Charles and Michael hello, I would like to add to point 5 in the aspects that Israeli leaders will turn to a cycle of conflict and peace management rather then resolution. In the past after going through periods of conflict "ripeness," such as during Oslo and Camp David, leaders on both sides have engaged in serious negotiations, but today peace is farther then ever and any negotiations reported in the media will only be political theater.

Also, I am a strong supporter for the concept of Israel and its security but am firmly against settlement in "Judea and Samaria." Increasing jewish settlements in the west bank with their massive jigsawing highways and protective security zones will only further extremism amongst Palestinians and make them push for the one state solution which will only lead to further bloodshed.

There will soon come a time when, I hope that people will see as I do, that no one really cares about what Israel does any more, they've made their bed now let them Lay in it. When they are totally destroyed by their separatism ways it will just be one less dust hole the US will not have to worry about. There will never be peace in the middle east until Israel is put in it's place. When I say this I mean that there is absolutely nothing special about Israel. The turth is there isn't anything special about any of the middle eastern countries except their oil, and it won't be long before the rest of the world overcomes their dependency on oil then we can just let these little dust hole countries go back to fighting their petty little wars and forget about them. Get over this crap people.

Luke,

The problem with isolationism is that we live in a global economy and a shrinking world, ignore the proxy war Iran is fighting against Israel, (and they are going nuclear), at our own peril, we should help our allies in this war.

A future attack from Iran may be any where USA, and could be even South Point OH.

There is frequently this response to criticism of Israel's policies that are so blatantly intended for ethnic cleansing. We need to have a continuous open dialogue and not yield to the same bias held in American media. Yes, there is anger at these attrocities committed against the Palestinian people to prevent them from establishing a viable-secure-free nation in their homeland. I am impressed to see that there are currently demonstrations by Jews in New york City being held in front of the WZO telling Israel that past history of the Jewish people doesn't justify the persecution of Palestinians. At the website for Amy Goodman's TV program Democracy Now (Democracynow.org) there is an interview with Former Speaker of the Israeli Parliament Avraham Burg who has written: "The Holocaust Is Over: We Must Rise from its Ashes". He expresses concern that the continued expansion of Israeli settlements are an effort by the right wing in Israel to prevent a two state solution.

Thank you, James, for reminding everyone that there are rational Jews who do not support the ethnic cleansing being carried out by Israel.  And thank you, Godheval, for not letting Michael's rants rule the day.  You both give me hope.

Ethnic cleansing by Israel?  What are you smoking  ;-)?!

Here is the new evaluation of Israeli elections by Gush Shalom, Uri Avnery' peace outfit:

Ms Tantalus

TANTALUS IS punished by the Gods for reasons that are not entirely clear. He is hungry and thirsty, but the water in which he stands recedes when he bends down to drink from it and the fruit above his head continually evades his hand.

Tzipi Livni is now undergoing a similar torture. After winning an impressive personal victory at the polls, the political fruit keeps slipping from her grasp when she stretches out her hand.

Why should she deserve that? What has she done, after all? Supported the war, called for a boycott of Hamas, played around with empty negotiations with the Palestinian Authority? OK, she has indeed.. But such a terrible punishment?

HOWEVER, THE results of the elections are not as clear as they might seem. The victory of the Right is not so unambiguous.

Central to the election campaign was the personal competition between the two contenders for the Prime Minister’s office: Livni and Netanyahu (or, as they call themselves, as if they were still at kindergarten, Tzipi and Bibi.)

Contrary to all expectations and all polls, Livni beat Netanyahu. Several factors were involved in this. Among others: the masses of the Left were terrified by the possibility of Netanyahu winning, and flocked to Livni’s camp in order to "Stop Bibi!" Also, Livni – who was never identified with feminism – remembered at the last moment to call Israel’s women to her banner, and they hearkened to her call.

But it is impossible to ignore the main significance of this choice: Netanyahu symbolizes total opposition to peace, opposition to giving back the occupied territories, to the freezing of the settlements and to a Palestinian state. Livni, on the other hand, has declared more than once her total support for the "Two-Nation-States" solution. Her voters opted for the more moderate line.

