olmert put israel in a box because he offered so much without any knowledge of the military and security issues, and without ironclad guarantees. Worse he offered to accept refugees. This is treason to the state as its ok for arabs to kick jews out of judea but not okay to keep israel the land of the jews. olmert's trial for fraud is nothing compared to his offerings which abbas and assad are using as starting points. For this, god must have the answer to olmert and deal with him severely.

UN Security Council Resolution 242 has been the framework and the basis for all peace talks and agreements so far between Israel and its Arab neighbors, Palestinian and otherwise. The is no need to change the framework now. 242 does not refer to the 1967 armistice lines (Green Line) as the future borders between Israel and its neighboring countries. 242 in fact does not mention even once the idea of setting up yet another state in the region, let alone between the Jordan and the Sea. In fact, 242 does not make any reference what-so-ever to concepts such as "Palestine", "Palestinians" or the "Palestinian People". These were manufactured only after the June 1967 Six-Day War.

Is there something lost in the translation between Arabic and Hebrew or English here, some subtle nuance the diplomats are politely overlooking? When haggling in the souk, a willing buyer and seller approach a possible deal with goals and red lines over price and quantity, more often than not self interest drives them to a mutually acceptable compromise which neither is fully satisfied with but a deal gets done. When Hebrew or English speakers utter words like "negotiation" or "peace process" Palestinians, and Europeans seem to hear "capitulation of the Jews", "surrender of half the enemy's capitol", "internationally imposed solution", "delivery of victory over the Zionist entity". There can be no deal here because Israel, Hamastan and Fatahland all have mutually exclusive goals. Israel seeks to remain a state, the Palestinians seek to build a state on the ashes of Israel. A three state solution and deterrence is the only way forward until the enemy feels strong enough again for war.

Now after murdering innocent Israelis and coming to the realization after 62 years of lying to their people that they can destroy Israel and reclaim the land, Abbas now says he is ready for talks. Talk about what? The West Bank & Jerusalem are lost to the Palestinians and they now have their Islamic paradise of Gaza where they may murder each other until the Hebrew Messiah comes. There is nothing to talk to the Palestinians about.... absolutely NOTHING.

Two points: You would be the losers. Second, you already have the UN totally on your side as they are just as "Hitlerian" in their views and pathological hatred against Israel -not even you would be that dumb- maybe.

The mafia head of the ramallah arabs abbas wants to talk !!!!! Who will he talk to?? Maybe the cowardly groveling wimp called barak??Nobody wants to listen to his cravings. Maybe the anti Israel brown and the anti semetic brittish who have proved since the last world war that jews are expencable will hear his rantings. Who and what is a palestinian?? A word in the media vocablary only.!!!who and what is hamas that this mafia leader says wants peace??? Well some do live in a dream world.

The 1921 Borders for the 2 State Solution is the Jordan River with 80% of the Mandate land for the Pals. Gaza makes it a three state solution with Hamas sworn to destroy The Jewish State. Tell Abbas to forget about 1967 borders and land swaps.

More lies from the PLO, headed by Abbas. Fatah is still the dominant PLO party, and they just had a party congress last year in Bethlehem. What did they conclude, that there will be a peaceful two-state solution? Not even close. Fatah does NOT endorse the 2-state solution, nor does it support peace talks. Read for yourselves: http://www.e-fateh.org/paper_full_3.aspx Goals: Article (12) - total liberation of Palestine and the liquidation of the Zionist state economically and politically, militarily and culturally. Article (13) - the establishment of independent democratic Palestinian state with full sovereignty over all Palestinian territories [no two state solution anywhere in the goals of Fatah] Style: "Article (17) - an armed popular revolution is the only way is imperative for the Liberation of Palestine." Article (19) - the armed struggle is not a strategy and tactic of the armed revolution to the Arab Palestinian people a critical factor in the liberation struggle and the liquidation of the Zionist entity will not stop this fight, but the elimination of the Zionist entity and the Liberation of Palestine. Their words, not mine. Abbas is lying to the media.

Along with the reliably anti-Israeli (and proven anti-Semitic) Guardian, Abbas is actually a very good comedian!

"There will be progress if Israel accepts accept framework of two-state solution based on the 1967 borders and an end to occupation."... You mean like Bibi has already said, Olmert already offered along with previous governments? You mean the plans that the Arabs keep refusing that date all the way back to the second partition plan? Jokes. Why is this published without the essential background information?

