On April 6, 2002, in an article in Lebanon's Daily Star ("Sharon will fail"), Hanania called the Israeli army and leaders "Nazi-like" and looked forward to "correcting the original injustice of 1948 and restoring Palestinian control over all of Palestine" In other words, Hanania was calling for the destruction of Israel. http://home.comcast.net/~jat.action/PCUSA_Hanania.htm Some direct quotes from the article: "Israel's Nazi-like government must be shown that its policies of murder and executions and killings will carry a heavy price in future talks, and that all of Jerusalem is now on the table and that all of Palestine is on the table, too." "Why shouldn't Palestinian refugees be allowed to return to their homes and lands stolen from them in 1948? The Jewish people waited 2,000 years to get back what they asserted was theirs. The Palestinians can wait too. Why be in such a rush to give away our rights?Time does not erase the crime." "And where once many Arabs were willing to compromise and give in to Israel's demands, much of that willingness is now gone forever. Many Palestinians are chanting today: "Thank you Ariel Sharon for opening the door to our victory!" "

start this move. Logic says it is always the powerfull party needs to start and try present initaves. So I recomend that Israel announce that she is accepting the 2000 Arab Sumit initive which is full peace with all Arab countries along with full 1967 borders. This means only End The Occupation. IT IS SO EASY.

I very much appreciate the post by Mr. Hanania; he seems to be one of the majority of Palestinians, the majority of Israelis could right now sit down with and be happy together, as it has been before. Israel needs peace and has proved it time and again, as by returning Sinai with its oilfields to Egypt and having agreements with Jordan. Lately we started the heartbreaking task of deporting our settlers out of Gaza and were prepared to go on with the rest of the territory. What did we get for it? More rockets! The problem is, that it is always the violent minority that sets the tone. A former Israeli minority has struggled for many years to make the majority understand, that the Palestinians must have their own state and that we can be friends with them. Now we have been the majority for at least fifteen years, were about to enforce our views under PM Rabin and Barack, and the Palestinians could have prospered for all that time. The only problem is, that on the Palestinian site, there are still a few extremists, who wont let that happen. All there would be to do now, would be to hand the captured soldier back and stop sending rockets and terrorists into Israel forever and in a short time the ME is going to prosper. Our majority will see to that. Anything else is just empty talk. Friendly greetings to Mr. R.Hanaya

This goof wants ALL the West Bank........o.k. buddy, stick to comedy!

Solution No. 2 - Find out where the millions of Dollars & Euros went the past 10 years. Solution No. 3 - Build a society, not with Qassams, but with bricks! Solution No. 4 - Elect someone with a voice of reason (Jihadists need not apply). Solution No. 5 - Stop looking outward and blaming the Israelis for all of your woes. Solution No. 6- Start taking responsibility for poor leadership PAST and PRESENT! Solution No. 7 - Good Fences make Good Neighbors Solution No. 8 - Make a law that forbids suicide bombers. Solution No. 9 - Make another law that does not reward the family of shahids. Solution No. 10 - Cut off all ties with all terrorists organizations!

Ray,Please expalin how we can "respect our enemy"-thats a new one for me. The only thing we have in common with Palestinains is that we both dont have suitable LEADERS. Until now no one man has come up with a successful idea to end the on going violence & hatred in our region.Israel returned Gaza only for mayhem to begin all over again.South Israel has been bombardrd with quassams. WHY ?? The Palestinians still insist on having the West Bank & east Jerusalem "returned to them"so they can direct their quassams to Tel Aviv ??Haifa ?? Netanya?? & eventually push us Jews into the sea. Hey Ray, we may be hot blooded, but we are not deaf, dumb & blind. Your people need to prove to the world that they are ready to make a nation for themselves, giving UP all forms of vilonece,corruption & most importantly,bury their hatred for us Jews,once & for all.We have prooved we want peace more than once. The ball is now in the Palestinian court.....tell your people to stop complaining,moaning & begging for economical aid.Tell them to get off the streets of Gaza & return to work.Send the kids back to school & get rid of Hamas, who say they want to help your people but in fact are harming them more. Wake up Ray & smell the coffee, before its too late, & please get ALL the facts right before your next article is published. Peace be with you Ray.

