Always with the excuses David!

Simply put, the truth is, Israel and or the present government has no intention of ever agreeing to a two state solution!?

Which would forever end the new settlements, and the flood of new Jewish migrants!

Which in turn would eventually hand control of Israel's parliament to the Israeli Arabs!

So keep the half baked excuses coming and Israel's ability to do so, thanks to the funding Israel gets from well heeled Jewish donors around the world!

Perhaps if we have a few more enduring commercial boycotts, of Jewish enterprises, and around the world!?

Perhaps the same old endless eternal excuse making and or obstructionist obfuscation, will be replaced by something new and or REAL!

Even so, and when that occurs, those Jews choosing to remain in Israel, will need all the LOCAL Arab goodwill they can muster!

And given what's happening there now today, very much a forlorn hope!

Like so many rationalists before them, even more will vote with their feet, leaving only the hardliners to duke it out with their surrounding Arab cousins?

What will become of the much vaunted natural home of the Jews then? Well?

Somewhere it is written you can catch more flies with a teaspoon of honey, than a whole jar of vinegar!

Trouble is, the only response by the current Jewish administration is to double up on the vinegar, (pretend to give ground and vastly overdo their responses to the rockets) and with it, double up on the surrounding enemies/loss or support; and the zero sum game!

Might well may we ask, what's justice and fairness got to do with it!?
Rhrosty.

Well, I was never a big fan of negotiations: Netanyahu stated correctly that there is no honest Arab partner for these talks - so why have them?

Israel's withdrawal from the West Bank can and will be achieved by other means. I can only hope and pray that when the day finally comes, it will be an orderly and peaceful retreat and not a stampeding defeat.

I also hope that whoever then ends up on the other side, in the West Bank, will be more deserving than the so-called "Palestinians" as they currently behave. How about, for example, settling 3 million Chinese in their place?

Dear David

Leaving aside the reality of Israel's total reliance on the US for Israel's day to day existence...

Netanyahu thanks all sayanim, including those in Australia, for their dutiful articles.

Sincerely

#Rhrosty

You call the rise of Islamic State and the carnage going on in Syria, Yemen,Libya, Iraq and Lebanon - not to mention terrorist activity in Gaza and the West Bank - "excuses" or "half baked excuses".

Hundreds of thousands of dead and injured Arabs and millions of displaced Arabs in the above conflict zones do not make for an environment conducive to negotiations between the PLO and Israel.

You are whistling in the wind mate - as usual.

#Yuyutsu:

There is one honest Arab partner to negotiate with Israel on the sovereignty of the West Bank - and that is Jordan.

Israel and Jordan could allocate the sovereignty of the West Bank between their two respective States in a relatively short period of time.

Getting them together to redraw the existing boundary between their two sovereign states has been the problem - as international hopes have been banking on the creation of another Arab State between Israel and Jordan. That option has all but disappeared with developemnts in the Middle East over the past twelve months - certainly for the next two and a half years at least until Islamic State has been degraded and destroyed in accordance with President Obama's self-declared timetable.

Even the opportunity for negotiations between Israel and Jordan are fast fading in the sunset as Islamic State and its satellites start focusing their attention on Jordan.

Jordan really needs to negotiate with Israel on the future of the West Bank very soon if it wants to have any hope of ever regaining some of the territory it lost in the 1967 Six Day War.

#plantaganet

If you have nothing to say about the content of my article then I take it you agree with everything I have written.

Coming from you that is high praise indeed.

Thanks.

Dear David,

Jordan is an island of sanity in the middle east.
Jordanians are wonderful and lovely people and I wish them the best, safety and propsperity and a long, happy and healthy life to their beloved majesty King Abduallah.

So I cannot wish them the opposite, which is what they would get if they were stupid enough to re-accept this cursed West Bank which they renounced for good, their nightmare - not their hope. Fortunately, they are not stupid!

As for the Islamic State threatening Jordan, if Israel has any decency left in it, then it should come to help its friend and ally in its time of need - as should Australia.

Dear David

Your article?

As narrow and formulaic as your previous.

You make the complexities of the Middle East simple, minded.

Cheers

Pete

#Yuyutsu

Jordan had no problems with the West Bank when it occupied it between 1948-1967. Why should it be any different now?

