For everyone in the chat to know and keep in the back of their minds, after world war1 Britan and France conrtoled almost all arab countries and devided them however they wanted to. in 1917, the British Foreign Minister, Arthur Balfour, made what became known as the Balfour Declaration. It promised ‘a national home for the Jewish people’ in Palestine (not a nation state) but it insisted that nothing should be done to prejudice the rights of the existing non-Jewish community. The people of plaestine lived with it and were living peacfuly with the Jews with no probelms. After the rise of the Nazi empire and the hollocaust, all the remaing jews in Germany fled to plaestine. In the November of 1947, under pressure from the Zionist group, the UN was forced to pass a law which stated that half of Palestine would now be a state of Isreal. That law went against the wishes of the majority of parties in the UN. After that law has been passed, the Isreali's now have what they wanted and began to establish the "kingdom" of Isreal where they forcefully and brutally took over more than three quarters of all Palestinian Land throwing people out of their homes. Jordan and Egypt opposed of this inhumane act and took back gaza and the west bank and east Jerulsilm. more than 750,000 Palistinians whose homes were periviously built were now homeless refugees with no where to go, so most fled to neighbouring countries. 20 years later in 1967, isreal, which was by now a powerful nation, with the help of the worlds most powerful country USA then took over the remaining palistinian land controlled by Jordan and Egypt and took parts of lebanon and syria.
Isreal is a nation that forcefully and brutally entered Plaistine and have opened many massacres and Gaza is only the most recent one. If you want to take it to history, Isreal should be ocupying half of palistinian land not all of it.
So for all of you who are supporting the acts of Isreal just remember this information.

I am disturbed by your comment that when Israel left Gaza they destroyed homes and farms
I am sure you are very well aware that the homes were destroyed at the express wish of the Palestinians in Gaza as they wished to replace them with high rise buildings and the sort of homes Palestinians were used to rather than single family homes with gardens
I am sure you also saw the pictures of the greenhouses purchased by donors to hand over to the people who worked in them being vandalised and destroyed. It is less than honest to portray this as Israeli destruction

I have only three things to say:

First, the author is an idiot, a poor fool bathing in his own moral superiority.

Second, a vibrant democracy needs a certain percentage of naive idealists; they serve an important role in a society to make sure the country's policies are balanced. As an israeli, I am proud that my country is a true liberal democracy that lets any bleeding-heart moron express their opinion freely and have their say in how the country is run.

Third, show me a palestinian expressing views that are going against the main stream... won't find any, because they are afraid.

