Some joyous tidings from Israel

[Banquo's Ghost]

But of course, I may be an idiot but I am not uneducatd. This is a good thing, about time that hamas-trash is getting what it deserves, and that would be to be very much dead and most of all not alive.

Just because it's different doesn't mean it isn't love. With Hamas gone we can start fixing things.

I didn't mean to imply you are uneducated, but the irony of your statement was too much to pass up. Nonetheless, I would agree with you about Hamas, but this is not the way to get rid of them. Indeed, it simply creates more radicals, whatever they choose to call themselves. No, they need to be marginalised - which means someone else ought to be doing the healthcare, water supplies, food and education etc.

No, but israel may wish to bargain from a position of power, much as Britian did with the IRA, (BG may disagree with me here).

I have no intention of disagreeing with you - we differed a little on the scale of the IRA's infiltration, but not the fact of it. In fact you illustrate the point for this thread perfectly: from a position of power, the British government realised it could not defeat the IRA utterly (so that it posed no future threat of any sort) or any of its splinter groups. The final defeat of violent republicanism had to come by engaging them in peaceful negotiation - to sit down with the men of terror and bring them into the mainstream. Just as the British had done with those terrorists in Palestine that wished to create the state of Israel.

I submit that Israel is already in a position of great power from which to start substantive negotiations. The first realisation that needs to dawn is that they will never completely defeat the terrorists through military means.

The plan for an Israeli state failed from day one and here it is over 60 years later still failing today.

On the contrary, Israel is a vibrant and civilised society, and rather too democratic for its own good. Compared to its neighbours - who rather ill-advisedly have tried on numerous occasions to destroy it - it is a model of liberal practice and thought.

You make the mistake of tarring all Israelis with the same brush. There are many who deplore the treatment of Palestinians and work very hard to better the situation. There are those who go so far as to refuse military service to make their point. The challenge for Israel is that like may democracies, conservatives and liberals are pretty much present in equivalent numbers. That means that the Knesset is often divided - and thus the influential hard-line religious parties (influence derived from very few seats, but the difference between winning and losing a vote of confidence) hold inordinate power.

Remember that the last Prime Minister to have made real progress to peace was assassinated by one of these fringe loonies. That's a hard legacy for any politician to ignore.