Whereas Yair Lapid is absolutely correct in his assessment of the Left, his opinion about the Right is questionable. The truth is that Nazism HAD BEEN defeated by brutal force. It is very painful to recall how many human lives were sacrificed, but the problem was ultimately resolved. There was simply no other choice except the military solution. Unfortunately, the problem with the independent "palestinian" state is exactly the same. Hitler wanted the Jews dead, and that was the reason for the Holocaust. In exactly the same way, the Arab countries want the Jewish state dead. "Hamastan" is essentially an independent state, and how many rockets have landed in Israel today only ? This is exactly what will happen after establishment of an independent "palestinian" state, but this time not Sderot but Netanya and Tel-Aviv will be barraged with rockets. Just a single rocket from Israel in response will give the "palestinian" government a LEGAL right to complain to the UN about "aggression" (they can always say that the rockets from their side were sent by some "fringe group"). Right after that the UN, with its famous obsession about Israel, will allow all hell break loose: a "LEGAL" invasion from the Arab armies will be underway. An interim agreement (until a new generation, not hell-bent on destroying Israel, grows up) is the only choice. After one or two generations things may look differently.

Of course you will not have peace if you allow a Palestine to exist for your lame rationalizations. "the settlers will turn into what they really are: Israeli citizens whom someone wants to expel from their homes." The World will never view settlers beign forced out of occupied territories as a crime. It's about time Israel learned to behave morally by today's standards and not by those of the notorious chapters in world history. The Pals will not have a state because Israel decided to play ball. They will have one despite Israel's tears on the side lines while the World cheers in the bleachers.

Giving away your land in return for nothing. Is a dangerous mistake. the author doesn;t seem to understand,. that by giving away your histric right especially for nothing will embold thenenmies of Israel not satiate it. while the left and right are wrong according to the author. What scientific proof or any proof that your opinion has even a shred of fact linked to it. The mistake Israel makes over the lat 40 years is that everyone thinks they know what their talking about and 90% of the time they don't. Maybe some honest soul searching is in order by the left center and right. until then will be subject to off the wall opinions.

Every camp has its simpletons but the view of sophisticated people on the Right is far different from the caricature Lapid regrettably offers. May he never run for office or, if so, get power. He can't really listen to others. Just one example--the thoughts of a deeply thoughtful right-winger like Moshe Yaalon are in no way captured by Lapid's strawman schematization, which precludes the idea that people other than his simple-minded self could be intelligent and nuanced.

Does Mr Lapid even for a minute think that if the Arabs were ever successful and destroyed Israel, this war wouldn't be over?

I cant believe that Yair Lapid can argue that it is our interests to have a Palestinian State as it would be easier to manage the conflict if one existed. Did having Hamas in Gaza make it easier to manage the conflict? Yair is guilty of the same wishful thinking he accuses others of . A palestinian state would be the source of endless conflict

Lapid is exactly correct in his analysis of the left and right. Where his analysis breaks down is in his discussion of what would happen if the Pallies declared independence and the world recognized it (as much of the world already has). Israel would not get the monkey off its back. Instead the discussion would shift from Ramallah to Jaffo and from Jenin to Haifa. Did exiting Gaza get one arm of the monkey off Israel's back? We live in a world which largely believes that things would be better with no Israel. The monkey will never be off Israel's back until it no longer exists.

Dear friends in Israel this is really the best way, the honest way to follow thank you so much for this highly important contribution someone in charge should submit this article to natanjahu and lieberman and all those in real power everywhere PEACE must be in the HEART yours in love baerlibrumm

Israel must finally get off the front pages as the bully of the poor Palestinians, who should have had their state in the West Bank and Gaza a generation ago. Additional key factor: Israel is very close to losing the unconditional support of the U.S. Yes -the selective indignation and hypocrisy aimed at Israel (absolutely the only place in the region where the ordinary guy or gal, including all Arab citizens, can lead the modern life we all take for granted) of the rich democracies is awful (many of these on the whole do not like and barely know how to handle their own growing muslim minorities). But, Israel must reign in its own right-wing minority (2/3 of Israeli jews are non-religious) which causes it to act against its own long-term interests

Israel needs to disregard the media and crush the terrorists because if they could they would do it without any mercy and the world wouldnt care if they slaughtered all the Jews on the planet!