Jordan needs to know that friendship is not a one way affair. Jordan is the key to advancing an end to the 100 years Jewish-Arab conflict.
It needs to grasp that opportunity before it slips through their fingers.

If it does Jordan would certainly have Israel as its ally in repelling Islamic State.

Abdullah still has a choice - preservation of the Hashemite regime in Jordan or its eventual overthrow at the hands of Islamic State or even Hamas or the PLO.

I know what I would be doing - negotiating with Israel on the future sovereignty of the West Bank without a shadow of a doubt.

#plantaganet

Wow - more compliments from you:

"As narrow and formulaic as your previous.

You make the complexities of the Middle East simple, minded."

So simple - that even you cannot find fault with anything I have written.

Thanks so much.

Hi David

You are easily pleased :)

Regards

Pete

Dear David,

<<I know what I would be doing - negotiating with Israel on the future sovereignty of the West Bank without a shadow of a doubt.>>

So let's see how such negotiations will go:

Netanyahu: I want the West Bank to belong to Israel, all of It.
Abdullah: The West Bank? Do what you like in there, it's none of our business.
Netanyahu: Since we scheduled a full half-hour for this meeting, do you play chess?

#Yuyutsu

Maybe Netanyahu might reply to Abdullah as follows:

"Your Majesty the West Bank was certainly part of Jordan's business when Jordan occupied the West Bank between 1948-1967 until Jordan lost possession of it by entering the Six Day War. Had your father King Hussein heeded Israel's warning and stayed out of the Six Day War - Jordan - your Majesty would still be occupying the West Bank today. Sorry your Majesty - trying to opt out of resolving a problem that Jordan helped to create is not an honourable approach for you to adopt. Abandoning and leaving the West Bank Arab population - previously Jordanian citizens from 1950-1988 - in limbo land is not an honourable course for you to adopt. Israel is offering you the opportunity to regain control of a substantial part of the West Bank and restore the status quo that existed there in 1967. Are you really going to let this opportunity slip through your fingers? Your fellow interlocutors Arafat and Abbas have done this. Do you really want to follow them?"

Dear David,

What kind of a doctor tells their patient, "well you once had cholera, so why not seize the opportunity and get it again?"

#Yuyutsu

We are not dealing with a doctor-patient relationship here.

We are dealing with the heads of two sovereign independent states talking about the future of a piece of territory that is situated between their respective States which currently has no internationally accepted sovereign ruler.

In these particular circumstances one could expect Netanyahu to tell King Abdullah:

"Once your country had power in an area that the world considers is the key to peace between Jews and Arabs. Here is a chance for your country to return and regain that power in most of that territory after being powerless there for 48 years. You can do this without firing a shot in anger. The Arab population living there will be freed from Jewish control and once again become your citizens and part of the Arab nation. None of that Arab population will have to leave his present home or close down his business. Your great-grandfather and father had made this a reality for 20 years after freeinng the West Bank Arab population from British Mandatory and Jewish control and now you have the opportunity to honour your revered descendants' illustrious memories and their sacrifices in doing so by making it happen again."

Perhaps you can give King Abdullah's response to these remarks and not try to dodge the issue by raising red herrings that have nothing to do with this particular problem concerning the allocation of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) between Arabs and Jews.

Dear David,

This cursed land was also previously held by Egypt, the Canaanites, the Jews, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Seljuqs, the Crusaders, the Mameluks, the Ottomans and the British.

Why not ask them to carry this terrible burden instead of poor Jordan that is already beset with poverty, refugees from Syria and the threat of ISIS? Wouldn't British sovereignty help the sun to never set again on the British Empire? Perhaps it would help the Greeks solve their financial crisis?

Even the local people don't really want sovereignty: they just claim as if they want it for short-term political gain, but back off as soon as an opportunity comes.

Regarding peace between Israel and Arabs, firstly Israel ALREADY has peace with a number of Arab countries. Meanwhile, the world is already waking up from the naive idea as if it there is a territorial conflict: essentially, it boils down to the fact that the Arabs have not forgiven the Western world for its crusaders and some of them would simply never accept the presence of any non-Muslim on the soil of the holy-land, the so-called "Palestinians" being only a pretext.