Asim asks;

"What legitimacy Israel has for part of Palestine?"
No different than the legitimacy of so-called Arab states for the countries of North Africa and the Middle East. The nomad Arabs of Arabia occupied them by force and defended them from being overrun by others, including their original inhabitants, who were systematically compelled to adopt the Arab language and culture. Lebanon belonged to the Phoenicians, Syria to the Arameans , Egypt to the Copts, Iraq to the Babylonians and North Africa to the Berbers.

The real issue is whether or not there will be a Palestinian state, that is other than Jordan which was the intended site of such a state when Churchill divided the British Mandate into two parts. Okay, the Palestinians are not going to pick up and go to Jordan, even if Jordan allowed it. Instead, they will probably continue to stay in their fetid area and complain rather than pick themselves up by their bootstraps and try to create something viable. They didn't even try to build viable institutions before 1967. They've received billions in aide but have nothing because their leaders waste or steal the money. Except, of course, for the investment in Arafat's wife's apartment in a posh section of Paris. Instead of moving forward, they play Israel's victims while looking to Israel to provide jobs and free medical care.

If the Palestinian leaders truly cared about their people there would not be such poverty, but it is easier to maintain power with a poor, ignorant based riled with hatred. There was even an opportunity to move 8-10,000 poor people into the houses that the Israelis left; there could have been jobs in the agricultural infrastructure that was also left; instead, rampaging mobs were allowed to destroy perfectly usable property. It's a good emotional outlet, but hardly helpful on a march toward statehood. How sad. How self-destructive.

By the way, I'm fascinated by how the anti-Israel lobby is trying to change international law. Occupied is no longer just troops on the ground. It's supposed to encompass planes that can come over airspace and boats that come past beaches. And, of course, it's no longer just refugees who are to go back to Israel, but the refugees and their descendants. Those are not thoughts of people who are looking for peace but who prefer to justify endless war.

Asim writes:

"As a racist apartheid entity,israel was born dead,it has no moral or legal legitimacy what so ever ,it has no constitution,no borders:no colonial settler state ever survived in the Arab East:the crusaders' statelets were finally evicted after a fragmented and precerious existence for two centuries"

Asim's points makes you wonder about the legitimacy of the racist, apartheid, Arabist/Islamic states carved out of the Middle East both by Islamic conquest under Mohammed and his followers, and the deals the Arabs cut with the allies after WWII.

How are those states more legitimate than the state of Israel created through international consensus on 0.2% of the land conquered by the Arabs in the Middle East?

The Arabs certainly have a unique take on "legitimacy".

Apparently any Arab state constructed on land conquered by Islam is legitimate no matter how horrible it human rights record or authoritarian government, but democratic internationally created Israel is not "legitimate".

In fact the whole issue of legitimacy is a figment of the Arab imagination.

The legitimacy of states derives only from one thing: their ability to defend their sovereignty.

This is true whether the state in Jewish majority or Arab majority.

"The many postings here from Israel supporters indicate once again the deep denial they are in regarding whether or not Israel even wants to find a way to peace and security,"

False association. Peace and security are, unfortunately, in Israel's case two very different things. Like every nation-state in the history of the world, they will of course choose security as their highest priority.

Asim:

Sari - an Alternate Spelling of Sarai, or Bibilical Hebrew for the name Sarah, a name you might recognize... Sarah (or Sarai) is Aramaic for Princess, Noble or Angelic....

Asim or Asima - Arabic meaning protector...

"sari": why are U hiding behind an Arab name-apparently to give your flawed logic false legitimacy? No differnt than the Grand Fallacy israel has been trying to hide behind for the past sixty years.

As a racist apartheid entity,israel was born dead,it has no moral or legal legitimacy what so ever ,it has no constitution,no borders:no colonial settler state ever survived in the Arab East:the crusaders' statelets were finally evicted after a fragmented and precerious existence for two centuries;French colonialism in and of Alegeria for 130 years did not fare better,so was the nuclear armed racist apartheid white south africa.

israel has no chance in hell to survive-not while eleven million tormented and dispossessed Palestinians live either in jewish concentration camps in their own homeland or in refugee camps within one or two hours drive from their occupied home lands in historic Palestine.

