Whether the golan goes back to syria in the long term, to rush after the folks who have had a hand in keeping terrorism alive, and were key players in the recent war in Lebanon, is breathtakingly stupid. All it will do is to divert attention from the failures of the current government and show that terrorism works. Good going guys. Remember what Winston Churchill said. You can't negotiate with dictators. Why is that still not true?

Why doesn't Israel simply but the Golan Heights from Syria in a real estate deal. It's a win-win situation. Syria gets an infusion of capital which it desperatly needs and Israel gets to keep the strategic plateau.

Anyone who is still a leftist should read this and think about what is being said. It is far away fom reality and illustrates very nicely how the left are not only defeatists (which is bad enough), but also that their world view is devoid of the truth.

more leftists "experiments" ?? what - you MORONS did learn your lesson from Hamas bus bombing, missles in Sederot, missles in Haifa after the OTHER leftist experiments of Oslo, Lebanon fleeing, Gaza expulsions. When will you IDIOTS learn? When we are all DEAD ????

The West Bank and Gaza Strip haven't been under the recognized sovereignty of a state since Ottoman times and are fair game for permenant retention from a legal perspective if we leave aside the demographic implications. The Golan Heights despite their annexation by Israel are in fact Israeli occupied Syrian territory under international law. Syria is a high contracting party and it was recognized within certain borders within the UN. While RES 242 doesn't apply to the WB and Gaza, it is debatable with regard to the Golan. On the one hand it calls for Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied ( the 'THE' was said by the authors of the resolution to have been deliberately ommited) that coupled with the fact that it calls for secure and recognized boundries which are not the case with the pre 67 border with Syria at least means that we are entitled to occupy the Golan until we have reasonable guarentees of secure and recognized boundries. As I say it's debatable. I would say that it is a large problem though that at least half of the Golan's population are Israeli Jews and the only town there is Jewish Israeli.

Another left wing incompetent. Doesnt anyone read past history. Land won in a DEFENSIVE war is kept by the defenders. IF that is not the case there are a lot of bigger and more pressing problems in the world to deal with in terms of territory. How about Syria renounce their claim on the golan in exchange for peace. The land is useless to them anyways. Look at what they have done with the rest of the country .. Nothing..

You know, peace which is actually worse then war. When Israel withdraws, the Syrian army moves in and the Syria - Iran connection is not severed so that suddenly the Golan becomes infested with Hezbollah types. What then? So some guarantees would be nice.

Give them the Golan so they can install kassams, katyushas, tank battalions? Right. And how many Israelis have to die for nothing as after the Oslo War brought on by Oslo Psychotics such as Clinton and Perez. Enough dead Jews. If Syria wants peace, they just have to declare peace, establish diplomatic relations, free trade agreements, an embassy, and all the other things so many nations have done who are at peace with Israel.

I am an Ichud Leumi supporter. I don't agree with giving away any territory. HOWEVER what I am saying is that if the magical scenario that Syria democracised and loved us and we had security guarentees then I would say that we could give them back the Golan as long as the Jewish population had the option to stay and as long as they would be safeguarded. I would never give up the West Bank under any circumstances. Under international law on the subject of the Golan as I said it is DEBATABLE.

let's sit & finalize a peace agreement we are sick and tired of war.

to think that signing with syria is a solution is to be very naive . The problem here is not syria or lebanon as states ... and even if peace was signed with egypt and jordan , the arab people feels humilated on a daily basis by israel , muslims all over the world feel the same from the pakistan to morocco . Stop the humilation this is your solution . Its not military its human .

nonesense

"Land won in a DEFENSIVE war is kept by the defenders. " How exactly do you win land in a "defensive" war. That defies logic. But judging by the hate that oozes from your comments("Look at what they have done with the rest of the country .. Nothing.. " that was almost poetic!!!), I doubt logic is very important to you. You wrote: "Doesnt anyone read past history." "..the Yom-Kippur war. Why did this bloody war break out at all? Why didn't we accept President Anwar Sadat's earlier offer of peace in exchange for the return of the Sinai? Why did our Ship of Fools blithely sail from the Six-day war to the Yom-Kippur war on a sea of arrogance?" URI AVNERY Interesting...fighting over land!!! Israel and Egypt are now at peace...I'm sure the idea of peace with Egypt must have been hard to imagine back then...like it is with Syria today...lets just hope that there are some good, smart people that can make it happen on both sides. And to the other people from Canada who wrote hatefull material, I think that, with all due respect to israel(and this applies to palestinians/muslims/arabs), if you have such strong feelings, you should go there and fight the good fight. Stand up for what you beleive in... Don't come here with your hate, we have more than enough here!