The Gaza reality
It is unbecoming of an intellectual to accuse Israel’s spokespersons of mendacity and to describe their information as a pack of lies and Israel as a rogue state with "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders" without offering one shred of evidence to substantiate these inciting statements. It would be more respectful of the intelligence of readers if he would tell them what these people said or did and let readers decide whether or not they are liars or unscrupulous.
While most historians believe their duty is not to make moral judgments, but to provide and analyze factual information that enables the reader to make judgments, Shlaim imposes his subjective judgments on the reader. During an interview with the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz in August 2005. He said, “the job of the historian is to judge”.
He starts off by saying that establishing the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental injustice to the Palestinians. But a few sentences later he states that he has never questioned the legitimacy of the state of Israel within its pre-1967 (i.e. 1948) borders, thereby condoning what he describes as a monumental injustice.
Intellectual honesty demands special care in checking the veracity of all data presented as fact, suppression of known biases and a willingness to follow the facts wherever they lead, while avoiding any temptation to omit relevant factual information that may contradict the author’s preconceived ideas. Sadly, throughout his article Professor Shlaim contravenes these elementary requirements. He badly distorts facts by presenting selected events out of context.
For example, ignoring his own advice in the article that “The only way to make sense of Israel's senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context”, Shlaim categorically states that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the June 1967 war had very little to do with security, leaving his readers with the impression that this war just happened in vacuo.
Does he not have a duty to follow his own advice and at least point to the highly relevant, indisputable historical fact that the 1967 war had everything to do with security? That during 1966, Israelis were being killed daily by incursions from Jordan and Egypt, that Syria was shelling continuously from the Golan Heights, making life unbearable for citizens in the Galilee and that in May 1967 Egypt moved forces into the Sinai, expelled UN peacekeeping forces and closed the Straits of Tiran?
Israel sent an emissary to King Hussein, to plead with him to stay out of the conflict. He refused and on May 25, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia massed troops on Israel's borders. President Nasser declared publicly, "Our basic goal is the destruction of Israel”
Shlaim writes that the development of local industry in Gaza was actively impeded by Israel, but he hides the important information that after the six-day war, Israeli business people were actively pursuing paths of mutual cooperation and assistance with Palestinian counterparts. Palestinian and Israeli business people and merchandise were moving feely to the mutual benefit of both.
During the halcyon days before the violence erupted, Israelis flocked to the Palestinian territories on weekend shopping expeditions and Palestinians equally enjoyed visiting Israeli shopping malls. Many projects were in the pipeline for joint ventures that would have fostered cooperation between Jews and Arabs, created employment and generously redistributed municipal tax revenues to depressed Palestinian areas
According to a study by Prof Ephraim Karsh, within a brief period after the 1967 war, Israeli occupation had led to dramatic improvements in general well being, placing the population of the territories ahead of most of their Arab neighbors. The number of Palestinians working in Israel rose from zero in 1967 to 66,000 in 1975 and 109,000 by 1986, accounting for 35% of the employed population of the West Bank and 45% in Gaza. Close to 2,000 industrial plants, employing almost half of the work force, were established in the territories under Israeli rule. During the 1970s, the West Bank and Gaza constituted the fourth fastest-growing economy in the world, ahead of such "wonders" as Singapore, Hong Kong, and Korea, and substantially ahead of Israel itself.
Shlaim does not tell us that prior to the outbreak of the second "Intifada" in September 2000, Palestinian workers and business people from the West Bank and Gaza freely entered Israel without interference. When the violence re-erupted, the Israel authorities were faced with the dilemma how to distinguish genuine work seekers from potential terrorists. They attempted to do this by a system of work permits and it is worth noting that even during the worst periods of violence 33,000 Palestinians continued to work in Israel.
Natan Sharansky, when he was Minister of Industry and Trade, reported that Arafat continually spurned efforts to help the Palestinian Authority establish an industrial park in Gaza that would have encouraged investment in Palestinian areas, created tens of thousands of jobs and alleviated poverty.
Contrary to Shlaim’s claims, Israel has always believed that an increase in the standard of living of the Palestinians is an important goal for the achievement of good neighborly relations between the two peoples. See http://tinyurl.com/9mh8qm
Shlaim blames Israel for the fact that in Gaza 80% of the population still subsist on less than $2 a day, but omits the fact that the Palestinians thwarted many efforts by Israel to assist in creating a viable economy. He ignores the destruction by Palestinians of the once successful Israeli/Palestinian industrial zone at Erez that employed about 5,000 workers in some 200 businesses half of which were Palestinian-owned. They produced everything from plastics to car parts and continued to do so even as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict raged. This was part of a larger Gaza Industrial Estate (GIE), slated to provide up to 50,000 jobs. In addition, a joint industrial zone was planned south of Tulkarm intended to provide jobs for more than 5,000 Palestinians. Additional areas were planned for Jenin and the Kerem Shalom area near Rafah in Gaza.
But all these positive efforts were unfortunately thwarted. The GIE zone became the target of deadly Palestinian attacks leading to closure of the enterprise. In one typical attack, a female suicide bomber detonated a bomb at the Erez Crossing killing four Israelis and wounding 10 as well as destroying part of the facility. Hamas and the Fatah Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed joint responsibility.
Shlain wrote that when Israel left Gaza in August 2005, it destroyed the farms left behind. This, of course, is as incorrect as many of Shlaim’s other claims. The farms and greenhouses were not destroyed by Israel. American Jewish donors bought more than 3,000 greenhouses from Israeli settlers in Gaza for $14 million and transferred them to the Palestinian Authority. Former World Bank President James Wolfensohn, who brokered the deal, put up $500,000 of his own cash. The greenhouses were intended to play a major part in developing Gaza, providing jobs and export income. But the moment the Jewish settlers left, Palestinians looted and destroyed the greenhouses.
Shlaim denigrates Israel for refusing to recognize the democratically elected Hamas government, blatantly ignoring public declarations by Hamas leaders that they categorically refuse to recognize the existence of the State of Israel. Article 13 of the Hamas covenant unambiguously states "Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement. .There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.".
Shlaim ignores the continuous insidious incitement of infants, school kids and adults in Gazan mosques and schools to kill infidels, especially Jews who are described as sons of monkeys and dogs. There can be no hope for a peaceful solution while Hamas and PA TV air songs praising terrorists and sermons like those of Dr. Ibraham Madi, who mandates suicide bombing as a religious necessity or those of Dr. Ahmad Abu Halabiya, Rector of Advanced Studies at the Islamic University in Gaza who demands that "Jews must be butchered".

yysami:

Just because someone is a scholar doesn't make them more convincing. David Irving denies the holocaust for example.

What have all the oil-rich Arab countries done for the Palestinians? The US isn't the only one with billions of dollars, and I think you'll find Hamas and Hezbollah are supplied more than adequately by Iran.

Hamas bring suicide bombings, rockets and firebrand rhetoric to the negotiating table. This is not some noble resistance movement, Hamas is a terrorist organisation that kills civilians simply because they are Jewish, indeed they relish it. How dare an organisation that runs suicide bombings play the humanitarian card now? Palestinians lost the right to play the poor victim when they resorted to such tactics.

thanks for this article. I also read all the comments. The number and energy of the comments to an article always attest to the article's power, but sadly many of them continue to project the hatred, idiocy and narrow mindedness that have plagued this conflict. I admire that this opinion comes from an Israeli - I believe that the true resolution to this conflict needs to come from civil society groups (if we can't rely on the outside world, and the political authorities have proved woefully inadequate). There are many of such organisations in which Israelis and Palestinians work together and reconcile to some extent their diverging narratives, though unfortunately they are too small and scattered. And all this violence only makes it more difficult for such reconciliation to happen, even among those who really seek it. Your article helps

i think this war needs to stop do you know how many familys and children alone it is killing its not right and the whole thing im sure is just a big miss understanding so i think Hamas needs to back up off of Israel and leave them alone once and for all!!!!!!

