HankNTennesse seems to see Mr. Melman's comments as being contradictory, but it appears to me that Melman is rather making distinctly separate statements

1) regarding Israel's approach, as a nation, to its Iranian policy

2) his own personal viewpoint, which differs

The only solution for peace is a "ONE STATE" headed by palestine with jews coexisting side by side. Since we are still in exile and waiting for the return of the Messiah, we jews should not have a secular State of Israel! President Obama would be better off to seek other opinions from other sources, other than the sources offering opinions lately. He does'nt know Torah, Hashems will for Israelites existence. His views are political, not spiritual!

The only solution for peace is a "ONE STATE" headed by palestine with jews coexisting side by side. Since we are still in exile and waiting for the return of the Messiah, we jews should not have a secular State of Israel! President Obama would be better off to seek other opinions from other sources, other than the sources offering opinions lately. He does'nt know Torah, Hashems will for Israelites existence. His views are political, not spiritual!

The only solution for peace is a "ONE STATE" headed by palestine with jews coexisting side by side. Since we are still in exile and waiting for the return of the Messiah, we jews should not have a secular State of Israel! President Obama would be better off to seek other opinions from other sources, other than the sources offering opinions lately. He does'nt know Torah, Hashems will for Israelites existence. His views are political, not spiritual!

Rabbi Samuel Hurt, Chevarim

The only solution for peace is a "ONE STATE" headed by palestine with jews coexisting side by side. Since we are still in exile and waiting for the return of the Messiah, we jews should not have a secular State of Israel! President Obama would be better off to seek other opinions from other sources, other than the sources offering opinions lately. He does'nt know Torah, Hashems will for Israelites existence. His views are political, not spiritual!

Rabbi Samuel Hurt, Chevarim

The only solution for peace is a "ONE STATE" headed by palestine with jews coexisting side by side. Since we are still in exile and waiting for the return of the Messiah, we jews should not have a secular State of Israel! President Obama would be better off to seek other opinions from other sources, other than the sources offering opinions lately. He does'nt know Torah, Hashems will for Israelites existence. His views are political, not spiritual!

Rabbi Samuel Hurt, Chevarim

Yossi, I agree with you that the issue needs to be forced. Israel can't keep the lid on forever. There has to be a Palestinian state soon, or maybe two. I'm hoping that it will be easier for the Israeli public to accept an imposed solution under Netanyahu than under a left-wing PM, since they may feel he pushed back as hard as possible.

Yossi,

I havent read what you wrote in the Haaretz as calimed by HankNTennessee above, and I hope you are not speaking from both sides of your mouth.

I think you are spot on in this piece in the psot for sure. Fundamentally, Israel is doomed demographically with peace. Therefore it can only afford war for survival. Peace will change the demographics faster than a perpetual conflict will.

A perpetual conflict will only create an oversized ghetto in pockets of Arabs around the Palestinian lands, each one becoming another Gaza, until they explode.

It is just a matter of time before Israel implodes as part of that explosion.

Wow censors are working hard @ WAPO...to please AIPAC?
Several mild posts were thrown...They are really powerful these zionists...Watch out President Obama after soft claims they are gonna start undermning all the rest of your presidency...
Were are the spirits of Georges Washington, Abe Lincoln, and all the founding fathers?
Did they founded this country to let it be ruled by a foreign power?

Israelis are being very short-sighted by not embracing land-for-peace, right now, while the US is still strong enough to enforce such a peace long enough for it to take hold. The US will no longer be able to protect them after about 10 more years because our debt holders will force us to drastically curtail military spending. All the nukes in Israel won't protect them from people like Hamas or Hezbollah. Ask the Pakistanis how much peace and security they have from their nuclear weapons arsenal against a terrorist threat embedded among civilian populations. The way forward is to come to some kind of peaceful agreement based on coalition governments and one-man, one-vote, with constitutional guarantees for the rights of all ethnicities whether they are a majority or a minority, or whether there is one state or three. Anything less than that will fail. It may not succeed, but just ask the South Africans how successful apartheid was. There's no other way forward that any sensible, reasonable person can see. This is not like holding the line against Nazis. The Jewish population in Israel has artificially inserted itself into an alien territory that it was not invited to settle in. And now, having trespassed, they are seeking to assert squatter's rights, based on a claim that is over 2,000 years old. Nonetheless, the Israelis are there, and they are there with the lawful acceptance of the UN, an organization which Arab nations continue to belong to even if they disagreed with the Palestinian partition of 1947. Something has to be done to end this one way or another; the status quo will not continue.