..."President Bashar Assad, who internalized the lessons of Hizbullah's defeat in the second Lebanon war, is begging to launch talks on a withdrawal in exchange for peace"... What are you talking about? What friendly slaps with the Israelis do you expect? We don't have such from Egypt and Jordan and you try to sell us the prospective of an ephemeral peace and love with Syrians? You'd better read the article by Guy Bekhor next to yours here. Sorry, but today you look just pathetic.

"international community's" recognition. He can rest assured, the soap from his brain will be recognized as a good product/ 120 countries dont "recognize" Israel and the SOB worries about the rest. Is it possible to find a larger scale scoundrel? The capoid saloon sleeze! And there are no laws to hang him.!

How in the world can any Israeli leaders trust Assad ? If it is ever handed over to Syria, the Israeli leaders doing such a thing should be put on trial and convicted of helping the enemy.

And we have of course witnessed just how much the world has been on our side since pulling out of Gaza last summer. Especially during the conflict with Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon. It was pretty amazing to see just how much Koffi Annan, The UN and Jacque Chirac cheered us on while we were fighting for our survival. And the most fascinating part is that whenever we leave territory that used to be in our possession, it's not like it becomes a launching pad from which Islamic fighters attack us day and night with Kassam rockets in the south and Katyusha missles in the north - Oh no, definitely not like that at all. So hell yeah, let's just continue kissing ass & go on making even more concessions to our mortal enemies. Just look at how darn successful giving up our homeland has been so far.

Yeah, sure, right, tee hee hee. Let the US first win the war on Global Jihadism. Then maybe we can talk to Syria. Exactly what planet does Steve Plocker live on? He should get back into his little spaceship and go home.

To all those who oppose the idea of peace between Syria and Israel, I must say that although I respect your opinions, its that same negative approach by both the Syrian and the Israeli governments due to past experiences is the cause of peace halts. We should recognize that although the governments disagree, people on both sides just want peace, and most likely share the same values in life, such as a good education, having a good paying job, raising a family etc. So I believe both governments should stop being stubborn and give their people the life they deserve instead of living in the fear of another war breaking out.

#4 Excellent post! And don't forget about mad political scientist Rice with her lab assistant Livni. The realization that Israelis are being used as human experiments hit me when I saw Livni on The Charlie Rose Show in NYC. Every time she was asked if there were positive results from the "cease fire" in Lebanon, if Israel maintained it's military deterrence etc. the intern lab assistant kept replying "it's too early to tell, Charlie" "We have to wait and see". She repeated this answer about six times for different questions. Finally Charlie asked her another question about the disarming of Hizbollah and she gave him that coy dimpled smile. He then smilingly answered his own question with her cadence…”It's too early to tell...We have to wait and see” The intern of foreign affairs was completely exposed as a reckless conductor of human experiments. As you stated so well, the left has been conducting human experiments with their own people. And no matter how many times they fail, no matter how many times it blows up in their face, they keep on experimenting with theories that look great on paper but leave pools of Israeli blood on the ground. And this fool Plocker is one of their mouthpieces.

You should read about Hadj al Amin al Husseini the first palestiian leader great close parent of Arafat.

