I have got to give it to you! You wrote a darn good article here.

to this conflict -- just win or loose. One side must win. So far Israelis have been prevented from winning by the outside forces, but also by the dreamers within. Friedman is, as usual , a complete idiot with the NYT's pulpit to present his half-baked ideas. Last time Saudis fed him the 'peace' ideas, which he presented as his own insight. I wonder who does the thinking for him now, Soros, Obama, Emanuel? The truth is, Israelis have been interested in peace since before 1948-- why would they cede the Temple Mount to the Arabs? Why would they sign the Oslo insane and suicidal agreement and hand over land to Arafat and his gang, if they weren't? Why would they brainwash their own youth to believe in peace at all cost? There are simply limits to concessions even for the most ardent peace lovers when they are asked to voluntarily cutting their own throats. As a matter of fact, informal understandings are also not a must in a zero-sum conflict , just a determination to win. Unless you advocate for the Jews to give away their land and become stateless for the next 2000 years, Jews must win and the other side must loose. The sooner Israelis accept that fact, the less chance is for them to become stateless or dead or both.

you must say it is my borders to tell it is for you but with more and more setellments we will reach the core of problem where is israil and where is palastine .... it is not about moslemes or jews or arab and not arab it is about state with its resents .if all the setelments will be palastinian have the same rules and goverment you can disolve the problem if it is not ..setelment will be the first and the only problem to be disolved yesterday a non political man said .. palastinians want peace they want to live the present .. but israili do not shooce the peace becouse they do not want to live the future .he said i think it is god will

So the Pals continue being stateless, go through checkpoints, can't trade, can leave and come as they like? Is that it? " When it comes to give and take, Jews and Arabs get along very well" Yup. Arabs do the giving and Jews do the taking.

Exactly what I've been thinking for a long time, now.

Too bad Haetzni doesn't see that in the eyes of the world - with some exceptions - 1) the Zionist ideology is based mostly on legends and founding myths invented 2000 - 3000 years ago, in no way justifying the terrible injustice done in its name to the non-Jewish population living between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River before the massive Zionist immigration, while 2) the claim of the latter to the land is based on well documented historical realities that concretely existed less than a century ago.

An Israeli author put it simply and articulately several years ago by writing that the 48 War CHANGED the partition plan for the Mandate. All agreements and understandings prior to the war were made invalid. There were no two states..just one, with the other land in dispute. I agree totally. In another notorious act, UN242 is the best hope for some kind of detente between the two sides ( two states agreed to). Now it may take another 100yrs..but so what? As long as the Pales are basically free to run their own lives, play, work, build homes, have babies, who cares. If they are impatient and want a genuine state, they might look east to Jordan., assuming the King complies. The Strip is worthless, except it's view, which Hamas has effectively made a battlefield., except for tourists who dare go there. An Evangelical Christian acquaintence once told me, "So they will get another Arab state, so what". He hit it right on the head.

If amarica goes down we will go down with it, its better for us to acheive peace as soon as we can to protect our selves, cant you see that we are swimming in apool surounded by enemies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Perhaps pogroms and the gas ovens have some bearing on the motivation of zionist ideas and ideals. Perhaps some are forgetting the not so distant past too rapidly.

When writers like Friedman who married into hundreds of millions of dollars write about green utopias which would destroy millions of Americans jobs its easy not to take him seriously. While I didn't know he took time out from his ranting about the Israeli right, he is finally starting to see the light. However, he is only half way there. When he truly confronts reality, that is, the total rejection of Arabs of the existence of the Jewish state of Israel, he will have finally made the intellectual leap of accepting the world as it is and not as he wants to construct it. There is no Palestinian state because the Arabs refuse to accept and internalize the existence of Jewish Israel. Everything else is just window dressing.

