Have they “succumbed” to the government's argument, or do they share the government's assertion? Unless  Alon Ben-Meir  has a unique insight into the minds and thoughts of all Israelis, he is talking through his hat; merely stating his own opinion as to whether or not Israel should continue self-defence measures against Iranian-backed terrorisim.

Israelis viewing the 'occupation' as a “a gross violation of Palestinian human  rights”?

Oh yes. Worrying about the 'human rights' of a people sworn to wipe Israel off the face of the earth!

It is a sick joke for Ben-Meir to be yapping about Israel's refusal to cooperate with a Palestinian state when the Palestinians and their Iranian backers do not believe that Israel has any right to exist.

What cranky, Left-wing balderdash!

First, Israel's electoral system is BY FAR more democratic than Australia's.

The problem in Israel is its demographics. The nationalist camp is carrying the fight through the womb and now commands the majority in the Knesset. While others prefer to get rid of the cursed territories, many have other overriding priorities, such as economic, religious and anti-religious.

The Palestinians' insistence on destroying Israel (something they are only able to talk about, not do anything, ever) does not help the situation either, but ultimately the occupation is an internal Israeli problem and they are not side to it.

So realistically, a two-state solution where Israelis remain within Israel's proper borders and Arab-Palestinians are kept outside, is no longer feasible since nobody is able to oppose the mighty settlers which have multiplied and grown like cancer. However, it is still feasible to have a three-state solution (the third-state being Gaza) where the Jewish settlers remain in the West Bank and Eastern-Jerusalem as a separate state along with the local Arabs - there it's completely up to them whether they make peace with each other or fight each other to the bitter end, but in any case Israel would be out of it and it would no longer be its business.

The author must bitterly remember that it was not the Jewish settlers, but the Left socialist political parties which started the occupation, it was them who were eager to keep the land, its nationalist symbols and the wealth of archaeological artefacts under its ground, it was them who failed to give that cursed land up until 1977, when they lost control of government. They had 10 years to rid of it, but they've done the opposite.

There are some unfounded assumptions underlying the desiderata in Dr Ben-Meir's essay overlapping those of his political opponents. For example:

#1 that the inhabitants of Israel are a nation
#2 that Jews, within or outside Israel, are a nation
#3 that Israel has any right to exist, let alone exist outside its borders.

There are dozens of homelands in which the status of Jews is indistinguishable from that of the rest of the population (Australia is one of them).

Reader comments seeking to identify a Left (and presumably a Right) totally ignore what Dr Been-Meir has written and are merely iggo dog whistles replacing reality with meaningless invented categories. To be expected of the usual suspects of course.

Sorry, Dr Ben-Meir not Dr Been-Meir.