Well said Nahum, but I fear the US/Israel Juggernaut has taken fanatacism to new heights and they are more likely to extend the conflict to Syria and Iran.......As the American simpleton President said, Syria has got to stop Hezbollah doing this sh*t.
I feel frustrated with our own governments one sided alignment with US policies and feel powerless to do more than wring my hands and grieve for the innocents slaughtered while our leaders utter useless platitudes. I will again express my anger in another letter to our Prime Minister.

Nahum

Exactly. This conflict should not be viewed in terms of 'moral high ground' it should be viewed in terms of solutions.

The 'solution' is, as far as possible to provide just outcomes for all stake holders.

Lets look at who they are and what they have lost/gained.

The main protagonists would be the Arab Muslims and possibly some Arab Christians who have lost land in the formation of the State of Israel.

Lost Arab land ? there is as much chance of the Arab Muslims regaining it as there is of John Howard handing the keys of Kirribilli to Gary Foley.

Acquisition of land for the State of Israel is similar to compulsory acquisition of OUR land by our government. The ISSUE is....... "lost land/Compensation"

The most anyone can expect in this situation is:

Compensation/Alternative land.

Unfortunately, there is not a lot of land available for this purpose, and it would NEVER be provided within the state of Israel.

I've proposed solutions in other threads invovling re-settling Arab Muslims in other Muslim countries. Perhaps readers might refer to my other posts for details, but in summary.

1/ Move Hezbollah and its supporters to Syria and Iran. i.e. ALL of them. There is no distinction between Hezbollah 'soldiers' and civillians.

2/ Move ALL Arab Muslims from refugee camps in Gaza/Westbank to South Lebanon north of a buffer zone.

3/ Create housing, land packages, and employment opportunities in regions of Tyre and Sidon which would meet the needs of the displaced Palestinian Muslims. (International community and Israel and the likes of George Soros to pool resources for this) If this means buying land from local lebanese, then so be it. The displaced Hezbollah land will be available to Palestinian Muslims.

Hezbollah has disqualified itself from anything other than exile and dispersion by its unending warlike attitude

Problem solved.

For those who passionately disagree with my take on things, please provide WORKABLE ALTERNATIVE solutions.
By all means disagree with me, but give reasons please.
Reasons such as 'Your are an armchair Nazi/Your crazy/You stink' will not be accepted :)

I agree, well said. But your suggestion that citizens stand up against their stupid governments is devoid of content. How? Which citizens? Should the women, following Greek drama, refuse to provide sex to the men until it all stops? I respect your anger and frustration, but you offer no way forward. And note that more than 300 years later (not just another 60) the opposed groups in Northern Ireland still haven't found a way forward.

Very interesting. We all want solutions to intractable problems. But sometimes there are no solutions. For Israel it is a matter of survial, and they will do what they have to do for as long as necessary. For the Palestinians and Hezbollah, how long do they want to keep going on like this? Lebanon was not threatened by Israel and the Israelis had vacated Gaza.

This conflict began before we were born and will still be going long after we are dead. Perhaps we, accustomed to seeking solutions and consensus in a post-modernist world where everything can be resolved if only we are reasonable and communicate, are the ones who cannot recognise the reality confronting us.

Nahum: You need to do your homework first before you write about this subject:-
1)The Arab-Israeli war was 48-9, not 47.
2)There is no state of "Palestine"...yet. There are Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories, and their inhabitants have been living for decades under a brutal military occupation. The fact that the word 'occupation' is missing from your polemic renders what you've written pretty much useless.
3)"Territory (sic) concessions from both sides" misconstrues the history. Israel was ordered out of Egypt by Eisenhower in 56; the only thing Israel has conceded from its 67 aggression has been Sinai, and Egypt had to go to war in 73 to achieve that; Israel was forced out of Lebanon in the 90's by Hizbollah and out of Gaza last year by Hamas. The Jewish state was not built on concessions but on forcibly acquiring territory and hanging on to it until forced out.
4) Your 'understanding' of the issue is predicated on a false equivalence: (eg "two petulant propagandists"). Since when do we place occupier & occupied, abuser & abused on the same level?
5) "Subversive [Pal] militia": Since when is resisting occupation 'subversion'?
6) "The victims are the citizens of both Israel and Palestine [!]": Haven't you noticed a colossal asymmetry in victims - consistent with the dynamics of occupier/occupied?
7) Palestine, poorer because it lacks the stream of finance from diaspora cousins, still manages to starve its citizens..." This is woeful: What you call Palestine is under an ever-tightening Israeli military and economic siege for God's sake and has been since 2000.
8) "Unintended victims of Israeli aggression": This is probably the stupidest comment of the lot. Since the Zionist project got under way in Palestine in earnest it's been abundantly clear that Israel wants Palestine, renamed Israel, WITHOUT the Palestinians. How therefore they can be described as "unintended victims" is beyond me. They are and always have been THE target.
9) The issue is one of decolonization - impeded by decades of US support for a colonial-settler state with imperial pretensions.

For a person who claims he is studying theology, isnt it a bit strange to write an epistle on the Israeli/Palestinian et al, problem and NOT mention the role of Islam.

This murderous death cult with its view of the world being them and everyone else, is probably the single most identifiable cause of all.

What about the role of the idiot madman in Iraq,Ahmadninejad and his view about the imminence of the 12th Mahdi etc, and the repeated claims of the various mad mullahs in the region that Israel should be wiped off the map.