Chris Shaw

You say >> “It does starkly reveal one thing though. Senator Obama condemned the speech as being anti-semetic [sic] and offensive, when it clearly was not … ”

I’m not sure what exactly you would consider anti-semitic and offensive, but NORMAL people would conclude that the remarks by Ahmadinejhad below fit that category perfectly.

Ahmadinejhad says >> “In Palestine, 60 years of carnage and invasion is still ongoing at the hands of some criminal and occupying Zionists. They have forged a regime through collecting people from various parts of the world and bringing them to other people's land by displacing, detaining, and killing the true owners of that land. With advance notice, they invade, assassinate, and maintain food and medicine blockades, while some hegemonic and bullying powers support them. The Security Council cannot do anything and sometimes, under pressure from a few bullying powers, even paves the way for supporting these Zionist murderers”.

>> “The dignity, integrity and rights of the American and European people are being played with by a small but deceitful number of people called Zionists. Although they are a miniscule minority, they have been dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers as well as the political decision-making centers of some European countries and the US in a deceitful, complex and furtive manner.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20872.htm

I shouldn’t be surprised that an extreme loony-lefters like yourself would see nothing anti-Semitic or offensive in the above statement. However I would point out to you the similarity of this speech with the central tenet of a book called Mein Kamp, perhaps you’ve heard of it.

Yeah that Ahmedinejhad is all about the brotherly love of mankind. That’s why they’re working on nuclear technology. So they can spread their love around.

I dunno about everyone else but I crave a bit of honesty as well. Seems that some people are still totally incapable of being honest about their rabid hatred of Israel and Israelis and to a lesser extent the US.

Is it not time for everybody to accept that there is no solution ?

If we can start from that premise, and everyone wipe their hands of
the problem, maybe when faced with each other that starkly both
might sit down and have a hard think.

If only those pesky Palestinian families would understand that they don't actually exist and quietly fade away into historical obscurity then Israel could truly get on with the job of being "the middle east's only democracy".

What is it about conquerers rewriting history that colonised and dispossessed peoples don't understand? Like the Palestinians, Indigenous Australians also have a history of bloody-minded refusal to put the past behind them and get on with their lives and continue to insist on justice and return of stolen lands.

If Aboriginal peoples had abided by the assimilationist policies of the past they'd have all died out as a seperate identity by now and we white Australians could get on with congratulation ourselves on our great egalitarian democracy and our national commitment to "the fair go".

Like the Palestinians, Aborigines stubbornly continue to undermine our side of the story and insist that their kids are entitled to something better.

What's wrong with these people? Can't they recognise a democracy when its sitting on them?

Keith:

I am not advocating anything other than direct negotiations between Jordan, Egypt and Israel to divide sovereignty of the West Bank and Gaza between those respective states. The issue of settlements will be dealt with in those negotiations. What you or I think about them is irrelevant.

Mac:

Sovereignty of the West Bank and Gaza currently resides in no one country or entity. The Palestinian Authority has rejected the latest opportunity presented by the Roadmap to acquire sovereignty in reportedly 93.5% of the West Bank and Gaza and to be further compensated by Israel transferring an area of its own land equivalent to the residue.

In the face of this rejection, my proposal for division of sovereignty between Israel and the last two Arab states to occupy the West Bank and Gaza from 1948-1967 - Jordan and Egypt - seems the only way forward to end the 60 years old sovereignty stalemate in the West Bank and Gaza - short of another war.

Keith:

My views regarding Polycarps comments are irrelevant. Can't we restrict this discussion to examining the merits of my proposal? Hurling abuse at each other does nothing to end the conflict.

I have yet to read one post that offers some constructive criticism of my proposal that needs to be addressed. There will no doubt be many Jews and Arabs that oppose my proposal in their own political interests. However to allow the current situation to continue cannot be acceptable to those who wish to see an end to the death and tragedy inflicted almost daily on both populations.

I believe my proposal will go a long way to achieving this outcome. I wait to be told where I have got it wrong.

David,

I'll tell you where you have got it wrong, for the umpteenth time, you don't appear to acknowledge the existence of the Palestinians as a people. BigAl and others on this site have also indicated this( sometimes less politely than me) how tendentious your proposals really are. They are a prime example of "begging the question" in its correct usage.

Mac:

My proposals may well be tendentious for you and many others.

No doubt the Peel Commission proposal in 1937, the United Nations Partition Plan in 1947, the Oslo Accords in 1993, Clinton's plan in 2000, now Bush's Roadmap, were also tendentious for many as they unsuccessfully attempted to resolve the 130 years conflict between Jews and Arabs.

Some innovative thinking must now be applied.

Negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority are clearly incapable of ever being successfully concluded. They have lasted 15 years and there is not the slightest sign of an agreement. How much longer should they have and what is there left to talk about that has not already been dealt with in depth?

Israel, Jordan and Egypt on the other hand have been able to successfully negotiate peace treaties in 1979 and 1994.

Therefore my proposal hopefully might just succeed where the others failed. But we will never know until Jordan, Egypt and Israel sit down and try.

Have you got any better solution to offer?