while in last months of 2008 the blame for stalling peace talks can be attributed to the Palestinian side, now it is Israeli side, more precisely the side of right-wing camp who is so entrenched that it did not even agree to freeze building settlements for... 9 months. Moreover, I saw IDF's promises to dismantle next 100 roadblocks in the West Bank already two times, and these promises did not materialize. Stories like preventing transfer of pasta or copybooks for children in Gaza, of course find their place in the headlines of newspapers and do the very bad PR of Israel. Please, do something visible to improve your image. At least fire this radical guy Lieberman or investigate thoroughly suspected cases of possible crimes in Gaza...

from other states, most her desitions Israel made by herself, so Muslim world decitions won't be any use, it takes much more than international opinion to make a nation, if that's what people say in the UN than they r dead wrong, international opinion or stance can only give green light for what allready exist but by no means can create solid peaceful nation, nation also have self responsibility and duties with the rights for her civilians. sorry to say but no need to get so excited about Turkey, her position in the international arena is not secure either.

The international pressure has nothing to do with so-called pals. It has to do with the fact that there is Israel, the place for jews, where jews can defend theirself, be free and can live without giving explanations. Would not be the pal-israel problem, it would be international pressure due to hebrew language, or people beeing "too jewish", tsunamis in qualala-lumpur, or whatsoever....

Good. It is better for Israel that way. Look around and would we really want to be like the EU, US and Africa ?

You still have the US, Canada, Australia, part of Latin America and most of Europe to support you. What more do you need? They may critize you a lot, but that's irrelevant because they're all talk and no action.

Geez, this article contains a whole lot horse shit

Israel is no longer viewed as an oasis of democracy in the ME. Israel is viewed as an aggressive, colonialist and warmonger state which denies a better life that the palestinian people deserves. You continue to build in west bank, employing the palestinians in settlements, making their economy dependant on yours, etc. Israel is the main cause of the rise of jihadists movements. Obama is trying to help you and you view him as an anti-israeli. This could affect other decisions, like Iran´s nuclear drive... but, as i have said, you reap what you sow.

The world wants to destroy Israel (or the Jews, since the majority is in Israel). We show that we are weak, give anything for nothing, they smell blood, so they go for the kill. One doesn't need to be a genius to know that a weak ... anything, is in for derision first, then destruction.

The "Cast Lead" was a stupid war that we lost. We got nothing out of it and fell right into the trap Hamas set up by lobbing kassams every day. What did we think they were up to? Where are the Jewish brains we once had?

When the Jews will all turn to G-d for help instead of America and American money Israel will not have to worry about the rest of the world as G-d will do the worring for us.

from all illegally occupied Palestinian territory in the west bank, gaza strip, and east jerusalem. Israel has to abide by UN resolutions and International Laws if it is going to be taken seriously by the world community. Peace requires justice in order to work and succeed.

Israel should confront and counter it headon and not be bulldozed by it. Behind such a crusade is the world of Islamist-Jihadists and AntiSemitism led by Satan. Israel has the GOD of Israel to defend Israel against the dark forces. Just be faithful to the GOD of Israel and He will protect and defend Israel against its enemies. Build relations with states with common values.

"Israel is viewed as an aggressive, colonialist and warmonger state which denies a better life that the palestinian people deserves" What is exactly what the "palestinian" people deserves? deserves for what? what they did to deserve anything in the first place? Is your house in order? SubSaharians are getting what they deserve? Morocco get what they deserve(Ceuta y Mellilla)? Is South America getting what they deserve?(centuries of spoiling)?

You make it sound like a jobless, poor Palestinian is still better than one employed in 'illegal' settlements.

