Comments on: Twilight’s last gleaming

By: Bubba Raskin

Bubba Raskin — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 14:59:27 +0000

Problem A (external) can't be dealt with because of existing circumstances. Problem B (internal) can be dealt with right now. You propose that we ignore Problem B until we have magically solved Problem A. And the reason for your preference? DOOMSDAY IS NEAR. Because really, that is what your article come down to. Fear mongering at its most base level. Fear mongering without even making an attempt at a rational explanation of risks.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 06:46:25 +0000

We agree that the issue is the most important after Iran and the rise of Muslim Brotherhoods all around us. We must solve it, not sleep siesta. However, that very urgency is an ill-advising factor when seeing objectively that a Palestinian state would become yet another Islamist terrorist entity, whether Palestinians want it or not. Just as Syrian's plight of March 2011 was kidnapped by Jihadists, so the Palestinian's plight will be.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 06:41:54 +0000

Shemuel Shahaf: The context is the teluric rise in Islamism right now, in Egypt, the Maghreb, Syria, Turkey, along with Iran and its proxies. I wish we could solve the Palestinian issue with a state immediately. I agree with its urgency. But the current context would render it an Islamist Gaza immediately.

By: Herbert Kaine

Herbert Kaine — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 03:46:07 +0000

yawn

By: John Cronin

John Cronin — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 00:49:10 +0000

Then why not go to the other extreme? Make the whole issue completely autonomous. By removing whatever restrictions still seek to prevent its resolution, a vast multitude of lives might easily be saved and a far more positive spin then placed on generations of conflict, hatred and despair.

By taking the entire subject out of the hands of politicians, military and religious leaders, the freedom of movement thus created will allow sufficient departure from conventional wisdom to achieve complete success in the matter. Everyone concerned then finds what may be the one and only route out of this 65 year-old maze and does so on a very personal, even existential level.

http://www.laxiankey.com

In any event, the subject of peace could never again be relegated to that of a side-issue, not even once in a thousand lifetimes.

By: Meir Liberman

Meir Liberman — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 20:39:51 +0000

עמנואל שחף that is pure fear mongering and you know it

By: Shlomo Toren

Shlomo Toren — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 20:28:07 +0000

I'd like to take you seriously, but it is a bit too challenging. A bit of realism would be enough for most to understand that even if our enemies were lined up clamouring to make peace (and they definitely are not) , that no serious changes are in store for our Defence budget. Israel will need a large well armed army for some time to come.

As to the last election, domestic issues were what the public thought was important and when not, most were in agreement with the government. You might ask why, but better to ask Abu Mazen and not Bibi, for most of the electorate understands that the problem is with the PA side and not the Israeli side.

So "reality" is that the PA doesn't seem interested in conceding a thing, Iran isn't going away nor is Syria and the USA has more pressing concerns then the dormant Israel-PA dispute. Do you have a different reality?

By: עמנואל שחף

עמנואל שחף — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 20:13:23 +0000

The reason it is missing is because our present leadership decided to eliminate the issue from our reality. Evening the burden of national service is much more important….

By: Ravi Singh

Ravi Singh — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 13:41:11 +0000

Israel could occupy the W Bank for good… creating a one state for Jews and Palestinians alike. That now remains the only way out with the 2 state solution dead and buried. The CIA obviously understood this reality while predicting a one state by 2025

By: Ravi Singh

Ravi Singh — Sat, 16 Feb 2013 13:39:00 +0000

Its a common human tendency, even a habit, to bury ones head in the sand when faced with a situation which requires a change of course or a difficult choice to be made. Centuries of persecution and discrimination have endowed the Jewish people with a wisdom, which has enabled them to face reality and make wise choices all along. So what's happened now? Israels future security is best ensured by being at peace with its neighbours, and that hinges on making a fair deal with the Palestinians. Why is it that but for a few like Emanuel Shahaf, this critical realisation is missing from the mind of the Jewish majority?

By: עמנואל שחף

עמנואל שחף — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 22:16:13 +0000

What do you mean by "no context" ? Are you a visionary that you know the future ? We aren't going to be a Jewish State if we don't resolve this and soon..

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 21:55:31 +0000

Just as Israeli parties ignored the "peace-process", you ignore that there is no context for cedeing the West Bank to the PLO. It will end up in Iranian or sunn-Islamist hands in a matter of two years, unless Israel occupies it for good. Israel isn't out of the geopolitical picture, and you need to look at Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Turkey, Qatar… and find out that whatever the gentiles say, and whatever the Palestinians rant about, we need to survive both.

By: John Cronin

John Cronin — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 20:37:50 +0000

Agreed, Emanuel. Adequately addressing the Arab-Israeli conflict, now moving inexorably towards completion of its seventh decade, is a task that has languished for far too long on the back burner of present-day party political thinking.

Why should this be so?

Is it the 65 years of failure to confront the problem in any resolute and coordinated fashion?

Is it the perception that a viable pan-Arab consensus will never be possible to achieve?

Is it the divisions within Jewish society about what compromises must then be required and their adverse consequences in times ahead?

Or is it despair that no attempt to crack the hardened shell of so passionate a dispute can ever survive the undertaking of such a deed, a fact demonstrated on very many occasions throughout the violent and tempestuous history of the region?

It is only by harnessing some measure of the staying power and obduracy of the problem itself that any real hope can be entertained for its eventual resolution.

http://www.laxiankey.com

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 19:11:17 +0000

what a knuckle head he looks like one too I thought Ben Gurion said it Does not matter what the gentiles say it is what the jews have to do that matters. if there is a decent Arab out there I believe the jews will compromise but look at Egypt and with this ape and Hagel in the White House the jews better be very careful about their security.