Israel angling for Gulf War III?

[Rogers]

Israeli aide: Media focus on 2-state idea ‘stupid’
Netanyahu tries to shift attention away from Palestinian issue, toward Iran

"Focusing on Iran
During his talks in Washington, Netanyahu constantly tried to shift emphasis away from the Palestinian issue toward the threat posed by Iran's nuclear program. He and Obama publicly disagreed about the relative weight of the two issues.

In a brief statement at Israel's airport on his return, Netanyahu again began with Iran, mentioning the Palestinian issue as third on his list."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30846937/


THE END OF ISRAEL'S SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP?

"One analyst hoped so – writing that the only American president who really helped Israel was, the now much reviled here, Jimmy Carter.

He helped cobbled together Israel’s peace treaty with Egypt by brow-beating then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin into giving up on his promises not to cede an inch of land. As a result of the Camp David Accords, Begin eventually gave up all of Sinai – winning a peace agreement with Egypt that stands firm today and is in no serious jeopardy."

"Israeli Arabs, as well as Palestinians, are convinced that nothing will change as a result of the new U.S. administration and that America continues to be as beholden to Israel and the Jewish lobby as it ever was. Their analysts expect no American pressure on Israel.

For once, Israeli leaders are listening to the Palestinians and hope that they are right."
http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2009/05/18/1935590.aspx

[Rogers]

Israel's nuclear programme

"Unlike Iran and North Korea - two countries whose alleged nuclear ambitions have recently come to the fore - Israel has never signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, designed to prevent the global spread of nuclear weapons.

As a result, it is not subject to inspections and the threat of sanctions by the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency."

Arab anger

"They also accuse the US of operating a regional policy of double-standards, ignoring Israel's weapons programmes while insisting that others - notably pre-war Iraq, Iran and Syria - are a threat to peace because of their alleged weapons of mass destruction.

The head of the IAEA, an Egyptian, is regarded with suspicion in Israel
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency recently urged Israel to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and surrender its nuclear weapons in order to further peace in the Middle East.

Mohamed ElBaradei told an Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, that the IAEA operated under the assumption that Israel had nuclear weapons despite the fact that it had never officially confirmed this.

He warned that Israel's belief that it was safer because it possessed such weapons was false, as other Middle Eastern countries felt threatened by their presence.

And he urged Israel and its neighbours to begin talks on halting the spread of nuclear weapons in the Middle East.

"My fear is that, without such a dialogue, there will be continued incentive for the region's countries to develop weapons of mass destruction to match the Israeli arsenal," he said."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3340639.stm


Israel and weapons of mass destruction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction

[q1a2z3]

The united nations created the Jewish State in 1948 and they created a Palestinian State too. Go read the resolutions!!!

If the sand monkeys laid down their weapons today there would be peace in the Middle East.

If the Israelis did they would be killed.

Israel needs to glass those sand monkeys in iran now while they have a chance to do it.

The cult of islam is the problem.

[hippifried]

No.
Incessant whining & fear mongering by mentally insecure self righteous fools is the problem. Just about every time, regardless of the issue.

[q1a2z3]

Thought so...

[yosi]

last week Iran had a test with a new missile that goes far beyond Israel....

a small history lesson:

only few years ago , there was a war between Iran and Iraq with millions of poeple killed...............

claiming that Iran's nuclear power is Israel's problem only is the understatment of the decade

[Rogers]

last week Iran had a test with a new missile that goes far beyond Israel....

a small history lesson:

only few years ago , there was a war between Iran and Iraq with millions of poeple killed...............

claiming that Iran's nuclear power is Israel's problem only is the understatment of the decade

Think you're missing my point, yosi. There is only one country in the Middle-East with a nuclear arsenal. Israel. No one knows exactly how big its capability is thanks to pretty much unconditional U.S. support. Why do you think Israel has presisted in keeping it so secret after so much time? It's simply because if it admitted it had one of the biggest nuclear arsenal's in the world it would make the U.S. look like a hypocrite. Wouldn't letting your enemies know that you could squash them like a bug at the press of a button make more sense? You have seen Kubrick's, "Dr. Strangelove", right?: "Why didn't you tell the world, eh!?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmCKJi3CKGE&feature=related

On the issue of nuclear proliferation, why do you think that the former President of Pakistan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, said that Pakistan would make the bomb if it meant Pakistanis' had to "eat grass" to do it? The answer to that is that they'd been recently humiliated by India. Has Pakistan nuked India yet? Not to my knowledge. Israel's unpressured nuclear arsenal is only driving nuclear proliferation in the Middle-East just as the head of the I.A.E.A. stated above.

