Because Israel is the puppet of GWB. This administration whom I once supported (blindly) will do anything possible to scapegoat Israel into supposedly calming the street and all who appease them. Given Olmert is the perfect puppet this administration could not have in their wildest dreams wished for better. This administration whom I remind you propertied to be the best friend of Israel. Yah, the best friend...and I remind you history will shoot that one to the moon.

settled half a million of its citizens in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Stop the tedious charade. Israel does not want a "partner" for peace. It wants Jerusalem, "Samaria" and "Judea" regardless of the cost.

If Abbas doesn't benefit Israel, he will be worst than Arafat in Israeli view, Israel doesn't want peace, and it will not get it as long as people like Olmert and Barak leads.

His mask is slipping off

he rest of the name is 'al Yahud" - The city holy to the Jews.

Is that why Israel accepted the 1948 partition, gave the Sinai pninsula to Egypt, tried to negotiate with Syria for giving them the Golan Heights, helped create the PA during the Oslo Accords, offered a large amount of land at Camp David, Disengaged from gaza in 2003, gave weapons to the PLO under Arafat, and is now transferring hundreds of millions of dollars along with hundreds of prisoners to Abbas and Israeli police is constantly fighting with settlers in the west bank? "It wants Judea and Samaria"- actually, that's kahanists, not the Israeli government.

the reality is that the palestinian situation is at an all time-low right now. Abbass should continue to do what he is doing, regain control over the situation. elections right now and "democracy" will only land hammas is power again - simply becasue people (for the most part )will vote right wing in any conflict. Abbass should do three things: First, strengthen the police force Second, dismantel armed groups at any cost, Third, work with hamas and give them some recognition and power (but not military power), he cannot continue to ignore hamas, simply becasue they will wait- it out, and ruin any progress in calming the situation (it will take one bomb to send us back to square one). Israel should help as much as it can in this, and ease restirctions on us to give us some hope, and make us feel that there is a slim chance of some better days ...... the talk about democracy, and legal issues doesn't make sense at this stage, lets get the peace first and then worry about the technicalities. a true understanding of the situation, and its sensitvity is needed, and on both sides... enough slogans, and retarded thinking and ideologies, enough is enough,,,,,,this could be the last chance to fix this.....

Well, we apparently had a "partner" in Arafat from 1993 to 2000. From 2000 to 2005, West bank population grew from 192,976 to 249,677 or 56701 and East Jerusalem from 173554 to 177,743 or 4,189 making a grand total of 60,890. Around two thirds of the increase is children, so in reality during the time there was no partner Israel "transfered" around 20,000 citizens. Minus the actual transfer of 8,000 Gazan settlers that works out to 2,000 new settlers a year. Not quite half a million.... but hey who cares about facts? We know from your posting that you don't

Dear Abdel, I hope you will answer this, as it is not meant as an insult. How can you expect us to "ease restrictions" when we're trying to keep out homicidal maniacs? Why not give us something to work with, such as everyone denouncing the killers when they strike, and blaming THEM when the roadblocks ruin your lives. Then say to us, please give us another chance? Please answer.

Thanks for the question, In my previous post, i said a realistic understanding of the situation is needed, and this is exactly what i mean. do not take this as an insult also, but i came to realize after reading this website and others that most non-Israeli jews(even some Israelis) don't understand what goes on exactly on the ground in the west-bank or gaza, some choose to ignore it, but the others are usually misinformed. the bottom line is as follows, when you create situations that will make the peoples daily lives absolutely miserable, don't expect justice and understanding to emerge from all that. people who have been treated violently for the most part of there lives, will most likely be violent (whether Palestinians or other), in other words (and i hate to say this) but if you treat people like animals they will most likely behave like ones! Back to the roadblocks, and the situation in the west bank. i understand Israel needs to defend its citizens, violence against civilians is not acceptable in any form, and for any cause. this includes palestinian violence against Israeli citizens, and Israeli army violence against the Palestinian population. if you try to justify one of these, the other one will be easily justifiable from the perspective of the other side. so when you say, becasue of Palestinian violence, it is ok to punish the population. the palestinian population on the other hand will say, it is ok to punish the isreali side for what they do to us. tit-for tat i guess is the term here... (i'm not justifying violence here, i am just explaining to you how the average palestinian whos life is torn apart daily becasue of the situation will see this).... so what needs to be done? it all comes down to the question of what Israel wants. in reality, you guys hold all the keys. i have no doubt that the Israeli public wants peace (so do Palestinians by the way), but your leadership has failed you as much as our leadership failed us. they have given the Israeli public the impression that military power could fix this, it will not! beating the Palestinians into submission is not going to work , an understanding-peaceful society does not emerge from this madness. the more this goes on, the more those people stuck on the roadblocks curse you, the harder the situation will become. also, the nationalistic nature of this is disappearing, and it is becoming more religious, this is a very dangerous path that will lead both sides to distruction, this has to be fixed now at any cost, time is running out. please don't take my post as an attack against Israel or you personally, i mean well by this my respects to you my friend.

"Why then does Israel celebrate the turning of a person with genuine democratic aspirations into a duplicate of Arafat..." You gotta be kidding.

