All this is true and known a long time. Yet Carter, Obama and both Bushes still wanted to exterminate Israel. Go figure

Exactly who honestly thought the Arab-Israeli conflict was central to "peace" in the middle east.

The an analysis doesn't take into the account the demise of western societies. Europe's old population is already almost gone and the semi-islamified new Europe doesn't even show great interest in the mere existence of Israel. About the US: There are broke, really. True, they are the only remaining superpower but it could take quite some time until they get on top of their own home-made problems.

And the Islamists are even more obsessed with Jews than the corrupt dictators who embraced the Pan-Arab Nationalism of Nasser. As for the West, don't count on anything from these weasels. Their hypocrisy knows no bounds. This fiasco in Libya is only a great example of venality, hypocrisy, incompetence, lack of judgement, & dishonesty, all covered up with BS rhetoric about ''innocent civilians'' -

Israel threat has been used by the arab leaders for not going through democracy and was always a good tool to defend themselves for their security measures , which obviously was a big lie and the fact that they were protecting Israel in order for them to keep the threat and so keep their own chairs . now i think Israel should start warrying more than ever , because one of the main reasons for the Arab revolts was that the regimes never stood strong against Israel . i think its better for Israel to be reasonable and not to try to play the old games and language with the Arabs

You may be right that the present upheavals in the Arab world (albeit 222 years late) don’t have Israel as their focus, and that solving the Israeli/Palestinian conflict won’t resolve their problems. If that wasn’t obvious yesterday, it certainly is today. But now, with even more instability in the Arab world, that could change in the blink of an eye. It’s not enough to be on the back burner, we have to get out of the kitchen altogether. The smart thing for Netanyahu to do would be to make peace with the Palestinians on the West Bank, make them an offer they can’t refuse, and to leave Gaza to stew in its own broth. It won’t cost Israel much, the world will recognize the Palestinian state, the deal will gain international approval and Gaza will be completely isolated.

About 22 million people, Palestinian and "Israeli" around the world deserve to think about to find a solution to break the cycle of conflict and violence. If the world realy -as the author claimed- does not care about us, we must care for ourselves. I do believe that by arabs taking care of their selves first, they enhance their ability to take care of everybody else : )

Islamic fascists (those who murder in the name of Allah) must be rooted out and neutralized. Those who stone, mutilate and subjugate women do not pray to God but to the serpent. A loving God would not condone such activities, the serpent would. The world pivots on this age and historians will remember these days as the "The War for the Souls of Humanity"

It was never true that the major instabilityin the Mideast or the Muslim World had to do with Israel - Polisario insurgency in Morocco, Algerias's long-lasting bloody civil strife with its 130,000 dead, Yemen's endless civil wars, the cockpit of Lebanon (US intervention back in 1958), Iraq and Syrian suppression of Kurds and other minorities, Iran-Iraq strife, Saddam and Kuwait, Kashmir, endless war in Afganistan, Christian-Muslum slaughter in Indonesia's Aceh, etc. It was always complete CRAP. And the implosion of one Arab dictatorship after another in recent weeks only proves this further. Yet who have been the biggest public proponents of this Big Lie, that Israel's non-advancement of peace with Palestinians is to blame for all this Muslim World instability, is the root cause?? Tony Blair, General James Jones (ex-NATO chief and US ex-National Security advisor), and Admiral Mike Mullen, current Chair of the US Joint Chiefs. Obama and the Clintons. And of course, (needless to say) Libertarian goon squad Ron Paul and his son Rand, along with a plethora of academic "experts" looking for an excuse to spout an Anti-Israel message. They have now been conclusively proven to be maliciious liars. In a dangerous world, we can't afford bad advice like this,and less so from prominent people who mislead us with Big Lie propoganda to further their own agendas. We need to marginalize these bastards, and keep reminding their listeners at every opportunity of their fraud, to discredit them as thoroughly as they deserve to be..

suggect historically you resolve your problem by returning to your homeland, what is now called Jordan, And there uplift others by uplifting yourselves.

how do we know that if the arab countries become democracies they would not bother about Israel and Palestine? democracies like france, uk and usa seem very bothered about lybia. also, i don't get it. as salma says, its in your interest to stop killing each other, regardless of what's happening elsewhere. why are you so delighted that the arab countries are going up in flames?

author has no understanding of neither ME nor the rest of the world, at all. whatever happens he'll just find a way to justify Israeli politics, I guess.

wait the emerging new arab states and youll be surprised by what they are hiding for us. the warning which we recieved by the new egyptian governement is a clear sign if you know what iam talking about

Israel is indeed a factor. Present dicatorships have tried their best to arabs believe that they are in a state of war with israel whereas they are strategic alies supported by the US and israel for decades.

OK. So say the Arab's are preoccupied with their own issues this year and the next five-years does that make the status quo here sustainable? What happens if they form their own kind of democracies? They'll suddenly stop caring that the Palestinians are not emancipated and are subject to military occupation? Doubtful. Bechor reflects typical Israeli thinking: this is hard, let's do it later or let the next guy take care of it. One of the reasons nobody had any good equipment in Lebanon 2 was because of this mentality in the IDF, particularly amongst the guys responsible for logistics. When will we drive this mentality out of the intelligentsia and political leadership?!?

