If you idiots haven't noticed Iraq is on a road to participatory democracy ... different to ours but creating an economy and interaction at a very personal level (As opposed to a community and factional level) now that the al qaeda have been totally f..ked and that Mardi madman is also on the run. I reckon all have seen the writing on the wall and are positioning themselves to take advantage. And there is more benefit in trade and commerce and interaction than in religious dogma, fanaticism, socialism, repression and violence. Israel might accept that truism someday too but their fanatic's will need to lose their government support and money first.

The Golan Heights are going back to Syria.

A two State Palestine at '67 borders is probably Israels best result, a single state is probably the world's, the region's individuals and peaces best hope.

The move is irresistable. No amount of pro-Israeli scaremongering can stop this surge now.

I think 'ole George and more importantly the Mandarins in Condi Rice's department also realise this.

Let's all cheer for peace in the middle east.

I do not think any government should discriminate among its citizens on the base of religion, ethnicity or race. I am for separation of religion and state and think no government funds should go to support religious educational institutions. If parents want it they and their religious institution should pay for it.

If Australia became a Christian nation I would become a second class citizen as I am a Jew. Therefore I cannot support Jewish, Muslim or other nations which favour one ethnic or religious group where other people are second class citizens.

Keith, your analysis of Lebanon, Syria and Israel is way off the mark. For you, it's very simple: Israel = bad, the Arab states = good. No balance at all. You forget the fact that Israel made peace with Jordan and Egypt previously.

This sentence of yours is laughable - "that country [Lebanon] has astonishingly genuinely started on a path to peace and living in harmony since the latest Israeli agression and madness"

"Peace and living in harmony"! Keith, have you forgotten already that there was an attempted coup in Lebanon a couple of weeks ago?

Keith, try to stay up to date with the news before you post.

Why must it be Israeli = bad and Arab = good or vice versa?

Many Jews or their descendants are in Israel because they had no place else to go. Conditions were intolerable where they were living, and some were refugees with no home to go back to. So they built a country. The surrounding Arab states do not want a Jewish country so they have had to fight a series of wars to survive. They are living under threat and have suffered terrorist attacks considering their size equal to several 9/11s. The occupation is horrible.

Palestinians did not choose to have an influx of people from elsewhere come into land they had been living in. They are either displaced from that land or ruled by another people. The PLO is a kleptocracy placed over them by the Arab League. In Gaza they have chosen Hamas which has provided social services that the kleptocracy doesn't. However, Hamas is Islamic, wants another Islamic state and Christian Arabs get forced out. Palestinians are under stress. Some of them resort to atrocious violence.

People under stress are not nice the way we are in secure Australia.

If other countries had opened their borders to Jews and had treated them without discrimination there would be no need for Israel.

If the Arab countries had settled the Palestinian refugees as the Israelis had settled the Jewish refugees from the Arab countries there would be no Palestinian problem.

There are two suffering peoples between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, and the rest of the world has not acted generously and wisely to either side. The rest of the world is quite good at demonizing one side or the other.

The craziness in the Bible and the Koran inspires Muslim fanatics, Jewish fanatics and Christian fanatics. Christian crazies want all to become Christian. Muslim crazies want all to become Muslim. Jewish crazies are not missionaries, but they would like the rest of the Jews to become as crazy as they are.

The Holy Land is a culture medium for religious crazies.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/986591.html

Ah yes, lovely young women these two. Logic, why on earth would anyone want to give up their land for other people who had nothing to do with it and then be talked about like these two woman do?

This is what many Israeli's believe mate.

Marilyn,

Israel has newspapers which criticize the Government and its ministers without fear. That’s just about unheard of in the Middle East. Clearly the author of the article you linked doesn’t support what Livnat and Livni are proposing. Israel is a real pluralistic democracy. There are people from across the political spectrum involved in the gov’t.

Yes that is what some Israelis believe. Many Israelis also oppose those kinds of policies. Certainly the policies are not law and that is not because Livnat and Livni just thought of them. Israeli parliaments have resisted such ultra nationalist policies because MOST of the people don’t want them.

Just have a look at Hamas's charter Marilyn. Then try and tell me that the Israelis are the extremists.http://www.mideastweb.org/hamas.htm

BTW, I want to know how it is that you sleep at night knowing that you have stolen aborigines land? Why don’t you give it back, you hypocrite. Once you give your land back to the original owners you can legitimately demand the Israelis do the same. In fact much Israeli land was actually bought from Arabs.

Keith,

Mate you are all over the place. You “reckon” a lot of things, none of which have an basis in fact. Indeed, you don’t even try to support your assertions with ANY evidence. Your references to Syria and Lebanon are so wide of the mark it isn’t funny.

1. The US is VERY unhappy that Israel has decided to accept Syria’s invitation to peace talks. It is not a policy of Bush’s in any way, shape or form. The US has been trying to isolate Syria because of its role as a state sponsor of terrorism, particularly in Lebanon.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23748549-15084,00.html
http://www.themedialine.org/news/news_detail.asp?NewsID=21597
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/985748.html

2. Assad is an old style dictator, a hardliner just like his father and there is just no way you can suggest that he has somehow left the hardliners behind. Rafiq Hariri was told that if he didn’t run Lebanon the way Assad wanted he (Assad) would break Lebanon over his(hariri's) head. It was only a matter of months later that Hariri was assassinated. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23756163-15084,00.html

cont,