Can't we all just get along?

true, ray is correct that moral equivalence would benefit palestinians because it minimizes and whitewashes their murderous ideology. too bad that it is at the expense of truth. i suggest that one compares "extremists" on both sides. see how few jewish "extremists" there are in comparison with the masses of palestinian extremists. next, look at the average man on the street. it is interesting how the average israeli wants peace and the average palestinian wants land soaked with jewish blood. average israelis wish that the palestinains would start their own country, while palestinians only talk about becoming martyrs. also, notice the open, proud hatred among "average" palestinains toward the jews, while all i see here among jews is how they despair about the fact that they can do nothing short of dying to please the palestinians. true, if i were palestinian i would like it if my primitive hatred was given the same moral standing as the israeli's plea for peace. i completely disagree that ray's call for moral equivalence has anything to do with peace. in fact it has nothing at all to do with peace. as soon as the extreme palestinian masses change their murderous path of electing, supporting, harboring, facilitating, encouraging, and inciting terrorism and terrorists, there is really nothing ray has to say that is of any value. and i say this as a member of the arab community.

very very well said and as another Israeli said : Amos Oz, Israel’s most celebrated writer, refers to his country’s extremists as “Hezbollah in a skullcap.” He says that Rabin’s death made him realize that “the real battle in the Middle East is no longer between Arabs and Jews but between fanatics of both faiths and the rest of the people in the Middle East who want to find some reasonable compromise.”

Under UN oversight and with UN troops placed along all borders 1) Israel returns to '67 borders 2) Jerusalem declared an international city, under UN stewadrdship and belonging to all people but no country.

Nice Try, Shame on me for you fooling me once, Shame on me for fooling me five or six times. You say not to look back at history, but that is very usful for the PA side with its terrible record. We arnt talking Aba Eben style missed oportunities from the pre Oslo days either. Not only did Arafat not agree to what was the end of the line offer that Israelis could except they the went on to vote for a terrorist organization that even the EU cant swallow. Hamas wan an outright majority, the Palestinian people are a nation of terrorists who aid and avaid terrorism. No sir! the mind set to be changed is squarly on the Palestinian side and it is this: the goal of the Palestinian people should be to build up their own country, not tear down Israel. Stopping the rocket attacks and dismantelling Hamas are the first two actions that come out of that mind set. The Israeli mind set is already in the right place: Wait for a more pragmatic Palestinian counter-part.

Can any one of you tell us what did Israel offered to solve this issue during the very long 20 years from 1967 to 1987 when we were better than the Finns in Occupied Land. Then T he First Intifada from 1988 to 1993 with stones against tanks, what did Israel offered, broke youths arms!!! COMMMMMMMMMOOONN. Be fair and only blame your IOF.

This region is doomed for eternity. Israel is in the middle of this swamp called Middle East and it will eventually ruin everything. The only answer is to leave this part of the world and never comeback. There is more to life…

stop dig to uproot jewish history, in temple mount , to appropriate what we shoud share with you but which is not yours. yes moshe was a muslim (submit to Gd), yes you can leave in jerusalem, but moshe is jewish such a jerusalem. we , jews shoud share part of ou identity, many amoung us will leave east jerusalme for peace but you muslim, should reform yourselves and stop trying submit the entire world to feel secure about your own identity. that, is they key. stop the terror!

Ray is a Christian Arab American. He is sitting in America giving his opinions on a conflict between a sovereign state and an Islamic supremecist terror organisation. If Ray feels so Palestinian why doesn't he go and llive in Gaza? Why not, the answer is he would soon realise that as a Christian American he has noting in common with these murderous racist Islamic supremecist fanatics. Ray stop talking about a conflict which is nothing to do with you. If you want to pay an interest then why not comment on the systematic destruction of Arab Christian communities by these very Islamic supremecists with whom Israel is fighting its war of survival. This you ignore. what of the Christians of Beth Lehem and Ramallah? Debel and Ain Ebel in Southern Lebanon? What of the Copts of Egypt? Pay an interest in this and you'll soon stop identifying yourself with Islamic extremists and start realising what side you are really on!

