Keith

>> “The Israeli's will attack one neighbour too many with their bombs and Pakistan will respond by supplying the Iranians with warheads for their rockets and bingo away goes the whole shebang.”

What? Israel is the one which has been attacked by its neighbours. Seven of them at least, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. And three times in 60 years.

Secondly the Pakistanis are fairly upset that the Iranians are after the bomb as they are rivals and they are not just going to hand the technology over.

Until the Arabs accept that the state of Israel is here to stay there will be no end to the conflict. It doesn’t matter how prepared Israel is to negotiate, unless they offer to leave altogether, there will be no peace.

People like Mustafa want to believe that it is the new building, even though it is in inside existing settlements, in east Jerusalem which is causing the problems. As Bren Carlil points out in the Australian today, when Israel withdrew unilaterally from the West Bank all it did was confirm the Palestinian militias belief that their violence was achieving the gains and encouraged them to fight harder.

Any concessions from Israel are seen by Hamas as more reason to continue fighting, not less. Until we can get past this mindset I cannot see a solution.

Logic,
Exactly which life saving medical treatments are you talking about that came from Israel?

PaulL, yes the state of Israel is here to stay.

The problem is it isn't 'here' anywhere on a map that Isael is prepared to stick to.

Yesterday it was here. Today it is here, with a bit of over that land that was over there. Tomorrow it will be here, plus that land it added yesterday, plus the added bit of land that it has settled even further over there.

and so on

When will Israel stop expanding into occupied territory?

When will it publish a map that defines the boundaries of Israel?

"Israel has been desperately trying to be accepted by her Arab neighbours since her inception. The Palestinian plight is a terrible, self-inflicted tragedy and if Israel were accepted it would disappear like a puff of smoke..."

Comments like this demonstrate why we need balanced reporting. Wthout it the victor writes the history.

PaulL

Your comments about Hamas are bigotted and don't reflect the new reality of a negotiated truce between Israel and Hamas. They also show you are not accepting that new reality: Israel is prepared to negotiate with terrorists. I wonder why the change?

Hamlet,

It’s very simple. Those countries which neighbour Israel and have accepted its right to exist have clearly defined borders. Egypt and Jordan, who both lost land to Israel after the six day war, have since regained it after they made peace with Israel.The fairly universally accepted border for Israel/Palestine is the green line with a few exceptions. It is that line which a Palestinian state could be formed behind, if they are prepared to stop the violence.

What expansion are you talking about specifically? Because building inside a preexisting settlement without expanding the borders of that settlement isn't actually expansion at all.

The suggestion that Hamas and other terror groups fight on because there is no clear border is fanciful in the extreme. If you bothered to have a look at Hamas’ charter you would see that their fight with Israel is for ALL of the land, not just their side of the green line. They want to ethnically cleanse Jews from the Middle East. Or at least that is what their charter says. Plenty of soft-lefties from the west will try and have you believe they don't actually mean what they SAY in the Charter, it's all just a miscommunication. What ROT.
http://www.mideastweb.org/hamas.htm

Keith,

It all very simple slagging me off as a bigot. But you don’t have any evidence for this view so it’s just name calling. It doesn’t actually advance the debate at all. I could just as easily say you’re a bigot and an anti-Semite.

Secondly my comments about Hamas were backed up with solid references and are borne out by any analysis of the situation.

When Israel unilaterally pulled out of the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Authority didn’t seek to start a Palestinian state, they used their freedom to enable more accurate and frequent attacks on Israel. It is a fact that at the time Hamas declared they had won a great victory and encouraged Palestinians to fight even harder.

TBC