Human rights abusers and illegal occupying countries rarely have many friends, thankfully

LIKE ANY OTHER NATION: Right of self determination Right to self-defense Right to free commerce Sovereignty No liking or disliking Israel, IT IS A MATTER OF RIGHTS

B"H Ron Ben Yishai is a fool. He reads the facts as they appear to the goyim, to the non Jews. If he read the facts as a Jew, he would first of all put Hashem into the picture, explaining to us a larger than life struggle that’s going on between good and evil. Then, he would tell us about the virtues of Israel standing alone as it is written that we are meant to just that, to "dwell alone" and by doing so being unlike any other nation. Then he would continue analyzing how the evil forces are organizing themselves to kill Jews, Israel and G-d, in this order, and how this is perfectly in line with what is already written, with what we already know. Yes, from the Bible, from what he labels and old and expired collection of man-made stories. If Ben Yishai read history as a Jew, he would conclude that we will win, because we were created in the first place in order to bring in G-d's glorious kingdom to this world and the nations, through us will recognize His great name. We were not put into the world to be the only democracy in the Middle East! But, to our demise, he didn't read his Torah, or if he did read it he didn't understand it or, if he understood it, he is too scared to share his understanding with us, like most of our so called “rabbis”, as producing not politically correct material can lead to a loss of juicy contracts and desirable livelihoods. So, like many others, Ben Yishai keeps writing part one, two and occasionally part three of completely irrelevant, uninformed and misinforming so called analysis: that’s the way it goes. To conclude: Jews are a special people with a special mission and trying to normalize us simply won't work. It's as if Ben Yishai tried to keep the parting waters of the Sea of Reeds together with his fingers, telling the Jews about the impossibility of riding through the seabed. It won’t work and that is why Ron Ben Yishai is a fool. Not the first one and will not be last one.

We should launch an attack on Arab propaganda.

would have been killed in Cast Lead The Muslims (and Gazans) saw that this method of pulling the wolf's tail didnt pay any dividend . Gaza didnt turn into a graveyard for Israel as Hamas promised! So they decided to go back to the old we are victims method Israel should just carry on to defend its people in best way given the bad circumstances . The only other option is to call it a day and hand over to Arabs -as they would like

could it be because they were attacked by the palestinians and surrounding arab nations?? gasp! no way! the palestinians are way too pure and pristine to do something so vile. Go learn History you dick head and at the same time, make spain pay for the crimes they commited against jews in the Spanish inquisition. If it werent for countries like yours, Jews wouldnt need their own state.

Kadima justified the ethnic cleansing of Gaza by saying it would allow Israel to defend herself against terror without being condemned. As predicted by opponents of Kadima, this is not what happened. Initially, Israel was only mildly condemned because under Kadima, Israel seemed defensless: the IDF routed by Hezbolla, helpless to rescue Shalit, and retreating to the center while Jewish children cowered under the attack of thousands of rockets in Sderot. With approaching elections, Kadima/Labor started the Cast Lead operation which failed in releasing Shalit, but objectively caused very little collateral damage. Israel's enemies used Cast Lead to as a pretext to start an orchestrated campaign of delegitimization so that Israel would constantly appear in the news in a negative light: twice anonymous soldiers falsely claimed they witnessed war crimes, the Goldstone report and the Swedish blood libel. The delegitimization's purpose is clear: prepare the way for the next war to exterminate the Jews.

