"A peace which I believe is totally achievable as soon as the major obstacles between us are removed (mainly the removal of Hamas from power)."

And when in power was Arafat and not Hamas-there was peace,Elaine?

Hello guest,

For one brief period from 1993 to 1995 there was hope for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The Oslo accords were signed with the ultimate goal being the establishment of an independent Palestinian state by 1998.

I watched the signing of the treaty on TV and witnessed the historic handshake between Yitzchak Rabin and Yasser Arafat. My heart was filled with feelings of joy mixed with fear. Joy because after so many years the PLO has finally recognized that it was useless to keep fighting us and that they can accomplish so much more by talking to us rather than killing us - and they did. Israel started to return territories that we captured in the six day war of 1967 and the Palestinian Authority was created - which was supposed to be the foundation of the Palestinian state. Fear - because I knew that Hamas and Islamic Jihad were just waiting for an opportunity to derail this process - and tragically I was right. From 1994 onwards, Hamas and Jihad launched the era of the suicide bombers, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Israeli civillians. Yasser Arafat did nothing to stop them and if any terrorists WERE aprehended by the PA they were sentenced to laughable jail terms (if any jail term at all).

This brief period came to an abrupt halt in November of 1995 with the assasination of Israeli PM Yitzchak Rabin. This tragedy was truly a turning point in the middle east and it's all gone downhill since then.

The worst thing that happened to the middle east in general and the peace process in particular was the "election" of Hamas to power in Gaza. That "election" was the final nail in the coffin of peace and it will take a miracle to get this process started again - and I believe that it WILL start again some day....I HAVE to believe that - otherwise what reason do I have to get up in the morning if I believe that everything is bad and hopeless?

Mark my words....one day the sun WILL shine on the new middle east and hopefully our children will learn about these times, shake their heads in disbelief and wonder why we wasted so many years in futile wars when peace was within our reach all the time and we were just too blind to see it.

Most of the people in Israel are immigrants.  Israel did not exist as we know it today untill the end of ww2.  I am not attacking you. I am stating a point. You yourself did not move to Israel untill 1969. I think for peace to prevail Israel should go back to the borders they had in 1948 or whatever year Israel was formed.

Hello Cyberers,

You're right. Israel's population was very sparse throughout the last 100 years or so and after WW2 there was a major influx of immigrants to the country, just as the population of the United States was founded on the influx of immigrants and refugees who sought refuge from persecution.

Actually, there are very few countries with a totally indiginous(sp?) population. The population of most countries are based on immigration and I'm sure that even your family must have come from somewhere else before finally settling where you are now.

The land of Israel was a distant dream for Jews for thousands of years. The ancient land saw occupation by so many nations: Rome, Ottoman, British, etc. and it has always been the fondest aspiration of the Jews to return to our ancient holy land and to establish a state where we could be free to live and worship as we saw fit without any fear of persecution.

After the Holocaust, the need of the Jews to return to their land became more urgent and that's when the start of mass immigration to Israel started. The immigrants who came here were a mix of professional people who helped establish the agricultural settlements, build the cities and drain the swamplands which covered the countryside. Unfortunately, the Arabs who were living here saw this immigration as a threat and that's when the Arab nationalism - led by Abdul Kader Al-Husseini - started rearing it's ugly head.

As you said, I moved here with my family in 1969 - one of the reasons being my late father wanting to move to the Jewish homeland and to make a better life for us - which thank goodness he did. Next year I will be celebrating my 40th year in Israel and I'm thankful and grateful for every day that I'm here.

That area was nothing and the Jews made it flourish.

Sure it will flourish. With the u.s. pumping billions of dollars yearly in foreign aid.

plus jews all over the world sending money to Israel.

LOL!!!!

 I expected some thing like this from a typical muzie,my dear israel is not a country developed on oil wealth like arabs are ,doing nothing lazy people and americans and europeans are running the arab lands because arabs lack technical and administrative skills,arabs are good for nothing lazy people.Israel was created by the sweat and blood of the jews,i wonder if you can read if you do do read a book called "A village by the river jordon" by joseph baratz,you will know how israel became prosperous.

Mazel Tov to Israel. May it continue to prosper and be a beacon of light to the nations of this world!

