etrzfhtk

The murdered yeshiva boys were in a "talmudic terror training camp"? The person who wrote this is beyond sick. They were kids - and here you are gloating of their murders. Unlike Arabs, the Jews do not use child soldiers and try very hard to keep their kids away from military actions.

Just for the record... go die in a fire.

Only Israel is expected to absorb attack after attack and do nothing. Israel's response is "disproportionate" - in that any other nation in Israel's position would have already flattened the Palis long ago.

Also, the sheer idiocy of the comments is insane. Israel pulled out of Gaza. Israel did not interfere with the elections. Israel did not interfere when Hamas took over. Israel left them with all sorts of infrastructure that the Palis then destroyed.

But you are correct that Israel should completely pull out. That would mean no more supplying those animals with food, water, sewage treatment or electricity. The Palis have the lowest infant mortality rate of any Arabs in the mideast because they get access to Israeli medicine. Israel should keep them out of their hospitals too. Perhaps the Palis can build those things in their "state" rather than rockets. Perhaps they can study things like medicine and agriculture and engineering rather than killing and murder.

The palis get more international aid per capita than any other group of people on Earth. Look what they have to show for it.

I am utterly appalled by this article. The Arabs start war after war. The Arabs attack (or try to attack) everyday. The Arabs reject all offers of peace. The Arabs elect Hamas, which has sworn to make war on and destroy Israel. The Arabs launch rockets - that is an act of war you idiots - and you blame Israel.

It is high time Israel really gives them something to cry about and takes off the gloves. It is hight time, that when the Hamasnicks throw a parade, Israel takes the gift of a coupple of thousand irregular troops in one place at one time and hits them with napalm. It is high time that Israel destroys their munitions bunkers - even if they are placed in mosques. It is high time that Israel hunts down and kills the Hamas leadership. It is high time that the Palis learn that there is such a thing as personal responsibility. If you elect a genocidal terrorist organization, then the social contract works both ways and you take the consequences of the war they start. There will be no peace from half measures and there will be no peace when terrorist barbarians are whitewashed into some kind of hero.

I really don't care if you people here hate Jews. I really don't care if you think you are clever or if you think that your impotent whining will do anything to further the evil causes and the evil regimes you champion. There will come a day when Hamas and the Palis commit one atrocity too many, and then Israel will take off the gloves and do what the US or Britian or China or Russia would do in this situation.

As to the rest of you lefty pricks that want to say that Israel is not Jewish land, it was always Jewish land - just as much as Dublin is Irish. So cut the crap.

Finally, when the day comes that Israel has been pushed too far, and they take proper firm action, know that you left wing idiots helped to bring it because you helped to enable and embolden the terrorists. When that day comes, many more will die than if the world had been honest.

The IDF (which makes me laugh, "defense forces") is allowed to kill Palestinian children playing football.

But killing 8 Jews studying in a Yeshiva Talmudic terror training camp, is a major crime?

Well, I do not understand the difference.

Israel is reaping what it has sown..

I wouldn't be suprised to find out that the Israelis are funding and controlling Hamas and Hezbollah. As long as a state of conflict exists the Israelis are able to control the US government for its own purposes.

If the Palestinians had any sense they would form into columns and march on Israel. The Israelis would then have to allow them to proceed or else they would have to fire on them. Either way the Palestinians will be able to demonstrate unity. If the Israelis fire on them then they will be committing mass murder on unarmed people. That would be their most powerful weapon because it will eliminate sympathy for the Israelis among their Western flunkies. The more dead the greater their victory. Leave the bodies where they fall.

I wouldn't be suprised to find out that the Israelis are funding and controlling Hamas and Hezbollah. As long as a state of conflict exists the Israelis are able to control the US government for its own purposes.

If the Palestinians had any sense they would form into columns and march on Israel. The Israelis would then have to allow them to proceed or else they would have to fire on them. Either way the Palestinians will be able to demonstrate unity. If the Israelis fire on them then they will be committing mass murder on unarmed people. That would be their most powerful weapon because it will eliminate sympathy for the Israelis among their Western flunkies. The more dead the greater their victory. Leave the bodies where they fall.

The best thing the US can do at this stage is walk away from the problem. In fact, walk away from the entire Middle East. Do everyone a favor.

I was born in 1955, so feel a link to the distinguished author. He has lived the reality of Palestine, and I dream of a country recently, Ireland, and the cease-fire there.

Since I was old enough to read, Israel comes to the peace table like a man with a stick to a hornets nest. The bees sting and swarm. Sunday article 'Israel Approves West Bank Settlement' was not open to comment.