Solution:
One secular multi-cultural multi-religious democrcay for all: Arabs (Christains and Muslims)and jews who lived in historic Palestine at or before 1914-all other jews who landed there after 1914 who are in fact illegal jewish immigrants sumggled by the British mandate authority should go back to where they come from and leave the homes and land they stole from the ethnically cleanesed Palestinians by jewish terrorist groups(hagana,palmach,irgun,shtern)in 1947/8.

No other solution will ever work-never;it is just untainable to have an occupying racist apartheid militaristic jewish theocracy on Arab land and in the heart of the Arab world.

The United States learned that there are some issues which can never be debated away but must be settled by force of arms. The unwillingness of southerners to live in a country free from slavery was such an issue.

The unwillingness of the Palestinians to accept the idea that they will not simply have the country turned over to them, land they abandoned returned, and that they are living in a land governed by people who their religion tells them should never be in a position elevated above them is another.

Civil war in Israel is the only answer, the Palestinians must be crushed as a force of dissention and treason, as a people seeking destruction of the state and its government. This unfortunate situation is caused by the refusal of the Palestinians to work within the democratic institutions of Israel, and instead to ally themselves with terrorists, militias, Islamic religious zealouts, and dictatorships that unite their people and distract from their own failures by promoting the unifying idea of a common enemy, Israel.

Finally, the frequent immediate response of some that any attack on Israel is regarded as an attack on Jews and that this is incorrect, is simply an anti-semitic cover that is all too transparent to students of the issue. The statement of Islamic leaders in many countries make clear that there is nothing here except the Islamic belief that Jews are to be held in a state of depredation and that Jews governing Muslims is some terrible reversal of the proper order of things. The Anti-Zionist who is not also an Anti-Semite has not been born yet.

I am really interesting why are Jews so much aggressive?
Where are the roots for their behavior?
Before WW2 the people knew the Jews as: layers, bankers and doctors.
all these were rich and negative persons.
But the people didn’t know the poor Jews neither the scientist.
From 1900 to 1933 there were in Germany about 1% or less Jews
but they received 1/3 of Nobel prices.

So far I know, today are Jews the most unpopular tourists in Europe

I think Israel need the enemies outside their borders to survive,
otherwise they would have fights inside the state Israel.

The "siege" in Gaza? That's an interesting way to phrase a situation where a nation unilaterally relinquishes territory, only to be pulled back into an Arab terrorist power vacuum replete with unprovoked missile attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure and staged kidnappings. Do you think the Israelis want to be in Gaza right now? If Arab society could manage itself, the Israelis wouldn't need to be. Territorial issues on the West Bank and in the Golan will be resolved, but until the Palestinians take some responsibility for their own turmoil in Gaza, the situation will not improve. Israel must remain a Jewish state, because even those who aren't paranoid understand the only intent for Arabs to move to Israel is a demographic-based overthrow of the state. The clamor for refugees' right of return is a total red herring. Am Yisrael Chai.

Israel will survive forever for two reasons. First it has the legitimacy of the UN behind its claim to the Pre-67 territory. Second it has the military, political, diplomatic and economic power to defend its people. Israel is becoming stronger by the day, especially in its economic and democratic infrastructure.

Palestine is too weak to exist as an independent state, and certainly cannot exist in two non-contiguous land areas.

I think the key to peace lies first in the Arab recogntion of Israel's right to exist as a nation forever. Saudi Arabia and Syria must come to terms with this. Second, I would propose the transfer of Gaza to Egypt as a proctetorate much like the US monitors Puerto Rico today. Egypt can come to terms with Hamas easier than Israel can. The Golan Heights should be transferred back to Syria, but only in exchange for some additonal land west of the 67 border. Israel closes the most western settlments but is allowed free population of the newly acquired lands. Palestine becomes a free state, but agrees to permit only an internal police force but forego a military.

Israel was not born of the ashes of the Holocaust. The vision for an Israel came about in the late 19th century. Jews were actually persecuted in Christian and Muslim states long before the Holocaust. That was merely the pinnacle of persecution. My grandmother's family was massacred by the Ukranian cossack policemen 20 years before Hitler. The idea of a safe haven for Jews was not borne of the attrocities of the Holocaust alone.

