Mehdi Hasan

Mehdi Hasan’s polemical take on politics, economics and foreign affairs

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Jenny Tonge and Ehud Olmert - can you spot the difference?

Calling for, or worrying about, a one-state solution isn't new, novel or controversial.

Gotcha! Don't you love it when journalists corner a politician or pundit with an outrageous or offensive quote, which makes afore-mentioned politician/pundit look mad, bad or both?

I don't. I find it frustrating, juvenile and, above all else, lazy. It tends to happens a lot when the issue under discussion is controversial and/or sensitive: e.g. the Israel/Palestine conflict.

Jenny Tonge, Lib Dem peer and ex-MP, is under fire right now for saying, according to the Guardian, "Israel will not last for ever". Labour MP Ian Austin has said Nick Clegg must

make Baroness Tonge withdraw these remarks.

Martin Bright, political editor of the Jewish Chronicle, tweeted:

I can only assume Nick Clegg will finally remove the whip from Baroness Tonge. That would be consistent with what he has said in the past

Even Ed Miliband's weighed in with a tweet:

No place in politics for those who question existence of the state of Israel. Nick Clegg must condemn Jenny Tonge's remark & demand apology

(n.b. One wonders what Marion Miliband makes of young Edward's remarks.)

Admittedly, Tonge has made some pretty dodgy remarks in the past about Israel and Israelis - which cost her a position on the Lib Dem frontbench - but this latest controversy seems rather manufactured. Her comment, in full, doesn't seem so controversial:

Israel is not going to be there for ever in its present form.

Shock! Horror! Tonge doesn't think Israel "in its present form" - that is, as a Jewish and democratic state that also happens to illegally occupy Palestinian land while denying Palestinians both self-determination and voting rights - can survive. After all, the demographics make a one-state, non-Jewish, binational state almost inevitable.

Hmm, I wonder who else has taken a similar view? Oh yeah. That's it: Ehud Olmert, Israel's former prime minister, who once talked of how "the State of Israel is finished" if it continues on its current, rejectionist trajectory. Outrageous, eh?

Here's the then Israeli premier's full quote from Haaretz in November 2007:

If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights, then, as soon as that happens, the State of Israel is finished.

An article on the BBC news website was devoted to Olmert's words. Guess what it's headline was?

Olmert warns of 'end of Israel'

So condemn Tonge for her comments on the future of Israel if you want to. But you'll have to condemn Ehud Olmert too. Funny old world, isn't it?

And, on a related note, the truth is that a single, secular, binational, one-state solution is now a mainstream, much-discussed alternative to the Middle East status quo. Polls show it has the support of a third of Palestinians and, astonishingly, even a quarter of Israelis. It also has the backing of, among others, the late Edward Said, the late Tony Judt, Ilan Pappe, Shlomo Sand, Virginia Tilley, Meron Benvenisti, Ahmad Khalidi, Ali Abunimah, Noam Chomsky, Jeff Halper and Sari Nusseibeh. Oh, and, perhaps a little reluctantly, me too.

 

200 comments

Tony David's picture

The old canard of the zionist occupation in Palestine being a democracy. I'd be keen to hear how a state is a democracy when it does not allow every individual the vote!

jankaas's picture

"Julia

"I back up my posts with reasoned facts"

cool, let'e put that to the test then.

you believe that Muslims do bad things because of Islam yes or no?

if it's a no, then i owe you an apology as that is how it comes across in all your posts.

but if it's a yes then you have to accept the following as equally true; the followers of the Lords Resistance Army do bad things because of Christianity.

over to you then...

1 and only god none's picture

We see you with eyes wide open and we who see ,know who the real enemy is.

When truth is spoken it is punished. This is a disgrace to the human race.

Let it be known that there is no chosen people, and those who believe, are being exposed for the evil that they represent !

