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Adios: You have returned in a different format. Where is Joseph and ---Sf? Same copy and paste.

Again:
Just more of the same...........a play for time.

The theft of Palestine was underwritten by the Brits and midwifed by terrorists who were financed by the US.

Anyone can understand the hatred that the Palestinians.........more than just the Palestinians - the Arabs..... more than just Arabs - the entire Muslim world has for Israel. Much of the rest of the world just wishes it would go away.

Ultimately, the Hebrews - as horrible as it seems - will have no choice but to live as peaceful citizens of Palestine.

Now is not to soon for all good Hebrews to acknowledge the crimes of the past (desperate though Rabin and the others were), beg forgiveness, stop this Zionist madness, and try to live as peaceful citizens of Palestine.

There is no alternative .....

Ultimately:
The footnote will read: Israel was the manifestation of Truman trying to cash Balfour's check with the blood of Palestinians and Hebrews alike.

I see Rick of Arabia has returned with his Texas deporation "Jewish solution", again. Rick, Rick, how sick ! Please Rick get a new sthick !

Fact is simple, Syria sleeps with whoever pays more. she was so helpless to defend it's territory in 1967 and she still is today when Israelis bomb it. After the recent bombing humiliations by IDF, Syria still has no shame and goes to a conference to beg for a piece of bone she knows she can't get.
Syria was so shameless to even listen to it's master Iran and not to attend.
Come on Syria you can't play it both ways at least be a man and stand for your cause.

So Pathetic

SAM,
Yours is a pipe dream. The Land is likely to remain divided for a long time and those who preach a single state as a solution to the current problems are either completely removed from the situation--the endemic cultural and ethnic hostilities, the excruciatingly painful and mutually defamatory histories--or they are engaging in a PR exercise intended to tilt things their way. Jews will never allow themselves to be demographically swamped out in the land of Israel (however defined), at least not until the deep divide between us and the arabs has significantly healed--something that may take generations. Israelis are proud of what they have built in the last 100 years, and would likely be glad to help spread that prosperity throughout the region should peace break out. Everyone in the region stands to benefit from the intellectual and economic success of Israel. But even the most liberal and conciliatory among Israelis is unwilling, at this moment, to trust our Palestinian and other Arab neighbors enough to surrender our Israeliness to them. To us the idea you espouse represents an unrealistic and potentially dangerous escalation of the demands of the Palestinians--one that may make sense to guilt-ridden and out-of-touch Europeans, but which, like other radical and "idealistic" solutions, promises only a larger harvest of bodies.
For good or ill, and mostly for ill, the Israeli and Palestinian nations have defined themselves in opposition to the other. This cannot be undone in an instant or indeed by granting everyone citizenship in one state. I wonder what is your model for such a state: Lebanon? Iraq??? Whether your proposal is naive or nefarious, I cannot say, but it is ridiculous, and actually dangerous insomuch as it encourages the Palestinians not to be satisfied with any reasonable partition. The consequences of such an unappeasable mindset will be utter disaster for everyone in the region, and potentially for the entire world.

F off

F off

F off

I just read the issued statement You, i.e., Syria need to be in Russia at the next round of negotitions. You need to be there with a united (Hamas/Fatah) delegation. You need to use your influence with Hamas leadership to give the young Israeli soldier back and get Marwan out of prison pronto. This "statement" is very disturbing...You and the rest of the Arab countries and Abbas need to issue a clarification ...that not just the US will drive the process, but also the UN and the Quartet ...You need to diplomatically tell Abbas he needs new political advises...right now it appears he is only listening to Hadley, Abrams, Cheney and Addington...and on a personal note, I wish the hell you, i.e., Syria, would leave Lebanon alone. You have turned it into the top country on my "Heartbreaker list" ...

I forgot to note that, as a Syrian resident, Mr. Moubayed lives under the control of President (i.e., DICTATOR) Hafez Assad. As such, he not only receives extremely biased information, but is also required to present information in a light that portrays Syria in a highly positive light. If he piped up, I expect he'd lose his job at the University of Damascus, at the very least.

Maryanne:

As you say, the Jews were absent from the land of Palestine for almost two millennia. Then they return (with the aid of the world’s superpowers) to retake the land by force over the past 100 years, from the families whose ancestors have tended their flocks and orchards, and farmed the land for millennia. You want to force these people out of their homes and off their land at the point of gun. Is that your idea of justice? Shame!

Sam,

Excellent post! You have the best solution and only solution, the single-state solution, with Palestinian right of return:

“…All citizens of the new state, PALISRA (Palestine +Israel), would enjoy equal rights and bear the same responsibilities…”

This peace process will fail because the two-state solution is a nonstarter. The Jews have no right to a piece of Palestine after being absent for almost 2 millennia prior to 1947. The 5 million Israeli Jews should join their 5.7 million brethren in the USA and form a true Jewish homeland with 80% of the Jews on the planet. We can support it; Palestine cannot.