Dear Yossi,

US tension regarding Israel is NOT exagerated.

It is red hot. Americans sick of Israel.
And probably also the pablum, the phony nice-nice
stuff you try to hoist on the what you think are stupid readers here.

Hated and in troublem, nearly broke because of you and yours. and SICK OF IT.

We supposed to pretend to believe this drivel?

But the real question is whether Americans will put up with Israel and it's lying, spying, money grubbing savage behavior much longer.

Ask around, most people don't think so.

Most Americans,
given the too ubiquitous example of the Madoff's of the world,
the savagery of Gaza, with American arms,
the constant screaming for bombing Iran, etc...the billions grubbed by AIPAC, and their spying...
the dual loyalists coming to light in congress

AND Wall Street's greedy ruination of a generation of prosperity for the people of this country

would like Israel to get off our backs.
To stop taking our money and ruining our place in the world.

No? Let's take a vote!

This lying mealey mouthed column is an insult.

Most Americans,
given the too ubiquitous example of the Madoff's of the world,
the savagery of Gaza, with American arms,
the constant screaming for bombing Iran, etc...the billions grubbed by AIPAC, and their spying...
the dual loyalists coming to light in congress

AND Wall Street's greedy ruination of a generation of prosperity for the people of this country

would like Israel to get off our backs.
To stop taking our money and ruining our place in the world.

No? Let's take a vote!

This lying mealey mouthed column is an insult.

Yossi Melman says one thing today in the Post for American consumption, and the opposite in the Israeli paper Haaretz on April 17, 2009.

Today in the Post he says this:
"Contrary to popular belief, Israel accepts - though reluctantly - the new American policy on Iran. It has no alternative but to wait and see how the Washington-Tehran negotiations might develop."

On April 17, 2009, in Haaretz Melman said this:
"If I were Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's national security adviser, I would advise attacking Iran."

I guess by now we should be used to Israelis who say one thing in America, and then go home and do something quite different.

Let us consider some basic “facts”!
1) The world can no longer tolerate or accept the Palestinian “situation” to be unresolved.
2) Israel has done absolutely nothing to create a supportive, non-hostile environment for its continued existence in Palestine; on the contrary, Israel has done almost everything conceivable to maintain a hostile environment, presumably to justify its continuing behaviors to annex more and more land that it so covets.
3) The stated purpose of Israel was to provide a haven for the persecuted Jews of World War II. Obviously, the Israeli people have a far different objective and in fact there are few Jews in Israel that would qualify to being any of those persecuted by the Nazis.
4) There is no justification for any of the occupied territories policies, legal or otherwise, or for the continued illegal occupation of Palestine land beyond the 1967 borders. Frankly, there is no legal basis for occupying lands beyond the borders established by the 1948 UN resolutions which are the only legal basis for the existence of Israel!
5) The support of Evangelical Christians because of their belief that the Jews needed to control Jerusalem before their desired Rapture and Armageddon could happen; is waning as that whole movement becomes less politically powerful and their goals shift to new causes.
6) America is economical challenged, militarily weary, disillusioned with foreign goals and the means being used to achieve them, tired of the endless “poor us” from Israel, and ready to just walk away from the whole mess.
7) Israel has had 2 years of military debacles:
a. The senseless, needless bombing and destruction of Lebanon
b. The senseless, needless, barbaric destruction and murder in Gaza
8) The growing American awareness of the tyranny of Israel over Gaza that prevents any economic improvements, and social development, and improvement in attitudes towards the Israeli peoples.
The bottom line: Israel needs to accept a nation that is contained within 1967 borders, that provides contiguous free, unfettered land access between Gaza and the rest of the new Palestinian state. The alternative is an imposed single secular nation of Palestine, demilitarized, with rights and privileges guaranteed equally for all citizens… enforced by a UN multi-national police force.