KaiserFranzJoseph's picture

@ Armius. I'm happy for you to call me a Stalinist apologist and the first one you've seen on the NS threads. It must be a novelty for you to read a different perspective from the regurgitated bilge about ZioIslamism that passes for debate these days esp from the likes of Mehdi Hasan. However I'm not one, as I know that Stalin was just as murderous as Hitler. The Bolsheviks seized power in a coup in 1918, the war of intervention by the Allies backing Kolchack and who can forget Trotskys suppressing the Anarchists of the Ukraine. However the Nazis were far, far worse. Hitlers creed based on racism folly which as well as murdering millions meant the Germans were guaranteed to lose the war, without persecuting Jews the Germans could well have had the Atomic bomb. The Ukranians might well have turned against the Soviets they initially welcomed the Germans in. The German General staff said the ONLY way they could win in USSR was by treating asthe war as an extention of the civil war, Hitler refused saying all Slavs were Untermenschand should be treated like slaves or delibrately starved to death. That of course is all a moot point as any would be conquorer who decides to take on Russia is a lunatic and doomed to fail as Naploeon did a century before. Hitler in his lunacy must have looked at a German map of Russia and thought Siberia? whats all the fuss its just the Black Forest but a little bigger, Regarding the elements of the Cossacks and Vlassov troops they were Traitors who sided with an enemy in wartime. Any country would have treated its traitors in the same way and did. It was good old anti semitism that seduced them into joining the Huns in the first place. All this is history we could go on and on through Op Barbarossa to the fall of Belin , but your side lost, and I don't think Angela Merkyl is going to try it on with Russia. I would reccomend to you a film called 'Come and See' a Russian movie and not a hollywood whitewash of 'good' nazis such as Rommel.

As for Greece I have only admiration for a culture that was building Temples and inventing philosophy and politics itself, whilst the Germans hadn't come out of their forests and given mankind their contribution to civilisation; the invention of Stuka divebombers , blitzkrieg warfare and your personal favourite Cyclon B. I reserve my biggest admiration and personal affection for the old man who as a youngster climbed up the Acropolis and threw down the swastika flag, he is leading fight back the German imposed austerity measures and cuts. You will recall that as well as inventing western civilisation, they fight against oppressors and win , first against the Islamist Ottomans then the Nazis and then the Colonels.

As for thisThe rest of your post about "The Hun is up too his old tricks again" is pure Daily Mail racism of the sort now also being inflicted on the Scots also. It may please a certain type of Little Englander but personally I find it quite sickening.

Its quite hilarious that you find it 'sickening' , given that you think its a jolly wheeze to pretend to be an SS Guard shouting insults at Jewish people in German and then come over all lefty internationlist calling people 'little Englanders'. The cartoons produced by Greek papers showing Merkyl in a nazi uniform are quite appropriate, though i prefer our own Steve Belle showing her dressed in fetish gear with a picklehaube for comedy value. As for calling me a Daily Mail reader please save your self the effort I couldn't care less as the DM is just one bad paper amongst many including the Indy, The Graun as they all support the Neo- Livb Capitalist 'TINA' agenda. You also mentioned the Scots I have no idea what you are taling about. Did the DM call them ALL Huns or was that just supporters of Rangers FC

Moobs's picture

Your efforts to spin her comments into respectability are valiant but doomed. The gist of her speech is: "Look out Israel, your lobby may have a decisive influence over American policy now but the American people are going to wise up and then you are going to get what's coming to you."

The notion that she was proposing a one state solution in the abstract is bonkers.

Al4's picture

I'm not entirely sure WHY Israel should want to share its country with people sworn to its destruction and with a fanatical hatred of Jews? Secular, Zionist Israel used to be backed by the left wing. No longer, it seems.

David Lindsay's picture

AI, as set out in my earlier link (too long to post here) and the book from which it is extracted, "secular, Zionist Israel" barely exists anymore. Entirely by the secular Zionists' own choice: they either didn't move to Israel, or they didn't have anything like enough children if they did. And it is too late now.

Arminius's picture

JJ - "And thank god for the Soviet Union for its sacrifices in the war against the Hun" - I already knew your were a moral imbecile and racist but I did not have you pegged as a cheerleader for the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union was responsible for the death of countless millions far more than Nazi Germany and including many from your beloved Hebrew tribe. The Soviet Union sacrificed nothing until it was forced into the war prematurely by Operation Barbarossa (which is considered by some as a "preemtive strike of the type the Israeli use - Nazis are not the only ones to use euphamisms to disguise their aggression). If you must thank anyone for defeating Nazi Germany, thank Britain and the Western Allies who liberated part of Europe whuilst the Soviet Union enslaved part of it.

Arminius's picture

JJ - Rather than post crap, try doing a little research. Churchill ensured that in 1945 the British Army kept 2 million German small arms in readiness to re-arm the Wehrmacht should the need arise. This followed armed confrontations with Tito's Communist troops near klagenfurt and Red Army soldiers near Wismar.
JJ - You are simply ignorant of history.

Andy's picture

Mehdi Hasan - you are again spouting your usual blinkered anti-Israel nonsense. Not only are your extreme views insulting, they are verging on racism.

