Comment #16 The article is written by Yoram Ettinger who is an expert in Middle East affairs and is a former consul general in New York and advisor to the Ministry of internal security

You are right. Ben Gourion the Socialist dissuaded the Arabs from leaving and granted them Israeli citizenship. When Yossi Beilin was minister of justice, he granted Israeli citizenship to 200,000Palestinian Arabs for familty reunion. Those leftists are as dangerous as the Arabs in Israel. The government should make their lives miserable so they will be encouraged to leave. Why not, didn't Arab countries expell Jews who had been living there at at least 20 centuries?

They do not have to serve in the army and get complete freedom of speech. They get all the Israeli benefits and yet still complain!!

So I am simply supposed to take for truth the words of a expert on the Middle East? You offer puzzling logic for your response to my arguements. What you are saying is Yoram Ettinger is a Middle East expert therefore he is correct. So what I can gather from that is all Middle East experts are correct. However, the flaw is that I'm sure there are many Middle East experts who disagree with Mr. Ettinger's interpretation of the fact that Palestinians are building more houses. Thus, you cannot say his article is entirely truthful simply because the author is an expert in his field. If your statement is true, that means that you must then believe that all Middle East experts who say Israel has no right to occupy the West Bank or Gaza are also correct in their writings. But I imagine you would not consider them to be correct in that regard. Thus I have the right to break down Mr. Ettinger's arguements and if my statements are false then you can refute them with acutal arguements rather than posing a non-sequitur. Is it not true that it is nearly impossible for Palestinians to receive building permits, especially in East Jerusalem - which by the way is inside the Green Line and is an Arab area? If Palestinians need more houses, but they find it nearly impossible to get permission from the Israeli government, what choice do they have but to build "illegal" houses. Secondly, why is it wrong for Palestinians to build homes on land that is theirs? Israel is, under international recognition an occupier of the West Bank. Thus, Israel is claiming that construction of homes by the occupied peoples in THEIR own territory is illegal. Which, by the way, East Jerusalem is THEIR territory. To me that does not seem right. Under international law it is illegal for an occupier to build settlements within the occupied territory. Ma'aleh Adoummim is part of this occupied territory and thus it is not a major tragedy that the Palestinians are forming a barrier between the settlement and Jerusalem - after all the settlement was built on their land. Who are you or Mr. Ettinger to say that the Palestinians cannot build homes in a land that is theirs. All Israeli settlements inside the 1967 Green Line should be disbanded and the land given back to the Palestinians, those are the truely illegal homes!

I am sick and tired of hearing about innocent people getting killed. It gets tiring hearing that constantly. Hizballah caused this and their actions caused a war. Blood is on the hands of Hizballah.

Read International Law and the Charter of the League of Nations UN resolution 242 allows Israelis to live there until there is a lasting peace and peaceful solution to the Arab/Israeli conflict. Yassir Arafat refused a peace offer. Hamas refuses to recognize the right of Israel to exist and Iran wants to wipe Israel of the face of the map. There is no peace.

The land was controlled by the British. Complain to the BBC.

Israeli leaders allow the wicked lie to be taught that the ancient inhabitants of Israel were Arabs! And treasonously allow the indoctrination of Arab Israelis to commit violent jihad against Jewish innocents and destroy Israel. On The Palestinian School Curriculum: Erasing Israel By: David Bedein, Special To The Evening Bulletin 08/28/2006 ...the new school books that the same Mahmoud Abbas has now introduced in the Palestinian Authority school system - run independently of Hamas - represent a curriculum that prepares a new generation of Palestinians to destroy Israel. Because these PA school books have also been incorporated in the Arab schools in Jerusalem, which raises cause for further concern, a movement is afoot in the Israeli Arab schools in the rest of Israel to adopt the PA curriculum in their schools. Indeed, the latest study of PA textbooks, www.intelligence.org.il/eng/default.htm, commissioned by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center in Herzelia: 1. Israel does not appear on any maps of the world in the new PA textbooks, while maps of Israel replace the name Israel with Palestine in all of the new Palestinian Authority school books. 2. The new Palestinian School Books "annex" sites in Israel to Palestine. "Haifa is a Palestinian seaport,"... "Galilee, Nazareth and Beit She'an are regions in Palestine,"... 3. The new Palestinian school books mention Israel only as an enemy, in reference to "occupation of lands" in 1948 and 1967... 4. The new Palestinian school books present Zionism only as an enemy movement: "The Palestinian people are under an oppressive siege, limiting their movement and way of life,"... Accusation against settlements [from 1948!] of damaging water sources... 5. The new Palestinian School Books make the false claim that an "extremist Zionist" set fire to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1969... 6. The new Palestinian school books teach that the First Zionist Congress at Basel fostered the Zionist State based on a secret decision of what came came to be known as the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion."... 7. The new Palestinian School books teach that the only ancient inhabitants of Israel were Arabs... 8. The new Palestinian school books teach that Palestinians must use war and violence - especially martyrdom - to accomplish their goals... The warrior goes to war faced with one of the good options: victory or martyrdom in battle for the sake of Allah... "Allah gave the people of this land (Al-Sham and Palestine) an important task: they must stand on the forefront of the Muslim campaign against their enemies, and only if they fulfill their duty to their religion, nation, and land will they be rewarded as stated in the scriptures."... 9. The new Palestinian school books feature children with names such as Jihad (holy war) and Nidal (struggle)... 10. The new Palestinian school books stress the importance of "return" of refugees to all of Palestine - by violence: "The wrong must be made right by returning them to their homes...under the banners of glory, jihad [holy war] and struggle"... In May, 2001, when this reporter asked then-Mayor of Jerusalem Ehud Olmert about the incorporation of PA textbooks in the Arab schools in Jerusalem, his answer was that "they can teach what they want, and we will teach what we want." Questions placed to now-Prime Minister Olmert on this issue have gone unanswered... http://www.theeveningbulletin.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17118984&BRD=2737&PAG=461&

