Recognize them...Let the Palestinian gov't recognize Israel first and then we can deal. An absolutely hypocritical statement...but what would you expect?

If the peace-loving Palestinians were even vaguely serious about peace, the Unity gov't. would: 1. Renounce violence & terrorism 2. Recognize the State of Israel 3. Agree to all past agreements. As a further sign of their peaceful intentions, they would drop references to a supposed "right of return" - knowing full well that this is a total non-starter, non-negotiable, & will never be implemented. They could, of course, do more, but this is the bare minimum that would give them some kind of case for recognition. But they didn't , did they?

Just ridiculous. What will the Pals come up with next?

RECOGNISE ISRAEL RIGHT TO EXIST YOU BRAINWASH BLOODY TERRORIST! DELETE ALL MAPS OF PALESTINE THAT YOU HAVE, WITH 2 STATE MAP.. TEACH CHILDREN TO LIVE IN PEACE, NOT HATRED, ANTISEMITISM, AND THEN MAYBE THEN WILL ISRAEL DO SOMETHING

Dr. Barghouti, Did you and your new government every think about the possibility of recognizing the goverment of Israel? Why can't both sides cut out the child-like bickering, and try to resolve the suffering that has continued for so many years.

All Palestinians are incompetent and will never satisfy Israeli demands. From Arafat, thru Abu Maze, and now Haniyeh. all of them fall short of Israeli demands. Israel does not recognise even the word Palestine. They brainwash their people that no Palestinians, no Palestine, and all this rubbish. This struggle is about patience and time. It is not about negotiations anymore! If negotiations work, they should have done so long long time ago!

Hamas's less deceitful messeges were refreshing. Why should Israel want peace? The rate of enemy attacks is relatively low, and may well decline further, while Israel sort themselves out and continue to prosper. It's the Arabs who need a respite. So they would better offer enticement rather than incitement!

Er...was'nt it the Pals who had a primary , irrevocable issue with Israel's existence that will NEVER change irrespective of whatever Israel does or doesnt do? This is a master stroke of table turning semantics by the world's experts in deceit and fablecasting. Israel has no hope against people like this who run rings around them , feeding the media with BS. You have to hand it to the Pals - they are not much good at anything else but really ,really good at this stuff.

1) Jordan which 75% Palestinian 2) Palestine next to Israel 3) Israel where Jews will serve the Palestinian Arab interests. The Jews will work creating the medical, scientific and educational centers and the Arabs will socialize, practice polygamy producing many kids and collecting the social benefits.

Nobody should expect Israel to recognize or help HAMAS, period.

1) Israel exists, and it does not need palistinian "permision/recognition" to exist. On the other hand, the palistinians need Israel's "permision/recognition" to exist. So who needs to "recognise" who first? 2) Palistinians should renounce violence and terrorism. This is true. But would you permit them at least the right of self-defense and the means to do so? According to the american constitution this is a "human right"!! 3) How can they renounce the "right of return" of displaced people? Is this even moral? Why is this non-negotiable? Aren't there "win-win" soultions to this? 4) Recognising past agreements. Well you might be right about this. For there to be peace, ALL sides must feel that they've received justice. A "forced peace" is no peace at all. Simple "torah wisdom" ya'anissa.

attitude and suggest you investigate these issues: (a) Where the name and concept of 'Palestine' come from? (b) What is the (factual) history of the 'demands' , and responses thereto, between the Arab and Jewish Palestineans, in the last 90 years. Anyway, I couldn't agree more that at this stage 'peace negotiations' are pointless.

Nationalism. When the ottoman state broke apart, the native population of those provinces demanded independence.

"'Today's Palestinian government is not only a Hamas government, but the government of all the Palestinian people" So, since Hamas eventually aims at the destruction of Israel, the entire 'Palestinian people' is working toward that aim too. Hopefully, all the lefties will finally wake up!