Think Again: Nuclear Proliferation
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3304

Also ask yourself these questions:
Were W.M.D.'s ever found in Iraq?
Did the price of oil go up or down long-term after the invasion?
If it wasn't about W.M.D.'s or oil then what was it about?
Just exactly who has benefited from Iraq? And please don't give me any bullshit about spreading democracy and human rights, because if that was the case we'd have invaded Tibet and Zimbabwe a few years ago.
Please also remember that Israel was an equal partner with the U.S. and the U.K. in the flawed intelligence that "led" to Gulf War II.

One excellent way of diverting unwanted international attention away from an internal problem that you have is to look for another bogey man, and to blow them up into the living embodiment of evil. South Africa used Soviet Russia to help them continue with Apartheid. Israel has used Iraq, and now is trying to use Iran, for pretty much the same thing. It really shouldn't take too much intelligence to know when you're being played.

Oh yes, and one of the main reasons as to why IRAQ INVADED Iran was because of American support. Israel has no friends other than America. It has little to do with anti-semitism, but a lot to do with the way in which they have acted like a bully for decades. Saddam also acted like a bully for decades, and got away with it for some time thanks to the same reason. If there is ever going to be long-term peace in the Middle-East it's going to take a strong American President to "brow-beat" Israel into making compromises. Peace in Northern Ireland and South Africa has only come about through compromise, and Israel doesn't want or need to do that currently because it hold all the cards. Moslems simply aren't flying into American buildings because of a dislike of western culture.

[Rogers]

Thought so...

Still enjoying the tranny porn after all this time, quiteazealot? :wink:

*cough* closet-case *cough*

Thought so... :lol:

[hippifried]

last week Iran had a test with a new missile that goes far beyond Israel....

a small history lesson:

only few years ago , there was a war between Iran and Iraq with millions of poeple killed...............

claiming that Iran's nuclear power is Israel's problem only is the understatment of the decadeYeah, but you have to put it in perspective. In 1980, Iraq saw a weakness in Iran that they thought they could exploit. Iran had just kicked out their king, & was in the process of creating a new government system. They'd lost all support from the west & had never had support from anywhere else. Iraq figured they could steal a chunk of that 'no man's land' at the top of the gulf & have themselves a deep water port. Something they still don't have. Their only direct access to the sea is the river. Didn't work out. "...best laid plans..." & all that. Personally, I'm pretty much convinced that's why they invaded Kuwait too. Oops! None of the ideological explanations make sense, & Saddam Hussein was pragmatic in his own way. Being polite & asking for consideration never occurs to the overbearing.

Thus we have the current situation in Israel. For some years you had this contentious thing going on between the overbearing foreign Brits, & the overbearing foreign Jewish immigrants. The Brits caved of course (the royals & peerage have French lineage), & told the other overbearing foreigners that they could have it all. There was worldwide fanfare. Throughout all this, it never occured to any of the overbearing to consult the people who were already living there. Israel is just another case study in being rude. I imagine it's too late now, but I can't help wondering what could have happened if Jewish victims of the horrendous violence perpetrated on them in Europe had just asked permission to move there from the Palistinians themselves.


Iran?
Let's see. They attacked ... Um ... Errr ... Uh ... Hmmmm ... Who again? They've been attacked, occupied, & had their territories whittled away bit by bit over the centuries, but have the Persians been on a mission of conquest since Alexander?

