Netanyahu's test

israel doesn't want the arabs and the arabs don't want to be israeli to cut us off and end the occupation israel is like a ugly girlfriend who just won't leave us alone

The American people are getting tired of the bullying of the Palestinian People.I was shocked at the expansionism of the settlements during the Bush years,bulldozing peoples hopes and dreams,Miss Livnis election win was applauded over here .Israel will soon be compromised if it continues behaving badly!

"there is, it appears, a small majority in israel who would prefer the present status quo" But Likud won the election. Kadima lost. So it appears to be a majority in Israel who prefer the present status quo.

there is, it appears, a small majority in israel who would prefer the present status quo, which enables them to get always more time to pursue their goal of grabbing more land while the talks are being carried on and time goes by and no palestinian state is established. but, meantime the devil is busy trying to sabotage whatever agreements have been reached. so they say let's start again from the beginning. this game has been played by ISRAEL for decades.

Have you ever read the Charter of the Hamas from 1988? The Hamas puts a claim on all of Israel's territory and wants to kill all the Jews. And, by the way, there is no such thing as "peace" in Islam. There are only temporary armistices (hudnas) which last at most 10 years and are used for rearming. As long as there are Jews and Muslims in the Middle East, there will never be "peace". Get used to it.

esther have you ever tried thinking before posting ? please explain why there was no peace when there were no settlements ?

the only viable answer remains the same cummings it is jordan becoming the larger part of mandate again and absording the hostile arabs . the same again and again can only fail 1

he needs to reduce his exorbitant demands and pre-conditions and stop posing and smirking to the right. Israel won't get half of Palestine, no one will buy that level of excessive greed and land-lust. 'Demanding' the Jordan Valley ain't going to fly, give it up Netanyahu. If it's a clumsy pretext to keep the IDF there, forget it, there cannot be permanent occupation. He won't get 15-mile long corridors into the West Bank either, to Ariel, Kedumim or Ma'ale Adumim. Salients like that would be choked off at the windpipe in the first days of a war, they're hardly 'defensible borders', no state would want the liability. But Netanyahu wants the right's votes, so let's have a seriously nutty border! Again, no chance of anyone else agreeing. And give up the idea of splitting the WB into two islands, the Allon Plan was dead two decades ago, everyone's wise to it. Refusing to share Jerusalem should be enough to torpedo any agreement, without posing all the other infantile demands.

Unfortunately, Netanyahu does not know what to do. He has no idea , what can be done. How can resolve the trageidies and catastrophies that have been brought on this small country by its' leaders of the past 30-50 years. The travesty that Moishe Dayan, who had the golden opportunity to clean Israel of its' enemies or of Rabin and Peres who legitimized terrorists and actually gave them arms or catasrophes that Sharon brought on a group of Israeli citizens because of his personal plight and self interests. Netanyahu has no idea how to resolve these problems and the status of enemies trying to swallow up Israel , with the upper hand. Bibi is begging Abbas - and it's not Abbas begging Bibi. His interest bis to remain in power and who knows what he'll sacrifice just for that purpose - his self ineterst and survival.

Democracy is a pain, but there you have it. The PA can steal, suppress and kill it's citizens, but Israel has a system of government where the people have some (not enough perhaps) say as to how things go. Yoel Marcus needs to change discs.

... how do we intend to skirt around this?... cessation of expanding is well below the minimum...

no understandings wre reached between Olmert and Abbas. The latter one hasn't even answered Olmert's surrender (including even on pal "right of return") There is an understanding though between some EU organisation and Marcus on amount of Euros he receives.That's all.

you seem to forget that the Palestinians are not one group and Hamas still has Gilad Shalit. Seems there is no peace to talk about. No government will give the Mount of Olives to the Palestinians as that is our history not theirs and I could go on and on.Peres has no voice, he was not voted into power, and about time he was quiet.

Whatever you may say about Netanyahu, and there is a lot you can say, has Marcus or any of you asked one simple question: As part of an overall peace agreement is there any Palestinian leader who will agree to leave the Western Wall area in Israeli hands ? My bet is absolutely not simply because the Palestinian leader that signs a peace treaty agreeing to that will be dead within one week. "We will not give up one inch/cm/mm of Palestinian land." How many times have we heard that ?

the people of israel voted and their vote must be respected. hopefully, this time, the negotiations will lead to success. the palestinians cannot have everything they want and neither can israel.

until he does he should desist from writing tripe ! 90 years of hat air have produced no agreements on anysubject !

..give up the State of Israel starting with Jerusalem then bit by bit

I'm not sure what understandings Mr. Marcus is referring to. However in general it strikes me as a problematic negotiating strategy to pick up, after negotiations have failed to come to a resolution, where they left off before. That simply encourages foot-dragging, because there's no cost to it.

does anyone believe "Netanyahu wants peace"?

peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians and hopefully this time around the parties will succeed to discuss the core issues and resolve the conflict as all the region needs peace and reconciliation.