There is a wonderful book of primary documents of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It is called the Israel-Arab Reader. In it, it has most every primary document from the Arab Israeli conflict including speeches by all major parties, the peace deals, the charters of all major organizations/parties, etc... There, you can read all the documents from the mouths of the people who said them. It only costs $13 on Amazon.

There you can see where it started.

Why shouldn't Israel be a Jewish state. Israel is the one Jewish state in the world. Muslims have Islamic states in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, and Malaysia. Why do so many Muslim and Christian (and even some Jewish)commentators have such a problem with there being one Jewish state in the whole wide world in the ONE place in the world where it makes sense-- the Jewish holy land of Israel.

I wish for an Israel that is not an occupier and I agree that Israel will have a hard time existing as a state if it remains an occupier for 40 more years. However, it is not solely Israel's fault for being that occupier. Palestinian leaders must realize that they need to make peace in the interests of their populaces. They need to act in the interests of future generations and that means compromise.

Mr. Kuttab, you said, months ago in a posting that you thought that if the Israelis would apologize for the crimes they committed in 48, that the refugees would not have to settle in Israel proper. However, it seems your leadership in Hamas and Fatah do not agree. So, unless you plan on either (a) convincing them or (b) running for PM yourself, you need to face the reality of the responsibility of your own leadership for the plight of your people.

I am not saying that the Israelis do not bear their share of responsibility. The occupation forces have violated Palestinian human rights. The checkpoints alone are enough to make someone go crazy. However, please sir, acknowledge that your leaders bear responsibility for passing up at least 3 different peace deals.

the unique rights given to the jews of israel were born out of the ashes of the holocaust; not to mention the murdered remains of those jews killed by the arabs for centuries before israel's birth.

The many postings here from Israel supporters indicate once again the deep denial they are in regarding whether or not Israel even wants to find a way to peace and security, because this just cannot be done while totally denying it to those whom they have brutally conquered. They implicitly assume that if they can just maintain argumental superiority, the inevitable flow of history will not matter.

After the past sixty years, if even now they cannot accept that the policies of crushing force have not extinguished but inflamed Palestinian nationalism, that the Muslim world has an immense strategic depth which they can never dominate, that new wars which they may successfully manipulate the US into entering to only ruinous conclusion (see Iraq, and now Iran) these will in time generate an anti-Israel backlash when the consequences of economic ruin and geopolitical decline finally becomes focused by the broad American majority where it truthfully belongs.

So if they are "dead set" in opposition to a complete evacuation of the West Bank and Gaza and the reality of a two state solution in accordance with SC 242, and they are equally "dead set" against the other possible solution of a unitary, democratic, and non-sectarian polity, what you have is a militarized Crusader State that will in time be overmastered by its own inherent contradictions.

How will the Arab states survive the next 40 years, that is the question my friend? What comes after Mubarek in Egypt? Is Lebanon going back to rubble? Are Iran-sponsored Hezbollah clones coming to Kuwait and Saudia? Most of all, what will the pampered and uprepared Gulf Arabs do after the oil starts to run out. What price real estate in Kuwait City or Dubay once the dwindling reserves are known? Iran can still go berserk,you know. At this time there is only one society in the region with a democratic regime, with liberated minds and spirits--Israel. It will survive.

Oh, it may continue for a thousand years; but at what cost? The only viable long term solution is:
1) Israel to be reconstituted in its more or less legal 1948 boundaries; or
2) Create a new secular Palestinian state where all religions can be practiced and there is no religious or ethnic advantage to any peoples; all occupied lands to be repatriated to the original owners; all resources to be shared to all peoples as a common good; Israel to pay for its illegal and immoral occupation; and a public apology to the Palestinian peoples would be welcome start to healing the disastrous alienation of the Zionists!

Without either of these remedies, I am afraid we are just in waiting for the inevitable loss by Israel of some crucial battle and the resulting Diaspora once again of the Jews; perhaps accompanied with a nuclear "event" that could bring on the desired Armageddon of the Christian “life hating” fundamentalists!