So much for peace.

Keith wrote :
it should be working to establish normal relations with Israel and seeking its assistance. Instead, Hamas uses the suffering
what you mean for normal relations? between owner and slave? between who have all (water,electricty,control about border, importations exportations,work and right to decide who can travel..and who cannot) and who have nothing?
i am sure..you have very little knowledge of the situation..it is unusual for you...as for me..we live in civilized countries..with rights..courts..and all our rights..consacred in our constitutions..
Israel is a confessional state..based on the religion..as the Iran..so you have citizens of first and citizens of second category..
to have a idea read please the forums in the Jerusalem post..if you are a serious man..you will be shocked from the hate, the racisme..
the same hat that you find in the Hamas forums..
the religion can be the salvation or the damnation of the people..in the israelo-palestinian case..is for sure the damnation

Hamas is the de facto authority in Gaza, and the welfare of the people of Gaza is Hamas' responsibility. If Hamas cares about the welfare of the people of Gaza, it should be working to establish normal relations with Israel and seeking its assistance. Instead, Hamas uses the suffering of Gazans as a lever in its war with Israel, and uses rocket attacks to provoke Israel into retaliation. The responsibility for conditions in Gaza lies squarely with Hamas and its financial and military sponsors.

wright..this is a war..but..never heard the word "Geneve Convention"?.or you belong to the Bush's "school"..that think that in the war all behaviour(also the must criminal) is permitted?
so why the trail for Madlic and Milosevic?
maybe because in the USA dont existe a strong serbian lobby like the APAC?

Hello Professor.
How do you define a "crime of war"? War is "armed conflict"
and neither side considers it a crime.
The absence of armed conflict is peace.
Hamas and Isreal are at war.
Both sides justly claim to be freely elected.
War ends when one side stops armed conflict and the other side believes it is true. A truce is a temporary end of conflict.
There is no such thing as "excessive force in international humanitarian law".

X shilotoren
i quote :
" that is using civilians as human shields while they purposedly endanger them by firing mortars and rockets "
if you drop a bomb of 500 pound up a building where are living hundred civilian.. they are human shield?
or just people who is living in his house?
gaza is not a desert..is the most crowed area in the world..
my consideration dont want justifie at all the Hams's rockets up sderot..
but ..please..the behaviour of IDF is the same about retaliation, that used the SS..
so..or the SS were not war criminals..but just defending themself and their regime from "terroristics attacks"..
or the IDF too are warcriminals..
decide yourself

Atten: Mr. Kuttab: Re: Your column of 3-9-08.
The most important consideration should be the cessation of violence on both sides. The rocket attacks against Israel must cease, and, with their cessation will come a cessation of Israeli attacks against Palestinians, and a chance for peaceful negotiations in a court of international law. Anything else is shear insanity, and will not bring a just settlement.
Common sense must prevail.
Cyrano.

Dave Ellis writes:
"No one ever says the Arabs don't have their problems. They most certainly do. And no one ever says the Zionists are the only people to practice racism and ethnic cleansing; they most certainly are not. But facts are facts, and the facts of Israel's creation are truly sickening. So is the story of the American Indians. But one can be dealt with, while the other is basically history.
Why do most of the Israel defenders I read here start in the MIDDLE of the story? Yes, it's true, there have been many Arab attacks on Jews since 1917, when Britain decided to give Palestinian land to Jewish settlers. Who can possibly blame them? Are they supposed to say, "Here, Mr. Chosen One, take my land. Take my house. Take my wife..." C'mon, folks.
My point is this: Once a war is started, like the zionist's war against the Palestinians was started in 1917, there will always be those who choose to fight, rather than submit to occupation. And the hatred grows stronger every year, on both sides. But in this particular conflict, one side clearly started it all. And it WASN'T the Palestinians.
And to NOT IN MY NAME, I'll say this: If you are really a Palestinian and you really don't want me to defend you with WORDS but with weapons , fine. I'll quit now. But I'm not going to shut up about our American soldiers who are dying right now doing Israel's dirty work. Nor about the Iraqis and the sick war the Zionist neocons have started there. And now that we're probably days away from war with Iran, when is a good time to get mad enough to tell the Zionist neo-cons to *&%#$ off?"

