was to that state and not the state of Israel. This is probably what Abbas was saying - in other words a separate Palestine would not be host to any illegal settlements for foreigners.

Hamas' position, a more just one, is that a separate state could be no more than interim pending a Palestine for all people with a birthright there.

Here's the numbers within Israel's current borders (borders as of this week, before the next and the next and the next grab) excluding Gaza and what's left of the West Bank.

1. Those with a birthright to live there:

1a. Already there:
*Israel-born Jews 4 million
*Palestinians 2 million

1b. In waiting:
*Exiles 5 million

2. Those with NO birthright there:
*Settlers born elsewhere, transmigrated on racist grounds: 2 million.

Mr Singer has claimed that
§ Hamas has "nasty views about Jews"
§ Fatah's Charter "proclaims its hatred of Jews"

I would be astonished if he could support that with chapter and verse. Zionists are apt to lie – their entire programme is founded on a lie. Read Professor Sand’s book. Rebutting the lie is described by liars as “nasty views about Jews”, or “hatred of Jews”. Sand’s rebuttal of the lie is of course “self-hatred” as the professor is an Israeli Jew