Barry's recycled his article first printed in The Australian on February 2 so I'll recycle the letter I sent, of course in vain, to The Australian in response:

What is it about those dopey Palestinians, always missing an opportunity to miss an opportunity whenever those wonderful Barak-style offers come their way. As Barry Cohen so correctly points out they've been living in "fantasy land" ever since 1947 (not 48, Barry) when they got that terrific deal from the UN - the partition of their country! How could they not have seen the justice of giving over 50% of their homeland to a colonial minority newly arrived under the protection of British bayonets and who owned only 6% of the land? How could they not appreciate being relieved of the tedium and inconvenience of a nation-wide referendum on the issue? How could they fail to be impressed by the skillful US arm-twisting of the likes of Haiti, Liberia, the Philippines and Paraguay to secure the passage of the partition resolution? Ingrates! And how can we not admire the tirelessness of those such as Barry Cohen who never miss an opportunity to remind us of such wonderful offers?

STREWTH...don't get me started :) you .. you.. my goodness.. there is enough raw material in our own country to fill volumes of 'bad bad history'. Neither you nor I have any safe place to stand where we cannot say "This was someone elses, but we took it". So, don't crow too hard there against the Israelis.

Speaking of Barry.. how EXILERATING it is to hear the voice of one who is a direct blood descendant of no less than 'that ficticious figure of mythology' Aaron the brother of Moses.. (he is another of those 'ficticious' figures).....

Its moments like this, when I rejoice in the evidence before all of us that such people were NOT ficticious, and neither were the likes of Abraham, Isaac or Jacob.

Barry is correct. The clarification of the Palestinian position, is a good thing. Its much easier to deal with an enemy in full uniform in public places than a gurilla in the jungle.

I am looking with interest at the next few months to see if Hamas actually does tone down, well, actually it is REJECT its foundation pillar of destruction of Israel.

a) They reject it.... peace is a possibility, talks can begin. (But they have then morphed into 'fatah' and will alienate their voters.

b) They confirm it... Israel has the legal right to attack the PLO as never before. Every voter who voted for Hamas is an enemy in the military sense of Israel, and must be accountable for that. There is no such thing as 'Innocent' civilians any longer. (Except the Christian Arabs who would not vote for Hamas I'm sure) This goes for Fatah also, as they are in bed with Islamic Jihad etc.. same goal.

Why Israel did not learn from the original "palestinians" the "Phillistines" is beyond me. Perhaps they might review their 'picking off the main culprits' policy ?

I've said it before and I'll say it again. There will NEVER be peace between Israelis and Muslims. The history goes back to Genesis 12 and following.
Read it to find out more about 'why'.

And another thing, Barry, that bit about "the destruction of the state of Israel". Hamas? Iran? As if. You're either living in fantasy land or this is your stock response to deflect attention from what has really been happening in Palestine since 1948 - the actual, tangible, dunum by dunum wiping of that still-born nation off the map. Once a majority in their own land, how much will the Palestinians ever get out of the so-called peace process? 10%if they're lucky? Something new to political science, a sort of swiss cheese state? And if they've got a problem with that, what? Spirit them off to Jordan and rebadge it as Palestine?

Boaz

Where did you get the idea that the actions of a government make all civilians a legitimate target?
Did you get it from Hitler, Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt, Nixon, Johnson, Bush #1 or Bush #2, or Tojo? They, and a lot of other leaders all seemed to have the same idea as you?

A lasting Peace never seems to be achieved by killing people, as this only leads to creating more enemies. It is about time that we started trying making a lot more friends and a lot fewer enemies.
If we could work towards having a lot fewer people in favour of killing (and spent a lot less money on killing) then just maybe we could have peace.

The only thing to add to the previous postings is the statement made in the United Nations in 1947 by Sir Staffod Cripps, when he exhorted the Arabs and the Jews to settle their differences in a true Christian spirit.

I tend to agree with BOAZ_David that there will NEVER be peace between two groups. Like a lot of others I believe that there is a major war coming in the Middle East, and that Australia will effectively be Israel's ally.

Barry

Thank you for your article.

Hey BD - you and I are the same age. When have we seen peace during that time?

Cheers
Kay