“ICAHD's central purpose might sound noble.”

No it doesn’t. It’s just another crackpot Israeli fifth column.

Whether or not, as the idiot Halper claims, Israel calls Palestinians “Arabs” is a joke. Israel is defending itself from TERRORISTS, no matter what this crank wants them called. And, Arabs are the permanent enemies of Israel.

The article and the first post to the forum (especially) are outrageous in themselves.

More pertinently, it is a crime against humanity to demolish the houses as a punishment.

Terrorism, especially in the Middle East, is a matter of perspective and definition. State terrorism is still terrorism.

Israel was imposed on Palestine by terrorism and ethnic cleansing. This is in the historical record - nothing can change it.

Houses, property and businesses were mercilessly confiscated from Palestinians by violence and threats of violence. These are still in the hands of Israelis. The rightful owners of these places can't even visit their properties.

Before all this happened, Jews and Arabs (Christians, Muslims, etc) lived in harmony in Palestine.

The statement 'Israel has offered the Palestinians a state in more than 90 per cent of a contiguous West Bank, plus Gaza' is often trotted out by apologists for Israel. It is simply not true - it is propaganda.

Mahatma Gandhi: 'Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary... I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.'

Israel will eventually fully realise that violence begets violence.

Mahatma Gandhi: "Hitler killed five million Jews. It is the greatest crime of our time. But the Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher's knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs..."

You'll excuse me if I don't take advice from Ghandi.

It is said that it was not only hate that caused Hitler's pledge to get rid of the Jews but fear of the Jewish mental prowess.

And as business prowess can often mean political prowess, plus military prowess, one wonders what really makes up the present Israeli mentality for a future in the Middle East?

regards, BB, WA.

The well worn Israeli/Palestinian arguement trotted out once again. No matter what is spoken or written the fact remains that Israel is in very serious breach of various legitimate UN sanctions in its relationship with the Palestinian Arab peoples, amongst them wilful illegal destruction of Palestinian housing.(Particularly in East Jerusalem). One has only to to read Israeli history written by their nationals, (including various Zionist publications), to learn of their professed entitlement of the whole of the so called ancient Jewish biblical lands, which of course would include (amongst other land areas) the present Palestinian West Bank in its entirety. Its well beyond time that the United Nations bit their bullet & sorted the whole mess out before the warlike element in Israel engage in a quite possible future nuclear conflict with Iran.
This thorn in the worlds foot is a small insignificant nation of some 6-7 million people who should be living a life of peacefull pursuit instead of seemingly constantly engaging in explosive small conflicts with its neighbours.
As previously stated its well beyond time that the UN settle the matter permanently.

Jews, Chirstians and Muslims did not live in peace and harmony in the area that the Romans called Palestine. Muslim Bedioun tribes invaded the area in 634, and have occupied it since. They found a population which was majority Jewish and Christian: killed many of them in the invasion, deported to slavery a significant number of the rest, and only started leaving an occupied people in Palestine when the economy started to suffer for lack of a population.
The Muslim oppression of both Christians and jews is on the record. When the Zionists first came to Palestine, they were struck by how subservient the indigenous Jews were, and this was part of the reason they called themselves 'new' Jews: they were going to be assertive, and take their land back from their oppressor.
(By the way, the UN found that only 200,000 of the original 500,000 refugees from the 1948 war were found to be of Palestinian origin - the rest were in the area only for work, and could have gone home. But they were all classified as refugees, and 300,000 made up a Palestinian identity then and there.)
The Palestinian/ Arab Christians feel a true affinity with their Muslim neighbours, but are not nearly so strong about going back to an Israeli-controlled Palestine, nor subverting it.
It is in fact the Muslim Palestinians/ Arabs who are Israel's enemies, and their hatred goes back to the founding of their religion, and shows no signs of abating. Would establishing a Palestinian state in Gaza and West bank mean that relations between Israel and that state would be good? I don't think so. The Palestinian/ Arab insistence on their 'right' of return, for them and all their descendents, means a demographic change of Israel from a majority Jewish state to a majority Muslim state. From that point on, all protection for Jews in Israel will disappear. And from that point, Jews in Israel will start to disappear - sorry, be murdered in the street. And we can see just how effective the international community is in protecting people from genocidal enemies.