You claim that Israel "also happens to illegally occupy Palestinian land". Please would you clarify exactly where this so-called 'Palestinian' land is? I can only assume that you are refering to the Gaza Strip and West Bank - both areas of land won by Israel during a war instigated by her enemies in 1967. Well Mehdi, be aware that these areas were not 'Palestinian' - the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian Control, and the West Bank under Jordanian. So, I would ask again, please clarify what Palestinian land is Israel occupying? Maybe you could give me the name of a road or town, or maybe some map co-ordinates?

You then go on to say that Israel denies "Palestinians both self-determination and voting rights". Please Mehdi, please clarify who these Palestinians are, who Israel is denying the vote. The Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip were absolutely given the right to vote by Israel - they did so in January of 2006, and voted in an Iranian-back terrorist group to govern them. If anyone is denying these Palestinians the right to vote, it is the leaders of Hamas, who presumably no-longer feel that elections are necessary - certainly not since they took to throwing their Fatah opponents from rooftops after the 2006 elections.

If you are refering to the Palestinian population within Israel, then let me assure you Mehdi, that they do have exactly the same voting rights as 'ordinary' Israelis (Jews, Mehdi). Not only do they have voting rights, they have their own political parties, including Hadash, Balad, and United Arab List. They have members of Parliament, and mayors, councillors, and Judges throughout the country. The deputy-Speaker of the Knesset (parliament) is a Palestinian - Ahmad Tibi of the Ta'Al political party.

You talk about your desire for Israel to become a Secular (ie non-Jewish) state, yet how many of the Arab states in the Middle East could be described as secular? Not one that I can think of. Indeed, the most-secular country in the region, of most recent years, was probably Turkey, which now appears to have given up in its desire to join the EU, and is forging ever-closer links with the likes of Iran.

Mehdi, it may suit your argument for Israel to be the 'apartheid state' that Jenny Tonge has accused it of being, but the fact remains that it isn't, never has been, and never will be.

Julia Harris's picture

Agoodwood, your an Idiot and spouting the usual Islamist lefty bullshit. The people who have made this 2 state solution impossible are the Arabs who have tried to destroy Israel at every opportunity. Inviting a Rabid dog into your house, hoping it won’t bite and trying to make it a good pet is futile.

You and the rest of your brigade are jealous, plain and simple. Your jealous that Israel defeated its enemies, built itself into a strong successful country that doesn’t capitulate with an enemy it knows hates it and wants to destroy it. Its success and survival have been due to this and again the left and the islamist just can handle it, so they want to see it destroyed.
This whole notion of settlements is bullshit, Israel are building on land that never had anyone living there, its one excuse after the other.

“In the Six-Day War, Israel captured Judea, Samaria & East Jerusalem. But they didn't capture these territories from Yasser Arafat. They captured them from Jordan's King Hussein. I can't help but wonder why all these Palestinians suddenly discovered their national identity after Israel won the war? Why was there never a call for Palestine before that.”
@ Marion, I have never debated you before but you talk about me asif we have. your not Jackass or Sir Michael, but you sound abit like Daniele, anyway just like another Muppet letting her mouth run away with her.

Anthony's picture

Mehdi you got a face i just wanna slap the shit out of.

Arminius's picture

Elizabeth - Change the record when you change the sock puppet ID.

Julia Harris's picture

“you believe that Muslims do bad things because of Islam yes or no?”
I believe that Islam as a Totalitarian Ideology has in its place the structure to actively promote hatred, terror, violence and humans rights abuses against its own people and also those not affiliated by it i.e Infidels. I don’t think all Muslims adhere to these principals and don’t think Muslim people are intrinsically bad, however many are uneducated and thus have had their minds programmed by an infection of the mind called ‘Islam’.

TBH, I hadn’t heard the The Lords Resistance Army but reading there description of Wikipedia (that I presume to be accurate we could argue the point that yes they have Christianity as one aspect of their warped agenda and so it would be very easy to say that they do bad things because of Christianity. But is that accurate? And does it tell us the whole story? For me it doesn’t as they use a whole host of other “local religious rituals, mysticism, traditional religion, Acholi nationalism including Christianity.” So they are a multifaceted group, borrowing from here and taking from there and what we need to ask is “ did Christianity create this group in its current guise and/or did it create the basis for the groups atrocities over and above the other rituals its follows? Or has this group been formed from the “larger armed resistance movement waged by some of the Acholi people against a central Ugandan government” and thus again borrowed from here and taken from their parts of different beliefs into its own, but its violent agenda was firmly in place without the need for Christianity to exist and influence it?