Jews have existed for 4000 years. 2000 years out of those we were homeless and scattered all over the world - exiled from Israel. We fled from one country to the next without any safe place or without any country which we could call "home". At any moment we feared that for no reason or any reason, without any warning, Jews would be expelled from one country to the next. This has been the case for the past 2000 years. We were defenseless and helpless. This is no longer so. We are once again free and independent and sovereign and we live in our land and we can once again defend ourselves. It does not bother me that racist Jew haters and European and Arab imperialists think of us as a "pariah state" - what bothers me is that some Jews seem to think of us as a "pariah state". Anyone who is in minority and is disliked is per definition a "pariah state" - it does not mean that one does not have right on one's side. It could be argued that UK was a "pariah state" during WW2 when Hitlerism conquered Europe, because UK was pretty much alone in Europe to face Hitler and Germany. The difference is that our enemies are weaker than Nazi Germany and unlike UK of WW2, Israel of today is armed with nuclear missiles. Our enemies are not - yet. If it were not for the global recession, Israel's economy would still be growing - faster than all western countries - due to Israeli excellence and Israeli trade - with the USA, EU, Canada, China, Japan , India and so on. Our trade with Turkey and the Arab world is negligible. The demographics in Israel speak in our favor - Jews are having more and more kids - Arabs are having fewer and fewer kids. The Arab world is weak and divided. Iran is fragile due to huge minorities living side by side. And Turkey is useful to the USA if the Turks can be used as a tool to contain the Russians. Russian demographics speak of a demographic disaster - 145 million Russians are expected to decline to 90-100 million in about 50 years due to very low birth rates and very high mortality rates - due to alcoholism, diseases, wrong nutrition and nuclear waste and high levels of radioactivity. China is expected to take over the Russian-Chinese border regions and Moslems are expected very soon to be in majority in Caucasus. It is likely that Russia will sooner or later fall apart into the original Duchy of Moscow. Turkey has no nuclear weapons and it knows it. If Turkey seeks a conflict with Israel - Turkey will lose. "Peace" is very abstract. But land, people, labor, resources, money, weapons, an army, technology and economics and science are very real and tangible things. We have the above mentioned things except for peace with the Moslem world. But if the Moslems want war they will get one. And they will lose. Europe has economic muscles but no military muscles. Europeans are likely to settle for stability and peace in order to get natural gas from Russia and oil from the Arabs. The last thing Europe wants is war - even if they hate us. But Europe is growing weaker and America is growing stronger. Due to self imposed choices and life style, the European population is expected to decline from over 700 million to 550-600 million in 50 years from now due to very low birth rates - the mortality rates are higher than the birth rates. Big talk and no action define Moslems simply because they are weak. If they had the resources to destroy us-they would. I therefore suggest that we stop lament "relations" with Turkey and destroy our enemies.

What's so different? You think that if Jews upped sticks, gave all of Palestine to the Arabs, and moved to Europe or the US, that the world would suddenly start to love us? They hate us. They have always hated us, and they will always hate us. The situation in the Middle East is a red herring. Nothing we can do will make them stop hating us.

They did nothing to get Shalit released. They did not take steps to bring peace either. With Netanyahu, we got a video that Shalit is still alive. I would say both the Right and Left have hurt Israel's image. Olmert was all talk and no action. These leaders know that preventing food from going into Gaza only promotes Anti-Israel feelings. It seems these leaders are making things worse for both sides. They are promoting the seeds of hatred.

Ben-Yishai writes, "finally, Honduras' ousted president charged Israelis with using poisonous gases against him." Actually, I think we were using some mystery "rays" against him... Seriously, the fact that Ben-Yishai brings up a lunatic like Zelaya shows how weak his argument is. Let me offer another take. First, Israel has been acting like a loser, a supplicant, and a guilty party for too long. Peres even today keeps shouting "We want peace!" when he should be insisting "We have rights and interests too, and are prepared to defend them." If you act like the world's doormat, don't be surprised if they treat you like one. Second, you always had the odds stacked against you, yet the ethos of "ayn brera" - there is no other choice - prevailed. Today you are one nation against 22 Arab states, 56 states (plus PA) of the OIC, and an automatic majority in the UN. The only way they will accept you is if you are no more, so f*** 'em. Third, Europe is undergoing a transformation that will in a generation leave it unrecognizable: more Islamic, economically stagnant, and politically less relevant. Lieberman is right to focus on the upcoming and "neglected" nations. Finally, Israel - including those in its chattering class (like Ben-Yishai) should remind themselves why Israel is there in the first place. A good place to start is Daniel Gordis' "Saving Israel".

We are supposed to be separate from the nations, either we keep ourselves seperate, or they will do the job for us but there is no getting away from it. Baruch Hashem!

economy as well, yep phone lines electricity and others, I didn't hear him complain about that dependance, oh well.

As a hispanic living in america, you should be totally ashamed of yourself. Do the Palestinian people not have a right to self defense, security, freedom, and liberty, or is that priviledge only provided to jews? I encourage you to read more about the Palestinian people to understand what they have gone through since 1948. Education is important these days.

You israelis seem to be putting down america quite a bit these days, but without america, your little country would never exist. It looks like people like you need to be reminded of who feeds who. You give a very bad image of the israeli people.