Wallace says:
“She (Israel) becomes then a state in lawful control of territory (West Bank) in respect of which no other state can show better (or, indeed, any) legal title.”
You must be kidding, Right? The Palestinians do have in their possessions the keys to every house and title to every plot of land not only of the West Bank but of 90% of that entity called Israel.
You are hashing here myths that the Israelis themselves have long abandoned since they had outlived their usefulness and since the World now is much more informed. Many of modern day Israeli historians did the debunking.
http://www.redress.cc/zionism/omedicks20040707

Insinuating that Arafat was held hostage by the evil Communists is a cheap and juvenile attempt at discrediting the man to blunt his mission of freeing his country and people from oppression and occupation.

Annapolis was always doomed and US Mideast policy is in process of crashing in a gigantic debacle, a Karmic retribution of historic scope.
The US and Israel simply don't have the military force to impose their will on the region. Attempts to do so will merely intensify the fighting,making Israel progressively less livable in the process. This will end in a series of confilcts that will leave one less nation in the Mideast and catastrophic damage everywhere.

If the Palestinians would dump their bigoted, genocidal leaders and choose to live in peace, then Israel would immediately stop all "oppession, imprisonment, incursions (whatever)" and assist the rest of the world in doubling and tripling the standard of living of the Palestinians who have been the victims of their own bloodthirsty leaders for generations.
But a huge number of Palestinians, unfortunately, have been taught to worship death and ideology over living in peace and working hard to make a better life for themselves and their children.
Israel is here to stay. The land siezed beyond the internationally sanctioned borders came as the result of fascist warmongering on the part of those in the Middle East who are still intent on fulfilling Hitler's final solution against the Jews. WWII never ended. An unfortunate number of Arabs, Europeans and Leftist Americans are still dreaming up fantasies about how the Jews don't have the right to exist.
This group of people makes me ashamed to be a human being.

How many times does this need to be said before the comprehncion deficited get it? THE US IS INVOLVED IN THIS TRAGEDY BECAUSE IT GIVES BILLIONS OF IT'S TAX DOLLARS TO BANKROLL THE ISRAELIS TO SPEND ON WMD WHICH THEY UNLEASH ON THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE THEY OCCUPY. STOP FUNDING THIS ROGUE NATION.

Wallace, you must be doing somethign right if you are being personally attacked by the rabid Zionists on this forum.
Notice the Zionists wave aside the mass murder of indigenous people as if they are non-people and therefore their deaths do not matter...apartheid South Africa all over agian!

FREE PALESTINE- DO THE MORAL AND RIGHT THING AND STOP FUNDING APARTHEID ISRAEL.

Wallace:

Congratulations on such a coherent and measure response to the usual mindless diatribe that Katoub passes off as argument. Keep up the good work and do not be discouraged by "garbage: comments from "garbarge" talkbackers.

As to the heinous murder Thursday night that stroke down 8 innocent youths, including the son of a neighbor: this is not the first time that arab murderers have targeted youths while they have been studying. Back in the early 50's terrorists came to Kfar Chabad, near Lod and murdered Yeshiva students, supposedly way before there was any "occupation", PLO or Hamas. For the murder of youths in this fashion there is no "proportional response" and their blood will forever be a stain on our enemies.

And my opinion on what happened in Gaza? I regret the loss of civilian life, but it is the Hamas that is using civilians as human shields while they purposedly endanger them by firing mortars and rockets at purely civilian targets in Sderot and Ashkelon. Some of the causulties it is reported were bystanders watching the firing crews and were unfortunately hit themselves (BTW most of the firing crews did not wear uniforms and so the difference between civilians an combatants is blurred). Others undoubtably are real victims but the responsibility falls on Hamas for bringing the war to them.

I suppose there will be those who will attack what I have written, but that makes little difference to me. Here on the frontlines in the battle against evil, a few nasty comments mean little.

Before the good professor started wielding around the Geneva convention, he should have given some thought on its application to the real perpetrators in this conflict. These barbarians (who don't even know what or where Geneva is) are launching rockets with the intention of inflicting death and injury on a civilian population while insuring the use of their own domestic population as leverage against what would be a well justified counter-attack . This is a clear breach of the convention, not your subjective and inaccurate description of the justified Israeli retaliation as "excessive", which any responsible nation would have done a long time ago.

To Wallace

A number of myths were spawned and circulated by the Zionists and their friends, such as you, to justify the horrendous massive crime of displacing the inhabitants of a whole region; Palestine. The worst being that Palestine is “a land with no people” as the three statements below imply.

‘”The "Palestinians" were fabricated by Arabs.“

“Mark Twain does not mention seeing a single "Palestinian" during his holy land trip in 1867.”

“Most of the Arabs came to Palestine from adjacent states after the Jews drained the swamps eliminating malaria and irrigated the deserts.”