The era of dreams is over. The Israeli pioneers are resettling the land their ancestors once lived on. Now it's time to resettle Ramallah and Gaza, and give these people a choice to accept the state of Israel or move to Jordan (the second half of the divided Palestine). The illusion that, by ceding the Muslims a portion of Israel, we will achieve peace and harmony has fooled too many people. Bibi, Hamas has to be defeated, not spanked. Abbas is stepping down. Do not allow a succession to his less than symbolic post. The Palestinian politicians have shown the nullity of their effectiveness, and the price of their honesty. As long as the Israeli government allows this illusion to go on, the corrupts are stealing aid money from the whole world, right under our nose. We have been lucky, so far, that the Palestinians fight more between themselves than with us, but one day a charismatic leader will appear and bring them together. We have to stop this fantasy of a Palestinian state. They didn't want their own state under the Turks, nor under the British and neither under the Jordan’s. How blind (or deaf, as it is openly acknowledged) can one be not to see that these are all tricks to get rid of the Jews in the Middle East. Jews have been kicked from almost all Arab lands. Jews have been persecuted and murdered in Europe for almost 2000 years. Stop being so naive, stop feeling worse for others than for yourself. The Muslims in Israel can live, and prosper, and freely practice their religion, which is more than we can say about ANY Muslim nation. Why on earth should another Muslim state be created? It won't bring us peace. It won't make Israelis safer and it won't make the Jews in the Diaspora any safer either. So why? Are they so deserving of a state. Have they demonstrated an sufficient amount of civism and humanism that we should grant them what Jews have been denied for 2000 years? Wake up, make up your mind and stand by your side.

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 Israeli governments 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

If what Abbas maintains is true we should now anticipate a change in the Hamas Charter which currently calls for the decimation of the state of Israel. We should also note a continuous application of heightened security measures in the Westbank in conjunction with the IDF so that Israeli Jewish citizens may feel (reasonably) secure. In return, as diplomatic relations proceed, we will be required to accede to Arab demands that will make a separate Palestinian state geographically and politically feasible. This will require sacrifices. The whole process must be gradual, however, or "organic" as Prime Minister Netanyahu put it. This process will work best if there is minimal intervention by western powers. Support, but not meddling, by Arab nations would also assist. Finally, the iniquitous influence not only of Hamas but Hezbollah, Iranian Republican Guards and al-Queda must be neutralized. Can this occur? I don't know but it would certainly benefit both parties from an economic and social perspective if it did.

not accept so they never have to negotiate. Israel will just make settlements where and when it wants and neither the arabs nor any American president will stop Israel.

"iniquitous influence of Hamas & Hezbollah" What unbelievable arrogance. As if your own society is not suffering from institutionalized racism, Yisrael Beitenu, Shas, and other diseases who openly call for our murder or "transfer" out of beloved Palestine. I don't hear you speaking out about them Robert. I wonder why - perhaps if it's anti-Arab or anti-Muslim, anything goes. Anything in the opposite direction is called terrorism or fanaticism. Your double standards and hypocrisy are nauseating. The bottom line is that we have national rights and it's within our internationally-recognized rights to resist your fanatics' efforts to efface us. Don't think, for a second, that you hold the moral high ground because you don't. The international community is first witness and will no longer sit silent. By the way I'm still waiting for a reply regarding Fisk's article on the slow death of Palestine via settlements...or is hit-and-runs a hobby of yours?

and your expected reply, this is the first I have known about it. Kindly send me a reference and I will read it and react if I have anything to say. You can send the reference directly to my email address as it is hit or miss whether in fact your post is published and whether I get to read it before this article is removed. I hope this part of my reply is clear. As to most of your post, you do not react to the question of Muslim terrorist organizations but simply set in motion new challenges inferring that there is an equivalence between these terrorist groups and Israel's security organizations including the IDF. This represents a serious weakness in your argument and, frankly, it also represents a strong tendency to minimize the evil effect of these movements on your part over the past year or so of your postings. My conclusion is that you are a strong supporter of terrorism. Furthermore, over the past year, your postings have continued to be quite rigid in their orientation. I really do not believe you have learned much of anything by reading Ynet nor other peoples' postings. I once wrote a post to you noting that you might consider actually describing the social and psychological context in which Palestinian Arabs actually live in order to contribute to the discussions. You declined. You said that all that was important were the articles as laid down by the U.N. Recognizing that you reside a long distance from the mideast, I don't suppose you even know much about the current socio-political context, only U.N. declarations which you choose to interpret in a very predictable manner rather than engage in discussion and analysis. In other words, your perspective is exceedingly limited. I also believe that you utilize this forum to express your considerable anger and hostility. This trait will, and probably does, affect you negatively both in your intellectual life on this forum as well as in your personal life. You would do well, in terms of these negative characteristics, to engage in real introspection and take account. One more item while I am at it: There appears to be at least two "Nours" who have posted on Ynet, the current emotional one and the former logical paint-by-numbers poster. Are you, in fact, one person or two? Or could it be that "Nour" is the appellation given to a mideastern Arab collection of posters?