This guy is only interested in money. Palestinians in fact are ex-egyptians and ex-jordanians who lost their nationality. Their disgrace is a result of their hate and what pals did with Gaza, transforming it in a launch base for targeting thousands of missiles against innocent israelis is a real and concrete proof of they are willing to do with land for peace innitiative. They cross the border to Egypt not to trade, but to bring arms and ammunition. Their people is starving because their money goes to pay for more arms, and to pay leaders of a radical ideology of hate which is costing their lives and making them fight with their own people.

We self-righteously proclaim urbi et orbi how we cannot talk with someone who doesn't recognize our existence and yet not only do we not recognize the free will of the Palestinian people to elect their representatives but we do not recognize their legal right to self- determination or--in many cases--them as people!

Eventually there will be a peace between Israel and the Arab world, but not before Israel has decesively and permanently defeated the Arabs' dream of a Middle East without a Hebrew state. The faster Fatah/Hamas, Hezballah, Iran and Syria will be crushed, the faster the genuine peace will come to the region.

Just like Jews have excercised their right of return to Judea, Arabs have excercised their right of return to Arabia. Since the Arabs have never had a "right of return" to Israel, there is no reason to denounce something that only exists in the minds of anti-Jewish bigots and imperialists.

Another Palestinian leader has asked Israelis to participate in our own mass suicide, and if we don't,it just shows how stubborn and wilful we are. Perhaps if this same Palestinian leader would suggest to Hamas that the genocide of the Jewish People and the destruction of the State of Israel are incompatible with real peace, we Israelis might just want to talk to him.

Dr Barghouti, it is time that Palestinians put their "money" where their mouth is and stopped terror, killing ,kasamim, and recognised Israel! We are here and will stay here! It is time that you gave somthing in return, besides hate and destruction!

the used Palestinian maps are bad of its borders, can you please let me ask you about the used Israel maps. do you believe in UN resolutions or aslo ONLY Israeli rules

Firstly, by giving them consequences of their actions, then, actually, we are giving them a right to self-determination. Their vote determined our response. But, leaving semantics aside, it's important to notice that Israel has de facto recognized a Palestinian state, in many of its previous actions such as: 1) Camp David 2000 - two state offer, which was ratified by Israel's government 2) The Oslo Accords (which the Israeli left continues to try and revive, but which Arafat and advisors conceded almost immediately was a 'red herring') 3) Disengagement (including the gifting of billions' worth of agricultural infrastructure) and the realignment platform which was the platform of the current leading party. Additionally, it's important to notice that Israel doesn't recognize the Hamas government CONDITIONALLY - the second that Hamas recognizes Israel and renounces terror, it will be recognized. In the meantime, Olmert continues to meet with lame duck Abbas, in an effort to keep channels of communication with SOME of the Palestinians alive (even though, as you correctly state, the majority of Palestinians, via their voting power, indicates that they're not interested in dialogue or compromise). IN CONTRAST, Hamas does not agree to recognize Israel for ideological religious reasons (charter: 'by virtue of its being a Jewish state... on Muslim land') and thus, has a stance antithetical to negotiations, which, as aforementioned, Israel through its actions, is encouraging. How are the two remotely comparable? Your erroneous overgeneralization can only be justified by deliberate lack of discernment

I don’t mean this to be hateful, but Israel is in the middle east. Doesn’t it make sense that the first Jews there were of Arab decent, or if from Africa black. How exactly do Jews of European decent have a right of return higher than those of what is a most likely a mix of the native population (Palestinians). That’s not meant to hateful. Sorry if it offends, and I would like to know how Europeans came to be in the middle east thousands of years ago.

TERRORIST LED GOVT who killed CHILDREN going to school and HAMAS FATAH TERRORIST who GO on a public PARADE with dead bodies ! THIS WILL BE THEIR HALLMARK RECOGNISION I GIVE THE TERRORIST PALESTINIANS !

We Jews respect Arab national self-determination in 22 Arab countries but most Arabs deny the same national rights to the Jewish people in our homeland Israel. As long as Arabs linger to their imperialist dreams in the Middle East, there won't be any peace.