It just seems counterproductive to create threats & enemies in order to justify overbearing force. Sorry, but there's no evidence of an Iranian bomb. None whatsoever. One's distrust of another's stated motivations is not an excuse for war. No nation has cause to keep another from technological development, paranoia notwithstanding. As the most powerful nation the world has ever seen, we shouldn't be encouraging beligerence. We control airspace access to Iran, & we have the power to disallow any kind of attack on them. Iran is surounded on the west by no-fly zones. Any air attack on Iran by Israel would be a breach, & vice versa although Iran has no airforce to speak of. Any nuclear attack by anyone on anyone makes the attacker the most dangerous entity on the planet, everyone's common enemy, & a target for like retaliation. It's literal suicide at worst & political suicide at best, because the attacker forfiets the claim of nationhood. They're gone one way or the other.

M.A.D. anyone?

[hippifried]

There is only one country in the Middle-East with a nuclear arsenal. Israel.Excuse me? There's Pakistan. They have bombs, & nobody knows how many. India too. Then there's all those 'stans across the southern tier of the old Soviet Union, where they had all kinds of stuff deployed. I can't help but wonder how many missiles & warheads the Russians couldn't get back. What do we know about Turkey or Egypt?

"The Lord's our shepherd says the Psalm,
but just in case, we better get a bomb."

It's a M.A.D. M.A.D. M.A.D. M.A.D. world. :shock:

[Rogers]

There is only one country in the Middle-East with a nuclear arsenal. Israel.Excuse me? There's Pakistan. They have bombs, & nobody knows how many. India too. Then there's all those 'stans across the southern tier of the old Soviet Union, where they had all kinds of stuff deployed. I can't help but wonder how many missiles & warheads the Russians couldn't get back. What do we know about Turkey or Egypt?

"The Lord's our shepherd says the Psalm,
but just in case, we better get a bomb."

It's a M.A.D. M.A.D. M.A.D. M.A.D. world. :shock:

Guess it depends on your definition of the Middle-East, hippi. Pakistan is in the GREATER Middle-East. India is a sub-continent in its own right.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_East

Anyway, Israel continues to blatantly flout, flout, and flout again international law...

Netanyahu says settlements can expand
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8066389.stm

[tstv_lover]

Sounds like Obama and Netanyahu see quite differently on the subject of settlement expansion.

It will be interesting to see how this rare example of divergence plays out - for Netanyahu and for Obama. Given Hillary Clintons clarification yesterday, there doesn't appear to be mmuch wiggle room.

[q1a2z3]

Thought so...

Still enjoying the tranny porn after all this time, quiteazealot? :wink:

*cough* closet-case *cough*

Thought so... :lol:


Hey rogers,

I'm not the guy reenacting Deliverance around here. Wow! millions of sand monkeys died when Iraq and Iran were fighting!!! Now I just need to figure out how to get that started again but get the death rate to over take the birth rate. It's kinda like AIDS, so close butt so far away.

Seems like president Buckwheat loves Iran. He keeps wanting to sit down with monkey boy over there.

[yosi]

Iran?
Let's see. They attacked ... Um ... Errr ... Uh ... Hmmmm ... Who again? They've been attacked, occupied, & had their territories whittled away bit by bit over the centuries, but have the Persians been on a mission of conquest since Alexander?



it will be a conspiracy to say that Iran planned to kill Egypt's president Mubarak just recently, supported suicide bombers all over the world in the name of Jihad , the holy war to convert all the world to Islam and also supported Al-Qaida in the 9/11 attach , right? just a conspiracy...........

sorry to tell you my friend but you are NAIVE 8)

[yosi]

last week Iran had a test with a new missile that goes far beyond Israel....

a small history lesson:

only few years ago , there was a war between Iran and Iraq with millions of poeple killed...............

claiming that Iran's nuclear power is Israel's problem only is the understatment of the decade

Think you're missing my point, yosi. There is only one country in the Middle-East with a nuclear arsenal. Israel. No one knows exactly how big its capability is thanks to pretty much unconditional U.S. support. Why do you think Israel has presisted in keeping it so secret after so much time? It's simply because if it admitted it had one of the biggest nuclear arsenal's in the world it would make the U.S. look like a hypocrite. Wouldn't letting your enemies know that you could squash them like a bug at the press of a button make more sense? You have seen Kubrick's, "Dr. Strangelove", right?: "Why didn't you tell the world, eh!?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmCKJi3CKGE&feature=related

On the issue of nuclear proliferation, why do you think that the former President of Pakistan, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, said that Pakistan would make the bomb if it meant Pakistanis' had to "eat grass" to do it? The answer to that is that they'd been recently humiliated by India. Has Pakistan nuked India yet? Not to my knowledge. Israel's unpressured nuclear arsenal is only driving nuclear proliferation in the Middle-East just as the head of the I.A.E.A. stated above.