I served in IDF too, but here are simple facts:
1. If Palestinians did not shoot rockets on Israeli towns, Israel would never enter Gaza
2. Only complete idiot will fire rockets on Israel and did not expect Israeli reaction.

Why we have this mess today? Here is an explanation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC_80TqCfz8

Zalek

As another proud jew - see other comment. I thank goodness that there isomeone like Avi to give our pride back as the expansionist zionist government besmirches our proud history. There are many jews like myself throughout the world condeming the government of Israel on yet further heinious crimes against the Palastinian people. It is not a question of religion but of expansionism and colonialism. I have nothing but warmth from my many Palasinian and Muslim friends when they hear I am a Jew, a jew that supports justice. The truth will out in the end and David will saly Goliath

This is without doubt the most one sided piece of garbage I've ever had the misfortune to read.

As easy and as useless as it is to call those whom you disagree with names and denigrate them in various ways, I more and more find it difficult not to divide the human race into two broad categories, the rulers and the ruled, with entirely different characteristics. 

So different in fact, that as one of the ruled, I find it difficult to understand the inner feelings and motivations of our rulers; which is odd, because it seems to me that to a truly objective observer, if such there could be, the principal distinction between the two is that for the ruled, the major characteristic of humanity is empathy, which seems to be totally lacking in the rulers.

So it is with both Israel and Hamas; I have met many individual (ruled) Arabs (sadly, no Israelis) and found them as kind, friendly, admirable and generally nice people as you would care to meet. Their rulers, on the other hand, attempt to entrench their power by demonising the other with arguments and propaganda designed to entirely destroy any possible empathy with the other side.

Without this constant demonisation, no normal human could perform these atrocities without recoiling in instant self-disgust.

I can only conclude that our rulers (and yes, I include "democratically elected" rulers in this; they are no different, and the electoral process they use I characterise as a sham to cover the infighting between self-elected and self-propagating oligarchies) are not in fact, by any reasonable definition, human.

They may be of the same species, but psychologically and culturally they are entirely distinct from the mass of humanity.  They have no empathy for other human beings.  They seem to care only for their own power and advantage.

Of course, these drives exist in all of us, but the distinction between the human and the animal is that these evolutionary created drives are modified by socialisation and the process of empathy; where the individual is sociopathic and lacking in empathy, all we have is a clever animal; not a human being.

I think we all have to come to some such realisation, and that our social and power structures  reward these individuals and put them in control over us, and make us complicit in their crimes.

How this may be done I have no idea, but we must come to the realisation that the enemy is not the other, but those who rule and attempt to control us.  We must break free of their chains, and establish better orders of society.

Clear skies!

This article is intelligent and generally accurate in its assessment - but leaves out a great deal. Two points in particlar need to be stressed.

Firstly, that Hamas was and is a deliberate creation of Israel, intended to both weaken and divide the Palestinian secular leadership and to provide Israel with a caricature villain who could be demonised by both Israelis and their US (and European) allies alike. Hamas may not be under direct Israeli control but it serves a function that Israel finds useful and which promotes Israel's general policy - which is to do everything possible to avoid ever having to negotiate seriously with the Palestinians. Israel does not seek peace with the Palestinians - except in the Carthaginian sense. It seeks complete and total victory and the destruction of of any Palestinian hopes and aspirations for an economically and politically viable and stable state that is not under complete Israeli domination and subjugation.

Secondly, the great injustice Shlaim refers to in the 1948 founding of Israel still defines this "nation", both in its national culture and its means of survival. The scene in Pontecorvo's brilliant film "The Battle of Algiers" where Col. Mathieu tells journalists (who are questioning the use of torture against suspected Algerian independence fighters) "...the question is not whether we should be doing this, but whether we want to stay in Algeria..." is a good illustration of the logic at work in Israel/Palestine. The question is not whether Israelis should be killing and brutalising the Palestinian population, but whether they want to continue on the course set in 1948 and 1967. If the zionist project, to create a racially pure Jewish state in Palestine, is to succeed then it has to use brutality and murder to expel, incarcerate, and then disperse (or kill) the original Arab inhabitants.

Ethnic cleansing (to use the modern euphemism) and the dispossession and pauperisation of an entire population cannot be achieved merely by diplomacy and negotiation. It requires military conquest, terrorisation and a willingness and preparedness to use the most brutal measures against the  enemy (ie. the original indigenous population). This might mean the complete physical extermination of the population (as the British did with the native Tasmanians in the 19th century) or it might mean the forcible expulsion and dispersal of a people though starvation, deprivation of livelihood and subjection to regular and murderous brutality and violence - which is what has been happening to the Palestinains for many years now.

