Perhaps this will help to answer the question you posed in your talkback. First, there's something people need to know about Yasser Arafat in order to understand why he would never have accepted any offer that resulted in peaceful co-existence with Israel. The problem is that Arafat had always fancied himself a "revolutionary" and the self-appointed saviour of the Palestinian people. Believing that, it becomes virtually impossible to accept any sort of settlement where you'll have to deal with the mundane tasks involved in the day-to-day running of a government. After all, how do you go from being the leader of an entire people (albeit a people who you yourself created) to having to concern yourself with things like road-paving and trash collection? The truth is that Arafat never had any intention of renouncing violence against Israel because it was his entire raison d'etre. The unfortunate thing, however, is too many people who should have known better turned a blind eye to that reality and pretended not to notice that Arafat's conciliatory speeches in English, aimed at a western audience, in no way resembled the inflammatory rhetoric in Arabic aimed at his Palestinian followers.

It's been a give & take proposition. Israel gives, Palis take, and they continue to try to kill as many Israelis as they can. I hope that under BIBI all this will change.

The return to power of Likud, headed by Binyamin Netanyahu, is to a large extent a reaction to the message that Jews, within and without Israel, have been receiving from the Arab side thus, raising our guards in its face. Yet, a simple statement by the Arabs - in Arabic, Hebrew English and French – could melt a lot of ice, could make us Jews, in as well as out of our national home – Israel - begin to lower our guards substantially and take additional risks towards peace. The statement is: We recognize Israel's right to exist – and not only the fact that it does – and we recognize it, based on the universally accepted right of all peoples of national self-determination and independence, as the nation-state of a people, of the Jewish people, alongside which we wish to live in peace. The Arab leadership, Palestinian and otherwise, has been invited on numerous occasions to make this simple statement and to honestly and openly affirm that which must be so obvious to all, but it has persistently refused. In light of such refusal, and in light of the constant onslaught on Israeli civilians – a campaign of war and terror that has lasted for many decades - the message that we receive is the very opposite: No, Israel has no right to exist and the moment we, Muslim-Arabs, have the opportunity to do so, we shall wipe this state off the face of earth. I strongly suggest this reality is taken into consideration in trying to make constructive proposals and "advise" Israelis how to choose their democratically elected representatives and then construct their government!!!

there never was a peace process in the first place, there is an ongoing process to defraud Israel of its g-d givern right to live in peace in the jewish home land called Israel

You say :”No Israeli gov ever wanted peace “ Dear Sal, what message, do you think, the firing of 10,000 Kassam rockets and mortars (for the past 8 years, starting in 2001, by Hamas et al from the Gaza Strip onto UNARMED civilians of Sderot, other places in Israel) is conveying to Israel ? That those 10,000 rockets and mortars fired were 10,000 messages of love ?? I don’t think so !! That those 10,000 rockets and mortars fired were 10,000 invitations for a dancing/feast party in the Gaza Strip ?? I don’t think so !! That those 10,000 rockets and mortars fired were 10,000 messages of peace ?? I don’t think so !! The firing of those 10,000 rockets and mortars by Hamas et al from Gaza Strip -- it is a campaign of TERROR against the UNARMED civilians of Sderot, other places in Israel. SO Sal, it is very clear which party is NOT interested in peace since 2000 AD -- namely, Hamas et al.

The Land of Israel rightfully belongs only to the Jewish people. The notion of two states for two peoples in the land of Israel cannot be accepted as the land of Israel rightfully belongs only to the Jewish people and to divide our country would be an historic injustice. As it is well known, the conflict between Israel and the Arabs is not a territorial one. If it were a territorial conflict, it could have been solved a long time ago, by territorial concessions, which have been offered a number of times to the Arabs, and rejected every time… As to the legitimate rights of the Jewish people (3 parts): http://xrl.us/osjoz

Arabs should accept that just as Ire-Land is the Land of the Irish and Eng-Land the Land of the English and Fin-Land the Land of the Finns, the name Eretz Yisrael means the Land of the Israelis. The identity of the land is the same as the identity of the nation residing in it; therefore, the Nation of Israel, the Jews, cannot be an occupier of the Land of Israel. The Crusaders named the land “Kingdom of Jerusalem.” The Arab occupation did not have a name for the land; it was referred to merely as “southern Syria.” For 1,300 years, the land had no identity in the absence of the Biblical Jewish nation that identified itself with it. No one claimed ownership but our nation. This is the entire story. The Arabs demand that Ehud Olmert transfer the land free and clear of Jews. As long as there are Jews in Judea, that place cannot not be called by its false name – “Palestine.” The only thing that stops the cadre of traitors from transferring our land to the enemy, already at our gates, is their inability to uproot the settlements. Those communities halt the wheels of destruction as explained at : http://xrl.us/bi9g8

The peace process died at Camp David when Arafat rejected Baraks offer. He had 2 plans when he went to Camp David the first was a deep enough foothold in the region until he was ready for the push for the rest of Israel. The man gave speeches where he said the peace process is a trojan horse and nobody has the right to give away even 1 inch of palestine. He also went into Camp David with a back up plan .. if I can't get enough out of that idiot Barak then I will start an intefada because I know that the more I push Israel through terror the increase for the left & more concessions increases and eventualy they will give me what I want. Then Sharon came along and kept Arafat locked up till he was sent to France to die. The so called moderate Abbas never has been anything but a lame duck. He has never been able to deliver anything to anybody the only reason that we ever got as far as Camp David was because Israel was run by the left and Arafat was a strongman who even Hamas respected to a degree. The only people that give a dam about Abbas are the west and peace process die hards in Israel. Certainly since Abbas came along we have all been playing games to give the image of the peace process working while in reality it was going nowhere even with Olmert, Livni and Barak We need new thinking that doesn't involve the creation of a palestinian state or a so called binational state in Israel. Jordan must be bought off talked into accepting the idea of taking in all the palestinians giving them citizenship. In return Israel will give some parts of Judea & Samaria to Jordan and get the west to start saying to Abbas the peace process is dead and you know it lets look for a new solution or else spend another 16 years playing games. We just need the courage to bury the peace process and say there is another way if we make it polliticly correct to talk about the idea.

The recent Israeli elections showed that the vast majority of the Jewish population in Israel reject the concept of the so-called two state solution as untenable and counter-productive to achieving peace between the Arabs and Jews in the Land of Israel. All attempts to implement this poor idea are doomed to failure. Besides, the underlying principle to the two-state solution is to weaken Israel and limit the land Jews can settle in. It is a sinister attempt to create a small, congested Israel; sort of like a Polish ghetto.....

When you started bombing Israeli men, women, children and babies on buses, in cafes, in pazza bars, and in hotels and let me remind everyone it was Fatah, haaaamas and Jihad. You are all the same! Go and live in jordan which IS the Palestinian state. Jordan occupies 78% of the mandate and had a Palestinian population of 77% of the people, Jordan IS Palestine.

UN Security Council Resolution 242 which came about to resolve the conflict - Six-Day War, 1967 - during which Israel captured what have become "the disputed territories" does not mention the concept of "Palestinians" nor does it use the concept "Palestinian state". In fact, 242 does not even expect Israel to withdraw from all the territories but rather from "territories" and only as part of negotiations and agreements between Israel and its warring Arab states that would ensure secure and recognized boundaries while de-militarizing the disputed territories. Israel must continue to insist on relying on 242 as is until the Arab world can come to terms with Israel's right to exist in secure and recognized boundaries and without terror states in the Gaza district and Judea and Samaria.