what happened, all of you angry arabs? no response? can't handle the logic? all your cliches proven meaningless? how typical indeed. Hanging on to dreams instead of taking a cold hard look at reality. That is the main difference bewteen israelis and palestinians and that's why palestinians are doomed for misery while israel is flexible enough to adujst and grow stronger

Occupation and colonization is an old disease, which everyone in the civilized world rejects except the Israelis, no wonder!!!

I think the Palestinian and the Israeli must struggle to establish one Democratic state and live in peace

Settlments are a MAJOR obstacle to peace. They prevent any chance for a viable Palestinain State to exist. They are built over stolen land from the Palestinains. They ignore the existance of the Palestinians on this land. Almost all Arab countires including the Palestinians recognize Israel, what are you talking about?? The Arabs offered full normalization of relation with Israel in exchange of withdrawing to thepre-1967 borders and Israel responded by re-occupying the areas the PA controls according to Oslo accords. No removal of settlments = no Peace

its sickining really to hear such an opinion. the author considers the palestinian lands an israeli lands, which is not and will never be. as u call uprooting settlers from gaza, thses are land which they stole and used for the last 35 years, and this should be the case for the west bank and jerusale. we have no objections for these israelies to continue to live in the west bank, but let them have the palestinian citizenship, obey by palestinian rules, and forget the idea of great israel and the promised land. if so they are welcomed, if not they should be uprooted and then pay compensation for palestinian citizens and farmers. this is international law if u know and not something new from other planet, unless u israelies have special laws and regulations. u were created by a un resolution, so u should obey un resolutions also..

I am in complete agreement with the major concept of the article: the settlements are not obstacle to peace – Arab rejection of the Jewish state Israel is. For a long time I have been advocating this idea. Moreover, I am saying that Arab acceptance of the settlements is the ultimate proof of Arab acceptance of Israel as an independent Jewish state in the Islamic surrounding. How the so-called settlements are to be governed is a secondary, less important question – the settlements even may remain as a part of a future Palestinian state if this state is able to provide security, Jewish religious freedoms and connections with the Jewish Holy Land for all so-called settlers. So, in my view the preservation and expansion of the Jewish presence in the Arab midst is the only reliable avenue to the peaceful Middle East. People who agree with the Arab notion that the presence of Jews in the Arab midst is an obstacle to peace should agree with an application of this idea to the entire state of Israel – in accordance with this Jews-are obstacle-to peace logic the ultimate peace may be achieved only after the Jewish state Israel is “closed.” Could somebody explain to me why Sharon and Peres do not understand this?

Could somebody explain to me why Sharon and Peres do not understand this? Remember yezchak rabin ??? We do !!!!!

This article is full of half truths; for example to read this : 'Former International Court of Justice President Steve Schwebel ruled Israel’s presence in Judea, Samaria, and Gaza is anchored in the right to self-defense, and is therefore not defined as “occupation.” ' you would think that Schwebel's opinion was somehow an ICJ ruling whereas in fact it is a quote from him speaking as a long time member of the Israel lobby back in 1970, long before he became President of the ICJ in 1997 and from which he resigned in February 2000.

How you like this: 1- I will ask Mr. Bush to give me free the biggest guns 2- I want to come to your house, and settle in your Bedroom, Kitchen and all the doors. 3- I want to settle all the hallways in your house, u can't go from one place to another, unless if I say so. 4- My Settlements are not obstacle to peace; your rejection of Me is 5- Initially, I want to take over 78% of your house, then the rest of it, with limited area's (not rooms), u r allowed in. 6- U have to admit that u r a terrorist, and I have all the right to come and arrest u any time I want. Don't forget that God gave me your house, and I have the Deed. HE Faxed it to me. God Bess All

"Occupation and colonization is an old disease, which everyone in the civilized world rejects except the Israelis, no wonder!!! " You Palestinians Arabs are the ones occupying Israel's land. You have no rights to this land what-so-ever. You have managed to trick the internatinal community into buying this LIE! And by the international community I mean the Europeans, the Americans don't buy into this and neither do US! The problem here is not occupation, it's ENVY. Arabs envy our land, envy our ways of life, envy our women, men and children, envy our prosperity envy the way WE made Israel green, emvy our democracy. It's all envy and this is the desease. How pathetic Islam is, they send their children to commit homicide - such as homicide bomings to blow themselves up and muder innocent people. Islam should be ashamed of itself. It is truly the worst religion ever created.

Rani of Ramallah needs to look up the definition of colonization. One who gains land through a defensive war (Israel in 1967) is entitled to occupy it and keep it. There is no international law to the contrary. Such occupation is not illegal nor is it colonization. In history, the latter was an act undertaken for the sole purpose of conquering a sovereign country (which the West Bank was not) without any provocation, and using its resources and population to benefit the conqueror.

Recognition of Israel is only lip service. To this date the PLO charter has not been amended; it still calls for the destruction of Israel. It is terror and the Intifada that caused Israel to go back into the West Bank and recapture some of the trouble opot terror centers. Incitement also continues in the PA media, urging all to kill the Jews and create Palestine "from the river to the sea." Israel did not take away "Palestinian" land. The West Bank was illegally controlled by Jordan before 1967. It did not belong to any sovereign country. It was never "Palestinian."

It is wonderful that you believe Israelis have the right to live in the West Bank under a future Palestinian rule. Could you also guarantee that it would be safe for the to do so? Abbas is not even able to control Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or Al Aqsa Martyrs, his own party. You also need to look at international law and UN resolutions before you claim that Israel "stole" land from Palestinians. There was never a soveriegn country of Palestine in the West Bank; it was illegally occupied by Jordan before the 1967 war. Why didn't the Palestinians demand that Jordan give them the land? Israel won the land in a defensive war in 1967, and thus has the right to keep it. UN 242 talks of return of "territories," not "the" territories and not "all" the territories. This is a clear recognitiion that any land is to be returned only if and when agreed upon through negotiations by the parties . No rights are created to the land by Palestinians until then--until they are ready for Peace.

How good it is to read the truth. How seldom does it happen. The media war against Israel is as deadly as the one on the battlefield. The truth is so simple, propaganda is always so complicated but one thing is clear. I do not remember a country besides Israel which annihilated itself the way Israel is in the way of doing presently. No need for a flood from heaven. Israel is capable of destroying itself.

WHAT I HATE MOST IS TO SEE ISRAELIS AND JEWS AROUND THE WORLD USE THE TERM OCCUPATION (WHEN ITS REALLY A "RECLAIMATION") AND "WEST BANK (WHEN ITS REALLY JUDEA AND SAMARIA) START BY USING THE RIGHT TERMS OVER AND OVER - AS THEY ARE THE TRUTH

It's a hars measure to resort to, but we have been fighting this war for forty years and all our attempts to make peace have been met by the same response from the other side: "we'll have peace when you don't exist." If we want to have a state, a safe one, a strong one, one where our children will be able to grow up safely, one where Jews like myself won't be ashamed to live, then we must annex the territories and expell the Palestinians. We acquired the territories in a legitimate war of self-defense, and we have made every possible effort (and every impossible one too!) to establish peace with the Palestinians; now it's time for us to establish peace for ourselves.