Think Again: Nuclear Proliferation
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3304

Also ask yourself these questions:
Were W.M.D.'s ever found in Iraq?
Did the price of oil go up or down long-term after the invasion?
If it wasn't about W.M.D.'s or oil then what was it about?
Just exactly who has benefited from Iraq? And please don't give me any bullshit about spreading democracy and human rights, because if that was the case we'd have invaded Tibet and Zimbabwe a few years ago.
Please also remember that Israel was an equal partner with the U.S. and the U.K. in the flawed intelligence that "led" to Gulf War II.

One excellent way of diverting unwanted international attention away from an internal problem that you have is to look for another bogey man, and to blow them up into the living embodiment of evil. South Africa used Soviet Russia to help them continue with Apartheid. Israel has used Iraq, and now is trying to use Iran, for pretty much the same thing. It really shouldn't take too much intelligence to know when you're being played.

Oh yes, and one of the main reasons as to why IRAQ INVADED Iran was because of American support. Israel has no friends other than America. It has little to do with anti-semitism, but a lot to do with the way in which they have acted like a bully for decades. Saddam also acted like a bully for decades, and got away with it for some time thanks to the same reason. If there is ever going to be long-term peace in the Middle-East it's going to take a strong American President to "brow-beat" Israel into making compromises. Peace in Northern Ireland and South Africa has only come about through compromise, and Israel doesn't want or need to do that currently because it hold all the cards. Moslems simply aren't flying into American buildings because of a dislike of western culture.


please give me a smart solution to a problem of over 3,000 missiles landing on Israeli cities.

and jusy take a perspective what would've happened if it was American cities bombed on a daily basis from Mexico , what will be the American re-action , will they continue to sit on their butts and do nothing? or will they react? and how?

btw , all these missiles are shipped from Iran

waiting for your educated advice........................

[bte]

Nobody is afraid of Israel having nuclear weapons. Countries are fearful of North Korea and Iran having nuclear weapons. I think what one poster said is true, "If Iran laid to rest their nuclear weapons then there would be peace. If Isreal laid to rest their nuclear weapons then they would die."

[hippifried]

Everybody makes the exact same claim, that what they're doing is retaliation. Sorry, but somebody had to throw the first blow. The who & why just doesn't matter anymore. It's like one of those cartoon feuds where nobody knows what it's all about after multiple generations.

Personally, I wouldn't shed a single tear if every one of those morons blew each other to smithereens. They're on a suicidal path anyway. At the rate things are going, the Jordan River valley could end up glowing in the dark for the next several thousand years. Oh well. At least nobody'd be fighting over it anymore.

[trish]

Nobody is afraid of Israel having nuclear weapons.

Fear is the main excuse for having nuclear weapons. The whole Mid East is fearful that Israel has them. That’s why Iran is developing them. Israel has them because they’re fearful of the Islamic nations. North Korea is fearful of the U.S. presence in South Korea. Pakistan is fearful of India and India of Pakistan. We stockpiled them because the Soviet Union had them. The Soviet Union had them because we wouldn’t quite developing newer and better ones. Because of cowardice the whole world is forever balanced on the brink of nuclear annihilation. It seems everybody’s got to have a bomb, a weapon, a gun etc. The world is filled with cowards. You know what scares me? Cowards.

[Rogers]

Thought so...

Still enjoying the tranny porn after all this time, quiteazealot? :wink:

*cough* closet-case *cough*

Thought so... :lol:


Hey rogers,

I'm not the guy reenacting Deliverance around here. Wow! millions of sand monkeys died when Iraq and Iran were fighting!!! Now I just need to figure out how to get that started again but get the death rate to over take the birth rate. It's kinda like AIDS, so close butt so far away.

Seems like president Buckwheat loves Iran. He keeps wanting to sit down with monkey boy over there.