If you accept the legitimacy and validity of the zionist project and the Jewish state then you necessarily endorse and acquiesce in these methods.The slow starvation, bombing and killing of Arab inmates in the worlds largest concentration camp/racial ghetto (the Gaza Strip) is merely the latest phase in a long process which is essential to building a purely Jewish Greater Israel.

to Avi Shlime, from another former IDF soldier: Today, your poor, honest, brave friends launched another 30 rockets or so against us. Don't they have enough wounded innocent people to take care for? And since almost ALL the open areas in Gaza strip are held by the IDF or under many watchful eyes – where do they launch from, if not from within innocent civilians? Read Iqbal Latif's post. I hope your main field interpretations are much better than your historical ones. After all, you do have some students, don't you? Kfots li, Gush tinofet!

Thank the lord for an Israei voice like this which sees through the despicable actions of its Government. Most Israelis are desensitised to the killing of civilians by its armed forces.

Too much innocent blood has been spilt for anyone to ever claim that Israel does not target civilians. The most agressive of the early zionists were anti-arab racists (where of course there were also those who believed in peaceful co-existence and a state of Israel which did not compromise the rights of the indigenous inhabitants to self determination) - unfortunately the current political leadership have also shown they do not care about dead Palestinian children.

How can Zipi Livni say that there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, other than through a mendacity borne of disregard for the lives of the arab 'other'? These comments are disgusting by any state that seeks to claim a moral high ground. As Avi Shlaim says here, does it help the security of Israelis to perpetrate the collective punishment, starvation and impoverishment of 1.5 million Palestinians.

And yes - we should deplore the actions of Hamas, not least its disregard and waton to desire to profit from the deaths of its own people it claims to be 'defending. As with the Israeli occupation, how the hell does it help a poor starving kid in Gaza to shoot home made rockets into southern Israeli towns which are within the 1967 boundaries of Israel? Surely all this does is to reinforce Israeli, US, and EU propaganda that Hamas is solely a 'terrorist' organisation. To answer one of the comments above - wings of the movement include community organisations that run schools, hospitals and charitable enterprises... unfortunately their call to development has been somewhat compromised by unbriddled Israeli oppression, occupation and disproportionate use of its military force. And it bears repeating that it was ISRAEL that fostered the growth of Hamas as a proxy against naitonalism.

Tom Segev said it right in the seventh million - one day, there will be international courts set up to try the leaders who perpetrated these crimes against innocent human beings, and perhaps only then Israel and many (if not most) Israelis will realise the sardonic irony of being a people so oppressed, and becoming a people so corrupted by the oppression of another.

Borders were given back to Palestine in past negotiations, remember?
Do you also remember, Mr. Journalist, that attacks hadn't ceased but, in fact, increased on Israel FROM those areas that have been returned? Over 3,000 rockets were launched into Israel after it negotiated to pre-1967 borders. So, do not say that Israel hadn't tried in the past. It had been stabbed in the back.

And, please, if Hamas really cared for its people, it would invest in food, education, clothing, housing...etc.
And why not tell me that if the Arab world is so rich and for the most part hate Israel, why are they not assisting the Palestinian people either?

I highly doubt that you were in the IDF as you say you were, or else you would know what actually transpired. I could just as easily twist my words. However, you cannot change the *facts*; Israel gave land back and it was attacked even harder for it. Do not make Israel out to be an animal. Neither Israel nor the Palestinian people are animals. Tell me again who is treating casualties?

Did Hamas issue a warning before it fired? No.
Did Israel issue a warning for the people to leave while the operation is underway? Yes, an ample warning.

And who fires their shots from residential areas. I'd think that if Hamas militants really cared for human life, they wouldn't fire from tops of buildings under which innocent children could be housed. Using people as shields is not brave.

Speaking of rhetoric and reality...

Why does the author condemn Israel's current blockade after 6,000 rocket attacks since 2005, and not Egypt's blockade in 1967.

You are not guilty! The perpetrators of the initial violence, which spawned Ariel Sharon, are the guilty parties.

Instead of inserting old propaganda (2006) as an answer to Avi Shlaim, a former IDF soldier's (and now a scholar) objective essay, it would have been better using some concrete agruments. The facts are there! As for Israel's might and power, well, a bunch of guerrila resistants have made it cristal clear twice (2000 and 2006) to the world how vulnerable, weak and scared is this "invincible" army. When you add to this how the whole Western world has never ceased helping Israel (guilt feeling after the holocaust), then everyone understands who these resistants are fighting against... All this is fact in not important. As people who have suffered so much, you should normally be more sensitive to these poor people's suffering, who are in fact the former inhabitants of 1948 Palestine, now Israel, driven by terrrism out of their own homes. Now you deny them even this no-man's-land called Gaza. What kind of people are you? (read Robert Fisk article in The Independant about the history of the inhabitants of Gaza)

If Avi Shlaim concurs that the United Nations created, in 1948, “ a gangster state headed by an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders," then is it not a duty for the UN General Assembly to undo this erroneous act and declare the “gangster” state of Israel null and void. I am sure that the Muslim umma could muster sufficient votes in the UN to pass the annulment of this “criminal” entity. The Jews that would survive the erasure of Israel could revert back to their proper status of “dhimmis” in the Muslim umma. That is what Islamic law commands.