The Palestinians, who were evicted from their homes in 1948 by the Stern and Haganah Eastern European gangs, are the Arabised descendents of the Canaanites and Philistines. Arabised means adopted the language and some, not all, their Muslim religion. Those people were living there long before a certain Hebrew tribe wandered in from Egypt, during the time that tribe lived in that area, and after that tribe wandered back out again. The Palestinians were a permanent fixture in that region. It is the Hebrews who were mere transients. Any casual reader of Ancient History knows this and that is why such claim is very insulting.

Let me clear the deck here.

These are the facts.
Israel and the Jews are really strong and they rule the world,(including the USA)at present and probably will continue to do so for a long time(maybe 20yrs or so).

The Arabs are basically divided and they hate each other and most are stupid anyway.

But they have 2 things going for them:
(1) Arabs know that they were at one time the rulers of the world. Inspired by the words of Mohammad, with the sword in one hand and the Koran in the other,they embarked upon what was in many ways a nationalistic war of conquests.
It was an astonishing feat of human history.
Impoverished desert Arabs coming out of the most God forsaken place, uniting the warring tribes of Arabia into a Nation that overran the might of the great Persian and Roman Empires and went marching right up to the middle of France. Wow. That psyche is hard wired. And George Bush can do nothing about it.

(2)Arabs hate the Jews (for some reason they actually seem to like the Christians,probably because both, are actually guilty of copy right infringement of the Jewish religion).

There are 2 problems:For the Zionists.
(1) Arabs are not Red Indians.
(2) The demographic shift in the USA in the next
25 yrs. when the white man will be a minority.
It might even be within 10 yrs if all our hispanic son-in-laws and daughter-in-laws make it to this side of the border. Hence the 700 miles fence.

It is interesting to know what will happen.

If I had the solution : this is my offer US Citizenship to all Palestinians who will sign no claim deed. One million in Gaza is nothing.
It will be empty in a fortnight. All Palestinians love America and they will become friends with Jews here since both are really mean and greedy, and hate every one else including the brown skinned Indian and Pakistanis and the flat nosed yellow and black guys. This leaves the fair Iranians who are recluse and too proud to mix with others. As for the Hispanic well :they are the new world peace makers.
Welcome my Hispanic friends (and daughter-in-law).

Again and again I ask: "Why is the Israel-Palestinian situation just an American problem?" Why are not the other major nations concerned? Where did we get the job of being the permanent guardian of Israel and the one responsible for this ill-conceived so-called democracy which has been plopped down on Arab lands? It is time that we cut off our apron strings to this step-child and let it walk on its own two feet. We have millions of poor people and children who need the care which the hundred billion dollars,we have given, would buy. In addition, the Israel influence upon our policies in the Middle East will someday get us involved in a war there which will take thousands more American lives and much more of our treasure. Enough is enough!

to wallace..
your post seems coming directly from the garbage..
supposing the omosexuality(????) of Arafat as a reason of a "socialism" of the PLO
never eared the verbal expression "the ennemy of my ennemy is my friend"?
the same happened with Castro..and the angolese MPLA..just two cases between a lot..the blind USA's policy obliged a lot freedomfighters to become "comunists"..just to be helped from URSS in their fight..
and "dulcis in fundo"..to confirm your post..you quote a "certanly " equidistant(!!!) jew writer..
please..spend better your time..reading seriuos history's books

to wallace..
your post seems coming directly from the garbage..
supposing the omosexuality(????) of Arafat as a reason of a "socialism" of the PLO
never eared the verbal expression "the ennemy of my ennemy is my friend"?
the same happened with Castro..and the angolese MPLA..just two cases between a lot..the blind USA's policy obliged a lot freedomfighters to become "comunists"..just to be helped from URSS in their fight..
and "dulcis in fundo"..to confirm your post..you quote a "certanly " equidistant(!!!) jew writer..
please..spend better your time..reading seriuos history's books

a lot of posters speak about "right retaliation"
against the attacks from Gaza..
the same word used bij the SS when burned villages and killed 10 people every german soldier killed from the resistants of the occupied countries
the israelians lerned good a lesson..and to evite mistakes..kill 100 palestinians every jew killed..
the SS nazi were "war criminals"..the japans who tortured the prisonners, war criminals too..
now we have a new kind of war criminals..the lords of the nuclear deterrence..and the wapens supremacy..but they still remain..CRIMINALS

To those ignorali who keep repeating the mantra that the US should not be involved. Well folks, ypu are involved; billions of your tax dollars are not going on health and education for yuor children; they are being sent to a nation that has occupied millions of human beings for deceds, is ignoring all international law and stealing land and water from the occupied, destroying the farms and homes of the occupied, imprisoning thousands without trial and mirdering the idnigenous people with impunity.