I used to really like lesbian porn a bit back before I realized that it's "really fucking gay". :lol: Now I only like porn with guys topping girls. I'm not the one with the girl topping a guy avatar. When people really detest something they just don't go near it, and you've spent an awfully long time in a place that you claim to detest. :wink: You're as twisted and as QUEER as the bile you continuously spew, queer1assed2zealot3. :lol:

[Rogers]

please give me a smart solution to a problem of over 3,000 missiles landing on Israeli cities.

and jusy take a perspective what would've happened if it was American cities bombed on a daily basis from Mexico , what will be the American re-action , will they continue to sit on their butts and do nothing? or will they react? and how?

btw , all these missiles are shipped from Iran

waiting for your educated advice........................

I've already given you the only real solution to perpetual war with the moslem world. Historically, terrorism is the weapon of the underdog. If you claim that you don't understand the mentality of the suicide bomber then you've never comprehended what it means to be constantly demeaned and humiliated. The Gaza Strip is one of the biggest shit-holes on the planet thanks to the Israelis.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6c3kw_john-pilger-is-israel-a-terroristic

We supported the Sha when it was clear he was extremely unpopular. We helped him get rid of most of his more mainstream political opposition to the extent that when he did fall all that was really left were the religious fundamentalists. The current situation in Iran is what happens when you push a country to far. Just how smart do you think it is to keep driving it further into instability?

[Rogers]

Nobody is afraid of Israel having nuclear weapons.

Fear is the main excuse for having nuclear weapons. The whole Mid East is fearful that Israel has them. That’s why Iran is developing them. Israel has them because they’re fearful of the Islamic nations. North Korea is fearful of the U.S. presence in South Korea. Pakistan is fearful of India and India of Pakistan. We stockpiled them because the Soviet Union had them. The Soviet Union had them because we wouldn’t quite developing newer and better ones. Because of cowardice the whole world is forever balanced on the brink of nuclear annihilation. It seems everybody’s got to have a bomb, a weapon, a gun etc. The world is filled with cowards. You know what scares me? Cowards.

It's simply an evolutionary arms race we're seeing, trish. Fear is a powerful and primitive emotion, arguably much stronger than love.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckoElFWXbR8

[hippifried]

I've already given you the only real solution to perpetual war with the moslem world.There's no perpetual war with the Muslim world. There's just perpetual war. Certain Muslim groups are just the flavor of the week. Since the Soviets collapsed under their own weight, we've been scrambling to find more enemies. We did Panama, Iraq, Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq again, etc... & those are just the shootin' wars. We're pointing fingers all over the place. Coming up with all kinds of threat levels. Yada yada yada... Can't justify cold war military levels without a new hitler for everybody to be scared of. So once again, we're training our military might at an abstract.

We're not at war with Islam. Oh there's a whole bunch of idiots who think we are or should be, but they don't know what they're talking about. The war with Serbia was protecting mostly Muslims from mostly Orthodox Christians. We don't know who we're fighting & don't care, as long as we're fighting. We've been at it non-stop since 1941. It's always something & it's 99% bullshit.

The only real solution to perpetual war is to stop doing & supporting it. Stop believing the memes that say war is human nature, honorable, glorious, etc... It's all just a mindset. Change the mindset & you change the world. It's not impossible if anybody bothers to try.

[yosi]

please give me a smart solution to a problem of over 3,000 missiles landing on Israeli cities.

and jusy take a perspective what would've happened if it was American cities bombed on a daily basis from Mexico , what will be the American re-action , will they continue to sit on their butts and do nothing? or will they react? and how?

btw , all these missiles are shipped from Iran

waiting for your educated advice........................

