If the settlements are the problem, what’s the deal with Gaza? No settlements and more problematic them the west bank. If Israel is the one party to reject peace, what happened in Camp David with Clinton? Arafat rejected the best deal he would ever receive. Your article is dumb and full of holes... it belongs on Haaretz.

Maybe Galia needs to be reminded that Arafat was handed all the land he wanted on a silver platter but refused it. Maybe someone should remind Ms. Golan that this tiny land was given to the Jewish nation by G*D and is not ours to give up...wake up professor or move out

a complete fantasy. it is not to say that Israel's enemies have not proposed various ways in which Israel could capitulate. and, of course, various Israeli "leaders" might have been interested. even today, the "moderate" p.a. is demanding Israeli withdrawals in exchange for nothing: no security, no reciprocity, no recognition of a Jewish State. some morons might slap a label, "peace", on it but it is not peace that the p.a. offers. it is a recipe for war and war on less favourable terms for Israel.

How do you go about being able to write an article for Ynet? It looks like anyone can.

But after reading your article and thinking to myself, I understand our leaders. Queen Noor, former queen of Jordan, who is considered a moderate, writes in a very beautiful way, that with all due respect, she is sorry for the Holocaust but that the Arab world is not at fault. She further writes how the Arabs wanted a united Muslim region all the way to the sea. She, the beautiful princess, reiterates what is in the heart of every Arab: they want it all. We, as the remaining Jewish population from the Holocaust, can't afford to be fooled or make mistakes, just because almost 20 years ago they seemed to have made a switch in policy. Nothing hurts more than this. In such a modern world, where the opportunities for advancing and living a great life, without war,exist. Who wants to even imagine losing our precious children or living in fear? I say, with all due respect to the Arabs, there must be a reason why God still wants us around, and the risk of being annihilated as a people still exists and the Arabs haven't really given us big enough reason to trust them.

This article is pure desinformation. The ONE and ONLY purpose of the palestinian leaders is to throw out the Jews from the region, either by using weapons or diplomacy. There are more than enough examples of PLO or Hamas public interventions (in arabic of course), acknowledging the fact that they will not permit any Jew state to be in the region (a second Palestinian state is indeed the solution), either on 1967 borders or even 1948 borders. The goal is indeed simple... if you cannot kill your enemy with wars, kill it from inside. So please leave us alone with your stupid analysis of the consequences of settlements in the region where we are talking of few meter squares of land. Sounds so ridiculous. FIRST and before ALL, Palestinian leadership should accept a JEWISH state in middle east as Israel accepts a Palestinian "muslim" state at its door. That would be a good start...

I dont know where to start. This extreme leftist dribble is so pathetic its laughable!

and the BLAME-ISRAEL-BLAME-THE-JEWS-GAME continues with the biggest players being secular ignorant Jews. The author will go to his own death blaming his own people. pathetic pathetic

honesty of Mr. Golan. But he seems to me like the Czech reform communists from 1968. He tries to pull a "human face" on something, what miss any mark of humanity.

I honestly don't know whether this piece is an attempt at humor or if the author lives in an alternate revisionist history...

With all do respect, there comes a time where one stops listening to one's self, and start facing reality. It's a highly new approach, Professor, to scapegoat the settlements - Jews are not allowed by laws (specifically to Jews only) to build anywhere else in the ME - so why not prohibit it also in Israel ? Israel knows only one very, very, extreme group - the left. Who's so extreme, it won't let reality distract it from the main goal - an imaginary peace agreement, which we already signed more then 15 years ago.

If the author thinks that Sadat offered Israel peace in 1971 she clearly hasn't read the article by Mordechai Gazit entitled 'Egypt and Israel - Was there a Peace Opportunity Missed in 1971?'. It appears in the Journal of Contemporary History, volume 32 pp. 97 115.

Then the claim that "settlements" are the key issue is simply delusional. To the point of the title though it has been clear that Abbas is unwilling to negotiate anything with Netanyahu which is why he keeps preconditioning talks on stupid things like building freeze.

Read about the phased plan and then think about what a PA state especially under Arafat would have meant. Even recently on Memri they have a clip in which a top PA offical admits that a state in the west bank would only be the beginning.....

There is only 1 thing wrong with Golan's article: it is a total fabrication and the writings of someone who must be delusional. Golan talks about Arab peace initiatives and doesn't seem to remember that when Sadat offered peace, Israel withdrew from the Sinai and its oil fields. Likewise, when King Hussein offered peace, Israel jumped at the chance. I'd like Golan to list the peace initiatives from Hamas and Hezbollah that Israel turned down. Maybe the prof. emeritus can think of the peace offered to Israel by Iran. That would be great. I'm sure Golan's former students are waiting for Golan to reply. Oh yes, Israel signed the Oslo accords and there was peace for Israel (As in rest in peace). Maybe the emeritus prof has forgotten that Israel returned land in which most of the Arabs lived and ceded control to Arafat. Funny, I seem to recall that thousands of Israelis were killed or wounded during the Arafat-Oslo peace. When hard-liner Ariel Sharon ceded Gaza and many Jews purchased the agricultural greenhouses asa gift to the Arabs, the Arabs destroyed them, rained rockets on Israel and elected Hamas, one of Golan's peace offerers, who haas a charter pledging to destroy Israel. YNET, please don't publish something that is not based on reality.