True, the big winner in the elections was Avigdor Liberman. But his triumph is far from the fateful breakthrough everyone foresaw. He did not win the 20 seats he had promised. His ascent from 11 to 15 seats is not so dramatic. His party is indeed now the third largest in the Knesset, but that is less due to its own rise than to the collapse of Labor, which fell from 19 to 13. By the way, not one of the parties won even 25% of the vote. Israeli democracy is now very fragile indeed.

The Liberman phenomenon is ominous, but not (yet?) disastrous.

HOWEVER, THERE is no way to deny the most significant message of these elections: the Israeli public has moved to the right. From Likud to the right there are now 65 seats, from Kadima to the left only 55. One cannot argue with numbers.

What has caused this shift?

There are several explanations, all of them valid.

One can consider it as a passing phase after the war. A war arouses strong emotions – nationalist intoxication, hatred of the enemy, fear of the Other, longing for unity and for revenge,. All these naturally serve the Right – a lesson sometimes forgotten by the left when it starts a war.

Others see in it a continuation of a historical process: the Zionist-Palestinian confrontation is becoming wider and more complex, and such a situation feeds the Right.

And then there is, of course, the demographic factor. The rightist bloc attracts the votes of three sectors: the Oriental Jews (a majority of whom vote for Likud), the religious (who mostly vote for the fundamentalists) and the Russians (most of whom vote for Liberman). This is a group vote, almost automatic.

Two sectors in Israel have an especially high birth-rate: the religious Jews and the Arabs. The religious vote almost unanimously for the Right. True, the Orthodox and the National-Religious parties have not increased their strength in the elections, probably because many of their natural voters chose Likud, Liberman or the even more extreme National Union. The Arab citizens almost completely abstained from voting for Jewish parties, as many of them used to in the past, and the three Arab parties together gained one more seat.

The demographic development is ominous. Kadima, Labor and Meretz are identified with the old-established Ashkenazi sector, whose demographic strength is in steady decline. Also, many young Ashkenazis gave their votes – at least four seats worth – to Liberman, who preaches a secular fascism. They hate the Arabs, but they also hate the religious Jews.

The conclusion is quite clear: if the "center-left" does not succeed in breaking out of its elitist ghetto and striking roots within the Oriental and Russian sectors, its decline will continue from election to election.

NOW MS TANTALUS must choose between two bitter options: to retire to the desert where there is neither water nor fruit, or to serve as a fig-leaf for an obnoxious coalition.

Option No. 1: to refuse to join Netanyahu’s coalition and to go into opposition. That is not so simple. The Kadima party came into being when Ariel Sharon promised its members – refugees from right and left – power. It will be very hard for Livni to hold the lot together in opposition, far from the seat of power, far from the posh ministers’ offices and from luxurious official cars.

That would give us a rightist government which includes open fascists, pupils of Meir Kahane (whose party was banned because of his racist teachings), the advocates of ethnic cleansing, of the expulsion of Israel’s Arab citizens and the liquidation of any chance for peace. Such a government would inevitably find itself in confrontation with the United States and in worldwide isolation.

Some people say: that’s good. Such a government will necessarily fall soon and break apart. Thus the public will be persuaded that there is no viable rightist option. Kadima, Labor and Meretz will stew in opposition, and perhaps a real center-left alternative will come into being.

Others say: too risky. There is no limit to the disasters that a Netanyahu-Liberman-Kahanist government can bring upon the state, from the enlargement of the settlements that will torpedo any future peace, to outright war. We can’t stake everything on one card, when the chip is the State of Israel.

Livni’s option No. 2: to swallow the bitter pill, give in and join the Netanyahu government as a second, third or fourth wheel. In that case, she must decide at once, before Netanyahu establishes a fait accompli with an extreme-right coalition which Livni would then be invited to join as a junior partner.

I shall not be surprised if President Shimon Peres takes the initiative unofficially and promotes this option – before starting, in a week’s time, the official process of consulting with the Knesset factions and entrusting one of the candidates with the task of forming a government.

Could such a government move towards peace? Conduct real negotiations? Agree to the dismantling of settlements? Accept a Palestinian state? Recognize a Palestinian unity government that includes Hamas?

Hard to imagine. In the best case, it will go on with the charade of meaningless negotiations, quietly enlarge the settlements, lead Barack Obama by the nose and mobilize the pro-Israel lobby in order to obstruct any real American moves towards peace. What was will be.

