I will attempt to summarise David Singer's logic in that memorable sentence used by the former Chief Rabbi of Israel which were said at the funeral of the American-Israeli terrorist Dr Baruch Goldstein:

"The blood of a million Arabs is not worth a single Jewish fingernail".

Given that you don't recognise Palestinians as a people, and that you refuse to accept Palestine's right to exist, why shouldn't we regard your opinion as yet another opinion from the far-right fringes of this issue?

"Israel must again retaliate and, this time, finish the job."

How ironic. A supporter of the Jewish state advocating a "Final Solution" some 70 years after the Holocaust.

David, the Hamas Arabs have got problems adjoining Israel, because they have never had one iota of help from America.

However on record is a report that Israeli aid from America, including defence both normal and nuclear, has now reached over one trillion dollars.

And talking about the UN, like the old League of Nations, it has been useless because like the League, it has been backed by just one single great power.

Surely, David, as a political philosopher you must know about the warning from Immanuel Kant many many years ago, that a democratic organisation to preserve Perpetual Peace must only be managed by a Libertinian Federation of Nations.

Regards, BB, Buntine, West Australia.

David Singer should seruously consider a new career...that of a standup comic. He'd have 'em in stitches.He's full of absurdities and nonsense. A window of opportunity indeed (by evacuating the Gazans).A window of opportunity...for the land-grabbing Israelis to add to their ongoing theft of Palestinian lands.

Maybe if some of the reconstruction money were to be given to Hamas to purchase some real arms...fighter bombers, missiles, tanks and rockets. That would see certainly see an end to suicide bombing and the firing of pitifully home made rockets...It would put an end to Israel's role as the bullyboy of the Middle East. It's not capable of man to man fighting...that's why its military machine has killed so many Gazan children. Israel was created by terrorists...and too many of its governments have been corrupt...or been charged with corruption(When's Olmert due to face court?)

The most heartening news is that the open cheque that ex president Bush has given to the Israelis for so long is now cancelled.President Obama is determined that US foreign policy will no longer be dictated by Tel Aviv or its cashed up lobbyists in Washington.The US WILL be talking to Iran...and Israel has clearly already been warned that its days of military ravaging are now over. It's not only been called to heel...it's going to be hauled before the bar of international opinion, as well as the International criminal Court, to answer charges of war crimes.

Far from being a light to the nations,Israel has made itself an obnoxious pariah...it's beginning to flinch under the stern admonition by the Vatican and the UN chief himself. Israel needs to start providing the compensation it'll have to pay for its wilful destruction of UN property in Gaza. It needs to end its brutal occupation and stop embracing Nazi style militarism that would horrify those who had their lives snatched away in the Holocaust.

Brian Haill, Melbourne.

David,

I didn't originally read your article, but now that I have, I have a couple of questions. To your comment:

"Why would the Secretary-General not be urging the conference attendees to consider offering Gazans permanent resettlement - or at least evacuation - until the political situation in Gaza is finally determined?"

Where do you permanently repopulate 1.5 million people in the Middle East? How many other Arab countries could and would take them? How would Gazans be received in those countries?

If the Gazans were to "temporarily relocate", given Israel's penchant for grabbing land, how would the Gazans know they would get it back?

The Israelis and the US intentionally funded and supported the rise of Hamas so they could split Fatah and the PLO, and the Palestinians ultimately rejected Fatah because they failed to win a single concession and saw Hamas as the only remaining alternative.

Despite all the rhetoric, Hamas remains a popular and fairly elected democratic government and I suspect that recent events will only benefit them.

Wasn't the "spread of democracy in the Middle East" one of the (bogus) reasons given for overthrowing Iraq?

It seems that such high moral stances are conditional on self-interest after all.

As for the UN, if they ceased to exist, what would take their place? The Law of the Jungle?

It makes more sense to make the UN work better by limiting the power of veto, restructuring the Security Council and finding ways of enforcing compliance with Resolutions.