I would say the later would be true, that Christianity has been used by an already violent group as part of there political manifesto and that Christianity wasn’t and hasn’t been the overriding influence to it, or the catalyst to start the group and see it spread across the region and world, as we see with Islamic hate groups, discuss.

Arminius's picture

KaiserFranzJoseph (ist seit lange tot) - Strange that you know that Stalin was just as murderous as Hitler yet you consider the Nazis were far, far worse (not just worse or far worse but far far worse). I suppose it depends on your perspective, those who suffered 40 years of Communist brutality or who suffered in the Holodomor have a different view from those who were persecuted by the Nazis but genocide is genocide as far as I am concerned no matter who the perpetrator is.
There were over a million soldiers from the lands of the Soviet Union who fought for the Germans during WW2 yet you dismiss them as Traitors who sided with an enemy. Few were motivated by anti-semitism (where to you get this crap from?) and large numbers of them were motivated by survival instinct as they wished to avoid slow starvation as a POW but there were huge numbers who I cannot class as traitors. Were Cossacks who had lived outside the Russia since the Civil War traitors? Were Estonians who joined the Estonian Legion traitors? What of the Georgians, Azerbaijanis, Armenians etc...who had all been forced into the Soviet Union? Try reading some real history books instead of watching neo-soviet propaganda films like "Come and See" (the Russians do not make many films about their own NKVD killers and get rather annoyed when the atrocities they committed are mentioned by others).
Your admiration for Greece again put you in a minority and it is misplaced since modern Greeks bear little relation to Ancient Greeks. What you find hillarious just goes to show your hypocracy as the rest of your post shows your poor knowledge of history. If you are so ill educated then I cannot expect much better from you.

Tussant's picture

Hey Arminius a very warm sieg HEIL to you. I was just wondering if you get some untermenchen to polish your jackboots for you in the morning.

kr's picture

@Anthony

If you have nothing to say, don't say anything. Otherwise you'd just sound like a prick that you are.

Hiphopcrisy's picture

Marion is Laura stuart/Jerseylily an MPACUK stalwart and avowed anti-semite

JJ's picture

Arminius, you idiot I know the point you are trying to make, that the Soviets were as bad as the Nazis for the 'Hebrew tribe' - your words.

Neither the West nor the Soviets cared about the Jews. They didn't fight WW2 for the Jews after all neither Americans nor British nor Soviets tried to bomb the camps. But at the end of the day Nazism in Europe was defeated, thankfully. So go back to your bitter musings.

Janet Green's picture

Julia Harris, what a silly claim about who has made the two state solution impossible; the people who have scattered settlements all over the West Bank are Israelis. Where exactly were you planning to put the other state?

Arminius's picture

JJ - You actually missed the point i was trying to make namely that you are ignorant of history and believe the BS that has been spoon fed to you and idiots like you for the last 60+ years.
Naziism was defeated in Europe at the expense of allowing half of the continent to fall under the Communist yoke. It would have been far better to have allowed the two totalitarian systems to bleed each other white then sweep both of them away once the western powers had built up their strength and the Japanese had been dealt with.
Best you go back to school to complete your education.

Arminius's picture

Baroness Tonge is correct about the Israeli lobby in the UK (all the major parties have their "friends of Israel" groups including her own party with members up to and including Prime Minister) and other countries (especially the USA) but she must surely have realised that, because of this lobby, her comments would not go unpunished. You do not combat this lobby by becoming the political equivelant of a "suicide bomber".

yaayo's picture

Lets just all submit to Islam as they will never be happy until they ruin the world. I'm joking of course, about submitting, not the other.

Coleridge's picture

I don't think Islam will last forever.
I think thhe racist apartheid state of Pakistan should cease to exist.
Hope your not offended Mehdi?

KaiserFranzJoseph's picture

Its easy to explain why Communism is a better system than Nazidom. I'm not a defender of even though i'm not a Stalinist apologist Communismmis based on redistribution of wealth wheres with Nazidom its just racism. Of course communism was perverted but Nazism is a corrupt idealogy to start with. Communism is not based on racism.

With Nazism you don't fit unless you're a Kraut. Sorry 'Aryan' so u can recruit some Nordics, Danes and Norwegians if you can get them to volunteer as Waffen SS cannonfodder when you're best men are killed off by the Russkis. Max Mannus Man of war is a v good film about Norwegian Resistance resisters. Guess what? the Norwegians were happy to see their 'Aryan' brothers go back to Hunland.

You can take your Million plus Romanians and shove them where the sun don't shine they're usless and have only been dragooned into the war by their quisling govts, the Rumanians like the Finns change sides anyway. