Probably like most people, the whole Israel vs Palestine debate gives me a headache. Much of the problem, of course, is the virulent nationalism combined with religion (or ethno-religion to be more accurate) and two ethnic groups claiming the one piece of land. As we know, both Jewish nationalism and Palestinian nationalism are new in the scheme of things. The former does not go back further than the late 19th Century and Palestinian nationalism dates back to events from 1948 onwards. Furthermore, Israel has been a useful client state for the US - armed to the teeth and supported by American taxpayers. The Palestinians have been used as pawns by Arab nationalists and Islamic fundamentalists. What a witch's brew!

I can't point to a panacea, but peace in the area can only happen once the various Arab monarchies and dictatorships are destroyed. Once that happens and once Jewish people can live freely in other regimes apart from Israel (and Palestinians can live freely in regimes they are currently refugees) we may be making progress.

Israel should be recognised by other states in the region as a legitimate state but not as a Jewish state. Nor should a state which considers itself an Islamic state have any legitimacy. As I said, ethno-religious nationalism has caused this mess (combined with interference by bigger powers) and it's time we seriously removed this poisonous cocktail once and for all.

David

You appear to have ignored the reality of the existance of a lasting peace between Israel and the Egyption dictatorship and Israel and the Jordanian monarchy.

Some Graffiti for Intellectuals:

• Geography is interesting, particularly where names can take on a novel meaning using ‘strange’ bias. Take the word "Palestinians". It didn't exist in its present meaning prior to the1960s. Palestinians were the Jews who lived in British-ruled Palestine, while the Arabs were just that, Arabs.

• The culmination of an anti-Jewish campaign, rooted in an alliance between the Mufti of Jerusalem and Adolf Hitler, resulted in a violent dispossession (Farhud) of Iraqi Jews.

• In 1942, Arab unity coalesced around the notion that all Iraqi Jews were Zionists and therefore enemies of the state. During the remainder of the war, anti-British and anti-Jewish hatred was everywhere palpable in Iraq.

• Iraqi Jews were, in fact, decidedly anti-Zionist in the 1920s and 1930s - so much so that no immigration representative, or shaliach, of the Jewish community in Palestine had been posted to Baghdad, and none was welcome.

• The war film, ‘For Freedom’ was screened in Baghdad cinemas, audiences booed Churchill and cheered Hitler. The defeat of the Third Reich in 1945 only heightened hatred of Jews, as thousands of Holocaust survivors made their way to Palestine.

• In 1947, the UN voted 33 yes, 13 no, with 10 abstentions, to create two states in Palestine: one Arab, the other Jewish.

• In April 1948, a month before Israel declared independence, Iraq shut down the Kirkuk-Haifa oil pipeline, slashing its own oil royalties by half. It joined other Arab countries in a military invasion of the new Jewish state. "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres," promised Azzam Pasha, secretary-general of the Arab League.

• Israel survived the war. A UN-negotiated armistice agreement with Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, and Lebanon followed – Iraq didn’t sign.

• The Israel-Egypt agreement (1979) set expectations for all the later peace negotiations between Israel and the Arab countries that have repeatedly tried to destroy it, not to mention the ‘Palestinian Arabs’ where they are looking for a "no lose" style of treaty i.e. a lack of compromise.

Still cannot find any record of a UN vote allowing Israel to go militarily atomic.

Certainly if so, it would need to have had authoritive permission from both the Geneva and Hague Conventions?

And certainly if it was so, because of the Arab resentment it has caused, as well as a possible WW3 through an Israeli attack on Iran, it should be regarded scientifically and politically as one of the most tragic mistakes of modern history.

Regards, BB, WA.

Relda,

"the UN voted..... to create two states in Palestine, one Arab the other Jewish". Did the UN vote for 1/2 an Arab state then 1/4 then an 1/8 of an Arab state? Your history of Arab anti-semitism doesn't justify the eviction of Palestinans from their land.

According to Keith:

"You appear to have ignored the reality of the existance [sic] of a lasting peace between Israel and the Egyption [sic] dictatorship and Israel and the Jordanian monarchy."

No, Keith. There is peace in our time. Not a so-called lasting peace. And at any rate, so what? I should be clearer and I will be. I don't want peace. I would like to see the destruction of Israel as a Zionist state and the destruction of every dictatorship in the Middle-East beginning with those that label themselves as Islamic states.

If that sounds shocking then consider the fact that officially, in places such as Saudi Arabia, China and North Korea peace exists. Peace exists in plenty of countries where Jews and/or Palestinians (or Kurds) suffer persecution. What is termed peace is often only a treaty between unaccountable leaders and virtually meaningless for anyone else.