CAN ISRAEL change course? Can a real peace-oriented alternative arise?

The two "Zionist Left" parties have been decisively beaten. Both Labor and Meretz have collapsed. Their two leaders who called for the Gaza War and supported it – Ehud Barak of Labor and Haim Oron of Meretz – have received the punishment they richly deserve. In a normal democracy, both would have resigned the day after the elections. But our democracy is not normal, and both leaders insist on staying on and leading their party to the next disaster.

Labor is a walking corpse – the only "social-democratic" party in the world whose leader’s sole aim is to stay on as war minister. When Barak spread the mantra "there is no one to talk with" he overlooked the logical conclusion "therefore we don’t need anyone to talk with them".

The Labor Party has no party, no members, no political program, no alternative leadership. It will fail in opposition as it failed in government. Barring a miracle, it will end up in the junkyard of history.

It will find Meretz already there. A socialist party that lost its way a long time ago: a party without any roots in the classes at the foot of the socioeconomic ladder, a party that has supported all our wars.

Some believe in easy solutions: a union of Labor and Meretz, for example. That is a union of the lame and the blind. No reason to expect that they would win the race.

THE REAL task is far more difficult. A completely new building must be erected in place of the one which has collapsed.

The need is for a new Left that will include new leaders from the sectors that have been discriminated against: the Orientals, the Russians and the Arabs. A new Left that will express the ideals of a new generation, people of peace, advocates of social change, feminists and greens, who will all understand that one cannot realize one ideal without realizing all of them. There can be no social justice in a military state; no one is interested in the environment while the cannons are roaring, feminism is incompatible with a society of machos riding on tanks, there can be no respect for Oriental Jews in a society that despises the culture of the Orient.

The Arab citizens will have to leave the ghetto in which they are confined and start to talk with the Jewish public, and the Jewish public must talk with the Arabs on equal terms. The Liberman slogan "No Citizenship Without Loyalty" must be turned around: "No Loyalty Without Real Citizenship".

As Obama has done in the US, a new language, a new lexicon must be created, to replace the old and tired phrases.

Much, much must be changed if we want to save the state.

AS FOR Ms. Tantalus: she can contribute to this process of change, or her torture will continue.

Echoing Pyrrhus, king of Epirus and Macedon, she can well say: Another such victory and we are undone.

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I have been to Israel, Vlasta, and have seen how Palestinians are treated as less than human.  There are many Israelis who would turn a blind eye to ethnic cleansing if it "protects" Israel.  It is appalling and shameful.  No amount of propaganda from your side will change what I personally saw. For the record, I am neither Arab nor Jew.  There is no justification for apartheid of any kind.  Jews especially should be hyper-vigilant about persecuting an entire people, but instead too often seem to think themselves exempt.  Special.  Entitled.  Disgusting.

"propaganda from MY side"?!!!   NOT!

I lived in Israel as a non-Jew from Southern Europe for 5 years, starting in end of 1971, just 4 years after the 6-day war, when Old City of Jerusalem and East Jerusalem was recaptured from Jordanian occupation, which in 1948 let to expulsion of many native Jews who lived there for centuries. Their homes and their synagogues were confiscated and/or destroyed.   Jews were happy that they could finally go to their holiest shrine (remnants of the Second temple, Wiling Wall), to pray just under the Dome of the Rock (as you see it on this peace site).

During my life in Israel (1971-1976), I travelled all over Israel and West Bank and once even visited Gaza strip.   There were no checkpoints and there were no walls.  Palestinian Arabs from Gaza and West Bank found employment in Israel and their numbers kept increasing exponentially, decreasing their chances for a good life.   There was no "apartheid" then!  Then Arafat and PLO came into picture inciting Intifadas, suicide bombers etc., until Oslo agreement.   I was in Israel, when suddenly during the silence of holiest of hollies Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), I heard radio calling young men to report to their army bases since Israel was again attacked by its neighbors, Egypt and Syria.  I volunteered in picking fruits and cotton on land that was abandoned by men, because they went to Sinai and Golan hights to defend Israel from the stealth onslaught from Egypt and Syria.  Weizmann Institute, where I was a student was devoid of all men, except the oldest ones (over 55 y of age).