I happen to be a descendant of a small nation of about 2 million, which was conquered by the Teutonic Order and enslaved for 700 years. Yet, it rose up and asserted its independence in the 20th century. The Jews lost their independence circa 70 AD and got it back by the grace of the UN in 1948. They call their ancient land Judea and Samaria. I recognize their claim to their land just as I recognize the claim of the descendants of my forefathers to their land. No, I am not Jewish, and have some uncomplimentary things to say about Jews in http://www.interlog.com/~girbe/jewish_question.htm

It is strange how people like to complicate what is happening in Israel/Palestine, but it is so simple that it is untrue.

Avi says it himself, yet he himself complicates the issue into a lenthy article:

'The establishment of the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental injustice'

This is why there is a monumental lack of peace. The first comment on this piece talked of fearing for the sanity of homosapiens, but they were proved to be insane over 60 yrs ago.

In view of the 'fact' of the above injustice, why do we continue to talk of other things such as 1967 borders etc..etc..? The whole venture was unjust from the outset. Whether you believe Israel has the right to exist or not, the fact that the state of Israel is founded on gross injustice, with the 'international' community entirely complicit, cannot be denied. These are matters of record, and facts acknowledged in the halls of the UN itself

The sheer amount of delusion in this piece, and responses to it, make me concerned for the sanity of Homo sapiens.

Reams and reams and rows and rows of HISTORY.

History and its analysis depends on when you set the clock ticking. When will any of you learn this?

1916 accords, 1948 settlements, 1967 wars....in the name of whoever your God happens to be: we are all one species.

Forget one God and one answer and no this and every that. Right now, there is only one only: one planet - and we all have to live on it.

I largely agree with Avi Shlaim's analysis however it seems to me to be addressing Israel's tactics but not its strategic objective.
I believe that the divisive nature of Israeli society has limited it to the tactics it has employed for 60 plus years whilst preventing it formulating a plausible strategic outcome.
The example of Singapore shows that land in the modern world is no longer an essential for a thriving state. Rather the need to trade and be on friendly terms with the rest of the world are however fundamental.
As things look at the moment I do not see any viable 2 state solution nor the return to the 1948 borders.
Israel must look at itself and redefine how it views the world first.

Avi Shlaim comes as a breath of fresh air after days of abysmal journalism from the mainstream. Why does the BBC, CNN, the Herald Tribune etc always play the game of "on the one hand and then on the other hand" as if there was a genuine conflict between equals taking place. (Not to mention their organisational incompetence in failing to have any journalists inside the Strip). It is startlingly clear that Israel is a rogue state with no respect for human life. Hitchcock himself could not have come up with a more chilling ploy than the couple of hours of ceasefire on the occasional afternoon to keep up apparences after the wholesale slaughter of innocents.

As AS points out terror is the weapon of the weak and has always been such. There was no Hamas in Gaza when I visited there over 20 years ago but there was dire poverty and unrelenting pressure on the population from the Israeli military and authorities, including unbelievable affronts to their human dignity.
Hamas was the result of all that baiting and oppression. It reminds me of the emergence of the gangs which sought to terrorise British landlords in Ireland during the 18th century after the fall of the old Gaelic order. They were slaughtered in their thousands when they were flushed out in open rebellion against the crown in 1798. It took time but eventually they got smarter and organised themselves in a way which the British could no longer manage effectively through military means. One fears that the natural human desire for freedom will result in a terrible day of reckoning if Israel keeps up its subjugation strategy. By the way I am in favour of an Israeli state and have nothing but admiration for the innovation and improvements which the people of Israel have brought to a difficult environment but they are in danger of turning it into a fool's paradise.

The article on Hamas and Gaza by Avi Shlaim
is pure pro Arab propaganda. It has one theme; Israel is bad and Arabs are the poor victims. Avi Shlaim
manipulates the facts, spins the truth, convinently omits a lot of other facts and even invents some new facts. All for the puropse to prove his totally false theory that Israel is an evil state that needs to be destroyed. What puzzels me is that Avi Shlaim is an Israeli who served with the IDF. Is this just a naive, if not say dumb, person or some wronged and mean individual with an ax to grind. One has to remember that even during Holocaust, there were Jewish men called "kapo" who assisted the nazis to kill the fellow Jews. Very sad that there still are people like Avi Shlaim.

The author claims "The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza strip in the aftermath of the
war of June 1967 had very little to do with security and
everything to do with territorial expansionism. The aim was to establish
"greater Israel" through permanent political, economic, and military control
over the Palestinian territories."

This is a totally false thesis and negates the rest of his arguments. Any historian can look at the facts and ascertain that the 1967 war was not launched by Israel on the basis of territorial expansion.

Quite the opposite is true: the war was launched as a defensive measure after Egypt and Syria took clear and obvious military steps (a shipping blockade, in itself causus belli) and announced their intention to attack and destroy Israel.

Checking the history before 1967 shows no blatant Israeli activity to justify Shlaim's claim that Israel had any aim to take over the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In fact, there is ample evidence that shows Jordan - under whose sovereignty the West Bank fell - was urged to stay out of the war, but attacked Israel nonetheless.

