And for any kind of statehood the Arabs will have to accept such a statehood.

But they rejected it every time it came up, last in 2000 when Bill Clinton devised his plan for a "Palestinian" state.

Why on earth does anybody think that any problem in the middle-east can be solved by creating another Arab state?

All the problems in the middle-east were CAUSED by the creation of too many Arab states. Why continue?

Why 1967 is considered the date at which a settlement can be achieved? Agreed the Arabs did use the Palestenian issue to force Israel into a war which the Arabs lost and lost badly. And also the 1973 war showed that right upto the 2008 Gaza invasion the IDF held the upper hand. Now the world has changed. A newer generation has grown that does not want a militarised state of existence.  I believe that the Arabs are not interested in a solution as that would deprive them of the sole point on which they agree. But USA must enfoprce an equtable solution with ARAB PARTICIAPTION IF possible or unilaterally if necessary. And Obama has pledged as much. The issue now in the Gaza blockade. By mishandling the situation the Israeli Government has once again brought the issue of Palestine to the foreground.

Another Arab state is not a solution. But Palestinians are not entirely Arabs.

It's the existing Arab regimes, old people, that want peace. The young generations want blood.

Look at Egypt. It's young people demonstrating against Israel and old people defending it.

It's the newer generations that want war.

But they are. Most of them are Muslims, all of them speak Arabic. The "Palestinians" of northern Israel are culturally and linguistically indistinguishable from Lebanese Arabs. The "Palestinians" of Gaza are culturally and linguistically indistinguishable from Egyptians. And the "Palestinians" from the Jordan valley are culturally and linguistically indistinguishable from "Jordanian" Arabs living in the same Jordan valley.

I think it's time to acknowledge that the borders drawn by the British were arbitrary ones and that "Palestinians" are simply Arabs who happened to live within the borders of one British territory but not another.

The "Palestinians" are simply Arabs and "Palestine" never existed outside the minds of Roman and British (and later Arab) imperialists.

Gaza is certainly suffering mightily from the blockade.  No doubt there were some desperately needed tiaras & veils on the flotilla.

Oh, yeah, life is tough in Gaza.

The blockade absolutely has to be lifted.

Guess what, ask a liberal if it shouldn't be a higher priority to bring food to Darfur because Gaza is looking so much better than African cities, the liberal will explain to you that while it is OK for Africans to live in poverty, it is not OK for Arabs. Really!

(Not that Gaza is "poor" in the real sense of the word. Most of Egypt is poorer.)

The only issue I have with Gaza is the lack of religous freedom.  I've had some friends killed there because of their religion (this happens in most Arab/Islamic controlled areas though).   Gaza is a nice place.  I like the food of that region.  You can get everything fresh there.

Leauki, don't forget about North Korea!  The people there are suffering through an oppressive blockade as well.  All the people in charge in Gaza and West Bank look like little kids throwing a tantrum because they're not getting what they want and that's all they're doing until they get what they want.

Land for peace hasn't worked, why keeping trying it?  and one must asking why isn't it working?

Religious freedom in Gaza may or may not be the issue. Living conditions there are horrencous. And the world recognises it.

The international community, or what passes for the international community i.e. the 5 members of the UNSC have unanimously agreed that the blockade has to be lifted.

Did you read the link?  Can you provide alternative evidence?

I did see the link and Commentary certainly has a point of view. I am basing my judgement on pressrepotrs from US media and the Arab world. There is a shortage of medicines, essential supplies, fuel and even food. The tunnels have been closed and the people are suffering. I think Israel can allow humanitarian aid and I think Israelis are smart enough not to allow weapons and other such things. In the name of security Israel cannot enforce collective punishment.

The world will "recognise" (aka believe) whatever it wants as long as the Jews are "evil".

I see press reports that claim that living conditions are "horrendous" but they never show pictures or present any numbers or facts. Then I see few press reports that show normal living conditions in Gaza.