I revisited Israel in 1998 and 1999 and was saddened that the beautiful open country of Israel has become afraid of body parts on its streets and buses, a result of misguided young Palestinian Arab men and sometimes women blowing themselves up, while killing dozens of Jews in the process and Palestinians in Gaza and West Bank dancing crazily to celebrate each "martyr" and Arab women giving interview on TV that they will give birth to thousands babies to kill the Jews.  

I am equally saddened when I visited my old country and found out that the American embassy had moved from a center of the city, where the windows were an open library, where I often borrowed books to learn English, to far away place, surrounded by barbed wire!  Also, I am saddened that in USA, which until Timothy Wade decided to bomb the Federal Building, we could go in and out of any public property in USA without being searched and screened, is turning into many checkpoints and security cameras.

I am saddened that after 9/11, when 20 suicide/homicide Arab men, mostly from Saudi Arabia flew into twin towers, and Pentagon, our brilliant Prez decided to bomb Afghanistan and Iraq, rather than treating this as a crime of the century, requiring criminal justice response, rather than military, which certainly had pissed off many Arabs and other non-Arab Muslims.  I am saddened that our young soldiers had to lose their lives in desserts of far away places of Iraq and Afghanistan and even more saddened that 20-50 times as many Iraqis and Afghans have lost their lives and/or being maimed...  I am saddened and angry that US have been spending trillions in "war against terror", while our inner cities (and now even suburbs) are dying in economic crisis.  I am saddened that Obama wants to expand the "war on terror" in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and risking that we follow the fate of USSR in those regions.

I am saddened that some Palestinian Arabs are treated  badly by some ignorant Israeli and American Jews, who feel entitled to kick the weaker guy, but I am equally saddened when I see Gazan and West Bank toddlers and kindergartners dancing and prancing in their school yards, strapped with plastic suicide belts and waving plastic guns, chanting antisemitic slogans and proclaiming their desire to be "martyrs" when they grow up.   I am saddened when the Israeli government implemented an idiotic policy of demolishing homes of Palestinian families from which suicide bombers came to kill the Jews in Israel.  I think that those families should have been given psychological counseling by the Jewish and Arab doctors, rather than having their houses destroyed (and in the process creating new suicide bombers).

It scares the beejees out of me when I see adult Hamas fighters with masks on their faces, with their fists up in air chanting insults to the Jews and promising massacres of Israelis and Jews around the world.  I am scared when the Muslims in European countries and as far as Indonesia chant equally disgusting antisemitic slogans and wishing death to the Jews, or calling Jews disgusting names in San Francisco.

I am disappointed that people like you, who claim to want peace and justice, do not protest when thousands of rockets are launched from Gaza strip to hurt Israeli civilians, and when Hamas was killing Gazans in hundreds shortly after their election a few years ago and during Israeli military intervention in Gaza.   I am extremely worried when I read the covenants of Hetzbollah and Hamas calling for annihilation of Israel, and quoting antisemitic slogans, promoted by fanatic clerics in their Friday nights rants against Jehudim and Zionists...I am extremely worried when the president of Iran and many mullah call for wiping Israel from the map, while building capacity for nuclear weapons and already having rockets that can reach Israel.

There is no complete justice anywhere in the world, but you focus on Israel, which still has to fight for its survival, rather than putting the whole picture in the context.   When Palestinian Arab give up their contempt for Jews and wanting to kill them, the peace will come by itself.  The main danger is that under the constant threat of annihilation by the Arabs, the Jews will become just like them and the streets of Jewish towns will have Israelis mimic those chants of the Arabs that we hear now, but against Arabs and Muslims.   That would be the end of Israel and Jews, and the fanatics would win, even if the Jewish state still existed.

You need to know history of the conflict and put it into regional perspective, in order to understand the situation and derive proper, unbiased judgements. 

Go again to Israel and study to see the symmetry.  If you can go to Gaza and the West Bank and tall Hamas and Arab street masses in Ramallah that you want peace with Israel and that they should stop teaching their children that their future is in suicide martyrdom, and stay alive after that, maybe there is a chance for peace.  Also meet with 40% of oriental Jews who left large lands and other property in Arab countries and ask them how safe they feel if the Palestinian state was proclaimed before Hamas and Hetzbollah renounce violence (at least on paper as PA did).