..and it's worth mentioning that most of the displaced Arabs at the time didn't leave the equivalent wealth behind. For example, the Iraqi Jews had to leave vast swathes of land and buildings. They were lawyers, doctors and bankers. Can you say that about these Arab refugees? Methinks not, ...most were yokels.

Nothing like the status quo with them remaining under occupation, and Israel returning to build in the territories.

Your post implies that Fayyad's is nothing on his own. First irrefutable thing you've posted on this thread

Very interesting thing to know that you have started to believe JEWISH TORAH You believed in HAMAN & PHARAOH stories,now start to believe whole of the land of Israel belong to us the JEWS promised and given by the ALMIGHTY. Hope you will start to pac k your things and go home to ARABIA,the land of Arabs & Islam

I cannot understand the criticism against Danny Ayalon who is one of the most pragmatic and intelligent members of the present government. Ayalon says it as it really is. He is a patriot and in my opinion would be a first class foreign minister. He is in no way like Avigdor Lieberman; he has a much more sophisticated style and political experience than Lieberman. Another very important point is Ayalon's personality and integrity goes down much better with politicians and diplomats from abroad. The problem really is that those who oppose the Jewish character of the State do not like to hear the Palestinian and their Arab supporter always trying to pretend they really want peace, but still preach violence and hatred on a daily basis in all their media and in all their schools.

It is enough to look at how Abbas shakes hands with Netanyahu and Fayyad of Ayalon's: their body language exposes their hatred, disgust and dishonesty. Palestinians have been dragged into these "peace negotiations" by Obama who is desperate to show something is moving in the ME, ahead of the November elections. Natanyahu is playing along, despite knowing the Palestinians true intentions because he doesn't want Israel to be blamed for Obama's loss of face. But Israel will be blamed anyway by the ultra-Liberal, Politically-Correct, suicidal media. It is inevitable that Obama will fall flat on his face, because it is evident that the Palestinians have no intention in dialogue. Obama will only expose his inability to grasp the realities in the field, and the level of danger coming to the US and to Israel from Islam. Obama is either naive or incompetent. But this is only to be expected from someone who has no past achievements whatsoever except for spelling correctly his pathetic elections slogan "change". Palestinians are actualy afraid of Peace. That will force them to become and build a peaceful nation and all their leaders' expertise is limited to terror and murder, not diplomacy and statemanship.Add to that the innate inability of Islam to accept anything and anybody but Islam, and you have a situation which insures perpetual conflict. That explains everything: Palestinians' refusal to recognize Israel (let alone as a Jewish state), their hanging on any excuse to stop the talks, and their preconditions even before the negotiations. People who genuinely and honestly want peace, are not constantly looking for excuses not to talk peace. There is not one honest thing coming out of the Palsetinians' mouths, except for one thing: their genuine desire to destroy Israel. And they even don't try to hide it!

It,s called politics and Bibi, Ayalon and other Israel negotiators/spokespeople play it even better than the clowns of the Palestinian circus,two states for two peoples ,the original UN mandate of May 1948 ,trust the clowns of the circus to continue clowning around,after all that,s all they know?

Mister whoever and your so-called misconceptions on some of the leaders in BB's cabinet. We need fearless people like: Ayalon and Lieberman who can act robustly without pussyfooting by acting as it should be. How dare you give your unwarranted advice to Israel? How dare you suggest that Israel should have acted toward Turkey after the fiasco caused by the Islamisists Erdogan who had arranged the sdamn flotilla replete with the THUGS ready to attack our IDF. Most of our ministers have good backbones tio deal with the ones who may think they will pull the wool over Israel's eyes? And NO it is not a pity nor was it a mistake.It is what the Arab pals need and deserve. I hope more will join Ayalon to behave in the way to show the whole world ISRAEL IS HERE TO STAY, and we will not accept any BS from them. Israel is our country whether they accept it or not.. As for your idiotic waffle:I suggest you stop whining and if you disapprove who cares.. Now BUZZ OFF.

Well guys, if we are to go to histroy then we claim there is no Israel alltogether - so lets not think narrow and complicated, we had enough compliaction in this long lasting problems between the Palestinians and the Israelis.. The refugees case needs to be resolved in away that should affect the future of your state and same time you can not tell refugees that they cant come back homes !!! we have to be innovative here but I'm sure you are innovative, and you never wanted to get to a compromised solution - you are dealing with us as we have something to give, you have always claimed that you have gone farway and the Palestinians didnt do anything !! and you always forgot you r fully occupying the west bank !! look at what happens now, before we started negotiations, you wnated to continue settlement buildings, now you have turned the negotiations to be on to resume or not to resume settlement building rather tahn discussiong a true peace deal !!!?? and then you come and blame Abu Mazin for not accepting to go for direct negotiations !!! GOSH - zionism

A year ago, Abu-Mazen didn't consider a settlement construction freeze as something that would bring him to the negotiation table. Now that the freeze has nearly run out, he says that it is a requirement for continued negotiations. Only then he says that it's not quite the case, unreliable as his statements always are. Now your representatives are balking at accepting the continued existence of Israel as a nation-state for Jews, while demanding a nation-state for you. Now let me put it to you as bluntly as possible: Your homes, from 60-70 years ago? They don't exist anymore. The keys you hold on to are to locks that have long since been replaced. Your leadership in the past had a chance to create a nation - they refused, latching on to pan-Arabic nationalist conquest instead. That failed. Your refugee issues stem from there. Your pan-Arabic allies then created a second huge refugee problem for Jews across the middle-East, one to rival the refugee problem from Europe. We solved our refugee issues - you and your allies preferred to turn them into a weapon. You are obsessed with homes that no longer exist, with land that largely didn't belong to you in the first place, and with reshaping Israel as it is today to something more to your tastes. If you want to build your state - by all means, do so. But the refugees are yours, not ours. The solution for the Palestinian refugees will not be a Palestinian state for you, and another half-Palestinian state for us, too. Nor will we ever manage to integrate hundreds of thousands of people who are hostile to us, consider us to be evil occupiers and invaders, and who would much prefer to expel us if possible. We won't have canton-based civil war, thank you very much. We won't turn into another Lebanon. Two nations for two peoples, and that's that, nothing more, nothing less - each taking care to preserve the rights of whatever minorities it has. You and your leaders have shown quite often that you are not interested in letting us exist, continuously using your own refugee problem (which the Arab world could have solved ages ago by simply letting Palestinians gain citizenship) as a weapon. We're tired of it.