To Jeffrey: Friedman is an absolute idiot. But his column gives him some influence (at least over his readers, and PBS liberal TV shows, like Charlie Rose ( who says, "Israel is scared to death of Iran". wowoowow, fur real, as we say in Calif). I mean if Putin said daily that the US is a hoax, it's civil war was just a tactic to allow exploitation of blacks, AND btw, the USA will be destroyed soon, onward to Wash. D.., for total Jihad, what would we think and how would our nuclear forces be alerted? Good for the goose but not for the gander. Friedman thinks its the settlements guys, the caus and effect of the conflict ( but wha about prior to 67?). He wrote a book about Beirut..and accused the IDF of looking away at Shatila and Sabra..how disgusting, while 500,000 were killed in THEIR civil war. He says, two countries with McDonalds don't make war upon one another..could have fooled me. Friedman, is just out of it..but with an agenda. He was infamous at Berkeley..that nefairous liberal bastian of oatmeal brains and other things.

To Jeffrey: Erekat and Abbas will pursue the fanciful thinking of a Pales state (initially) at the pre-67 borders. They should read WHY Israel has some control over land meant for a Pales state...( it wasn't given to them on a plate Abbas). Read Six Days of War by Michael Oren, for the whys, guys. Had the Arabs defeated Israel..guess what, no talkie now., no Jews, Judenrein. Lots of Holocaust museums and films by Spielberg. From the Grand Mufti's goal of no Jew alive in Pales to this2nd Intifada..the Arab minset has not changed.."Throw them into the sea"; " Let Jews all move to Israel, it will be easier to kill them"; "We will wipe out the Zionist State"; "The mother of all battles". etc., etc. Jewish liberals/leftists/peace now types, still are living a delusion. They will be the first to be beheaded, like the naive Pearl. (Wall St Journal). Youd better believe it. Thousands of fatwas repeat the Koran, about rocks and trees. Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hamas, Hez...peas in the same pod. Land for peace..sure..like the Gaza Strip fiasco. To Israel: think about testing an atomic device...draft your Arabs into community service or stop their benefits..capital punishment for terrorists...finish the fence/try real ammo at fence protests...get with it.

To AK: Friedman, Charlie Rose (his interviewer at times), Tavis Smiley (same PBS leftwing dribble), Carter, Soros, Fein, Tutu, Chavez (Venezuela), Obama (wishy washy President with lots of fancy rhetoric and no accomplishments-oh sorry, he wants 1.4b Chinese to have more civil rights, Zbrig, Ron Paul ( US out of everything, including Israel), Rahm and Axelrod (house Yids-oy vey, like the Kapos), each a link in a I think Israel is at fault group chain AND how dare they, the Jews defending themselves. Wha happened to the Holocaust types..who lead 1.5children into gas chambers..quiet, praying to their Hashem for deliverence (like Moses from Egypt). I understand the folk in Auschwitz were quiet..never protesting their internment, only when the gas was turned on did they react too late. To Israel: wake up, the Arab-Muslim world wants a repeat..that's what is motivating Iran. Peaceful purposes only..ha, ha, ha, ha, buy the Brooklyn Bridge.

To AK: Israel just doens't get it, they want peace so badly. It's like a battered wife, who needs her relationship with a brutal husband. No matter how many times he hits her I or attempt it). she somehow evades him..maybe gets a blow in first..he backs off, but comes back stronger and more determined. Like bacteria, the Arabs will ALWAYS come back, stronger, more resolute., unless they are forced to surrender. Israel can win the battles, but not the total war..it is not the USA. (WW2). Even Russia had no fear of the US (MAD), Israel must: take out Hamas first, complete their ruin. Then go after Hez..and mean it. 3rd, aim 100 mukes (Jerichos/F15s/Cruise Missiles) at Iran's nuke sites..maybe Rev Guards..and let them know it maybe through Turkey, Egypt, wherever. These are Israels realistic choices..they will lose the war of attrition however. Doing nothing..maybe, but the Muslims are arming themselves (80,000 rockets/Lebanon AND Fajrs in the Strip).

