Danny Lamm has been cruelly provocative in this mischievous article of his...or else he weas meant to be addressing the just closed comedy festival in Melbourne where he'd have been laughed off stage.

Indeed,of Israel has taken all the right steps along the path to peace, one must shudder at what the alternative might have been.What other horrors might be in store?

Double talk has been the prime weapon in the armoury of Israeli government deceit.

Coinciding with the publication of Dr Lamm's article in the Melbourne Age, the World Health Organisation (WHO)in its latest report condemned the denial and delay of medical permits to those WHO described as "unfortunate to be ill on Gaza"...citing at least 5 people had died waiting for permits in a territory criss-crossed by Israeli roadblocks.Israel itself is the roadblock to peace in the Middle East. It prefers, instead, to grab land piece by piece.That's the only pieve it's focussed on.

Even today an Israeli government official talked about "destroying the country of Iran" if it attacked Israel..while coupling the remark with the admission that Iran was hardly likely to attack.

Israel casts itself as David while actually performing like Goliath, armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons it's so anxious to deny everyone else.An inconvenient truth?

Dr Lamm needs to take some steps of his own...towards some semblance of reality.

Guess what Dr Lamm, having one Arab government minister in 60 years is not exactly a great mark of equality. Not many countries would cite such a proportion as an achievement for a minority that composes 20 per cent of the population. To the undersigned Israeli-Australian it actually proves the opposite. But then again it gives an idea of what Dr Lamm would regard as fair and just two-state solution: Israel gets to keep all the settlements, their connecting roads and territorial buffers on the West Bank while the Palestinians get to the keep the crumbs. Many Israelis, however, do not regard Dr Lamm’s view as either just or fair, preferring two states based on the 4 June 1967 pre-war boundaries.



The sad truth is that for Arabs in Israel formal equality does not translate into meaningful and real equality – they cannot even represent Israel in the Eurovision song contest.

Sol Salbe

1) The Jewish people do not have a right to state any more than any other religion. A religion has a right to religious self-determination; not the right to mark out an area of land and claim it.

2) Israel is a vibrant, multicultural democracy surrounded by Arab dictatorships and theocracies. On this much we can agree. However it is also, from the perspective of the overwhelming majority of indigenous Semites, a colonial state. Until that problem is resolved, there will always been tension.

3) It is a bit rich to call for the Palestinian leadership to cease all violence and terror, without making the same call for Israel. Especially given that the majority of firepower has come from the Israeli side and the majority of casulties is on the Palestinian and Arab side.

4) The only hope for peace in the region is a single, democratic, secular state. With current boundaries, a Palestinian state is no longer viable. The two-state solution is a proposal that simply won't work.

SYDNEY has not read the Hamas Charter.. because if he had, he would not have embarked on his CRUEL, biased and provocative post above.

SOLTHECHEF apparently has not read what the Arab Knesset members are saying, because if he had, he would realize why there are so few in the Parliament.

LEV does in fact have a glimmer of truth in his post.. recognizing the stark contrast between democratic Israel and Theocratic Arab states.
But then, he shows his naivity or ignorance, or simply his ideological socialist colors or all of the above by suggesting a single state.

LEV.. you would do very well to read the story of King David then Solomon and Absolom.(a junior son of David) When David was on his last gasp, some members of the court tried to stimulate him back to life by placing a gorgeous young virgin in bed with him. Her name was Abishag the Shunamite. After David died, and Solomon was enthroned, Absolom (wanting the throne himself) asked for Abishag as wife. That request cost him his life, as Solomon knew exactly where he was coming from.
(Absolom thought that getting Abishag, would advance his claim on the throne)

Its the same with the idea of 'one state'.. we know EXACTLY where that will lead, and it would be a genocide of Jews if not immediatly, in time, as Arab fertility rates increased and secular Jewish rates decline.

You would do well to read Genesis, Exodus, Joshua, Judges, Samuel (1 and II) 1&2 Kings and 1&2 Chronicles... and then...only then, might you have some idea about how life in these parts works.

SHOW me... when Islamic Jihad stops firing rockets for 6 months..and then.. see how many Israeli attacks on Gaza occur during that time...
I think you would find they are virtually zero, but it not, you can blame Part 3 Article II of the Hamas Charter for them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2-B1INyKF8&feature=related

I would not blame America or Israel for sending well aimed cruise missiles into the crowd shown in that vid calling for their death.

I am not quite sure about the intention of this article, it started of with the usual propoganda. Then it slid down the abyss of tawdy cheap shots at a Jew opposed to the way his Government is acting in relation to peace with the Arabs in name of the Jewish people.

Having visited Israel many times in the past to visit friends, I was staggered by the brutality of the 19 year old conscripts man handling elderly Arabs, women and children and using there weapons to humilate these people.

My friends who I was visiting had fought two of Israels wars and feel nothing but shame about the way these people are being treated. After seeing this with my own two eyes, I am now not so sure that it is the great democracy we in the west have been led to believe is the case by our media and government.

Like its greatest supporter America it is full of ultra right wing religious nuts who preach their nonsence including the "final solution" to the Arab question quite openly. Like America these same pious religious rabbi's can be found prowling the streets at night outside of Tel Avi looking for illegal slave prostitutes for sex and run by russian and jewish gangsters.

This is the same country under its ultra right wing government that would use nukes against its neighbours in a heartbeat, despite the fact that it is the most modern and well equiped army in the middle east.

David,

Thank you for the bible lesson (Kings Chapter I iirc). Perhaps you forget that I regularly give church services myself.

I take the opportunity to remind you also that Muslim and Jew have, in the past, lived together in Palestine without genocide.

I take the opportunity to remind you that fertility rates are irrelevant as long as the freedom to practise a religion is enshrined in law and that laws also protect people from specific religious obligations.

Palestine should not be a Christian state, a Muslim state or a Jewish state. But simply a state where all people who consider it a homeland can co-exist.

I shall also take the opportunity to remind what the real conditions are in Gaza.

Gaza was invaded in 1967 and military rule continued until 2005, with re-invasion occurring in June 2006 with subsequent airstrikes since then.

It is estimated that between 7,000 and 9,000 Israeli artillery shells were fired into Gaza between September 2005 and June 2006 from Israel, killing 80 Palestinians in 6 months.

From the Palestinian side, over 1,300 "home-made" Qassam rockets were fired into Israel from September 2000 to December 21, 2006 (correctly described by the Israeli Ministry of Defense as "more a psychological than physical threat").

Israel controls Gaza's airspace, territorial water, offshore maritime access, population registry, entry of foreigners, imports and exports (reducing the total quantity to 20 different commodities) as well as the tax system - and most recently even the flow of medicines results in scores of deaths.

And you wonder why organisations like Hamas exist?