Abu Mazen yu cant foget Safad,can yu! your people cant....please remember this

Have people forgotten that he was one of the masterminds of the Munich Olympic massacre? Have people forgotten his involvement of the 1st and 2nd intifada? He also helped Arafat swindle billions. This terrorists shouldnt even be breathing let alone be disgustingly considered a moderate!

Equally unacceptable is absorbing a large number of Arab Palestinians who have a sixty-plus year history of violence and aggression. All West Bank Arabs should be repatriated to Jordan, where they can forge a Palestinian state. Jordan is hardly a legitimate country to begin with, having been carved out of Mandatory Palestine to make Feisal's younger brother, Abdullah, a king. So, let them have their Palestine in present-day "Kingdom of the Trans-Jordan." What they cannot have is present day Israel, which necessarily must annex Judea and Samaria, sans Arabs. Is there precedent? You bet. Look at all the countries that disappeared following World War I, and how many borders were changed to accommodate realpolitik. On a lesser scale, the same thing happened after World War II. Realpolitik does not get any grittier than in the Middle East. Israel did not win six wars just to see each victory undone by endless accommodation to our very nasty and bellicose Arab neighbors. All that terrorism has to count for something, too. We should not reward people for acting badly. Sooner or later, Israel will have to resolve the situation in Gaza, which is untenable. No reason why the Gazans could not be absorbed into a new Palestinian state once known as Jordan. Hizbollah is nothing without its Iranian supporters, and Iran is soon to go the way of the woolly mammoth anyway – if the miscreants that populate Hizbollah and plague Lebanon so desire, they can go build their new Palestinian state. It sounds harsher than it is. It is not that difficult a decision, and it is one that all parties can live with. Absorbing the West Bank Arabs as Israeli citizens is simply not an option. Neither is forking over the West Bank to the Palestinian – who are as quarrelsome as a bunch of scorpions in a bottle. Dump the whole problem into Jordan's lap. By population, it's mostly Palestinian already. If they want a monarchy, fine. If not – well, wouldn’t be the first royal family forced into exile. Look at all the uncrowned heads of Europe if you want precedent. Israel would not be doing anything that has not already been done many times throughout history. I don’t begrudge the Palestinian people a state of their own – but not one square millimeter of Israel. They can have Jordan – which was part of Mandatory Palestine and carved out of the mandate unilaterally by the British.

one state with Palestinian majority, how ironic. guess bibi should think twice before he rejects 67 borders.

in their lives, they never did IDF service. so you missed the point, they don't call for murder only transfer, you mistaking it with your people propeganda, all of them want you back to the Arabia peninsula that's all. go check your facts.

Can someone explain to me why Jordan does not want any more Palestinians, and why Egypt would not agree to have the Palestinians of Gaza returned to its jurisdiction as part of its Peace Treaty with Israel?

If the West Bank Palis really wanted an Islamic state, they could have had it long ago. But they would rather whine about being part of a democratic Israel in a 1 state solution.

they were kicked out of Iraq and in Lebanon they tryed to drag Hizb to another war during cast lead. we all know it was them who shoot the rockets who hit nursing home in the north. they like to make troubles even arab nations don't want them.

All one ever hears from abbass is his never ending cries of "i'm quitting", I'm leaving", I'm resigning" "If I don't get this, or I don't get that I'm not staying... Well who cares...this guy has to be the hollowest suit the PAL has ever come up with... his term is long over, his 100% ineffectiveness is legendary, his demands are at this point outragious, unrealistic, and down right stupid. he is a desperate character, and proving himself to be not half way near what the PALS need... non creative, whining non leadership is his flag, crying wolf his banner, with absolutely no respect from either side, or any of the positions in the middle...he has to go to let in some fresh ideas and thinking...instead of threats and fairy tale wishes that will never come true...He is to the PALS what peretz was to the IDF...A 100% NO GO!

