Donna

Unfortunately the usual group of Israel and US haters have just tried to take over the discussion.

To get back to what you are doing, taken on face value it seems excellent. I think however that many Jewish groups are being careful because so many other peace groups have in fact been running hidden political agendas. It was a mistake to include Iraq and Hicks as they are irrelevant to the issue and make it look like you are just beating the usual lefty drum. Too many Jews have been deceived before and this mistake may be fatal, when your group deserves wider support.

To recover credibility you will have to work hard and isolate yourself from side issues. You will also need a presence in Melbourne. It would have been appropriate to replace Buddhist and Hindu prayers with Druze and Baha'i as these are religions actually represented in the Middle East.

Logic, though I fully agree with small patch up friendships occurring between Jews and Arabs as you point out - again I must say, let's get real and look at the side of the Palestine-Israeli problem which is the real cause, as any Middle East historian will tell you.

Too many Western interests favouring the Israelies rather than the Arabs, which certainly gave allowance for Israel to be given the ridiculous freedom to go martially atomic in the first place.

Even though many social scientists dislike the Arabs personally, they are still taught as in sport, to retain that sense of fair play, which is certainly not being carried out as regards the whole Middle East problem, ever since the end of WW1.

Am still ashamed to say that our modern record in the Middle East smells worse than an open sewer, Logic, and that is speaking as a qualified historian.

annnnnd...another totally wasted article, full of naivity and utopian leftist dreamtime.

QUOTE:
"We would not stay for the political speeches, because we all knew that such political specifics serve to divide people. They alienate and they threaten."
ENDQUOTE

Ummmm.. no kidding? The PROBLEM is 'Political' you duffer and when people start to talk about the ACTUAL problems and issues, you all go home! A bigger pack of sobbing, pathetic dills would be hard to find.

Political problems require (wait for this.. it's a dooozy) POLITICAL solutions. You can hug and lovefest each other in the comfort of Sydney till the cows come home, but it won't change the fundamentals which divide the Jews and Muslims.

CHALLENGE
Ok..

1/Ask those friendly Palestinian Muslims who you are warmly hugging "Would you accept Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem including the Temple Mount"? If you get a 'yes' response, then peace is possible.
2/ Ask them if they are ok with the refugees NOT having right of return (but being re-located and compensated)?

There..just 2 "political" issues. If you score ok with them, we can deal with the rest.

So, I doubt if its 'Jews and Palestinians' standing 'united', its more about 2 groups of highly polarized people standing in the same place at the same time, and not mentioning those things which divide them.

The other important point is, you may find a group of Quizzling Jews who are of the same mind, and are prepared to sellout their spiritual and historical heritage...but that does not make them representative of all Israelis. *think*

DEMOS
where do the Israelies stand ? They are reclaiming the territory STOLEN by:

a) Romans around the time of Christ
b) By the Muslims around the time of MOhammad.

CRIMES OF HISTORY are being reversed and all you can do is moan about the poor 'victims' who are in fact the descendants of the CRIMINAL INVADERS.
Simply being 'born' in a place which your parents stole does not make it any less the property of those it was stolen from, and YES this does apply to Australia.

I've seen the fire in the eyes of young Aboriginals in Melbourne on Australia day, I've seen their passion and hatred for 'the white man' and trust me, though I'm not a prophet, I can predict BIG trouble from radicalized, socilist-ized and possibly Islamized young Aboriginals in years to come.

The difference between Australia and Israel/Palestine, is that the Israelis have the firepower to use the "If you don't accept the historical right argument how about the 'MIGHT is RIGHT' one"?

Demos, notice what is happening in Zimbabwe? Notice also what is being SAID in Zimbabwe about 'why' they are doing what they are doing?
Yep....you got it.. 'reversing crimes of history' where the white man stole their land by military conquest. Now all the bleeding hearts are whining and wringing their hands about 'human rights' HAH! what about the human rights of millions of black africans who were marginalized to the most marginal land by our mob?

The day you can get a Muslim Palestinian to admit they "stole" the land, rather than "liberated it for the sake of Allah" you might have a chance of 'peace'.

Boaz, you might also care to reflect on the fact that not all displaced Palestinians are Moslems. Some of them are also Christians. Also, if you think that "might is right" in palestine, then perhaps "might is right" in other places around the world too.

Your God, put certain conditions on Israel which they have chosen to violate, so in fact they have forfeited their right to be His chosen people.

Since you are all dismissing the basic concept of peace I will reiterate.

DEMO

You talk about stolen land. Is this a mantra you use in meditation? If you want to talk about stolen land please remember:

1) The long term Jewish and Christian inhabitants. Yes they exist and were never given complete equality under the Muslims.

2) The purchase price demanded of the Zionists to buy land. This hardly fits anyone's definition of stealing when a price is paid for an item.

3) The land taken from about 900,00, yes 900,000 Jews and also from Christians, Druze, Samaritans, Baha'i when they were edged out of Arab countries.

To ignore the other side of the ledger is just biased and morally bankrupt. Israel in fact has been a haven for these indigenous, displaced people, who have a right to continue living in the Middle East in the sort of freedom we enjoy. They form roughly half of its population.

In fact what decent people like Donna and friends are trying to achieve is a resolution of a conflict where several groups have seemingly conflicting rights. To empty the argument of one sided prejudices is surely the first step. And DEMO your views don't help in the least.