Agreed! Thank you.

it's haetzni that isn't a must

Based on immutable Islamic theologic dogma, the waging of a Holy War (Jihad) against Infidel nations is every Muslim's command, with Infidels to be given 3 CHOICES: (a) Embrace Islam; (b) Submit to Islamic rule as jizya-paying, protected, though oppressed, Dhimmi minority ("One-State Solution"); (c) Endless war until death and destruction Arab leaders know well that if they break above rules their verdict is certain death - see Abdullah I of Jordan, Anwar Sadat, or what Arafat was afraid of at Camp David II, or Abu-Mazen is today. There are only 3 REMEDIES to counter this: (a) Decisively defeat Arab/Muslim Jihadists, confining them beyond defined and enforceable natural boundaries (happened in history only in Iberia, Sicily, Malta, Russia, Ottoman Europe); (b) Sign temporary truce (Hudna), which Arab/Muslim Jihadists are allowed for up to 10 years, until stronger and able to stage more lethal assault (back to Sq. 1!); (c) Evacuate and emigrate to another land (but they might catch up!). Take your pick! There it is: Entire foundation of 14 centuries of Arab Imperialism - including the Arab-Israel conflict - explained in less than 20 lines. Everything else is just empty talk...

A modern secular state will equal rights and opportunities for all the people in what was called Palestine before 1948. Equality before the law for Arab, Jew, African, and Asian, religious and non-religious, heterosexual and non-heterosexual, black, white, yellow, brown, young and old. All over the world civilized people have multi-racial and multi-cultural societies. The various factions don't get along all the time but they do manage to live together and most of the time prosper. Why do the Jews from the far corners of the world need a special place just for them at the expense of the Palestinian people who lived their entire lives in Palestine? No one is really persecuting Jews. It's all in your heads just so you justify stealing land from its rightful owners.

First, Israel must soundly defeat Islam in its midst. Then Israel must take over the arab schools, camps and media. Give the haredim jobs teaching Judaism. During the next several decades, Israel can reverse the hatred drummed into the arab kids and populace, Then there is a chance for peace. It would also help to hold the proverbial "gun" to the head of Saudi arabia and force them to put their money into Countering anti-Semitism.

When does the historical reality begin and when does it end? Today's reality is that there is group of people who are forced by hteir culture to reject peace with their neighbors, who believe in a culture of death, who oppress their women, who believe in honor killings, who are intolerant of dissenting views, who believe in racism, who fight with and kill their coreligiionists, who have no respect science and secular learning, who want to convert others with the sword, who if they win the battle for historical reality--will cause the human race to go back. Human civiliation and progress needs to start standing up for right and wrong. There is morality. If human civilization is to advance, we must help them reform their culture so that they can learn to live with the rest of us in peace. In the meantime, any victory for their culture of hate and intolerance is a defeat for human progress.

Where in the Arab world does such a utopia exist? The culture of death, intolerance and hate would drive such a place you imagine into a dark chaos. We do not need another single Muslim dictatorhip. We need an age of reformation and enlightenment. A respect for others who are different and for dissenting views. The problem is that these people use their fundamentalism to rebel against their despots.

it must be agreed . so you can not rub --the must -- but realy it is by force of the another

please ..wait untill you awake from alcoholism ... your post is not must but it is lacking of judgment as if the alcoholic man return to his home the door was closed and he want to enter from the hole of the key ....hahaha

So the Pals continued to blow themselves up...and the Israelis continued burying their children. Wake up, girl. The only reason those checkpoints exist was because the Palestinians were hell bent on wreaking havoc in Israel in the hopes of demoralizing the population into surrendering to the genocidal demands of groups like Fatah and Hamas, who, while they may be at each other's throats right now, have never given up their dream of removing Israel from the Middle East.

According to von Neumann theorem, for any zero-sum game there exists a solution (Nash equilibrium) in mixed strategies. The problem is not in this direction, but it is caused by different nature of the game. It is not a zero-sum game, but a coalitional game. For such a game there exist a set of players strategies, for which the solution does not exist. And this is the case.