bank" in 1% of the last 3000 years of history) are not Jewish homeland. Most Jews know it is ours thats where the name, our name comes from! Judah, the son of Israel, was one of 12 tribes of Israel. Even today, the names of the towns tell you everything you need to know, see the names below: Almost all Arab towns and villages in Judea and Samaria have retained biblical Jewish names, thus reaffirming Jewish roots there. For example: *A-Dura is biblical (and contemporary) Adora'yim, site of King Rehoboam's and a Maccabees' fortress. *A-Ram is biblical Haramah, Prophet Samuel's birth and burial site. *Anata is biblical (and contemporary) Anatot, the dwelling of the Prophet Jeremiah. *Batir is biblical (and contemporary) Beitar, the headquarters of Bar Kochba, the leader of the Great Rebellion against the Roman Empire, which was crashed in 135CE. *Beit-hur is the biblical (and contemporary) Beit Horon, site of Judah the Maccabee's victory over the Assyrians. *Beitin is biblical (and contemporary) Bethel, a site of the Holy Ark and Prophet Samuel's court. *Bethlehem is mentioned 44 times in the Bible and is the birth place of King David. *Beit Jalla is biblical (and contemporary) Gilo, where Sennacherib set his camp, while besieging Jerusalem. *El-Jib is biblical (and contemporary) Gibeon, Joshua's battleground known for "Sun, stop thou in Gibeon and the moon in the valley of Ayalon," Joshua 10:12. *Hebron - named after Hevron, Moses' uncle and Levy's grandson – was King David's first capital for 7 years, the burial site of the 3 Jewish Patriarchs and 3 Jewish Matriarchs. *Jaba' is the biblical (and contemporary Geva, site of Jonathan's (son of King Saul) victory over the Philistines. *Jenin is the biblical (and contemporary) Ein Ganim, a Levite town within the tribe of Issachar. *Mukhmas is biblical (and contemporary) Mikhmash, residence of Jonathan the Maccabee and site of King Saul's fortress. *Seilun is biblical (and contemporary) Shilo, a site of Joshua's tabernacle and the Holy Ark and Samuel's youth. *Tequa' is biblical (and contemporary) Teqoah, hometown of the Prophet Amos and currently known for its home grown Ginger.

Like many others who cannot resist to visit every available Israeli News Outlets,books to discover like beavers to find a clause for some obscure UNJEWISH feature to throw at Israel and Jews as a slap in the face.You know it and pursue it well at Haaretz that lets in ALL THE DETRITUS you being one of them. And please do NOT patronize me with stupid tales,showing your knowledge that most of us are quite well educated and know more than you'll ever know. Now shut the fuck up okay? What the hell was all the commentary on the so-called "mountain troll" and Charlemagne's emisary? A load of pure verbal diarrhoea to justify your being A PROPER TROLL. If the translation offends you>>> as they say: If the SHOE FITS WEAR OLD CHUM. On damn fayyad and abb-ASS there is no way that Jews (even if they'd be allowed to live among the arabs) which they would surely NEVER ACCEPT OR HAPPEN>. Don't you realize or are you living in la-la-land that if and when they do get a state( loong time if at all) It WILL BE A JUDEREIGN.If you believe otherwise then you are delusional. If you don't mind please do not approach me unless you have a more cogent and not a biased against Israel to counteract my post. Incidently at present one in 7 are living under the poverty in the USA. It would behoove you to show your interest more toward them rather than meddle in the affairs of Israel.

I can't blame you really for sidetracking the discussion to unrelated issues such as Ayalon's English, or his diplomatic track record, when you cannot provide a real answer to the uncomfortable subject on hand, namely - the exposing of the Palestinians' true intentions. Yep, the good old change-the-subject tactic. But I'll address your rant nonetheless, because, as you say, you almost make this fun... The fact is that both Ayalon and Fayyad are seasoned diplomats, who are familiar with all tricks of the trade. As far as diplomacy is concerned, there is not much difference between the two, but from your serious smooching of Fayyad and grilling of Ayalon, it is blatantly apparent in whose side your bias lies on. And as diplomacy goes - if Ayalon succeeded in "provoking" Fayyad into exposing the Palestinians' true agenda, by merely asking for two states for two peoples (what nerve he had to ask such thing!) - then there is absolutely no problem with that, Ayalon did his job very well here, and the score is Ayalon 1, Fayyad 0. I wonder with what new diversion tactic you'd come up next... But it's ok, after all - you almost make this fun.

eh what about all those that live there that are non jews are we suggesting ethnic cleansing of israel here? how terrible

But the implication that it somehow is, is quite telling. Of your views, that is. What we Israelis are asking of our Palestinian counterparts is quite simple - in the same way that they demand a Palestine that is a nation-state of primarily Palestinians, we demand that they recognize an independent Israel that is a national home for Jews. The UN has already accepted this a long, long time ago - the Palestinians, much like in 1948, have not yet gotten their heads around the concept. Neither, it seems, have you.