The Balfour Declaration and the suffering of the Palestinians. Hanoch Daum ought to have started by that first

what the Palestinian Authority had given to Israel for disengagement from Gaza? What documents WIKILEAKS revealed about the negotiations of 2008? Israel has made concessionsbut again Abbas said - Noooooo. After Netanyahu froze settelments Abbas continued to demand and for 10 long months did'nt want to even meet with Netanyahu and i'm not talking about nego..... Obama is clearly biased against Israel. I think the leftist media influences him. Too many times the ball was on the field of PLA and still everyone chose to blame israel.

The Balfour Declaration and the Mandate creating a Jewish national home in Palestine was not at the expense of another people. The local Arabs were given Transjordan - and even more in 1947 by the UN Partition vote. In fact, the Palestinian refugees refused to share Palestine and their Arab backers tried to destroy Israel and lost several wars. Blame the Arabs, not the Jews for the past 100 years of warfare.

There will be peace when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us.

Of course you do realize that Jews are the true Palestinians, do you not? At the time the Balfour Declaration was drawn up, Palestine was still largely barren and inhospitable. It was the Jews of the First and Second Aliyot that nurtured that desolate place, pushed back the desert, drained the swamps, built cities and villages and cultural centers, built libraries and schools, hospitals, clinics and universities -- then and only then did the nomadic Arabs find it a pleasant place and descended upon Palestine like a swarm of locusts. You are a dupe of the ersatz "Palestinians" -- who did not adopt that terms for themselves until the mid-1960s -- and you should really go back and study history before spouting nonsense. You might thus avoid making a complete fool of yourself, as you have with your post at No. 2

Of all the places in the world, the Balfour Declaration refers to Palestine as the "national home for the Jewish people" because Palestine has been the home of the Jewish people since before the time of Christ.

Great analysis

You say : " Both sides are suffering as result of Palestinian terrorism" . But don't you think that both are suffering as a result of occupation equally ? Throughout history countries that colonized or occupied others' lands ultimately decided to abandon the policy of colonization or occupation : Great Britain finally let go India in 1947,France granted Algeria independence in 1962, and Portugal at long last left Angola and Mozambique alone in 1974, all this to cite only a few examples. It would be in the best interest of Israel and the Palestinians to finally conclude a fair, just, and long-lasting peace agreement . Consider the 32 year-long peace between Egypt and Israel : it has guaranteed peace, security, and stability as much as it has spared both Israelis and Egyptians deadly violence . Is it not right ?

if he is advised by his favourite Arab anti-Israeli friend Fared Zakaria and self-hater anti-Israeli friend Thomas Friedman?

This is only partly correct, at best. The Peace treaty with Cairo has a serious chance of ounilaterally broken up by the Egyptian side. I believe you already know this, but pretend as if nothing is happening right now.

This short op/ed is succinct and goes to the heart of the matter. Those that decry Palestinian suffering from the occupation miss the context of Arab rejectionism and genocidal violence and contribute to the perpetuation of this conflict.

Why start there? Go further back, to the late 1800's, when the Jews came and BOUGHT land. The economy improved. It was THEN that the arabs came (early 1900's) because of the improved economy. Or go further forward in history, to the White Paper. And to 1948, when many arabs came to live there at the behest of the Jordanian government after they made the area Judenrein. Don't be so selective in your 'history'.

The morality of self-defense needs to be stated more explicitly than the above. Otherwise the enemies of Israel would inadvertedly get a weapon handed to them to use against us. Israel is not merely 'indirectly' hurting Palestinian children in order to defend itself, but it needs to be said that the Palestinian children are victimized by their own Palestinian terrorist parents. Those parents are both culprits of Israeli death and of deaths amongst their own. Without their parents terrorist ideas and actions, those kids would have the chance to be as happy as Israeli children. Also, it needs tro be said explicitly that those who INITIATE violence, are the Palestinians not the Israelis. Anyone initiated violence loses his right to his liberty and even life as he shows that he cannot live in a civilized society, since he is not leaving his fellow citizens alone.

