foxy, i have little respect or trust for anybody who uses the word "zionist" in the ludicrous manner in which lowenstein engages. i'll also point out that posters have not (merely) been attacking the person, they've been making substantive attacks on the original article. it is not about lowenstein's credentials, it's about his arguments, and the integrity with which he frames them.

it doesn't mean i diagree with the conclusions of the article or believe in the wisdom or morality of israel's current actions. but i don't respect or trust lowenstein, degrees and stature notwithstanding.

other than that, harryg nailed it. most of the posts here are very very depressing.

OK Ozzie...and while we're about it, let's deport all Greeks who have opinions about Macedonia, Sri Lankans with views about the Tamil Tigers, Croatians and Serbs with views about each other and Englishmen with opinions about soccer.

Youngsteve,
I totally agree with you, we don't need them either.

With Israel said to be supported by Obama and also apparently by our Rudd government, and with little Israel allowed still to be the most vicious world strike force - plus nuclear, one not only fears for the Middle East, but also global peace.

Thus I still believe Henry Kissinger was right when as Minister of State, he lambasted Nixon for allowing tiny Israel
to go Nuko.

Certainly America can be blamed for the whole schemozzle, especially with its crazy hold over the UN, especially when we have found the present US Minister of State Condoleeza Rice most alway jumping in to run the rotten show which has always meant that the US has always had its own
messy way.

So it seems even with Obama there will be the same lack of commonsense with little change.

One wonders why some of us oldies became qualified historians in our dotage, one now only wondering whether our younger public will ever know that at one time it looked like we would have a United Nations truly fashioned on what a UN was all about, not run by one nation with the most fire-power, and an undemocratic constitution, but a truly democratic Federation of Nations.

All one can say to our smart arse younger OLO's, please get your brains together and try to share the global guilt
before it's too late.

Have Fun - BB, Buntine, WA.

The New Year is a good time to start with commonsense; Israel's doing the commonsense thing. Defending herself from Hamas in Gaza. Now the Dutch Labor Party's doing the commonsense thing; abandoning its silly notion of parallel societies (aka 'multiculturalism'); calling for integration into Holland of muslim migrants. The International Herald Tribune may herald the opening barrage in the long awaited European backlash.

Be aware that the word 'multiculturalism' means different things in different places. In Australia it means integration; this policy of integration into the Australian mainstream is the policy that every migrant group, bar one, has adopted 100%. They have been keen to do this. We old Aussies have always been enthusiastic to welcome them (after the standard few years of grizzling.) However, the leadership of the mussies in Australia ... the imams, mullahs, muktahs and sheiks ... are not in favour of the muslims integrating into Australia. Their policy is to develop a 'parallel society' on this continent. This traitorous concept, applied to Holland, is what has now got the Dutch Labor Party reaching for the alarm bell.

What is a 'parallel society'? This is an islamic program whereby they pretend as much as possible that they are living in the seventh century and we little aussie mugs provide the rest. Islamic countries are backward. This is an observable fact around the world. (Travelers to Malaysia see a society built by non muslims; a society built by Indians and Chinese who are Hindu and Christian.) Islamically organized societies lack proper facilities for water, sewerage, non torturing police, modern science based education, freedom of expression, equality between muslims and non muslims and between men and women. So, in Australia, we would provide all the aspects of society that they want but they would provide for themselves for the inequality of men and women, the suppression of freedom of expression, female genital mutilation ( re-appearing in Australia), forced marriages, shariah law which always gives the man what he wants etc.

The hundred approx muslim clerics here are busy (with Wahhabbi money) consolidating their grip on the lives and souls of sunni muslims in Australia ... no-one seems to care in the slightest. I have a connection to a fellow who works for national security. He says that ASIO and other groups are all over the muslim communities; they cannot cough without some security agent saying 'gezundheit'. A slow steady construction of an islamic 'parallel society' in Australia is actually taking place right now; most muslims in Australia don't want it, but they have no allies in government or the administration of the society to help them resist it.

Now that we have a PM who is a church goer perhaps we can hope that he will be able to soon see that Islam is fundamentally a geo-political enterprise (unnervingly close to German National Socialism of unlamented memory). This arabian supremacism is wrapped in 'religious' clothing because in the seventh century all ideas had to be religiously based.

Today we can distinguish between politics and religion, disease and God. Islam is politics. The Cabinet has to grasp this nettle and move on from this point of awareness. The Dutch tried the path of 'tolerance' by accepting that Islam is a religion. They now can see that Islam is actually politics hiding behind 'alleluias' and 'hosannas'; the raising of hands and the bending of knees. This move by the Dutch Labor Party will very likely see the Party win the next Dutch election. We in Australia should lift our vision and game and reach out to those sunni muslims who do not want to be enslaved by seventh century imams operating from Lakemba and Preston. The government needs to take action action to prevent the construction of an islamic 'parallel society' before it is too late. Howard let them get their foot in the door and start building and now Rudd's doing nothing. Can we hopelessly vain and egotistical Australians actually learn from our Dutch colleagues? The signs don't look good.