YOU, PEOPLE IN THE US, HAVE THE POWER TO STOP THIS; DEMAND THAT YOUR CONGRESMEN AND WOMEN STOP GIVING YOUR TAX DOLLARS TO ISRAEL. IT IS YOUR MONEY, NOT THEIRS.

When will the US stop giving billions of it's citizens tax dollars in hand-outs to this brutal occupying nation? Just watch israel start complying with intetrnaational law and civilized behaviour if the banrolling of it's WMD is suspended.
The money would be better spent on helping the indigenous Palestinians rebuild their shattered lives, homes and nation. It is the decent thing to do and would be the forst step in healing this gross injustice that has been perpetuated by the Zionists pulling the strings of the US administration.

Israel left Gaza and rockets continue to be fired from there. If Hamas is in fact in control as you claim, then they are fully responsible for the rocket fire and should be help accountable. I'm not sure your point regardinga Hamas having been elected. Ok, so the Gazans elected a terrorist organization. In that they ought to be help responsible. The borders are closed to prevent more arms from being smuggled. Its simple, stop attacking Israel and Israel will not be forced to defend herself.

TO bad mr professor the united states is in the current situation it is in because of interventionist policies that you and the washington elite champion, america should intervene everywhere, especially in the middle east,too bad for you and your jordanians,oh am sorry i meant "palestinians". no more interventions, if you cant keep the peace with israel by not launching kassams into sedrot then to bad, you will have to get your butts kicked.thank and have nice day.selah

What America needs is to go green, get energy independent;insulate, conserve, geothermal,nuclear,wind,etc. and tell the entire middle east and all who live there to go to hell.

They have had 60 years to solve their differences,and could not do so.
Either 'take it to the street' and settle this once and for all, or continue to suffer under the hate and violence, but;
LEAVE AMERICA OUT OF IT!

There was once a monkey who discovered a jar of cherries. He stuck his hand in the jar and grabbed a handful of fruit. But when he went to withdraw his fistful of cherries, his engorged fist wouldn't fit through the opening of the jar. The monkey was stuck. The only way out of this trap was for him to release the cherries and then remove his opened hand-but he wanted the cherries and didn't want to let go.

What a paradoxical situation for the monkey! His wanting the cherries so much that he couldn't let go of them was the very thing that made it impossible for him to have them. How long will it take for the monkey to realize that by letting go of the cherries and removing his hand he will be able to pour all the cherries out of the jar?

This fable presents a predicament that often confronts us when we seek by force something that, in fact, will come to us only when we are willing to let go and receive it. The predicament arises from many different sources. Sometimes it is our need to be in control, to feel secure that by our own efforts we can guarantee certain results. Other times it comes about because our consciousness is caught in an ego trap, when we so desire something that we separate ourselves from that which we desire. It then appears to us that we must go after it, when all along it is already within us if we could only accept it.

What is the way out of the predicament of this ego trap? One useful principle-itself a paradox-is: "If you want something, then give it away-you can only really possess that which you can give away." Economic healing is an example of this principle, whereby persons realize material abundance by sharing what little they do have with others.(sthttp://www.edgarcayce.org/eciis/courseware/library/dev_psy_ability.htmlry )

i see no end in sight ,and ,here, is the problem:

the israeli,s are still expecting the native people (the palestinian) to behave as they did back in the 1947-48-67 wars , when , one israeli tank can force the villagers evacuting the whole towns , running from one camps to another . well , that times are over !! because there is no where to go now and the only option available is to face the tanks and die . but soon the they will reverse role with the israeli because they have nothing to loose!! justice may not always arrives on time but it shows up not too late .god say so.

To summarize;
The UN isn't trusted; the European Union has no clout. The Arab nations and Iran provide money for rockets, guns and have no desire to nation build; The Bush administration has no stamina or political leverage in the middle east; Russia winks and nods at Iran with a little money most likely to give to Hamas; So when Israel pulls out of Gaza dismantling settlements, Hamas thanks them by continued rocket attacks; Israel has no choice but to defend itself and the world opinion has NO VALUE.