The result of the Arab aggression in 1967 was the war that led to the territorial acquision by Israel. This is the opposite of Shlaim's claim.

Shlaim's article is further debunked by the Khartoum Resolution of September 1, 1967 in which the Arab League declared: no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with Israel.

The Arab League thus supported the abrogation by Egypt, Syria and Jordan of their obligation to negotiate a settlement at the end of the war, as is practiced under international law.

For Shlaim to now turn history on its head and claim that Israel launched a war of expansionism simply goes contrary to the facts of history.

Democracy may be open, but it is subject to critical assessment of false claims made by any party. I give Shlaim an F on this paper.

It is very interesting to read an Israeli point of view that retells the historically one-sided rhetoric of the Arab League. Sadly, enlightened and progressive Palestinian voices were permanently silenced during Arafat's corrupt reign of terror on his own people, and this left a void that was filled by those of more extreme leanings.

To read Mr. Shlaim's version of history, one could easily forget the perilous situation in which Israel tried to live for the first two decades of its existence. Indeed, one might even begin to question its right to exist. The rampant, but not entirely unjustified according to the historical versions told by Shlaim and others, paranoia that grips the country's leadership clearly provokes such extreme responses as the current outrage in Gaza. However, until the cause of that paranoia is alleviated, there will continue to be imbalanced responses to what appear to the rest of us to be relatively minor military provocations. To those who fear for their survival at every turn, a pinprick is the same as a punch, is the same as a grenade, is the same as a cluster bomb, is the same as a nuclear holocaust.

Yes, a political solution is the only viable solution. Neither Hamas nor Hezbollah (nor their Syrian and Iranian backers) seem to be seriously interested, nor are some of the hawkish, power-driven factions among Israeli politicians. It will take yet another generation of more moderate, more progressive, and more balanced in their view leaders on both sides before both Israel and Palestine will know peace and security.

Iqbal Latif

(Hamas like Hezbollah are bent on self destruction of guiltless
children, this is the reason Nablus in West Bank is weary and exhausted
of protesting. No lessons from Lebanon were learnt. The Arab street is
quiet as they fail to understand the judgment behind using ones own
children as sacrificial lambs, is enough is not enough, will the Arab
ethics not rise to save the Palestinian children from annihilation and
mass murder orchestrated by stupid and irrational leadership of Hamas.)

No sovereign nation can exist with unsafe boundaries and missiles in the hands of uncontrolled militia 20 miles south of Haifa

PARIS -- Hezbollah conscience and Hamas's political pragmatism
should take lessons from 1948, 1967 and 1973. All wars have only helped
in making Israel a bigger and stronger nation and left them to live in
squalid conditions. Palestinians and Lebanese do not deserve it. And
what does Iran have to do with it? Iran is only using the Palestinians
and the Shiites in Southern Lebanon for harboring their own agenda in
the Persian Gulf.

If Iran thinks it can get away with this kind of irresponsible
attitude just across the border in the South of Lebanon, then it is
wrong. This kind of aggression has not paid before and it will not pay
now. These are the kinds of self-defeating aims that Arab warriors,
like Saddam, claimed as a great victory, which is nothing but
opiate-induced slogans.

In every Middle Eastern war the so-called triumph is achieved
through tremendous loss of life with a ratio of 1 to 1000 against the
Arabs and 1 to 1 billion in terms of economic losses, what kind of
success is this, what breed of loser mentality is this? Let’s not spill
innocent blood in Palestine and Lebanon in name of Jihad! Enough is
enough; this lunacy has to stop somewhere.

In every Middle Eastern war the so-called triumph is achieved
through tremendous loss of life with a ratio of 1 to 1000 against the
Arabs and 1 to 1 billion in terms of economic losses, what kind of
success is this, what breed of loser mentality is this? The politics of
decreasing returns is a part and parcel of the Middle Eastern politics.
The return to 1967 borders has now become a legitimate call, whereas in
1967, these very people in search of total victory had helped grow
Israel by four times through a war imposed to wipe out Israel. When are
they going to understand that taking on an enemy that has far greater
firepower than them is stupid? Much as the spirit of the sacrifice in
the name of Allah can be longed-for, how much more blood needs to be
shed to realize that one who has more power and more authority shall
prevail in this outlandish battle of lopsided wills.

Today the same bigots who thought that they could wipe clean Israel
in 1967 or in 1973 are taking on a war they can never win; the same
bigots, if they had nuclear weapons, will use them to wipe out their
archenemy. Knowing all this background of Iranian- Syrian involvement
in the crisis, it is definitely beyond abduction of few soldiers; it is
about captivating the attention away from the main crisis of
enrichment. Israelis have been given a golden chance on a platter to
clean the irritants that can threaten their security.

The idea that Israelis will overlook these attacks as something to
worry about later is nothing but the imaginings of idealists.
Hezbollah, given a chance, will use nuclear tipped missiles to bomb the
cities they are now bombing with some silly toy missiles. This shall
open the eyes of the peace lobby, the greatest friends of withdrawal
from occupied territories, by being belligerent to the last extent; new
battle lines that are 'we' or 'them' have been drawn.