When you deliberately talk only to quislings & traitors, sure they're going to tell you what you want to hear. DUH. And these "journalists" wonder why all the blogs are nailing them right, left & center.

Khalid is not wrong - there is no crime with being against a war, protesting a war, voting against war. The real issue is this survey is garbage - they should have asked how many supported the enemy - which is a totally different question.

It is 100 percent certain that Hizbullah committed warcrimes by launching weapons as they blended into the civilian population and they targeted civilians 100 percent in Israel. Now go home and cry you crybaby.

be listened to. If they dont like it in Israel perhaps Jordan may make a better home.

And you make sense, Hizbullah blended in and launched offensive attacks against civilians in Israel. So these areas were legitimate areas for attack. Nice premise too bad you didnt think it through enough to see where the premise really wound up.

Ibrahim. Be careful what you wish for, make both sides of the argument. The Palestinian authority has a lot to explain in regards to the christian cleansing in bethlehem, then again I dont expect much more from a posture like Ive just responded to.

definition of a boundary. Thats your definition of a boundary. Remember it was the so called arab coalition that rejected the lopsided anti israeli balfor agreement. Kind of got too greedy eh. Now after another defensive win you expect the Israeli to give back so called occupied land. The arab coalition lost the 67 war, so I can not see a justifiable reason why the 67 border is even a logical boundary.

Who says the green line is the so called final boundary. An arab coalition attacks Israel causes damage and then expects things to go back to the green line. How does that make sense. Can any country in the world attack another lose a war and not lose land. Do some research on world war 2 and nearly any other war. You will see land won in a defensive war is kept by the defender.

Heres the crux of the argument. Possession is nine tenths of the law. And most know the balfor agreement was very ant israel. The west bank is historically known as a jewish area, not an palestinian area. Palestinian dilemma is that they want to turn back time to suit their needs. Did germany get back land they lost in the second world war, did Italy get back land lost in the second world war.. Do you want me to go on and on.. Im sure you get the picture.

muslims must be expelled from all free world, and sent to your beloved dar-al-islam. This way, at least we can be sure that we do not feed you stupid, but extremely destruction-oriented muslim zombies. Your reasonings sound exactly like a true muslim, i.e. warped logic, blame the others no-matter-what, cry victimized no-matter-what, boast at the slightest hint of possible success. Plain stupid people stuck in a stupid religion.