As a follow upto Steve's comment after you read Vanity Fair -Hamas article which I believe is very accurate then read Matt Beynon Rees's wonderful yet heatbreaking but very realistic murder/detective story "A Grave In Gaza" for a feel for what the occupation has done to the lives of the ordinary man and woman and child living in Gaza. It's clare that the CIA's Dahlan is a model for the character of Col. al Fara and the Gen Husseini (especially, his death) is clearly modeled after Mussa Arafat.

WALLACE,

You write " His [Kuttab's] victim Arabs have just killed 8 Israeli religious students at a yeshiva".

Are you relieved that you were not among the eight, or are you sorry that you were not amomg them?

Decide. And maybe enlist in the IDF --- or alongside Hamas fighters in case you like justice.

FF - Very true. Your words echo a core principle of David Trimble, one of the architects of the Northern Ireland peace accords and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. He usually rejects any attempts to draw parallels between the two conflicts, but says one common theme is that it is always a bad idea to make concessions to terrorists while they still believe they can attain their goals through violence. Here is an example:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/oct/25/comment.politics

TRUE BLUE AMERICAN,

Hey! Is it only now that you realize this is war?

All this time that others were dying at the front or killing others in a blind fit of barbarism, you were in the lazyboy chair in your living room checking out how true your 'blue Americanism' is?

Well, maybe you'll now enlist in the IDF and be at least a tenth of a true man?

"If the U.S. wants to be a referee between Israel and Palestine, it needs to step up its game. "

It's worth reiterating the single most important truism about third-party conflict resolution and peacemaking: you can't want it more than they do. The fantasy that peace can somehow be attained if only America would want it badly enough is just that: a fantasy. Until both parties to the conflict decide that they'd rather have peace now than hold out for victory later, there will be no peace, and nothing America can do or say will change that. In the meantime, the best you can hope for is to manage the conflict and prevent it from doing too much damage to the people in the area, and the region as a whole.

So now an Arab or Palestinian scumbag has attacked a school. Nice. These people don't want peace. They have a warped view of life. This is obviously war and if the Israelis need to stike back, god bless them

The foregoing comment commencing "Douad Kuttab first needs to tell us why attacking Arabs at the sites from which rockets are being launched from Gaza into Israel is a disproportionate use of force."

Douad Kuttab needs first to tell us why attacking Arabs at sites at which rockets are being launched from Gaza into Israel is a disproportionate use of force in self defence. The effectiveness of Israel's use of force does not make it disproportionate. According to the Israelis, 90% of the casualties were those aiding in the rocket fire.

The Arabs are firing rockets indiscriminately at civilians in Israel. Terrorism is the use of unlawful force and violence to achieve a political goad. The Arabs are engaging in terrorism. The use of reasonable force and violence in self defense is lawful anywhere in the world. So unless Mr. Kuttab explains why attacking the launching sites of the rockets being fired at Israel is unreasonable, he has not made his case.

Secondly, it is the Arabs who are stealing Israeli land, despite the PR to the contrary. They have built some 260 new settlements in the West Bank on this disputed land in which Israel has the far better claim according to Professor Julius Stone who the US has relied on in its view that the Jewish Settlements are lawful. Because the Jordanian entry onto the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1948 was an unlawful invasion and an aggression, the principle ex injuria non oritur has beclouded even Jordan's limited status of belligerent occupant. Her purported annexation was invalid on that account, as well as because it violated the freezing provisions of the Armistice Agreement. Conversely Israel's standing in East Jerusalem after her lawful entry in the course of self-defence certainly displaced Jordan' unlawful possession.

Once this position is reached, and it is remembered that neither Jordan nor any other state is a sovereign reversioner entitled to re-enter the West Bank, the legal standing of Israel takes on new aspects. She becomes then a state in lawful control of territory in respect of which no other state can show better (or, indeed, any) legal title. The general principles of international law applicable to such a situation, moreover, are well-established. The International Court of Justice, when called upon to adjudicate in territorial disputes, for instance in the MInquirres and Echrehos case beween the United Kingdom and France, proceeded "to appraise the relative strength of the opposing claims to sovereignty" Since title to territory is thus based on a claim not of absolute but only of relative validity, the result seems decisive of East Jerusalem. No other state having a legal claim even equal to that of Israel under the unconditional cease-fire agreement of 1967 and the rule of uti possidetis, this relative superiority of title would seem to assimilate Israel's possession under international law to an absolute title, valid erga omnes...

Most of the Arabs came to Palestine from adjacent states after the Jews drained the swamps eliminating malaria and irrigated the deserts. Arab population quadrupled at that time. See: Aryieh Avneri, "Claim of Dispossession".

His victim Arabs have just killed 8 Israeli religious students at a yeshiva.