And finally we have an explosion on our hands! Hezbollah are a proxy
of Iranian intentions in ME. Iranians have a clear message, 'You stop
our enrichment we will instigate trouble in southern Lebanon.' By
letting Iran become a nuclear power and giving into Hezbollah 'Haifa'
threats now, Israel thinks that they shall unbolt an access that
compromises its future security. That scenario would not come to pass;
Haifa bombing achieved what Saddam 'scuds' could not in 1990.

No sovereign nation can exist with unsafe boundaries and missiles in
the hands of uncontrolled militia 20 miles south of Haifa. If anyone
has any doubt that Haifa bombing will go unnoticed, they are simply
underestimating Israeli zeal. Israelis are sons of Isaac and like sons
of Ishmael shall go by the book, an eye for an eye, and this time
Hezbollah may have to be routed out of southern Lebanon much more
drastically than 1993 and 1996 operation grapes of wrath. Iran and
Hezbollah have totally misjudged and underestimated Israeli resolve.
This is self-defeatism at its peak.

In the wake of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, Nasrallah
explained that "death to America is not a slogan. Death to America is a
policy, a strategy and a vision."

Despite all this, Washington has wisely decided not to press its
"zero tolerance" terrorism policy in Lebanon...yet. The problem with
the policy is, of course, the implication that zero terrorism will be
tolerated. While an admirable notion, the practical application of zero
tolerance is a decidedly tricky thing, especially in the
ever-ready-to-explode environment of the Middle East.

Heroic fighters to some, dangerous militia to others.

The bloody fight that Hezbollah picked with Israel has deepened a
longtime divide in Lebanon. While Hezbollah supporters celebrated in
the streets, other Lebanese were furious at being dragged into a costly
confrontation with the Jewish state.

Throughout the 1980s, the nation of Lebanon had a number of deeply
complex and storied problems worthy of a 400,000-word explanatory
thesis, condensable to four words: There was no government.

Lebanon had hosted thousands of Palestinian refugees in the 1970s.
At the end of the decade, Israel invaded Lebanon to get at Palestinian
terrorists. They decimated the country before withdrawing under heavy
U.N. pressure. In the ensuing power vacuum, virtually every religious
and ethnic group in the country formed its own gang, clique or
terrorist cabal.

Hezbollah was one of those cabals. Backed by Iran and Syria,
Hezbollah's original goals were to end the Israeli occupation of
Lebanon and to institute a Shi'ite Islamic theocracy. The group later
expanded these goals to include liberating the Palestinian territories
and dropped its theocratic aspirations in favor of participating in a
parliamentary government.

Hezbollah used terrorist tactics to push its political agenda, which
slowly but surely drove Israel out of Lebanon, inch by bloody inch. It
became famous as an innovator in suicide bombing, as well as kidnapping
Westerners, hijacking aircrafts, and other terrorist activity. A 1983
terrorist bombing in Beirut that killed 241 Marines has been tied to
Hezbollah and Iran (although it's also been tied to half a dozen other
groups as well). This attack is widely considered to mark the dawn of
the modern age of terrorism. After a similar attack in 1984, the
tough-talking Reagan Administration got the hell out of Lebanon, an
embarrassing retreat that most Americans don't like to talk about or
even remember.

The Iranian armoury of Katiusha-122 or Fajr-5 or C802 will not tip
the balance of power in the Middle East. We worry about the
disproportionate response of the Israelis, but it is clear they will
not give up. They continue to protect their own and act to ensure their
safety. They respect the dead bodies of their soldiers even if they
were selling hashish. With the hindsight of history, if the body
politic does not realize Israel's resolve, then it is wrong. Crying
about civilians and the destruction of their own infrastructures only
is nothing but denial of ground realities.

This has to be a wake up call. Religious bigotry is killing the
nations, both the Palestinian and the Lebanese. Who will wake them up?
Bombs have destroyed electrical power supplies in this summer heat of
100ºF. Do they realize how it feels to be without basic necessities in
scorching conditions and having to make do with contaminated water? It
is a shame. It is like a current carrying children to the killing
fields.

Far reaching brunt of attack on Haifa will be soon felt all across
the Middle East. The story of 'war of dogs' being unleashed does not
begin with the abduction of two soldiers who were selling hashish to
the Lebanese; there is definite history of injustice. On that count
Syrians and Lebanese officials are right. It dates back to 40 years of
'illegal occupation.' However the most surprising part of the language
is the final admission of only 40 years of illegal occupation, not
decimation of an illegitimate entity. The war of 1967 was imposed to
free Arab land from the occupation by an illegitimate entity since
1948. Finally the legitimate entity is recognised, albeit
diplomatically, but after what a colossal loss!

Hamas and Hezbollah's self-destructive policies have not helped the
Middle East. Their inability to threaten or annihilate Israel's
existence only succeeds in making Israel's cause and action more
justifiable. It is a well-known established norm of society to not take
up fights against someone stronger and more powerful than themselves;
it is a sheer exercise in futility.

In the wake of 9/11, one should take care of their self-interest.
How is any self-interest served by getting the infrastructure and
electricity of Gaza and South Lebanon knocked out? To embark on such an
aggressive self-destructive course every few years cannot and is not
helpful to the Palestinians. This exercise does not help in this modern
day and age.