I've already given you the only real solution to perpetual war with the moslem world. Historically, terrorism is the weapon of the underdog. If you claim that you don't understand the mentality of the suicide bomber then you've never comprehended what it means to be constantly demeaned and humiliated. The Gaza Strip is one of the biggest shit-holes on the planet thanks to the Israelis.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6c3kw_john-pilger-is-israel-a-terroristic

We supported the Sha when it was clear he was extremely unpopular. We helped him get rid of most of his more mainstream political opposition to the extent that when he did fall all that was really left were the religious fundamentalists. The current situation in Iran is what happens when you push a country to far. Just how smart do you think it is to keep driving it further into instability?

the profiles of the suicide bombers from the 9/11 don't fit the "demeaned and humiliated" characters that you describe as in many other suicide bombers around the world in recent years..............

it's the easiest to blame Israel for The Gaza Strip being one of the biggest shit-holes on the planet, but out of billions and billions of $ that were already sent to help the poor population of the Gaza strip, non actually were used for this purpose, it's someone's interest to keep them that way ........these "someones" are the religious extremists that use this money to give them power over the poor population, it's easier to control them that way.

you still didn't give me a smart solution to a problem of over 3,000 missiles landing on Israeli cities on a daily basis :roll:

[q1a2z3]

Happiness is a warm nuke - bang, bang, shoot, shoot!!!

[Rogers]

please give me a smart solution to a problem of over 3,000 missiles landing on Israeli cities.

and jusy take a perspective what would've happened if it was American cities bombed on a daily basis from Mexico , what will be the American re-action , will they continue to sit on their butts and do nothing? or will they react? and how?

btw , all these missiles are shipped from Iran

waiting for your educated advice........................

I've already given you the only real solution to perpetual war with the moslem world. Historically, terrorism is the weapon of the underdog. If you claim that you don't understand the mentality of the suicide bomber then you've never comprehended what it means to be constantly demeaned and humiliated. The Gaza Strip is one of the biggest shit-holes on the planet thanks to the Israelis.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6c3kw_john-pilger-is-israel-a-terroristic

We supported the Sha when it was clear he was extremely unpopular. We helped him get rid of most of his more mainstream political opposition to the extent that when he did fall all that was really left were the religious fundamentalists. The current situation in Iran is what happens when you push a country to far. Just how smart do you think it is to keep driving it further into instability?

the profiles of the suicide bombers from the 9/11 don't fit the "demeaned and humiliated" characters that you describe as in many other suicide bombers around the world in recent years..............

Out of the thousands of moslem suicide bombers that there has been, exactly how many were involved in 9/11? Those few also do indeed fit the profile of the underdog. Knock yourself out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_bomber#Profile_of_attackers


it's the easiest to blame Israel for The Gaza Strip being one of the biggest shit-holes on the planet, but out of billions and billions of $ that were already sent to help the poor population of the Gaza strip, non actually were used for this purpose, it's someone's interest to keep them that way ........these "someones" are the religious extremists that use this money to give them power over the poor population, it's easier to control them that way.

Oh noes, another conspiracy theorist. :wink: The U.S. gives more money to Israel, a first-world country, than any other in the world. Israel has blockaded the Gazza Strip (using weaponry that America has helped to pay for) since Hamas were elected there, and this so-called "billions and billions" of aid that you talk about has been choked even further by the U.S., the E.U., and the Palestinean Authority on the West Bank.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7280026.stm


you still didn't give me a smart solution to a problem of over 3,000 missiles landing on Israeli cities on a daily basis :roll:

3,000 missiles a day... really? If you can't do me the decency of actually reading what I've previously written, and that's twice now, then you really shouldn't keep asking me to reply to you, yosi. :roll: :roll: :roll:


If there is ever going to be long-term peace in the Middle-East it's going to take a strong American President to "brow-beat" Israel into making compromises. Peace in Northern Ireland and South Africa has only come about through compromise, and Israel doesn't want or need to do that currently because it hold all the cards.

Also read the second article I linked to in my first post on this thread. If the Israelis aren't willing to compromise over land which isn't even theirs, then what else do they really expect to happen to them?

[tstv_lover]

Also read the second article I linked to in my first post on this thread. If the Israelis aren't willing to compromise over land which isn't even theirs, then what else do they really expect to happen to them?

Sadly, the middle east is one of these topics where people seem to have entrenched positions and only admit to reading articles which confirm their position. Israeli and Palestinian leaders are culpible of this too - although there are commendable groups in both communities that seek to understand other viewpoints.

There was a view, a few years ago, that after Sharon and Arafat departed the scene then an opportunity for peace and co-existence might emerge. Politically that has not happened. IMHO the leaders are not serving their communities well and the "road map" has been ignored.