How do you fake lots of pictures of cars and vegetable markets in _Palestinian_ news papers???

If you believe Arab press reports you can just as well believe that Jews drink the blood of Christians because that is reported regularly too.

The fact is that there is no shortage of medicines and essential supplies, certainly not of fuel and absolutely not of food.

You might be confusing Gaza with Darfur as many people seem lately.

I think the Arab press no longer sensationalises the relationship between Arabs and Jews. Certainly the "evil" atributed to them is more from Europeans than Arabs. Remember that Jews and Arabs lived peacefully in the centuries after the Crusades. Anti-semitism is a European phenomenon.

You must read a different Arab press than I.

I grant you that there have been Arab media FAR better informed and more sympathic towards Israel than European media. Educated Arabs are not quite as dumb as "educated" progressive Europeans.

But that's the same media who do not tell the stories of a starving Gaza.

If you believe those Arab media who say that Gaza is starving you should also believe them that Jews drink the blood of Christians. Or, if you don't believe the latter, you should get used to the idea that they also lied about the former.

However, it is only the European media who attribute evil to Israel (and Jews) while pretending to be neutral. The anti-Israel Arab media do not lie about their bias or agenda.

How would I remember that?

The stories I heard from Israelis whose parents and grandparents fled persecution and murder in Arab countries certainly don't back up that thesis, and neither does the fact that most of the Arab world is now Jew-free (or the demand that any "Palestinian" state be Jew-free).

Only last year the last 200 Jews fled Yemen because they couldn't live with their houses firebombed on a daily basis. How did Europeans bring antisemitism to Yemen?

It is true that under Ottoman rule Jews were not mistreated much. I'll grant that they were not mistreated at all, if you like.

But as soon as Arabs took over, ALL non-Arab groups, most of all the Jews, were murdered and persecuted or at best discriminated against.

European fascists have added the specific racial antisemitism to the mix, but what happened to all non-Arab peoples cannot be explained by pointing to European antisemitism.

Arabs and Jews lived peacefully under Ottoman rule (until they both revolted in WW1). But the story that Jews lived peacefully under Arab rule is an urban legend. The newly-created Arab states didn't lose much time expelling their Jews and murdering their Kurds or Africans or whatever non-Arab element they found living in those "Arab" states.

I've been to Gaza.  For the most part its a nice place.  If you don't mind the occasional harassment from armed militants.  If you believe the news what about this whole debacle pertaining to international waters and peace activist.  If they slap the word peace/freedom in front of any word it must be truly for peace or freedom.

Let's remove ourselves from this current situation and take a look at another.  Take a look at the Anthropogenic Global Warming Scandel, yes that was all the rage of yesteryear but its still going on.  What was the media reports of before the scandel broke? How about after?  When ever anything become politicalized it seems to turn horrible false.  I use the word horrible here because factual information  is short and hard to come by, WHERE'S THE BEEF!

Aww Leauki, how could you! Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh............ Stop spoiling all the fun.  My website bloodojews its already hard to keep in  premiere product in stock and now look at what you've done!

Perhaps we should ask the UN to censure Israel for the Christian blood thing. It sounds worse than enforcing a blockade.

As the (sometimes) wise Dr Guy has told me: for a liberal it matters not whether there is evidence but only the seriousness of the allegations.

Agreed. European?American liberals fudge the truth in much the same way as they hailed Stalin as a great liberator and went ga-ga over Mao-tse-tund. So it is no surprise that Arabs are better informed.

As far as memories go, the Azhkenezi and Shepardic jews who migrated to Palestine after the European inspired HOLOCAUST construct their national meories of Israel around the theme of perscecution and the memory of the German Holocaust. In Palestine, the Jews had no such memory and when Israel was created in 1949 were suddenly struck by a whole different historicasl narrative.

I think you too agree that the situation was much different during the Ottoman period and too much water and blood has flowed down for that example, unfortunately, to be relevant.