Mr. Kuttab is apparently a prominent Arab journalist.
This probably explains why he is given this space by the Washington Post. His comments about the longevity of Israel and its character, however, demonstrate a profound misunderstanding of Israel characterized by the same resentment, hostility, and desire to see the country disappear that fueled the Arab Israeli conflict for 60 years. Unless, intellectuals and leaders in the Arab/Islamic world like Mr Kuttab are able to change this perspective, and see Israel as a member state in the Middle East, with a history in reality not much different from that of most contemporary nation states, there will never be any real peace. Mr Kuttab's comments and prespective are disappointing, gratuitous, and tribal.

Don't these guys ever learn ?
Talking about Palestinian rights in Israel is valid, but what about Palestinian rights in Arab countries ?
It seems to me that non-Jews are by far better off in Israel, than non-Arabs or Palestinians are in Arab countries.
Why is that ?

Just read an interesting article on current situation in Lebanon where Muslims are hell bent on killing each other.

The Lebanese Prime Minister is urging these Muslims to not destroy their arsenal on each other, otherwise they will have nothing left to blow up the Israeli civilians.

Israel will be gone because they did not know their place. They have always gone too far in their history and subsequently been asked to leave. The more things change the more they stay the same.

It's not Israel that needs to adapt, it's the blood thirsty people & goverments surrounding Israel that need to adapt. Throughout history, after every war, the victor expanded it's territory & the loser lost some. How do you think countries have always expanded their borders? Try reading a history book! In Israel's case, each & every war was one in which the Israel was outnumbered & attacked yet won. The corrupt arab (muslim) goverments surrounding Israel have held their own people down in abject ignorance & poverty, yet stayed in power with an iron fist & by shifting blind hatred away from themselves & to Isreal & all Jews. Look at how the palestineans have done under the wonderful leadership of 1st that old terrorist Arafat & now Hamas. They've made so, so much progress for themselves by murdering innocent Israeli citizens instead of making peace. If these corrupt arab dictators want to survive, They need to stop wasting their youth & assets hating & fighting against Isreal & instead start giving a damn about their own people. Any other country but Israel would have solved the Palestinean problem by carpet bombing Gaza long ago. What can one country or person do when a vicious, mad dog keeps attacking you & your family over & over? When the news of Americans dying from New York's 9-11 attack hit, The palestineans danced in their streets & passed out candy. This is what Isreal has for neighbors. I don't have a lot of sympathy for these mad dogs.

In 1967 I was in Cairo. Two Palestinian students came and joined me at a table in a restaurant above Nile hotel where I was staying. They wanted to talk politics. I asked them why they want to destroy Israel. They said that is not true. They wanted a secular state where every body is equal. I was very impressed and I didn't know why Jews wanted a Jewish state. I was of the opinion then that Israel will not exist for long and didn't think it should.

But I was ignorant then. I didn't know Jewish people's history. I didn't know then Arabs were anti Jewish even at the time of Muhammad and Muhammad expelled two Jewish tribes from Madena and exterminated another. I didn't know Romans ruled Israel and destroyed their temple. Now I know Jewish people lived in Middle east as long as Arabs did. Jews have as much right as Arabs to share the land of middle east. The deserve much larger land than they have now.

It would ideal if all people believe in secular state. But as long as their is Islam secular state is not possible among them. So Israel has to fight for it's existence and I am sure it will. If Israel is destroyed, All the states in the middle east will be destroyed too.

I have to agree. If Isreal does not clearly define itself and its borders, they will continuiosly be seen as an occupier. Considering they have been an occupier for 40 of their 60 years, what does that say? The American government backs Isreal, but most people do not. Dont they realize, the Nazis gave colonization a bad name. If they occupied the west bank and Gaza as a military buffer, that would have been one thing, allowing the settling of it was a show of true intentions.

Who Cares!!!!

There is no Catholic State in Northern Ireland so why should there be a Jewish State in the ME? Why should Americans be forced to pay for this. If American Zionists want to support Israel then get on a plane and go there.

