chicot

No, he's not being serious. He alternates between being a serious poster and his simpleton persona (hence the name), sometimes within the same post.

I replied to your simplistic, sarcastic analogy with a simplistic, sarcastic analogy of my own. You don't like it? Well, don't take the debate there in the first place. BTW I preferred your earlier, funnier posts.

Not quite sure if this has what you are looking for but it's a (long) account of the background to the conflict. It's on the "If Americans Knew" website but was written by Jews For Justice For Palestinians. Origin of the Israel-Palestine conflict Some will of course argue that it is pro-Palestinian but I'll leave it to someone else to provide the pro-Israeli version.

The devil is in the details. Even if "Bibi" is sincere that he "could consider supporting a Palestinian state", it will be a swiss-cheese state, criss-crossed with settlements. In any event, I'm not sure that his statement is exactly recognizing the Palestinians right to a state, more like a grudging acceptance if they jump through numerous hoops first. Look. Israel exists. That is a fact. Expecting the millions who lost everything in it's creation or their descendants to like it as well is perhaps expecting a bit much. In a long term, Israel's survival and prosperity will not come about through empty gestures, it will come about when the Palestinians have real prospects of a better existence so they actually have something to lose.

How about armed bandits stealing your home, exiling you to a corner of the back garden and then taking a little bit more of what was left year by year?

Yes, I'm sure saying that they believe Israel should exist is going to preserve it in stone and give Israel some magical guarantee that will keep them safe forever. Do they have to take a lie detector test when they are saying it? The whole thing is childish nonsense. And why is this constant call for recognition on one side only? How about the Israeli's recognize the Palestinian's right to a viable state of their own.

As I've said before, recognition is a red herring. In practice, it means nothing.

That is exactly my point.

I would call wading in with a cheap and lazy accusation of anti-semitism expressing an opinion.

I guess these guys hate Jews too. Jews for Justice for Palestinians

Did you not like Aliens?

I have no problem with the creation of a Jewish state provided that is what a majority of it's inhabitants want. I have every problem with the artificial creation of a Jewish state by the dispossession of the indigenous people in a region where the majority is non-Jewish. You may think that the current situation is both satisfactory and tenable. I do not. Sooner or later the Palestinian leadership (hopeless though it is) will realise that any prospect for a 2-state solution is long gone and will begin pressing for equal rights within Israel for all Palestinians within the occupied territories. At this point, Israel will face the prospect either of attempting to expel the Palestinians or becoming even more of an apartheid state than it is already, neither of which will be acceptable, either to the international community or even to many Israelis. That is not just my view. Several prominent Israelis have warned of exactly that prospect. As far as I'm aware the creation of the Vatican did not involve the creation of millions of refugees but if you know different let me know. As for Riyadh, I have no liking for the Saudi regime and will be happy when it is gone.

AI. I was praying for it to end. Sadly, there were a few false dawns before it finally ended.

Ok. Fair enough.

Care to elaborate a bit or is that the sum total of your "reply"?

This whole "right to exist" argument is stupid and nonsensical. So what if they recognize Israel's right to exist? Do you really think that sets things in stone for now and evermore? What is to stop future generations from going back on that? Nothing, absolutely nothing. Hamas have offered an indefinite truce and, in practice, that is virtually the same thing. Israel exists. Don't expect the Palestinians who lost everything in it's creation to like it as well. As far as I'm concerned Israel has no right to exist in it's current form, anymore than apartheid South Africa had any right to exist. Israeli law states that a Jew from anywhere in the world has the absolute right to emigrate and settle there, whereas Palestinians who can trace their ancestry back to that land for generations are denied the same right. That is racism pure and simple and I defy anyone to explain to me how it is not. The only fair solution to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict is a binational state with equal rights for all it's citizens. The 2-state solution is dead - the Israelis have ensured that by continually taking more and more land. The truly ironic thing is that it is Israeli policy that will inevitable lead to the end of Israel as a Jewish state.

No, I wouldn't deny that at all. They are certainly allies. However, I just can't see Syria relying on Iranian assistance for internal security and it's obviously in Israel's interest to play up Iranian involvement wherever they can. Would you not agree that that was a powder-puff piece of "journalism"?

Typical Israeli propaganda - raising the spectre of Iranian involvement with little or no proof. A friend of a friend told them that someone was speaking farsi. The Hizbollah link is even more tenuous (if that's possible) - someone was speaking farsi = Iranian, Iran = Hizbollah. Why would Syria be busing in security from Iran - they have plenty of homegrown security forces? Has it never occurred to you that Israel may have a vested interest in playing up Iranian involvement?

What on earth has Hizbollah got to do with suppressing the protests in Syria?! It will be the Syrian security services doing that.

You still haven't answered. Which countries is it that Israel is going to start attacking if it wasn't for the restraining influence of the US?

"Hezbollah backed Arab countries"?? Which countries are these then and do you really think that Israel is going to start a war with multiple Arab nations if the US didn't "hold it back"?

Only in the Bizarro world of American politics could Obama be accused of alienating the Israelis and cozying up to the Palestinians. How exactly has he alienated the Israelis? By giving them a blank cheque to do more or less whatever they want?

I really hope you don't get banned for your crusading - you're far too amusing. Let me see - apparently I'm a subhuman neo-con with not one subatomic particle worth of knowledge about sunnis and shias

What the hell are you babbling on about?

You may have spoke too soon. It looks like the "cease-fire" may just have been a ruse to try and buy him enough time to finish the job. Gaddafi forces attack Benghazi