The Iranian armoury of Katiusha-122 or Fajr-5 or C802 will not tip
the balance of power in the Middle East; it will only ensure total
destruction of the Hezbollah and along with it the innocent civilian
populations.

Attacks on Haifa have taken the crisis to a new level; a crisis that
threatens nuclear blackmail down the line in Middle East. To avoid that
scenario, the stage has been set to wipe out Hezbollah. The Hezbollites
with their absurd and futile decisions have signed their death warrants
in South of Lebanon. It is either going to be 'them' or 'Israel' who
will be triumphant and any pragmatic strategist would recognise that.
It is going to be most probably the former and not the latter that will
pay a very heavy price for this adventure.

The international community will not be a fool to intervene, nor
will Israelis allow these toy missiles to play havoc with their
citizens' safety. Israelis will not be a fool to let these snakes
prevail in their vicinity. All this shall be forgotten soon. The story
of missed opportunities is the story of Middle Eastern political saga
but the massive price that poor Lebanese civilians and Palestinians pay
for the outrageous and pointless politics of Hamas and Hezbollah are
too precipitous.

Take a lesson from Qaddafi. After Lockerbie, see how he conducts
himself. He paid a price and donned on a not-seen-not-heard cloak. Take
lessons from 1990 or the occupation of Golan Heights or Gaza or the
West Bank. The way to get back occupied lands is through love and
peace, and diplomatic negotiations. The Lebanese South is embracing the
era of diminishing political returns with renewed enthusiasm under
Hezbollahs.

Palestinian or Lebanese nations cannot be made hostage to whims and
sloganism of extremist ideological leadership. One should not forget
that the Palestinian liberation is a secular cause; same is the case
with Lebanon, a secular constitution. Not everyone has an ideological
war with Israel. Iranian-backed Hezbollites have hijacked and taken
part of nations, who don't agree with them, as hostage, and this is the
kind of agenda that has to be rejected.

Look at the banality of arguments. They say the whole story of the
crisis does not start from the kidnap of Israeli soldiers; it has
history. According to their convoluted logic, the soldiers would not
have been kidnapped had they not jailed thousands of Palestinians and
Lebanese. So, let's work it this way.

The "logical" line of action would be that Israelis should
unilaterally release all prisoners, then they should withdraw to 1973
borders. When that happens, ask Israelis to go back to 1967 borders.
When that is agreed, go back to 1948 borders. Demands since the last 58
years of Israel's existence has been to annihilate Israel, and then
that changed to some kind of acceptance to 1967 positioning.

But, had they accepted the 1948 borders, the 67 war would not have
happened, nor the 1973 war. By rejecting the state of Israel, they have
lost more areas, more territory and become subservient to Israel as a
nation. And today, it is Israel that has nuclear armoury in its
possession. And today, Iranian and Syrian-backed Hezbollites proved
once again, as they have demonstrated to the world time and time again,
that Arabs are incapable of being a responsible nation and thus not to
be trusted with any nuclear prowess.

The sad irony is that when things go out of hand, who do they run
to? The "Great Satan". What kind of politics or intelligence is this?
After getting their entire infrastructure and electricity knocked out,
they are going back to square one. Do they realize that this costly
gamble and "gainsmanship" only helps the so-called "great satan"
companies who supply the turbine and economic facilities?

This nonsensical struggle is nothing but self-destruction feeding
their own suicidal streak; sacrificing an entire nation and using them
as "suicide bombers." This cannot be overlooked. Every sensible and
reasonable person should condemn it. Be realistic. Don't do things that
force one to beg the "Great Satan's" help. Let's not multiply the
conflicts to a level where the infrastructure in Damascus or Tehran is
taken out which is possible within thirty minutes.

By continuing their policies, they are ensuring a comprehensive
destruction. By taking out a few people in Haifa or Tel Aviv will not
weaken Israeli resolve, but only strengthen them to take these future
threats out of the equation. This is the death of pragmatism within the
bird-brained megalomaniacs ruling Iran and the Hezbollites.

The victory that Hezbollah seems to strive on is through death
warrant strapped around the neck of a entire nation, this is collective
'suicide bombing' of an unwilling nation of Lebanon is achieved through
Lebanon being taken as a hostage. This lunacy, idiocy and imprudence
should be strongly condemned and resisted. Lebanon needs to be freed
from the suicide belt strapped around their necks!

Editor`s note. Mr Latif is an outspoken independent analyst. The above
article was posted by Iranian.com, one of the most versatile and
exhaustive Iranian website based in Los Angeles on 23 July 2006

http://www.iran-press-service.com/ips/articles-2006/july-2006/hezbollah-29706.shtml

It is so heartening, despite the constancy of the misery of this conflict, to hear sanity and reality on the subject. Keep up the good work. The times are changing. The propaganda is wearing thin. The internet is allowing more people to access the truth that will put to rest one of the greatest insanities of the modern age where an occupied and colonised people are called aggressor and the occupier and coloniser, using massive military power, is called the victim.