Danielle, what is more important-worldwide noise of factually discriminatorily applying the “international law” "Israel occupation" seemingly generated, or a commonsense approach, where launching kassam on an Israeli civil condominium should be given at least two in response non-discriminatorily?

The war of independence in 1948 resulted in huge numbers of Israelis being evicted from their homes as well The situation is much more akin to that which occurred during the creation of India/Pakistan. Just as Palestinians were ‘encouraged’ to leave Israel, Jews were ‘encouraged’ to leave their homes in Arab countries.

You have not yet made a comment on what you think the purpose of the separation wall is? Because the majority of settlements are on the Palestinian side of the wall. 100,000 Jews live in these settlements. It is either permanent, in which case Israel clearly intends to give back the vast majority of the West Bank back (90%). Or it is a non permanent defensive measure, which has had a significant effect on reducing terror attacks, and so cannot be described as a land grab.

It is so pathetic to compare Israel to Hitler. No one cares Hitler moved the Jews to Eastern Europe, What really makes it genocide, is that he killed 6,000,000 of them once they got there. I really thought you had given up on using the extremely emotive language. It serves no purpose except to polarise the debate again.

Which settler project are you referring to, because I don’t know of any new settlements being built. No doubt the settlers are making extensions to current settlements but this is not an indicator of gov’t policy on their long term future.

Annexation of the Golan is the easiest of all the occupations to defend. Syria, Israel’s most implacable enemy, used these heights to continuously shell Israeli villages inside Israel. Nothing Israel could do would stop it. There isn’t a clearer instance of self defence in the whole conflict.

Again I notice that you have not bothered to discuss even a quarter of my counterpoints. I will continue to try and address your arguments point by point but I would appreciate it if you could do the same.

MichaelK.

Many of us would like to read your posts as you have something to say. English is a very difficult language to learn, so perhaps if you could let us know what is your native tongue, someone would be sure to know its grammatical structure and apply it to your comments - thereby providing a linguistic guide for us to better understand what you are writing.

International Law is not anglo-centric law. The International Law Commission constitutes 34 members from different countries and any codification of international law is in accordance with article 13(1)(a) of the Charter of the United Nations and Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Regards

Earthrise

“There can be no peace or trust while Israel repeats Hitler's crimes of genocide”

Is this is your response to debate. The meanest intelligence - and I say this in the nicest possible way - can not compare Hitler’s genocide with Israel’s actions to protect its country.

Your argument is straight from the pages of the newspapers 'Al-Akhbar' and 'Al-Ahram' and others which, while stating Israel is emulating Hitler’s genocide, yet in a mind-numbing application of logic, also claim it never occurred. A favourite informed source on which they rely is the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” ... et tu?

The national Egyptian radio 'Sawat Al-Arab' 20, February, 2000 reported in all seriousness that the Israelis had set up “a crematorium according to the Nazi model against our Lebanese brothers.”

In much Arab media (apparently suffering from yellow press): Zionism-Jews-Israel are one entity, Jews made up the story of the Holocaust, they are determined to destroy the Palestinian people, undermine Islam and take control of the world. Heady stuff indeed. World domination by the entire Jewish population of 13 million world-wide.

Israel’s fence is unfortunately necessary, and just one of many around the world:

The US is building a fence to keep out illegal Mexican immigrants.

With European Union funding, Spain built a fence to separate enclaves, Ceuta and Melilla, from Morocco - preventing the poor from sub-Saharan Africa from entering Europe.

India has a 460-mile barrier in Kashmir to prevent infiltrations supported by Pakistan.

Apart from the massive 550-mile construction Saudi Arabis is building, it also has a 60-mile barrier along an undefined zone with Yemen.

Turkey has a barrier in the southern province, Alexandretta, in an area Syria claims it owns.

In Cyprus, the UN sponsored a security fence reinforcing the de facto partition.

In Belfast, British-built barriers separate Catholic and Protestant neighbourhoods.

The UN is building a security fence around its New York HQ.
(United Nations, May 6, 2004)

Earthwise,

If you wish intelligent debate, I would suggest ...

... well, in your case, I don’t know what I can suggest ...

Danielle,
Your comparison of Israel’s wall, with other such apparent examples is taken completely out of context. It’s nothing but spin.
Firstly the wall deviates greatly to the 1949 cease-fire line (the “Green Line”), and is built mostly on land occupied by Israel in 1967. Currently it intrudes into roughly 15 percent of West Bank territory to surround Israeli settlements, creating enclaves or so called closed areas depriving thousands of farmers of access to land.
In 2003 a resolution was introduced at the UN Security Council that would have decided “that the construction by Israel… of a wall in the Occupied Territories departing from the armistice line of 1949 is illegal under relevant provisions of international law and must be ceased and reversed” but surprise surprise the move was vetoed by the United States. The wall is “illegal” under international law, hardly comparable to the fence the United States erected to keep Mexicans out now is it? Not one of the walls mention by you falls into the illegal category of Israel’s wall

YYou can tell you are getting somewhere when the Zionists get more desperate and even more shrill. This happens when you are defending the indefensible. Like debating religious fanatics, they cannot use rational argument or logic, it is not on their side. So they rely on dogma and propaganda, repeated often enough (first to themselves) that they hope it will stick.

Which is easy enough, when the Powers are on your side. I'm not Palestinian, in fact I am part of the demographic that is most to blame (other than the US/Israelis). I am male, white and middle-aged, financially OK. I should be keeping my head down and enjoying my status quo while it lasts. What possible benefit is it to me to defend the Palestinain people, except for the nagging prick of my conscience? While Israel acts as an American vassal in the ME, I get cheap oil, and more broadly the paternal world order is maintained. It is not in my interest to defend the Palestinians, but I do. Because it is right.

Everyone who defends Israel does it for selfish reasons. There is no legal or moral ground to stand on, so it must be something else. If you were Israeli, I could understand, though I would ask you to look in your heart and find the truth. For you others, it is nothing but myopic self-interest, shame on you. You are only here to perpetuate the suffering of the Palestinian people, and Karma is coming for you.

My existence, and that of many millions of others, exposes your complicity.