Much as I would like to believe you, we both know that the Koran urges you to lie to "infidels" if it advances the jihad. Let's say, though, that you are sincere. You have already indicated that elections should be avoided because they would empower Hamas. What that means is that the mass believes in jihad against Israel even if you do not, which means that it is false to say that the Pals want peace. If they did, they would not vote Hamas--or Fatah, for that matter. They would vote for a different kind of party entirely. Because I have assumed your sincerity, let me add one more thing that will no doubt stun you. You most likely have little idea of what the average Pal thinks. This is common--people think that others agree with them because their friends agree with them. The underlying reality of the Pals is that they are, apparently overwhelmingly, pawns in a jihad supported financially by Arabia and Iran and logistically by Egypt and Syria against the Jewish state. That state's existence is abominable to Koran-toting Muslims because Israel was part of Dar al-Islam. It is thus doubly offensive: it is "properly" Muslim land, and its uppity Jews are "properly" dhimmis. Because war will continue until Islam triumphs, Muslims must either convert to some other religion, pay the poll tax and feel themselves submissive to Jews, or be expelled from Eretz Israel. Sorry.

I resent the fact my friend that you call me a liar in your opening statement, i think that is extremely unfair and uncalled for...I am sincere in what i say..... and what i said was accurate....... i my friend know exactly what the average palestinian thinks. becasue unlike you, i am an average palestinian, i work and live here, and my work takes me to some of the lousiest and shitiest places in the west bank and gaza...... any how, as for the last elections, a lot of people either did not vote, or voted hamas to piss-off fatah. some fatah members voted hamas becasue everyone was sick and tired of fatah inability to do anything other than steel..... also, hamas is a very organized movement and is very diciplened. all of their memebrs and supporters voted, wereas other party memebrs did not...... as for the palestinians themselves, hostorically, they have not been a very relegious society, all this rise of islam thing took place during the first intifada, and became violent in the second intifada....palestine is not suadi arabia, or pakistan, the society is very different....in the west bank, hamas is stronger in certain areas, whereas fatah is stronger in others, it is not a homogenius society, at least from a political perspective...... hamas failed and will fail as a ruling party, in my opinion any relegious party in rule is a bad thing especailly in the times of conflict becasue they are not likley to compromise.. (the same applies to the relegiuos right in israel, and america also) .... palestinians came to realize this after the last horrible year, hamas still has big support, but they are not a majority, and they are less popular now than they were last year..... the relegious dimension is new to this conflict no matter what american pro-israel think-tanks say. this conflict is about land, and control - as all conflcits are,,, it is also about injustice. the relgious aspect is new (and scary), but a natural response to misrable living conditions and near death-daily experiences of the people here.... the choice is up to israel, they can sit and point fingers at us saying that we hate them becasue they are jews, or could look at the situation for what it really is, and understand that their shitty policies are also fueling the situation...and i by no means relieve our side of responsibility also, we have made huge mistakes .......there are no angels here as your post implies.... my respects to you,

I did not call you a liar, Abdel; I said that the Koran exhorts you to lie to infidels if it advances jihad. I hope it won't be necessary to quote relevant passages from the Koran, Hadith, and Sira to substantiate this point. Until Muslims explicitly reject this part of their religion (which will require them admitting that Muhammad was not always the best of men), Muslims cannot expect that what they say will be taken at face value. Your narrative about the "Palestinians" does not square with the overwhelming evidence of repeated surveys, electoral behavior, actual bloodletting, and with the simple fact that their median age is around 16, and therefore the median "Palestinian" has been brought up under Arafat's educational system, which preaches little but Jew hatred. My view, which does square with these data, is that the PA is a totalitarian society through and through, partly Islamist, but thoroughly anti-Semitic--and pathologically so. The pathology can be seen in their complete inability to build something positive in their lives. And no, this is is not typical of ANY non-Muslim society, and even most Muslim ones. The religious dimension is hardly new to the situation, Abdel. It underlies the situation completely, for it is outrage over the "insolence" of dhimmis (Jews) living proudly in their own state that so infuriates Muslims elsewhere and motivates countries like Arabia and Iran, which are surely Islamist by any definition. You see, it is obvious that Muslims worldwide don't give a damn about "Palestinians"; they just hate the Jews, and they are willing to perpetuate "refugee camps" to advance their Jew-hating agenda.

My friend, i guess my message is that we could think of this as an un-solvable problem, or one with a solution...trust me, i am tired and sick to my stomach of seeing arab and jewish kids sucked into this, and dieying becuase of this....your analysis holds some truth, and i agree with you that there are some issues within islam that have to be thought through, but it is by no means an explaination of the situation.there is injustice here, and i trust that you as an inteligent-most likely well educated individual could see through your own biases, and realize that. let me assure that there is a shift starting in the middle east in relation to the whole jihad thing... if you understand arabic, go read alarabia newspaper, you will be surpirsed relating to the talkbacks over there, the reason is that people are starting to see these things differently especillay since they are becoming more wide spread....i can assure you from where i stand right now that there will be a time for an internal confrontation within the islamic world..... it is shaping up really nicely, but it will take some time to reach critical mass, in the mean time, Israel has to burry the israeli palestinian conflict and soon, becuase the last thing israel needs is to be stuck in an internal war within islam, that is a war that she cannot win.... and it is a war that even i as a muslim am afraid to even imagine... if you want to read a different perspective read the link, and please let me know if you might consider things differently.... the text is a bit messy though .... http://www.ahl-alquran.com/English/show_article.php?main_id=1846