Sadat, Mubarak, Assad and Hussein all fought against Israel in bitter wars in the 1960s and 1970s and yet you mention that these regimes never stood strong against Israel. How ironic indeed! The reason they stopped was because they were decisively defeated and preferred to spare their regime and countrymen further losses and agony. These leaders were not stupid and in some respects wise. I think it is reasonable to not play the old games and language with Israel, but rather to pursue for peace for the benefit of all peoples. Israel will never lose, so it's better to understand this earlier rather than later.

your only hope. Good luck.

The only offer the Arabs won't refuse is the destruction of Israel. The Arabs refused to accept ANY Israel in 1947, and refusals have continued down to Barak who offered practically the whole "West Bank" to Arafat who still refused. The goal of the complete destruction of Israel is still contained in Hamas', Hezbollah's and the PLO's charters. The boot is very much on the Arabs' foot. If they truly wanted it, there would be peace tomorrow. As they clearly don't, the only answer is to maintain a strong, undivided Jewish Israel.

The Israeli mentality is the opposite. We must do something now even if it makes no sense and a bit of patience would make things easier. Imagine that Israel has to negotiate with Palestinians when the rejectionists have lost their sugar daddies in Lebanon, Syria and Iran. Make more sense to negotiate when they are getting paid to reject?

the things happening in the arab and muslim mideast aren't changing at all. they have always been at each others throat! and you are not using your supposed intelligence if you think Israel isn't part of the equation. they have found that that the separate regimes can't cooperate to eliminate so they are consolidating. Israel hasn't left their minds. they know that as long as Israel remains they are nothing! Israel is G-D'S sign to the world and especialy to Islam that He still reigns. allah the non god of islam has fallen on his demonic face over and over and as long as Israel is he knows he is lost. i wish the followers of this demonic farce would open their eyes, allah is not a god never has been and never will be. he is just another idol raised up to false god status .!

Delusional more than day-dreaming, I'd say. The ersatz "Palestinians" walked away from an offer which would have given them 90% of the West Bank and East Jerusalem as a capital. They chose to start the second intifada instead. You are trying to be reasonable and accommodating. What you completely fail to understand is that the ersatz "Palestinians" are not in the least bit interested in co-existing in peace and harmony with Israel; they are interested exclusively in supplanting Israel. Judea and Samaria must be annexed, and its Arab population repatriated to Jordan, country of their citizenship. Seven decades of unrelenting violence and terror on the part of the ersatz "Palestinians" have been more than enough. There was a better way; the ersatz "Palestinians" have rejected it on every occasion. They can go ply their trade -- terrorism -- somewhere else.

As always relentless, intelligent and correct. I agree with you101%. Bless you and all those thinking like you.

The correct political imperative that the Arabs are going through their awaking does not have much bearing momentarily on Arab/ Israeli conflict , but things are sorted out the conflict will comeback again to the fore, second the other players in the region will carry the torch Like Iran and Turkey until Israel yields to peace and get rid of occupation for it's own good. Finally, as much as you wanted to ( get rid ) of the centrality of the Arabs /Israeli conflict you tried to make Israel the central issue in the region which make Israel the lighting rod. For more conflict . Unless Israel and the weakened West can deal with Iran Which is fomenting conflict then peace and tranquilty will not prevail.

The author should stop dreaming about the West opinion on Israel, at least in Europe. It is not seen as "reliable, credible, democratic force", but rather as a conqueror colonizing the poor palestinians, and the sole responsible for the failure in reaching a peace agreement in the past decade... I just had an example of such West opinion this morning attending a conference of M. Vedrine (former French foreign affairs minister) who manage to blame Israel, and solely Israel, for the absence of peace, even if the topic was about arab revolutions. This lie has a long life. (note my colleagues were not shocked that Israel was said to be the sole responsible - they may believe that "palestinians are maybe a bit responsible", but there was no need to mention it....Hopeless!). Results of worst PR policy ever.

Bechor is absolutely correct. Fictional "Palestine" doesn't amount to squat to anyone except Jew haters, who use it as an excuse to attack and boycott Israel. However, they'd always find an excuse. Israel must claim all of Judea and Samaria forever. This land has rightfully belonged to us for thousands of years and always will. We have incontrovertible legal proof of this. For instance, see "The Myth of Israel's Illegal Settlements" by David M. Phillips, Prof. at Northeastern University School of Law. We need to widely publicize the truth. We won't convince our enemies, of course. However, our evidence is strong enough to convince any open minded person we are absolutely correct.

Yes! I agree! But try telling that to the western media!

I don't know about Bush Sr, but his son, George W. Bush, is a devout Evangelical Christian. Evangelicals are Israel's greatest supporters. GW Bush was considered one of the friendliest US presidents towards Israel. He was replaced by Obama, the most anti-Israel president in our history who spent his first days in the White House being advised daily by Carter. I believe the two devised a plan to destroy Israel and we are seeing it being implemented.

what I have said all along. Israel has been passing the bucket for so many years now. It gets harder and harder everyday to make peace. We must make peace in WB even if it means creating a Palestinian state, and let Hamas be left with Gaza. We must involve Egypt and have them reach a deal with Hamas. I'm dreaming, but we must take care of this somehow.