No!No!and No its not a gamble,its a lost bet! This article is delusional.It is entirely not based on reality.Its just a dumb leftist rant,based on nothing of substance. There is a reality,and that is, that Islam the religion as whole will not ever allow for there to be peace,period. That is the whole story.It really is that simple.Until all non Muslims submit,there will never be peace, and there is nothing anybody can say to change that.Soak it up for a second,then you can come back and call me a bigot.All I can do is shake my head in embarrasment for you that you are so obtuse,and yet be jealous that you at least think you live in fantasyland.Unfortunatly I have been blessed with the ability to see what is real,sucks for me!

The writers of this idiotic article show how much the press is against Israel .they find everybody at fault from, the time of Ben Gyrion untill the present Israel If these anti Israel fools would open thier eyes and ears maybe the rest of the world would cease thier animosity against Israel Hope the editors take a bit of notice to the absolute rotten rubbish of lies unruths and falsehoods these so called journalist write.

If Peace means to "lie flat on your back to be rolled over", than NO! PEACE means: "Peace for Peace", because two people WANT to live in peace, to respect each other, to work together, to come and visit each other. As long as these minimal standards are not engraved in the Arab/Muslim/Palies mind, there won't be Peace. Maybe no war, but certainly no Peace. Peace is about reality, not 'wishfull thinking. All it needs is a peacefull mindset, but ALL parties must have this mindset. One way Peace only brings disaster. If the writer would stop deluding herself, she would notice that the 'Arab/Muslim/Palies side misses the mindset. It 'only produces hollow phrases about Peace, but fires WAR messages.

For an allegedly smart professor, she comes across as being really dumb. Somehow, Golan was party to the secret talks with the Palestinians and claims that the ONLY problem is "the settlements". Duh?!?!? How is it that supposedly smart people like Golan can be so ignorant? The current reality is that a three-state solution is needed, yet Golan completely ignores this fact. Galia - read reality's lips: The Palestinians cannot and will not sign a peace treaty with Israel even if Abbas wants to. He cannot sign a west-bank-only deal. He cannot sign anything that includes Hamas because - you guessed it - Hamas refuses to make peace! So Golan's entire op-ed is based on the false premise that the Palestinians would sign a peace treaty today if only Israel would kick all the settlers out of their homes and hand them (and half of Jerusalem) over to a still dysfunctional PA with no guarantees that the next day rockets would not be falling on western Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. As I said, for a smart person, oy va voy aleinu!

fired at you every day!!!

We have seen the "palestian's" response to Barak's 98 % proposals in 2000 : intifada , with murders , suicide bombers , etc . This reaction has , i think , opened the eyes of many Israelis , and turned then to more rightists positions .

the person who wrote this must have been living in a cave with Osama for hte last 2 decades if she can write something so stupid!

But I think the writer has a point Because over the past couple of years in relation to the Peace Talks the Israeli Government has proved themselves to be either ubeleilavbly accident prone or past masters of Bad Timing! Because it seems everytime there is a chance for a resumption of talks, or a new mediating effort someone somewhere in the Israeli Government announces more settlements knowing full well the reaction so back we go to sqaure one They know full well that a halt to settlement building even for a fixed period would add tremendous goodwill to the process and pave the way for continued talks and mediation. And further would make not the slightest difference either to Israels security or the final settlement agreement. Is it any wonder we look upon these actions as ploys not to talk? That said I believe in strengthening and accelerating day to day cooperation at all levels with Israel (Settlers allowing) in East Palestine, building solid bridges to pave the way for the establishment of good relations when the State of Palestine or East Palestine is born

are the peple like the writer.Long live the settlers in the mountains of Samaria and judea.man can try to give away the land of G-d but they only harm themselves.

Looking at voting patterns, it is clear that Israelis are very suspicious and skeptical when it comes to the left wing idea of "land for peace". The government promises the best security it can give under the constant threats from Lebanon and the Palestinians. Galia Golan does not accept this. Instead, she says we should gamble with our national security and take a chance that the Palestinians would be happy with a state in the west bank and Gaza. Golan's problem is that Israeli voters don't believe her message of desperation. They don't believe that the Palestinians will give us peace for land. The voters of Israel don't believe her. They believe that it's better to go with "security" from the government rather than risk "security" that relies on the Arabs - who have a pretty poor track record. Golan and her radical left colleagues would prefer no Israel to an insecure Israel with nasty neighbors. That's why they keep losing at the polls.

Someone should be fired.

not PIECE. You are asking the wrong side this question. If Pals REALLY wanted PEACE they would not still be glorifying martyrs..... who helped liberate (all of) Palestinia

She has a HUGE mental disorder and with such an academic position,it is a tragedy