As early as 1964, Aarafat had sent Abu Jihad (later the leader of the PLO's militaary operations) to North Vietnam to study the strategy and tactics of guerrilla warfare as waged by Ho Chii MInh. At this time, Fatah also translated the writings of North
Vietnam's General Nguyen Giap, as well as the works of Mao and Che Guevara, into Arabic.

Although Arafat was pioneering the use of skyjacking during this time and setting off a wave of copycat airborne terrorism, he discovered that even the flimsiest and most transparent excuses suffice for the Western Media to exonerate him and blame Israel for its retaliatory or preventative attacks, and to accept his insistence that he was a statesman who could not control the terrrorists he was in fact orchestrating.

But while Arafat was finally absorbing and applying the lessons he learned from his Romanian and North Vietnamese hosts and handlers, as Pacepa describes it in Red Horizons, the Soviets still questioned his dependability. So, with Pacepa's help, they created a highly specialized "insurance policy." Using the good offices of the Romanian ambassador to Egypt, they secretly taped Arafat's almost nightly homosexual interactions with his bodyguards, and the unfortunate preteen orphan boys whom Ceausescu provided for him as part of the "Romanian hospitality." With videotapes of Arafat's voracious pedophilia in their vault, and knowing the traditional attitude toward homosexuality in Islam, the KGB felt that Arafat would continue to be a reliable asset for the Kremlin.

Whether or not Arafat's homosexuality was the key to the Soviet's control over him, it is clear that by the early 1970s the PLO had joined the ranks of other socialist anti-colonial "liberation" movements, both in its culture and in its politics; and had reframed its terror war as a "people's war" similar to those of the other Marxist-Leninist terrorist guerrillas in China, Cuba and Vietnam. Thanks to the input from Ceausescu, General Giap,a nd the Algerians, Arafat gradually saw the wisdom of jettisoning his fulminations about "throwing the Jews into the sea," and in its place he developed the images of the "illegal occupation" and Palestinian national self-determination," both of which lent his terrorism the mantle of a legitimate people's resistance. Of course, there was one ingredient missing in this imaginative reconfiguration of the struggle. There had never been a "Palestinian people" or a "Palestinian nation" or a sovereign state known as "Palestine."

The foregoing is principally from Meir-Levi's book "History Upside Down: the Roots of Palestinian Fascism and the Myth of Israeli Aggression." and from Ion Pacepa, "Red Horizons".

Independence and Soveignty are good terms to apply when considering dependent umbilical cords to superpowers. Bush does not prevent humanitarian crises, he creates them.

STED,

You say "our{whose?} policy should be contain, quarantine"?

One can have a policy only if one has a choice of several moves and combinations of them.

If the answer to my question "whose policy?" is the USA, then, with the vlaue of the dollar melting like ice in the sun, there are only two possible outcomes (not even 'moves') -- get out of the Midle East or be booted out with the most humiliating ignominy, an ignominy worse than the debacle in Vietnam was!

If the world allows the Middle East to "fall apart" and then reconstitute itself for good or ill it will be step forward for the West. By doing so one of the great excuses that the people of the Middle East has for their backwardness will be removed. They will have no one to blame their plight on.
All that has to be stated is that the West will pledge to protect Israel and then back up their words with deeds.
If one state emerges so be it. If a new Balkan tinderbox ditto! Let the Sunnis, Shiites, Arabs, Kurds, Iranians, etc. reduce themselves to Stone Agers. Let them achieve the apex of civilization. Whatever!
Our policy should be contain, quarantine!

Unfortunately the right wing Israel Government has elected to follow the lead of the right wing Government of Uncle Sam, to wit, BOMB BOMB BOMB, till h*ll freezeth over, regardless of the wishes of their respective citizens. Neither of these Governments wants to admit that the tremendous expenditure on WAR MATERIEL and consequent WAR, is contrary to the economic, social and moral aspects of their individual states' citiznes. It is notable that neither the NEOCONS, nor the PRIME Minister, President or most of the right wing Knesset has any ambitions to get their children to fight in these wars.

the OMEN of these war mongering nations is economic collapse - the USA alreqady on the way of achiveing this aim, with Israel to follow ASAP Uncle Sam will be unable to finance the economic losses encurred by endless wars.

International Law means nothing to either of these two Governments, thus they will loose all backing by the international community, the 190+ Sovereign States, the states which include some of the wealthiest nations on Earth, such as OPEC, China, Russia,l etc, the only ones with CASH available to save the failing economics of USA and ISRAEL.