PALISRA is the only feasible and lasting solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.Both Israelis and Palestinians have been fighting and killing each other for more than 60 years now and unfortunately, no light could be seen at the end of this dark tunnel.
The geography and demography of the area that extends between River Jordan and the Mediterranean indicate the complexity of the current situation. Every party is trying hard to grab by mere force what is in the hand of the other. Many wars have been waged and thousands of innocent lives have been shed for this purpose.
Nowadays, almost everybody is talking about setting up two countries for both Israelis and Palestinians. This simply means that the land of historical Palestine will be divided between the two parties, Israelis and Palestinians.
I doubt very much that either party will be satisfied with his share of the cake. There are chronic problems like Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, borders, water resources that nobody on earth can sort out to the satisfaction of both parties.
The short vision of setting up two separate states could sow the seeds for more bloody conflicts in the future. Nobody can guarantee or secure permanent and lasting peace under this proposition.
A far better viable solution that should satisfy both parties and put an end to all complicated issues is available. It is the establishment of one secular country for all on the whole territory of historical Palestine that includes the West Bank and Gaza besides Israel. Jerusalem will remain united for both parties, settlements could remain where they are now provided an appropriate compensation is made to the original land owners, natural geographical borders are already in place for the whole country and the issue of refugees could be settled by allowing all refugees to return home and to be compensated for the 60 years of misery they had to spend at refugee camps. All citizens of the new state, PALISRA (Palestine +Israel), would enjoy equal rights and bear the same responsibilities.
The newly established state, PALISRA will emerge as a prosperous and safe country within a very short period of time, and citizens of this state will learn how to tolerate,respect and even cherish each other. PALISRA will become a key player and an integral part of the Middle East as yesterday's enemies will become today's friends and allies for ever.

Unfortunately, there can be no lasting peace until the Arab peoples--and the rest of the world--recognize the Land of Israel as the ancient and historic homeland of the Jewish People.

How, truly, can Israel be colonialist or illegitimate??

The Jews were the original inhabitants of the Holy Land.

The earliest reference to Israel is from the Funerary Stela of the Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah in 1209 B.C.! (And its sitting in museum in Cairo, by the way)

Indeed, ironic perhaps, but Jews' closest genetic cousins are Syrian. (The fact that most of these tests were done at Oxford is maybe even more ironic...)

After all, Jesus was a Jew--as was Isaac and Jacob, Jeremiah and Isaiah, all the Prophets, Kings David and Solomon, Mary, Josheph, John the Baptist, all the Disciples, etc....

The Jews were kicked out of their land by the Roman Empire and forced into Exile for nearly two thousand years.

One would think that this tiny group (there are 13.2 Million Jews in the world, compared to 2 Billion Christians and 1.6 Billion Muslims), expelled by Empire, exiled, and then returned to their original homeland after mass destruction in Europe and final expulsion from the Arab world would elicit sympathy and support among "Liberals."

Unfortunately, for those who believe in supersessionist philosophy--that Christianity and Islam superseded or replaced their mother faith community, the Jewish People--its rather a problem that the Jews returned to Jerusalem.

That means all the tenets that have been taught over the centuries--that Jews are no longer Chosen but in fact cursed and destined to live in exile, that all the promises of the Hebrew Scriptures relating to Israel and Judah now belong to the Church or, as stated in the Koran, the followers of Mohammad---might ring false.

Thus, most of the world can't stand the idea of Jews controlling their own country in their own ancestral homeland and returning to power in the city of their ancient Kings, Jerusalem.

Lebanon can shell Palestinian camps all day long--No one cares.

Jordan killed more Palestinians in Black September then Israel in all her history--No one said a word.

Iran persecutes more then a million Sunni Arabs within their borders, Syria forces its Kurds into abject poverty, etc., etc.....There are no protests.

As a Palestinian in East Jerusalem once told me, "the truth is, if we were to admit it to ourselves, is that people only pay attention to us because they hate the Jews."

Well written article. The interesting thing to me is that despite all the above, and (I would guess) in spite of Iranian arguments against attending, Syria is there...What could Syria hope to achieve from attending such a farcical conference? Is Syria there just to "Be There"!

Thank you for the history lesson. Stratfor published today a "situation report" asserting US and Israeli cooperation in Sept 6 mystery strike on Syria...timing of this info is interesting...don't let Abrams rattle you...Syria needs to get other Arabs to press Israel to free Marwan Baghouti, otherwise, Annapolis for Arabs is a total loss...and a big PR coup for Bush and Olmert.

Annapolis Has No Legitimacy Without Syria, but more important still it has no legitamacy without peace!

The people of the Middle East, Arabs and even some Jews, hope that Syria continues its policy of steadfast support of total-regional peace; this was the policy of Hafez Assad, the late Syrian President.

Syria could have regained control of the [Israeli] Occupied Golan Heights in an agreement negotiated with Israel, had it agreed to drop its principled stand in support of Palestinian Rights.

Assad cannot forget the half a million Palestinian refugees who found shelter in Syria, just as he cannot forget the 150.000 Syrian refugees from the Golan Heights.