I don't believe any of that will be possbile until things truly explode and the instigators (Hamas, Syria & Iran) are faced with the consequences. Ceded land and withdrawn troops has only resulted in more rocket attacks, bombings and an elected government in Palestine who's stated goal is the destruction of Israel. A bomb here or there, 10 people dead one day or 20 the next brings little concern or change. Lance the boil, it has been festering long enough.

Those are advices for peace neagtiations. However before peace negotiations started the cease fire should be in effect. And that is not realistic. Israel is not "in conflict" with PA. Its a low-intecity war. And before the most of wars end one of the side admit defeat. Israel already admit defeat once and Oslo accord followed. However Palestinians wern't content with their victory, and started war anew. So now we have war at earnest. Time will show who win, but before one of the sides admit defeat there is no point in peace negotiations.

For there to be peace whether in the Middle East or for that matter a true peace between Christians, Moslems, Jews and all other interpretations of God will through religious fervor, it would take an act of God. Only God himself not through any Human claiming he is speaking as an emissary of God be it any person claiming to be a true Messiah, that would never work, since each religion believes that only his religion contains a true Messiah, and all others are delusional. So to end the conflict, God must reappear on this world and reveal himself, mankind has to many differences and way to many desires to ever be content to live in peace with each other. Having said that we must also acknowledge that God actually created mankind and not the other way around, for if Mankind created the notion of God, then God can and will never appear, since it is like time, only a figment of mankind’s imagination. Like time and tide, it is a never ending cycle, hate, war, murder, and any perfidy emanating from the Human mind will be with us forever unless mankind in his zeal for dominance will succeed and destroy all cognitive life on this world, I guess that can also be interpreted as God reappearing, as the Bible describes God as an avenger

Thats the rub! Its not nuclear science! What could be easier than creating a two state solution with the two nations living side by side. Its pathetic to see Hamas with no sense of direction leading the Palestinians on the road to nowhere. If only Hamascould see beyond their twisted logic there could be a bright future coexisting with Israel rather than pursue this never ending cycle of violence - what a miserable legacy for future generations of Palestinians. Given half a chance Palestinains could turn their country to a land of milk and honey and be a shining example to the rest of the Islamic world. WAKE UP!

If Israelis listen to Ray Israelis will put down their guns. And when Israelis put their guns his "Palestinian people" will kill Israelis.

Move the entire Yesha swatting PalArab population to Palestine (Jordan). Move all PalArab in Gaza to Eygpt and call it a day.

Can you give us some hints as to why Islamists only are involved into blowing themselves up along with innocent citizens all over the world ? Could this be a part of the global answer to all of the conlicts ? even if a small part ? Thank you

But I forget that someone offended a Muslim back in Mohammed's day and the world is paying for it until this day.

to the isralis , at least ,you represent no hope what so ever. your rehtoric, and" pseudo- moderation", are a disguise to a very deep -seeded hatred of israel ,and the isralis and everything we stand for. just because you live in the u.s , doesn't mean that oyu trluley embrace its culture and moral ethicks ,which mirror much that of israel's. many readers of your colums are p**** off that this israeli paper gives you a stage and a mic to continue to spew your ever camouflaged anti israel venom. all in the name of modernity and bleeding heart morals.... as far as we are concerened ,you are simply a toned -down hamas/ plo/. pflp/ hizbullah/ al queida/ mouthpiece. they all wish the destruction of israel, and are open about it. you're just too much of a hypocrit, and a cowerd to admit it.

Unfortunately, Ray, never in the history of any Arab nation has majority rule ever been the case. Dictatorships, sometimes benign, more often despotic, are the rule. So no matter what the "majority" of Palestinians feel, the violent, irridentist minority will always frighten them into silence.

I am very glad Ray and I in the end spoke on the same level and started getting along. I think all of us should do the exact same. Abo Mohammaed -- Why don't we stop together?

"The Israeli mind set is already in the right place: Wait for a more pragmatic Palestinian counter-part." Settlements and annexation of Jerusalem reflect a wrong mind set, because of their immorality and illegality. You need to understand that Jews must change too, not just Palestinians. But that's the hardest part for both sides - to see the need for one's own change.

Why do you think that by accepting Oslo Israel lost and Palestinians won? Oslo was no win for either side; it just tried to calm the situation without resolving anything.