A Palestinian cannot sit under an olive tree because it is was cut by a settler, cannot listen to Bob Dylan on his iPod because an iPod costs his monthly UN refugee aid, doesn't watch an orange sunset but a white one covered of white phosphorus: do you understand now why you cannot have a common core with the Palestinians?

You are wrong Yair. Israel could give up all of its land except for the Tel Aviv Hotel and will still be called the villian

The fallacy of Lapid's argument is that he keeps doing the same think Israel has being doing for 40 years, eating the cake and claiming that it is still intact. His party, Kadima, is the party of no coffee-no Tea, At lead the right has the intellectual integrity to claim to have solution and the whole body politics in Israel have adopted, over those 40 plus years the thesis held by the left, that a solution is possible if we trade the territories for a political compromise on both sides of the fence. Lapid, probably preparing a run for office, is using the bully pulpit of the press to convince Kadima voters that he, and not Livni, is more electable, by appealing to the middle ground – in Israel; this middle ground has proven to be mediocre at best. If a Palestinian state is declared, and recognized by Russia, China, the quartet and others, and they declared Jerusalem, not Ramallah, as their capital, what do you do? Invade Ramallah again? If they decide to change their currency, or use miles instead of Kilometers? Conflict management is leading nowhere but more conflict. It resolves nothing. Kadima has proven nothing more than a gentler version of Golda’s vision, actually, the lack of thereof.

All Israeli papers print speculative articles, surmising that the Palestinians want this, want that, they will do this or that - and fantastic theories fly like birds. Please, print mainstream ARAB news articles because those are the true messengers of the Palestinian's intentions. With this one sided presentation the participants of this forums are debating fictitious issues - for the Arab input is missing. Without submitting to the readers the true "Voice of Arabia" the news media mislead everybody, including itself.

No, YOU still don't get it. If you refuse many opportunities for peace and start wars over and over you have given up whatever right you may have had. You cannot go back to the borders you declined and started a war over in 1948. Also: Jews were there before the Arabs, before Islam existed. Read some history please.

This is proof why lapid cannot be PM. Not only was he a friend of failed and gutless olmert and one of his supporters, he makes complex out of simple. His thesis is there is no peace [possible , just manage it.The to prove it, he launches into Ph.d arguments against left and right perceptions, saying they are both wrong. Finally, he makes a mistake to top off all mistakes. He advocates withdrawing unilaterally continuing olmert's convergence which brought rockets and death from gaza without one drop of help from the world body. He says that israel will have the world off its back if there is a pal state. No it would not. The world appeasers , France, England and Spain along with the US would keep pressuring israel to quiet their own moslems and to maintain supplies of oil. Lapid's father was a supporter of olmert, misguided and the son doesn't fall far from the tree. Yair has proven to me that he is unfit to be PM and israelis should not jump to the new messiah. Cold peace was made by begin, a strong nationalist who had been shunned for years, after a bitter war with Egypt. All the others tried for peacce but could not do it. peres, rabin, barak, olmert and livni brought terror inside israel. Sharon and now bibi have bought relative quiet inside israel as good as its going to be. we don't need to hear from lapid or livni with the same old bull stories. Israelis die for lost causes.

Yair is not satisfied with one terrorist state in Gaza, he wants a second terrorist state in Judea and samaria.

It boggles the mind that any Israeli, outside a lunatic asylum, could seriously argue creating a hostile new state in the heart of Israel is a successful way to "manage conflict". How would an 8 mile waist (a thre hour jaunt to cut our state in half) help Israel manage conflict? How would losing Jerusalem help Israel manage conflict? How would having every Israeli city and town under constant rocket bombardment help Israel manage conflict? How would being inundated by hostile Arabs help Israel manage conflict? Lapid's reasoning belongs in the lunatic asylum.

Mr. Lapid again demostrates his totally lack of knowledge. The continual chant that a war against terrorism cannot be won with military force is wrong. The British did it in 1948 and we have proven in Cast Lead that only can we win, but win in an urban environment and even Hamas now admits that well over half of the casualties were combatants (the best ratio in the history of modern warfare). Let's try winning first before his abject surrender.

If a "Palestinian" state was built on the West Bank, there is a VERY GOOD chance it will soon end up like Gaza. Tel Aviv and other major population centers would be at the mercy of rockets and bombs. Israel would have no choice but occupy once again this "Palestinian" state. It's surprising that Lapid does not see this!!!!

