What influence could the leader of a tiny party of extreme left-wing ratbags like the Greens have on Palestinian/Israel relations? Even people in the rest of the world who have actually heard of Australia would not know or care about the Greens.

Sorry, but I think this stuff is really quite silly.

A brand new leader has definitely got his hands full and overflowing with far more imperative domestic issues, than get in anyway involved with the centuries long and insoluble, tribal, God bothering Middle East disputes!

The only thing of any real consequence that Richard seems to have missed, is actually identifying himself a a genuine thinking pragmatist carved from a very different mold than either of his predecessors?

Rather than just another, even more power hungry, can't see the forest for the trees green Ideologue; chomping on the bit for even more unrepresentative preference massaged and manipulated, power and influence?

I mean and think a bit, Richard leads a party which has a long history/tradition of doing preference deals on both sides of the political spectrum, just to maximize the seat count; nothing else.

Least of all an actual democratic outcome or courage of conviction/standing fast for your core beliefs!?

If only Labor would follow the example of a vastly more pragmatic Victorian liberal party and preference almost anyone else; meaning,the tail wagging the dog greens, could be reduced to maybe two or three senators?

And little if any real influence, let alone the new Leader becoming a new Solomon for the Middle East!

I've heard it said, you can always tell a Victorian, but you can't tell em very much!?
Rhrosty.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale has to contend with some hardline 'Watermelons' undermining him day and night.

The 'Watermelon' faction believe in preferential treatment, examples being preferential victimhood eg., alleged 'Stolen Children always trump State Wards (who should never be mentioned lest they take some limelight away from indigenous) and anti-Jewish, religious fundamentalists such as Hezbollah and Hamas (all good, apparently!).

Richard Di Natale is confronted not just by the lunar Greens 'Watermelons' but the dated idealism of the organised Left. -Whose views have not matured in the decades most have been out of university. That is despite mountains of evidence that their undergraduate opinions, still held, were idealistic and wrong. The left feeds off itself and that is a problem.

How often does one have to remind the leftists that freedom, equal and so on mean just what the Oxford dictionary said they meant and the warped Marxist spin was and is cow fertiliser?

Asking Palestinians to recognise a Jewish state is too emotionally loaded, like showing red to a bull. To break the impasse and save their face, they should only be asked to acknowledge that Israel is a non-Arab, non-Muslim state and that within a peace agreement they clearly renounce all plans and intentions to ever make Israel an Arab/Muslim state. That's practically as good in terms of safeguarding the safety of Israeli citizens, which is all that really matters. It may seem the same to you or to the Greens, but it's not the same for the Palestinians even if the difference is only semantic. The Palestinians are also correct in claiming that it's none of their business to define what Israel is.

After all, it's only for the Israeli citizens to define what their state is: suppose they will decide one day that remaining Jewish was a mistake, even then it's extremely reasonable to assume that they would never wish to replace their Jewish lifestyle with the Arab/Muslim lifestyle.

The greens should leave all that to the internation brigade. Focus on areas that concern Australia.
For what it is worth pull down that wall and work with all instead of saying this land was given to us by God it is our right.
A lo ad of bollocks.

An insightful and pragmatic article regarding
the Israeli, Palestinian situation.

The article states that 20% of people in Israel are
Arab. They are there for the same reason people
are fleeing to Europe. Israel is a shining,prosperous
well run country.

Palestine on the other hand is the usual kind of poverty,
stricken, hell-hole, caused by years of oppression of the
people by various religious tyrants and fundamentalist fanatics.

The Arabs can see how the Jews live on the other side of the
wall, because of their capable ability to run a country and they
are desperate to take all the prosperity they can see in Israel.

There were 15tunnels trying to get into Israel during the last
Arab attack on Israel. Their actions speak louder than their
words. Voting with their feet.

Had they succeeded, there would have been day and night looting
of Israel until the place was left a ruinous shambles, like
everything else a lot of these muslim fanatics touch.

That's why the Arabs don't want a two state solution, they want
what Israel has got. They even send medical emergencies and
births into Israel because Israel has a decent hospital system.

It's the politics of envy on the Arab side.