All I can say is this is right on the money. The Jewish people want the world to remember the Holicaust, but wilding a big stick by bombing and starving the Patestine nation for throwing rocks bucause they are fighting for their survivial. This would not happen if the two countries were equal in power. Thanks to the US this continues, but, there may become a time when the US cuts military aid if rightly forced by the UN.

Israel will survive which is more than can be said of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, and others. The Palestinians will disappear unless they choose peace not the kind of leaders that they now prefer. A society which turns its people into suicide bombers and victims has no survival potential.

Of course Israel WILL exist. The question is whether there will be Arabs here.

It depends upon them.

If they continue with their greed and violence, then there will not be any. If they can change for the better, then there could be.

My guess is that they won't change. There's no reason to assume that they will change.

the main question for all the people in middle east is how long israel will survive mid this continuous conflicts and every year new emergance enemy ,I think its better for her to look for amore mindful and peaceful solutions ,to be more flexable by all the means so she may achive extraction of the deep heatred in hearts of her neighbors

Totally agreed!!!

I hope the predictions of Mr. Kuttab come to be... Unfortunatley, moderate Isrealis tend to immigrate and extremists - many from the US move in. Often to 'Settlements' or better put suburban outposts funded with US taxpayer dollars. Israel has allways been a racist and expansionsist state from the begining. Otherwise how to colonize an area you are the minority in? You drive out the majority. The policy is still in place - bit by bit force the farmers from their land - make life unliveable for the Paletinians and take what you want. An Apartheid state financed by the US with very good PR and spin doctors. I wonder if Obamas and McCains plans to lessen the influence of lobbyists extend to the Israeli lobby?

Note the thing all the "one-State" solution fools lie about. They probably, to a person, support Kosovo's independence from Serbia and Chechnya's independence from Russia. Why? Because those are Muslims who, according to Sharia, can't be ruled by infidels.

In the same way, they hypocritically call for a one-State solution (ignoring that's it's really a two-State solution, Jordan's 80% of the Mandate) because dhimmis don't have a right to turn land conquered by jihad back into Dar al-Harb.

Kuttab continues his one-sided argument for jihad.

Notice that he never once admits that:
1) it's the Arabs who rejected UNR181 and declared war on Israel.
2) They declared an unconditional war yet demand conditions before they end it
3) The PA doesn't have a constitution, but does have laws making it a death penalty crime to sell land to Jews or to work with Israel against terrorists
4) The Arab nations have constitutions, but are dictatorships that give only limited rights to non-Muslims.
5) Without a constitution, Israel does have laws granting equal rights to all citizens.
6) He doesn't call for Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the other terrorists organizations to change their Constitutions, Charters & Covenants to recognize Israel and grant equal right to Jews.

It's his typical diatribe against Israel that's completely out of context with the reality of the world.

Hey, great idea of the Post to request a comment from an enemy of Israel's regarding its future survival. Why not ask Fidel Castro about the USA's chances for another 100 years?
Kuttab, a habitual rewriter of history when it comes to Israel has now subtly introduced a new lie to his arsenal; you may miss it if you blink.
He now adds to the Judenrein world real estate, land within Israel's pre 1967 borders, namely the Galilee.
Here he alies himself with the policies of the terrorists of Hamas and Hizbollah. These are the very entities that now infest and control Gaza and Southern Lebanon which he claims (another subtle lie) are somehow occupied by Israel.

Zionism = Nazism = Superior race ethnic cleansing of perceived inferior race.

yes israel will last a hundred years. but by then it will be a secular state. and unified with palestine in the one-state solution.

they should accept Palestinian

It shouldnt have reached this stage to begin with. Mind you, they are based on a principle of apartheid which defrauds, kills, and destroys people living in Palestine.

It's ironic. The biblical references of "the chosen"....one tribe elevated above another. And by who? God? What kind of God would do that? What father would pick one of his children over another. The bitter irony is that the Jews and Arabs are brothers, and will always be brothers (ie. Homo Sapiens) they are separated only by religion....