Israel is constantly pressured by the U.S. EU and UN to persecute non-Muslims. 10,000 Gaza and north Samaria Jews were ruthlessly rendered jobless and homeless: their land and businesses seized for PA/PLO-Hamas terrorists. The human rights of Christians were destroyed via the Oslo peace accords which gave PLO terrorists control over Christians in Palestinian Authority areas. 100,000 Jews are to be ethnically cleansed from Judea & Samaria. Which country and which people are next to be severely punished for the "crime" of not being Muslim? A Christmas without Christians By Abraham H. Miller FrontPageMagazine.com | December 16, 2005 Since the Palestinian Authority’s takeover of Bethlehem in 1995, under the Oslo Accords with Israel, Bethlehem has been transformed from a Christian city into a Muslim city. Bethlehem’s remaining Christians now live in a condition of dhimmitude (a reference to the second-class citizenship Islam imposes on Christians) in the city of Jesus’ birth. The Palestinians brought with them a political system based on primitive tribal relations, where the power of one’s clan became a substitute for the law. As a consequence, Christians have suffered civil outrage and criminal violence without recourse to justice. Christians have been refusing to live under these conditions and have been leaving Bethlehem in large numbers. ....the Orwellian message of the American Arab Anti-discrimination Committee (AADC) that held a candle lighting vigil on November 29, 2005 for Bethlehem’s Christians at San Francisco’s Union Square... Muslims in Bethlehem make the lives of Christians unbearable and force them to flee their ancestral homes while Muslims in America hold a vigil to blame the Jews. To understand how the Christians became a minority and the victims of thuggery in the city of Jesus’ birth, it is important to see just what Arafat did to Bethlehem once he got his hands on it. In 1995, Yasser Arafat gained control of Bethlehem and immediately expanded its municipal boundaries to include 30,000 Muslims living in neighboring refugee camps. Next, Muslim Bedouins living east of Bethlehem were incorporated into revised municipal boundaries. All this was still not enough for the PA to change the status of Bethlehem as a Christian city. But then Arafat created inducements for Muslims to leave Hebron and the area around it and move to Bethlehem. With Arafat’s government by clan, by gun, and by terror, a land Mafia developed that began expropriating land from Christians. In 2002, two Christian teenage sisters were found with their throats slit and their genitals mutilated. Muslims claimed the Amer sisters were prostitutes, as if that were justification for torture and murder. But Christians familiar with similar incidents claim the girls were murdered to cover up a gang rape. Of course, none of this appears in the AADC’s call for the candlelight vigil that is also designed to showcase the AADC’s divestment campaign against Israel. Now totaling less than 12% of Bethlehem’s population, Christians, who have been the targets of continual PA violence, might leave entirely. The result will be that in the place where Jesus was born there will no longer be a Christian community. In the West Bank town of Taibe marauding Muslims burned, looted and beat Christian residents in the name of a Muslim family’s “honor,” a family whose father had brutally beaten his daughter to death for wanting to marry a Christian. The violent Muslim mob burned a statue of the Virgin Mary and shouted, “Burn the Crusaders!” PA fire and security forces took their time arriving on the scene, appearing hours later. In the end, the mob was almost immediately released from jail. Meanwhile, the Christian fiancée of the murdered woman was arrested and beaten while incarcerated. http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=20567

That is the only way Jews will live in peace in their homeland.

It seems that most of them are anti Israel & Pro Pali. They should have to pledge loyalty to Israel or loose their Israeli citizenship and be considered and treated as Palis. Israel can not afford to have it's enemies living within it's borders.

You forgot to add that the Israeli Arabs are willing accomplices to the Pali terrorists by prividing them with shelter & transportation. They spy on Israel and smuggle weapons & ammo to the Pali areas. The Arabs are not loyal citizens and are a threat to Israel.

For them to shot rockets on civils in north it's just a "self-defence" and the same about kidnaping ! But when we just save on our lifes it is a crime for them ! According to the international rules Hizbullah is the criminal ! The Geneva Convention decided that we have the full rights to fire on all person that attack we and it desn't matter if he do that from privet house or hospital cos they do that to blame we ! it's their aim ! and all foult is of them ! so who that don't accept the international rules is Hizbullah

Umm... Christian cleansing by the PA in Bethlehem? I was just in Beit Sahour - right down the hill from Bethlehem - living with Palestinian Christian families. They said that for the most part they lived peacefully with the Muslim people in that area. They were unified against one common threat to their daily lives and normalacy - that is Israeli occupation of the West Bank. If you want to know the true reason behind diminishing Christian populations in the Bethlehem area it is that because Israel has clamped down on the West Bank so much there are simply no economic prospects. Therefore, since the Christian population is usually fairly well educated and also more connected to the Western world they can leave the area and find actual economic embetterment elsewhere. Imagine if you had a college degree, as many Christian and even Muslims in the Bethlehem area and Palestine in general have, but because of the Israeli occupation your unemployment rate is 70% because there is little freedom of movement and even before that little freedom to set up businesses and manufacturing under Israeli restrictions, you cannot find a job. The occupation is the reason why Christians are headed out of the West Bank not because of any Christian cleansing done by the PA or Muslims. And remember this isn't from me, this is what I heard from Christians actually living in the area. Go travel there and see for yourself.

Don't you ever tire of saying "because of the occupation ..", "The occupation is the reason why...", etc.? A little advice - FIX THE THINGS YOU CAN FIX. The Palestinian leadership should spend more time on creating an economy and less time vowing the destruction of Israel. By the way - I was in Bethlehem just before the 2nd intifada - the economy was booming!