That there is no such thing as an "Israeli Arab" but arabs in Israel. An exchange of territories must be made part of any peace discussion. Dunam for dunam, swap the arab triangle of the Galilee for the settlement bloc! A win-win! The arabs will get what they want: rule by the PA/hamass; sharia law;ability to engage in honour killings;and no democratic freedoms! We get the blocs and complete, including economic, disengagement from the 5th column!

nasrallah!

Is the world upside down?

I was reffering to the Arab parties calling themselves "left wing." I don't see how they are liberal in any way. In fact, it is they who are the real racists.

we all need to do work for a better country,. Jews and Arabs, zionists and non-zionists.

Have you considered that it is your behavior that caused Liebermanization? I don't mean Arabs in general. I mean Tibi and other Arab politicians in Israel? Oh, and also those Arab "Israeli" citizens who during Gaza war chanted "Death to Jews"? That's the real cause of Liebermanization.

The priority of the Israeli-Arab parties should be to eliminate racial discrimination and improve standard of living of Israeli-Arabs who have the highest poverty level in the country. Every effort should be taken to join the government, that is the only way to have influence. remarks of not joining the government before they are even asked is counterproductive and idiotic at best.

Left wing does not mean liberal necessarily. I undrstand your confusion. In America, I was hard core left wing. The same values that made me left wing in the USA made me right wing in Israel. Left wing means to me anti-capitalist,pro-spirituality, pro-equality. I took one look at Peres, Rabin, Olmert, Barak, and a bunch of others and ran to the right. The are elitist capitalists. It would be a mistake to call Bibi right wing. He is not and most right wing people can't stand him. When I speak to my arab friends, thy consider Hamas to be left wing. Open your eyes. Left wing can be the bad guys. The Israeli left has killed far more arabs than the right. And the left in America supports Ahmenijad.

Left wing ususally means egalitarian. In Israel, the left wing is racist, ashkenazocentric. The right wing doesn't care what your color is, as long as you are a yid. And don't tell me that left wing loves arabs. Shimon Peres won't admit it now but his original sales platform for Oslo was to create a separate country for the PA so Israel could exploit them as cheap labor withut providing social benefits. Look what happens when arabs try to move in to TA. Settlers live alongside the Arabs, and as long as the left wing government stays out of it, lives in relative peace.

Bibi will sadly probably accept her offer of a national unity government but if he refused then Livni would have relied on the arabs to form even an unstable coalition. Livni has just lost a potential 9 votes. If Bibi doesn't agree to a left wing dominated government it means another round of elections because between the religious & rightist blocs combined not including Shas 56 votes against her and if they sided against her as welll there would be 66 against her leftist agenda and she would end up looking just as much a lame duck PM as Olmert

Seems to me, it is basically which holidays most of the people and the government observe, on which days they take a rest, and to some degree what ethics and laws they choose to abide by. In this sense, every nation in Europe, the Americas, and Australia are, de facto, pretty much Christian. All of those countries have Christmas as a national, government holiday, banks and most governments closed on Sundays and often on other Christian Holy days. The laws are based, originally, on biblical precepts, with some pagan influences and, in Med. areas, some Muslim and Berber influences. In Africa and Asia, it's a mix. Of course, in some countries it is not only Islamic Holy Days that are observed, but the laws are strictly old-world Koranic precepts. Israel, on the other hand, is the only (tiny) place on earth where Jewish people can take their day of rest (Sat) without standing out or risking being demoted or fired (this, despite anti-discrimination laws in some, but by far not all countries), have their Holy Days observed by the majority of the people and the government/schools and have their precepts influence the laws. But note, different from most Christian-dominate and almost all Islamic dominate countries, in Israel, all but family law is a secualr mix of british common law, some jewish ethics and some middleeastern ethics. family law is governed, for better or worse, by the individual's own religious law. This means that many Muslims, for example, enjoy more freedoms and freedom of religion in Israel than they do in, say, India, the largest democracy in the world, or in the U.S. or France or Canada. Think about it. Is it so awful for Arab Israelis to have the week of Passover off from work or school? Somehow we Jews have survived having Christmas vacation or Eid off from school, lived under flags with crosses or star and crescent, etc. -- why is it so difficult for some Arabs in Israel to do similarly? And, finally, if they don't like living as a member of a sociopolitical/socio-religious minority, how will they propose (and actualize) treatment of Jews if they (Arabs) become the majority? Would they be at least as fair? I doubt it!

and ability to vote for individual leaders, not just parties.

Thank God that a Jewish Israeli government does not have to reply

Thank God that Jewish Israeli people no longer have to rely on Arabs full of hatred to get elected and form an Israeli government. Keep your votes enemies of Israel. Too bad we treated Meir Kahana with such disrespect when he tried warning us what these beasts are made of. the day will come when you Israelis will have to decide whether you want a Jewish country or play the democratic card that will be bring you self-destruction.

What other ME government, or Western government for that matter, allows enemies of state to sit in their legislature? Occupation? Yes, of former Jordanian and Egyptian territory captured in defensive war and as long as the residents threaten Israel.

The mere existance of these parties is a proof against this nonsense. Israeli arabs have a voice in their national parliament. Religious minorities in arab countries have no such voice. There is no party for christian copts in the egyptian parliament. Ten million people without any political representation!

Must see this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaTheU2Hj7s&feature=related