The question is one that is asked of most countries in the light of a major aniversary however I'm afraid that any question of Isreal's existence will always be couched, by some, as an attack on Jews. That being said I agree with Mr. Kuttab that given the current state of affairs in that region of the world the continued existence of Isreal, in it's current configuration is questionable unless there is a sea change in the approach taken to brokering an honest relationship with her neighbors. To that end I believe that the US can no longer afford to be the 500 lb gorilla in the room. I believe that all aid to Isreal and Egypt (another non-democratic "democracy") should be discontinued.

No matter what the future holds a people, the Palestinians or any other, will not be held down forever. A lesson one would think that Isreal would understand better than most.

If the Palestinians had an ounce of common sense among them, they'd have a state already. I am not saying that they don't deserve a state--they do--but they don't deserve to be the only state, and they need to learn what negotiation is. For all their brilliant manipulation of the media, they have failed to obtain their most basic goal, a state of their own.

The irony is in the question. How many other countries are asked the question -- will it still be around in 40 years. Tells you a lot about the neighborhood.

You talk of agressive Jewish expansion, but do you know how Islam spread starting from Arabia in 7th century? Was it non-violent expansion? Certainly not in Iran (Zorostrians were massacred), India(Hindus were massacred and Muslims ruled over a majority Hindu country).

Look at the present world: Does Mohamed's birth land respect other religions and cultures? or other Islamic nations?

Israel has 7 million Muslims inside who are much better off than their neighbors.

Now that oil has peaked, Arab power will soon peak as well. Pretty soon, Israel will be the only country in the Middle East that knows how to make money.

With their free oil bucks gone, the Arabs will have to keep Israel around for the sake of their economies.

Mr. Kuttab conveniently omitted that the Arabs of British mandated Palestine rejected peaceful methods to resolve the issue of a two state solution.

The Jewish population accepted peace proposals in 1921, 1939, 1947, 1978, 1993, and 2000.

Conversely, the Arab population of Palestine rejected peace in 1921, 1939, 1947, 1978, and 2000. Palestinian leaders have abrogated The Oslo Accords of 1993 through The Palestinian Authority and Hamas' terror war perpetrated against Israeli civilians.

Did not the Palestinians live under Egyptian rule in Gaza and Jordanian rule in The West Bank? Where was his and other Palestinians' outrage at living under those governments' iron fist for 20 years?

Mr. Kuttab and his like would love Israel to magically disappear in another 40 years through blood and fire. But, that is a fantasy not a political reality. Israeli is here to stay.

I think I can with certainty (see below) that Daoud Kuttab and every one of the silly people who posed this silly question, and every person over the age of 15 will not be around in 100 years.

It is possible that with advances in medicine and genetics, to imagine lifespan increases in the next 10-100 years of sufficient magnitude to raise some doubt about the certainty I've expressed above.

So, why do I say this is a silly question? Well, the really important issue is whether Israel can survive the next 5-20 years.

One would hope that within the next 5-20 years the two sides will come to realize the futility of playing this "I kill you" game. Certainly, the Palestinians are not going to succeed at it without horrific casualties and their people already suffer.

Equally certainly, the Israelis are not going to succeed at it without horrific heartbreak on their side and they too already suffer.

Go back to the original question and posit that in 100 years, it won't make a whiff of difference whether the Israelis or Palestinians are right. What will have made a difference is how many people got killed in interim for no good reason and how many lived a decent life on both sides.

Wow Johnny Flagg, what an insightful comment.

Its amazing that in this country free speech means nothing when it comes to talking about the state of Israel. You say anything that could be considered critical of Israel and suddenly youre a Nazi advocating the Holocaust. Or you support terrorism. Then you throw in 9-11. I guess if I'm against Israel that means I'm for 9-11, right?

Israel engages in what amounts to aparthied in their country and occupied territories. There is no other word for it. It is no different than what was done in the jewish ghettoes in WW2, and they do this all with our country's full support. We give Israel more aid than the rest of the world combined. We give them our best technology, which they then sell of to China. They spy on us without any repercussions. They censor our media, essentially bribe our politicians with "trips" to Israel, operate a huge lobby (aipac) that isn't even registered as a foreign agent. And where again are the WMDs in the Middle East? Israel. They offer us no strategic benefit whatsoever, yet they are constantly lauded as our most strategic ally. Please point me to our bases in Israel that are so strategic. Please point me to our joint military operations where they "strategically" helped us.