...Shoah to the "suffering" of the people in Gaza... It is the same Obama, only in new and improved wrapping. It is high time for a change, friends...!!

Most Israeli or perhaps all feel that a black American President is a negative for mankind. I am also shocked how Israel feels it can just mix itself into American politics and push things is their direction.

"The dream of a Jewish and democratic state cannot be fulfilled with permanent occupation," he(Obama) said during his speech. Well,Israel is definitely Jewish and it's definitely democratic,so what was Obama implying?That the STATE is just a dream and will remain a dream until there is also a Palestinian Arab state? This isn't just rewriting of history,it's also sinister.The implication is that Obama has joined the ranks of those who question the legality of the present State of Israel.He appears to be trying to turn the clock back to 1946 and wants the 'Zionists' to reapply to the UN for a state. Obama has a nasty trait in common with Arab tyrants and their cronies.He can double-talk and deceive with a smile on his face. THREE CHEERS FOR ISRAEL!!!

he wasn't making moral equivalency, but human and universal commonality of suffering.

but israel dodging talks for years

his arrogant speech protected once again 'palestinians' from their own lousy inhuman behaviour ... this dude doen't give a damn about either people - only himself and being re-elected.

READ! Read about 1. Who says they are prepared to talk anytime (Israel), 2, Who says they will not talk and pushed back from talks whenever they felt a resolution was too close for comfort ("Pals"; Arafat got too close and the Intifada was created. Abbas got too close and so turned to the UN), 3. Who refuses to talk at all (Hamas) Re: PA and Hamas: playing "bad cop, good cop" won't work. Sorry.

Please answer the following: Do you think that the suffering of the wives and children of the Nazi leadership who implemented the Final Solution during the Allied carpet bombing of Germany was in any way, shape or form equivalent to the suffering of the Jews in Nazi concentration camps? Is the death of the 15-year old daughter of an Obersturmbanfuhrer in the Einsatzgruppen in the firestorm in Dresden morally equivalent to the death of 15-year old Anne Frank in Bergen Belsen? There is no such thing as "universal commonality of suffering." That's my point.

First of all, wasn't it Abbas who sat on his hands and refused to negotiate for ten months of the settlement freeze and then blamed Israel because Israel refused to extend the moratorium? Secondly, why does the supposedly "peace-loving" Abbas refuse to repudiate the vile Fatah charter that calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and the expulsion of the Jews, and why did he just enter into a "unity agreement" with Hamas, whose charter calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and the extermination of the Jews? Thirdly, why do all ersatz "Palestinians," of every stripe and breed, refuse categorically to recognize the right of the State of Israel to exist in its ancient homeland, and why do they refuse to acknowledge the essential identity of the State of Israel as a Jewish state? Finally -- the State of Israel has emerged victorious in six wars, all started by the Arabs. The State of Israel has had to combat seven decades of unrelenting Arab terror. You do not set the terms and conditions for anything; there is no "negotiation" called for -- we talk; you listen. We offer; you accept. There is no counter-offer. Don't forget that you are a vanquished people, and you have only yourselves to blame for having rejected all offers of a two-state solution on three occasions. Israel will annex Judea and Samaria and repatriate its Arab residents to Jordan, country of their citizenship. That's your two-state solution -- Israel and Jordan. You can change Jordan's name to anything you like.

but Jordan has been dodging talks for years

Actual facts prove you wrong. When the Balfour Declaration was made there were no "Palestinians". Most of the people called "Palestinians" are Arabs from Iraq, Syria and Lebanon who immigrated during the British occupation that started in 1920. The "suffering of the Palestinians" is that of the criminal who got caught.

Your right, the foreign occupiers should leave this land. They should dismantle their domes and take them back to Arabia where they all came from and stay there until they learn a thing or two about respecting the rights of non-Muslims.

Sad really that idealism superceeds sanity. Who is Israel dealing with, that is the issue, everthing else is fantasy.