Paul I-your contempt for the UN is disgraceful.

I would cheerfully nuke anyone who wanted to invade where I live, kill me, rape my wife and bulldoze my house. Unfortuneately, atrocities and racism practiced by our forebears always comes back to haunt, just as they are haunting the Israelis now. The European Zionists were allowed into Palestine by the British under the Balfour agreement which specified that they would not interfere with local politics. They had no fundamental right to live there other than the fact that Moses and his mates had invaded the place about 2000 years earlier, if the Bible is to be believed, and had run around toppling the walls of Jericho, then populated by other people, and knocking off Philistinian giants in a cowardly manner with slingshots. Well, if in 1948 I had been an Arab and had seen 700 000 to 900 000 of my fellow Arabs kicked out of their homes by a bunch of illegal immigrants, I too would have gathered five armies and invaded with as much slaughter as possible to convince the illegal immigrants that they weren't wanted. And no doubt had I been one of the illegal immigrants I would have shot as many Arabs as possible. However, Palestinians are human beings just like you and they deserve a damn sight better deal than they have been given for the last 60 years. We would demand the same if we were in that situation, just as those heroic Jews in the Warsaw ghetto also fought back and killed Germans so as to define their rights. Of couse, the Germans regarded them as terrorists for doing so.

LOL Danielle,

I have no intention of dignifying the theory that the side that suffers the most casualties must be the side that's in the right. The relatively low number of Israeli civilian casualties is not due to any lack of trying on the part of various Palestinian factions. If Hamas or Islamic Jihad had the capability they would kill more Jews.

I also see no point in arguing with HenryVIII. He believes the wicked Zionists took away land belonging to the Palestinians. There is nothing I can say that will change his mind.

In a way I prefer the likes of HenryVIII to the hypocrites who make anodyne statements about Israel's "right to exist" while in practise making it impossible for Israel to defend itself against its genocidal neighbours.

The comparison with the Warsaw Ghetto is piffle. The Nazis were carting Jews off to the death camps. Israel is not exterminating Palestinians. On the contrary, given the opportunity I have no doubt Hamas would exterminate the Jews.

If Hamas ceased allowing Gaza to be used as a platform to attack Israel, Israel's defensive counter-attacks on Gaza would cease

Hey people! Settle down. I sit here and watch you all, and quite frankly, your not doing anyone any favours. Your all just nit picking and going nowhere. This just proves my theory that we are not ready to mix yet. You all live in the world of yesterday and if you think this is positive thinking, then we all loose! My advice is, always think of the big picture, cause when you are drowning, does it matter if you are black or white or if you believe in god, cause by your standards, I am already dead in the water. On the battlefield, men who have had enough, come back across the line and help his fellow man.

Overpopulation is what is causing ALL the problem in the world, and I will say it again! Its time too wined back and if we don't, we will become extinct one way or another. I see it as clear as day and I am starting to think, this is the beginning of the end.

Try and use your imaginations in this hypothetical situation, cause if the world had only half as many people, what would the world be like.

Just have a think.

I find it strange that those who sympathise with the Jews murdered and tormented by the Nazis, as I certainly do, fail to acknowledge that what happened in 1947-1948 was in fact ethnic cleansing of another group of people by what were, in reality, invaders. If that simple truth were acknowledged then it might lead to a path of understanding and reconciliation in a couple of generations. One can list modern brutalities by both sides for as long as the cows come home; one can curse Hamas or the equally bigotted and violent right- wing Jews as much as one wants and throw blame here and there; one can kill 20 Palestinians for 1 Isreali, or even vice versa. But NONE of this will solve the problem, as history has proved time after time.

The root of the problem is that a bunch of human beings living in Israel were kicked off their land by another group. We cannot return to the pre-1947 situation or the pre-1916 situation, just as it is impractical for we 20 million Australians to go back where we came from. However, the first step is acknowledging past history; the second step is to refuse to let that history, and the terrifying history of the Holocaust, imprison us in fear and hatred. Then there might be hope for both sides. It is a very difficult ask, and the first Palestinian or first Israeli politician who tries it might just get assassinated, as was Sadat. But that risk comes with the job of leadership.

Danielle, thanks, nice to be back

Henry VIII > “Well, if in 1948 I had been an Arab and had seen 700 000 to 900 000 of my fellow Arabs kicked out of their homes by a bunch of illegal immigrants, I too would have gathered five armies and invaded with as much slaughter as possible “

And you had the temerity to point out my lack of historical accuracy. The invasion of the five Arab armies preceded the mass exodus of Palestinians from Israeli held areas. So that renders all your inaccuracies that follow redundant. The arab invasions were the primary cause of the mass evacuations.

Secondly you have ignored the fact that almost as many Israelis were expelled from their homes in arab countries in the region at the same time. Yet arabs still make up a sizeable minority of Israelis. How many jews do you know of who live in Arab/Muslim countries? How many temples exist in Arab muslim countries. Yet Israel has mosques.

Thirdly you obviously haven’t heard about the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. Or the offer to the Palestinians of their own state at Camp David in 2000 in return for a renunciation of violence.

You haven’t even understood the basic sticking point in negotiations. The issue most Palestinians want to see corrected is the return of Israel to the pre 1967 line, the green line. 1967 was the war which changed the facts on the ground. Until 1967 the Gaza strip and West Bank were help by Egypt and Jordan. Both those countries declined to allow Palestinians to form their own countries. What is currently termed the occupation began in 1967 when Israel took over responsibility for the West Bank and Gaza Strip. When Israel withdrew unilaterally from the Gaza Strip the palestinians didn't seize the opportunity to start their own country. They used Gaza as a jumping off point for further attacks on Israel. Concessions have done the Israelis little good which is why they are reluctant to make any more.

Evolution, do you know anything about current fertility rates? If you did you wouldn’t be rambling on about overpopulation.

What the world would look like with half the population is vastly more old people than young people and vastly more third world citizens than first worlder’s. And if you’re about to say we could do with a few less first worlders, just let me remind you who is out there in the third world. In sudan recently there has been an epidemic of Penis vanishing. Local men have had their penises vanish after contact with foreigners. The Secretary of state put out a press release saying their was no scientific basis for these claims and that it must be “sorcerey magic or emotional problems”. Sudan have recently purchased half a billion dollars in weaponry. In Iran we have a man who has been widening the roads in Tehran for the return of the 12th imam, the Mahdi(BTW he's 1200 years old) who he believes is hiding down a well waiting for the right time for his triumphal return.These people have a nuclear weapons program and have been repeated threats to use them. In Africa we have politicians who deny that Aids is caused by HIV. In many parts of the world muslims believe simultaneously that 9/11 was a mossad operation and that it was Islams greatest hour. Islamic school children are taught that on judgement day they will slaughter the jews with the help of the rocks and the trees who will call to them to come and kill the jews hiding behind them.

Those who suggest that population is the cause are simpletons relying upon pseudoscience and eco-chondria. Some of the most densely populated places on the planet have no violent problems. Consider Japan, Singapore or South Korea. Some of the most sparsely populated countries have overwhelming issues. Eg Sudan.or Angola or Afghanistan. I think it is you who needs to do a little more thinking.