Israel will survive, of course, but it is time that they survive on their own.

the real question should be...should it exist for a hundred years?
israel and the zionism that supports it--is simply racism--period.
a special country for a race of "jews" is no more correct than south africa under white
only rule or the southern usa under segregation.
israel is simply an extension of the racist european colonialism of the past--because the "jews" that run israel are simply europeans who claim a land based on a book saying their claimed god--the only god--promised "jews" the land. How wonderful.
any educated- thinking -honest person knows that is hogwash.
the creation of israel was the biggest mistake
in human history to date.

this author is nothing more than an anti-semite apologist for terrorists. he expects israel to negotiate with terrorists (aka palestinians). do you want another holocaust mr kuttab? did hitler not get the job done? the only way israel will survive to 100 is if it ignores advice from you and other supporters of muslim terrorism against the only democratic govt in the region. all this talk about the so-called occupied terroritories ignores the fact that palestinians in west bank have better lives than other arabs in the rest of the mideast! maybe if muslims stop supporting terrorism, like 9/11, and stop trying to destroy western society, things will get better. until then, i oppose any attempt to negotiate with advocates of islamo-nazism/fascism. NEVER FORGET 9/11/01

It is so ironic to hear the Arab world whine about how bad it is that Israel defines itself as a Jewish state when almost every Arab state (18 in total) proclaim that they are states defined as Muslim only states.

In countries like Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, you have to be Muslim to be a citizen.

In countries like Jordan, Jews cannot even purchase land.

So until all you Arab nations ratify your own theocratic or monarchic societies, keep your whining to yourselves.

And another thing, it is also funny how everyone is fortune tellers. We dont need your fortune telling. Not Palestinians who romanticize a society that didnt exist or anyone else. We have survived due to our resilience and love of life.

And Kuttab, I hope you read this and get your history right so you dont teach it badly in class: The Golan, if anything should be apart of Palestine not Syria. Syria got control of the Golan as a result of the 1948 war. So if anything it is yours and not Syrian. But and this is a big BUT, the Palestinian Arab Higher Committee on the eve before the 1948 war proclaimed that every arab in this area is Syrian and this land will always be Syrian. SO I guess nablus, tel aviv, jerusalem, and ramallah is all really Syrian?

Garak -
Your comment is spot on, as far as it goes. And it clarifies one of the main reasons for Israel's obstinacy in addressing the Palestinian problem. But the coming battle will not be for the soul of Israel; that has already been lost in the occupation. It will merely be for the tattered remnants of that soul

Israel and the Palestinians are eventually going to end up with a one-state solution, because there is no viable alternative. The settlements are a cancer which has metastized through the occupied territories. It's way too late to untangle everything and carve it all up into two sustainable states, so for better or worse, a single state is the only option.

Over time, the goal of the Palestinians will shift from the fight for separatism to the political battle for acceptance as "equals," akin to the US civil rights movement of the 60s. In particular, Palestinians need to start the long fight for equal voting rights throughout the entire occupied territories. In the long run, this will ultimately dilute Israel's identity as a Jewish state, but something's gotta give. The only alternative for Israel is a permanent position as manager of the world's largest prison camp...

In view of all of Mr. Kuttab's previous columns, it is just heart-warming to see him all of a sudden expressing such tender loving concern for Israel's future.

Mr. Kuttab, in 1948 your people did not give Israel one year to survive. Worry about your own state and "its nature". Israel will do just fine.

Who is a Jew? That will be decided in the Israeli Civil War that will occur should Israel and the Palestinians make peace. Without the threat of Palestinian resistance, can anyone expect that Shas and Shiniu can live together in peace? Without the threat of Palestinian resistance, can anyone expect secular Israelis to surrender control of their personal lives to Shas Rabbi Ovadia Yosef? Without the threat of Palestinian resistance, can anyone expect secular Israelis to continue funding Haredi welfare?

In a real sense, the Israelis can thank the Palestinians for allowing them to postpone the inevitable war for Israel's soul.