"...the social and psychological context in which Palestinian Arabs actually live in order to contribute to the discussions. " I don't recall this question ever addressed to me. Perhaps you're referring to "Noor" who is someone else. Now to the answer. We're very frustrated , fatigued , disappointed with the West and Arab's promises that we would have our freedom but to no avail , hopeful and resolved . By the way, you seam to think that reading Ynet and commenting on some of its articles could somehow make me more flexible on my fundamental rights. That's wishful thinking. The idea is knowing how YOU people think, and what is motivating you. I can tell you (and you would most probably agree) that the alarming trend I've definitely observed here is the ever increasing incidents of racism and outright calls for genocide. It's disturbing to know that such ridiculous proposals as "transfer" or "Jordan is Palestine" are now being adopted as official banners for mainstream movements in Israel. This development is not exactly causing us to lower our guard. In fact we're as determined as ever. Please consider that a Palestinian state is a means to an end. The "end" is not the demise of the Jewish people, that is none of our business. The "end" is fundamental rights being fullfilled. The rights to citizenship, liberty, and respect. The Palestinian State project is but an avenue that could lead us there. As I said above, Israeli is apparently determined not to let than happen. The irony in all of this is this will bring about your end as a Jewish State, with the Israeli left and general population in a deep coma unaware that the actions of their state is leading them (and us) straight to hell that is the one state solution. You see Robert, our children deserve a better future than checkpoints, occupation, and settlements encircling our cities. Rather than build walls, build bridges. Israel uses Hamas and Islamic Jihad as an excuse to keep the Palestinian people locked up (Gaza and to a certain degree West Bank). Well the PA has held the West Bank together for the past 16 years but apparently Israel's appetite for settlements and Palestinian land is unquenched - rather unabatable. I don't expect you to comment on the issue of settlements, you always evade this issue by either counter-posing questions or bringing up the lame excuse that Israel "left" Gaza with ensuing rockets. etc. Gaza was never left by Israel, it was a unilateral disengagement with all means of entry and egress effectively controlled by Israel and the CIA team in Egypt. I insist on receiving a reply about the Arab population of Ashdod being ethnically cleansed in 1948. A sizeable Palestinian Arab community there was forcefully uprooted there shortly after the '48 war. Any comments Robert? Finally, I should let you know that you got over 95% of your "conclusions" about me simply off mark, waaay off mark. I do live in the Middle East and yes I hold a Western education and citizenship. I'm sad to remind you that most of my compatriots are still living in refugee camps, courtesy of the Israeli occupation, Arab states failure to provide a humane environment for our refugees, and the ongoing usurping of what remains of our homeland, our nation, our beloved Palestine.

If the majority of Israels public reject the idea of a single state then there is nothing anybody including the US president who thinks he was divinely sent. Only the citizens of a country can choose the national identity it wants. Neither foreign politicians, enemy states or the terrorist group demanding that we change that identity because it suits their political aims. I know that just about every politican in the world outside Israel and every muslim wants to see a single binational state to replace Israel but before they get carried away withe their fantasies they should consider the consequences. It will lead to civil war in Israel arabs & jews killing each other just the way they did in 1947 when the UN announced partition which the arabs objected to. It may even turn regional and would almost certainly lead to Egypt & Jordan ending their peace treaties with Israel. When the fighting does eventually come to an end the state will not be a nice big happy place where arab & jewish children play as best friends it will be a country that resembles apartheid South Africa. Jews & arabs will choose not to live together because of the bitter feelings and they will do everything they can to keep each other out their communities possibly even resort to violence and intimidation. Jews will refuse to hire arabs and arabs will refuse to hire jews. There will be no foreign investment because the country would be seen as to unstable so we would all find ourselves alot poorer and more unhappy. So if thats the kind of vision for the future Abbas has let him feel free to demand a single state because if he gets it he will be wishing he never called for it. One state for two peoples has never worked well anywhere in the world there is no reason to think it would work here.

I agree with all your points. But did you hear Jordan has expelled 3.000 Palestinians recently. Wonder if the constant referral by some, if not many who say: Jordan is Plestine and King Abdullah is getting jittery. Wouln't blame him knowing what occurred during his late father's time "Black Sepember" the PLO who disrupted his regime.He had no choise other than resorting ,when he killed over 20.000 Palestiians. But,the only solution to this problem could be resolved if it can prosecuted without bloodshed. Good analysis though.