PS: Just imagine what a shitty place this would be today, had the Palestinians and their cronies won the war  of 1948.It would not be the  High Tech country, which it has become, but rather something close to what Gaza is today i.e. yet another arab-muslim *****

[Edited by: moderator on May 8, 2008 8:05 AM]

Press Release

European Campaign To End The Siege Of Gaza

May 14^th

Anniversary of the Nakba

&

The Palestinian resistance

May 14th marks the 60th anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba, during which over 530 Palestinian towns and villages were depopulated and destroyed and 750,000 men, women, and children driven from their land. This programme of ethnic cleansing will also be marked as the anniversary of the formation of the apartheid state of Israel.

We, members of The European Campaign To End The Siege Of Gaza, on the anniversary of the Nakba, pledge our commitment to the Palestinian struggle for self determination, human rights, and restitution for the 60 years of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, murder, and theft of land and resources which they have suffered unabated at the hands of this Zionist state. This unremitting cruelty has reached a new stage with the ongoing siege of 1.4 million Palestinians in Gaza, designed to starve them into submission and slavery. It is a siege actively supported by our own governments, covering them in shame.

Ours is a world currently defined by a struggle between the forces of barbarism and those resisting this barbarism in the name of human progress. This barbarism emanates from Washington DC and involves a US ruling elite which, along with its allies - namely the EU and Israel - is intent on turning our world into a free market desert.

Standing in the way of this barbarism is the Arab Resistance in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine, along with the resistance being waged in Afghanistan and by the people of Iran. Not only is their resistance to what is a brutal neoliberal and imperialist onslaught being waged on behalf of themselves, it is being waged on behalf of all oppressed peoples throughout the so-called developing and developed world. The Palestinians, with their heroic stand against a determined attempt to remove them from their land and thereafter murder their history and culture, have for many years stood alone in this struggle.

Not anymore.

In the best tradition of internationalism, people of conscience and consciousness throughout the world have awoken to the plight of their Palestinian brothers and sisters. This awakening has evolved into the first stages of an international campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions against the apartheid state of Israel. We support this campaign, understanding as we do that it is the most effective way of providing active solidarity with the Palestinian people and their ongoing resistance to Israeli terror.

As a further mark of solidarity, The European Campaign To End The Siege Of Gaza calls for demonstrations and events to be organised in every town and city throughout Europe and internationally to mark the Nakba and the birth of the Palestinian resistance.

In 1969 the then Israeli prime minister, Golda Meir, said 'there were no Palestinians'. Presented as a statement of historical fact, it was instead a statement of intent. But Golda Meir has been proved wrong, just as every Israeli prime minister since has been proved wrong. For the desperate and courageous struggle of this beleaguered people has written a new page in a long history of resistance to oppression and slavery.

In the year 2008, on the 60th anniversary of Nakba, not only are there Palestinians. In the year 2008 we are all Palestinians.

Signatories:-Anti-imperialist Camp, Europe, http://www.antiimperialista.org/

-"Awami Bharat", Mumbai, India, http://awamibharat.blogspot.com/

-Freedom Socialist Party International Executive Committee

-Friends of Al Aqsa, Britain, http://www.aqsa.org.uk/

-Gaza vivrà (Gaza must live), Italy, www.gazavive.com

-Indian Social Movement, India

-International Solidarity Movement ISM – France, www.ism-france.org

-“Intifada” Solidarity Association to the Palestinian People, Greece, www.intifada.gr

-Jordanian socialist thought forum – Jordan

-MA.D.I.S.A (Center for Alternative Information and Study of the Middle East), Greece

-MEWANDO Network (Middle East without war and oppressions), Basque country-Spain, www.mewando.org

-Phule-Ambedkari Vichar Manch, Mumbai, India

-Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC), Scotland, www.scottishpsc.org.uk

-Sendika, Labor Net, Turkey, www.sendika.org

-Solidarity Association with the Palestinian People (Filistin Halkiyla Dayanisma Dernegi) Turkey, http://www.filistindayanisma.org

-Solidarity Network Against the Occupation of Palestine, Spain, http://www.nodo50.org/causapalestina/

-Vidyarthi Bharti,  Mumbai, India

cristiano wrote:

Maryam

There may well be some Jews but most are communist and socialist marxist groups and look how they have destroyed countries. Zionism was originally formed on these precepts, but democracy has thrived in Israel which is why they are so successful, unlike its neighbouring theocracies