"Should it fail to restrain them, no Goldstone would be able to complain should the IDF respond in full force." So the world will suddenly love Israel? Flick a switch where Israel isn't automatically seen as evil and wholly responsible? We've gotten to the point where there is nothing Israel can do that would prevent a Goldstone response to every move it makes. The world is to used to hating Israel. If Hamas decides to send rockets from a "Palestinian state" any response would still be bemoaned as disproportionate and blood-thirsty, only this time it would be against a "nascent long dreamed of state" rather than an "occupied people". I don't see any reason to believe otherwise.

If Israel were to retreat to the 1948 borders, and a Palestinian state established in the territories, there is no guarantee that the Palestinian leadership won't point at a mountain, an area of land, a neighbourhood in Jerusalem, or in a border town and say that Israel still occupies it and that there will war until Israel vacates it. It happened in Lebanon. After Israel left all the south of Lebanon - and the UN confirmed it, all of a sudden Har Dov became part of Lebanon and a casus belli. The argument sounds OK, but as long as all the treaties with the Palestinians prove not worth the paper they are printed on - viz Oslo - such a step is premature.

And that's why we vote against it.

when aggressor states get smaller and smaller. They will always want to conquer Israel, and there is nothing that can change that. The only answer is to make the price of aggression too high.

But there is no peace on the horizon

To George and Chaim: you are right and wrong. Some conflicts are like crime or drug sales. You reduce them in one area,...and they spread elsewhere. In Calif. recently, Mary Jane was not legalized...but anyone can smoke it. Crime goes down...but then can increase. A conficted sex offender..gains notoriety upon his release..then is arrested within 1hr..( in his case for life). Japan/Germany surrended unconditinally...after years of massive bombings and civilian deaths ( 2 atomic bombs). This conflict is DIFFERENT. The question is, how to MINIMIZE it..like heart disease or diabetes? That is really the gist of this thing. Will 25 F35s stop Iran's nukes and Shihabs? Or Kassams and Grads? No matter what Israel does..there will be constant warfare..is the Allon Plan with adjustments the answer? Are 2 states minimizing the risks? Should Israel transfer land to the PA as part of some deal (Galilee)? There is an ans..frankly, I dont know it..Abba Eban once said, Israel must be prepared for some level of violence. I agree. to Israel; live with it, and do what is in your interests. I met a lady whose parents survived Babi Yar. 120,000 Jews died., 35,000 in 3 days. 500,000 Hungarian Jews dead in 6wks..Consider what Israel has achieved. Be thankful for small things (or big things). I am.

To Michael: true, Israel has 5.5m Jews and 5.5m opinions, not to forget the Arabs. BUT, life cannot stand still, it has to move on. Israel has been confronted since 1947 with several major wars..and minor ones. As Olmert said recently, Israel was right in withdrawing..and it handled the Lebanese War as best as possible. Considering US/UNpressures..it probably did. Bombing Beirut was a mistake however. Perhaps withdrawing the brigade from Hamastan was a mistake. Keeping 8,000 settlers was not. (Israel should have military enclaves..but not zealous religious settlers on some biblical pretextt. The USA erred during Pearl Harbor. The Russians erred in the Munich Pact. The Germans erred at Normandy (didnt move SS divisons south). Everyone makes mistakes, and so does Israel. Apologizing for Operation Cast Leads crimes (few) was a mietake. Boarding the ships with paint balls, paint balls? Not destroying Hamas...hitting them much harder was warranted. I recall when Israel bombed "empty" buildings....and used rubber bullets below the knees..Oy vey!

The point Mr Lapid is that, for the christian world as well as for the muslim world, Israel is not some country, it is the land of the Jews and every centimeter square of Jerusalem is disputed. There is around us a convergence of forces which doesn't exist for any other place in the west/middle east. This only parameter changes everything.

Yair Lapid writes, "yet if a Palestinian state is established, it would have to take responsibility for its own madmen at least. Should it fail to restrain them, no Goldstone would be able to complain should the IDF respond in full force." Hamas fired some 8000 rockets at Israel and the world still blamed Israel and the IDF. Lapid favors the same type of unilateral policy that led to the Gaza evacuation. Still, there may be no alternative. Let's control what we can and manage the rest. I agree that there is no absolute solution.