So the solution is PEACE!!! which was offered a few times by HAMAS, and rejected by ISrael and UNCLE SAM. It is notable that these are the two States which still pressure for WAR with IRAN, again, contrary to International LAw as described by the Nuclear related lwas of nations.

In the end it is up to the citizens of Israel and USA to select new governments which would put the interest of the citizen over the interest of right wing elites. This, in the case of USA, demands that they elect Mr. Obama, for the Clintons were among the most viscious war ongers in recent past, recalling the 500 000 Iraqi children who died due to the CLINTON ADMINISTRATION's sanctions and bombing of IRaq.

and exactly how do we fix it when the islamics demand that israel be eliminated and every jew dead? and why do they say this - because back in 600 ad a scum bag that liked to have sex with 6-9 year olds, was mad that the jews would not name him as the missiah, so he created his own cult of death - islam - and started to conquor as many people as possible - enslaving those that would not accept him, murdering even a breast feeding mother who wrote poetry against him, and finally killing every jew and christian, hindu, he could find. he started murdering them before they even knew there was a war. his followers killed millions in india because the cult demands it. he sacked rome, attacked europe, took over chruches and turned them into cult of death meating places and then claimed that no one could take them back as it would insult islam.
so if you want peace in the middle east - start by killing every islamic you can find, calling islam a cult of terror and death and outlaw it in every country in the world. closing every mosque and blowing up any building thereon - islamics traditionally hide weapons there. making it a crime to practice islam or ever wear islamic clothes. then - maybe - you will have the basis for peace in the middle east.

GEORGE ALBERT,

You're sick, man!

Read the following articles, by Jewish authors writing in Tikkun magazine who want to save whatever little little human decency that may still exist in those who have some say in Israeli policy towards the Palestinians.

I know that you are blinded by your hatred, but you may still have a soul that requires to be saved in extremis.

http://files.tikkun.org/current/article.php?story=20080304090911823

http://files.tikkun.org/current/article.php?story=20080305212552907

Maybe the US can't LET the Middle East fall apart, but we've sure demonstrated that we can MAKE it fall apart...

This guy Kuttab is a never end source of BS.

The 1.4MM people of Gaza voted in a majority to support total war and genocide against the Jews.

The idea that the Jews should somehow be responsible for feeding and clothing 1.4MM people who have decided to pursue GENOCIDE against the Jews just shows how far the mainstream media is indebted to Muslim oil money.

The Saudi's and their terrorist Islamist partners own the US media like NewsCorp (FoxNews and the WSJ), General Electric/NBC, the WAPO, the NY Times, etc.

Here is what should happen. Israel should tell the people of Gaza to either agree to unconditional surrender, including all weapons, or they should be escorted by the UN to Egypt.

Then all remaining area in Gaza that contain elements of terrorists should be bombed into submission.

And supporters of GENOCIDE against the JEWS like Kuttab are the one responsible for this mess

This process of blaming and pointing fingers has been the mainstay of the diet for both the Isreali's and the Gazan's.

Serious dialogue regarding basic human rights should be discovered on both sides of the table, and in fact both sides should sit at the same side of the table, because both are experiencing the same incursions on their people, irrespective of the motivation behind such acts.

Perhaps if bnoth sides had no weapons, than they would be forced to sit down and listen to each other and resolve their over sixty year dispute.

Too many lives have been lost, mostly children and women, irrespective of what either side says, these young people and women are lost to society forever.

Patrick

Isn't it the Arabs who need to accept some simple facts? You started a war and you lost it (hugely.) You are incapable of fighting a modern, civilized, technological country like Israel and will be for several centuries to come. America and every logical, rational person on the planet is waiting for you to surrender unconditionally. That's what normal nations do in your situation. Until you face reality, nothing is going to change. Israel doesn't care how long it takes you to figure this out. They became bored with your idiocy a long time ago.

This "peace" process is a sham because the Israelis will never allow a viable Palestinian state on their borders.

Where is this going? Continuous conflict, continued loss of life and an ever-improving Palestinian ability to strike ever deeper into Israel. Ironic, the Israelis are building themselves a new ghetto wall for "security" which will ultimately fail. Why? Because the ever-growing population of displaced and impoverished people will continue to fight back. And Israel will continue to lash out militarily, drawing ever more hostility and retaliation.

Israel's bombing of Lebanon, just as a democratic pro-Western government was getting its footing, clearly demonstrates Israel's disregard for its neighbors,contempt for international law and its mental instability.

Having already achieved madness, Israel will eventually achieve self-elimination.