The people who are really against Israel are those who know that Israel is on a course to Armageddon and who are cheering it all the way! They believe God has promised the land to Israel, no matter whether Israel is faithful to God or not. They believe it all leads to Armageddon -- whether the Fundamentalist Jewish version (Gog and Magog) or Fundamentalist Christian -- but they do not care because they believe this will bring the Messiah (regardless of whose view of the Messiah proves true in the end -- first coming or second). Did either one's Messiah EVER tell them he wants them to act that way? Didn't one Messiah say, "the meek shall inherit the land"? Did he ever say he wanted Israel to TAKE THE LAND BY FORCE? Did he ever speak against Rome who kept the land from being under Jewish sovereignty? As for the Moshiach of the Tanakh, show me in Ezekiel or anywhere else where God has said he wants modern Israel to take the land by force. Did Moses or any of the prophets say, "If my people, who are called by my name, shall RISE UP WITH ENOUGH FORCE, then I will return the land to them"? Is that what either the Jewish Bible or the Christian Bible teach? What's wrong with you people? THE ONE THING MODERN ISRAEL HAS NEVER TRIED is living within its actual boundaries AND defending only as much land as belongs to it. Israel's strategy for defending itself it has always been by occupying more land. IT IS A DELUSION TO BELIEVE THAT OCCUPYING MORE LAND HAS EVER BROUGHT ISRAEL MORE SECURITY. Israel is neither more nor less secure now that it has given up Gaza. Rockets are being fired from Gaza now, AND ROCKETS WERE BEING FIRED FROM GAZA BEFORE. Bunkers and tunnels and weapon caches are being built and supplied now, and they were being built and supplied before Disengagement. If Israel wants to win security, it needs to FIRST OF ALL occupy the MORAL high ground (not the Golan high ground) before the world by sticking to the boundaries that were given to it by those who won the right to distribute the land in WWI. If Israel wants more land than that, it should trust God to deliver, rather than trust its own horses and chariots to deliver. Human efforts will, indeed, lead to har Megiddo (Armageddon). Did God ever say, "Trust in your horses and chariots, and THEN I will deliver?" Reread your Bible (Jewish or Christian). Nearly forty years says that occupation has accomplished nothing. Israel is not one bit more secure today than it was before the occupation. In fact, more people than ever are asking "existential" questions about Israel today. Who loves Israel more? Those who pat it on the head and encourage its delusions or those who hope to guide it toward rational behavior? Fundamentalists of ALL stripes want to conscript religion to their own causes. They quote it out of context and without the bigger picture presented by their own religious texts. They quote what fits their arrogant beliefs and ignore the rest. Einstein, one of the smarter Jews on this planet, said that a fool is one who repeats the same behavior again and again and expects different results. It's time for something different.

Israel has found that military strength cannot deliver the Promised Land. It is a matter of fact that Israel has lost or is losing every piece of ground it has taken beyond what the League of Nations was willing to give. Did not God say when the first Jews entered the Promised Land, "You may say to yourself, 'My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.' But remember the Lord you God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers.... If you EVER forget the Lord your God ... I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed!" God warned the prophet Moses: "They WILL foresake me and break the covenant I made with them. [Proof that it is conditional and can be broken] On that day I will become angry with them AND FORSAKE THEM; I WILL HIDE MY FACE FROM THEM, AND THEY WILL BE DESTROYED!" This was to happen after they had entered the Promised Land. History repeats itself. "Many disasters and difficulties will come upon them, and on that day they will ask, 'Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is not with us?' ...When I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, THE LAND I PROMISED ON OATH TO THEIR FOREFATHERS ... And when many disasters and difficulties come upon them, this song will testify agasint them, BECAUSE IT WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN BY THEIR DESCENDANTS." (And, amazingly, we remember the song nearly 4,000 years later!) And the Song of Moses says, "They have acted corruptly toward [God]; to their shame THEY ARE NO LONGER HIS CHILDREN, BUT A WARPED AND CROOKED GENERATION." A secular nation, perhaps, filled with corrupt politicians and no God??? "Is this the way you repay the Lord, O foolish and unwise people?" And for such days as when the strongest military in the Middle East cannot defeat a band named Hezbullah, the song says, "How could ... two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the Lord had given them?" Where is your God, Israel? Why are you losing all the lands you strove by your own blood and sweat to take? Nigh forty years you have tried to take the land by force and failed. "Do not say to yourself, 'The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness."... Understand, then, that it is NOT because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiffnecked people. Remember this and never forget.... "And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to LOVE him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.... "Circumcise your HEARTS, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality.... He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow and LOVES the alien..... AND YOU ARE TO *LOVE* THOSE WHO ARE ALIENS for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt."

It is pure stupidity to say that giving back yet another piece of land will solve Israel's problems with Syria or with any other Muslim country for that matter. I think Barry Rubin puts it perfectly into perspective when he says in his artice "If there is a war on terror today, it is Syria which sponsors not only Hamas and Hizballah, but also other groups in Lebanon like the Palestinian Asbat al-Ansar and the Sunni Lebanese group, Islamic Action Front, of Fathi Yakan. " If Syria wants to discuss peace 1) Denounce terrorism, 2) Stop funding and funneling weapons to terrorist groups ESPECIALY Hizballah who just recently (thanks very much to Syria for that one) attacked the Northern part of Israel with hundreds of katyusha rockets destroying communities and killing innocent civilians. Enough of this international bullshit criticism and rediculous LEFTISTS opinions!!!!!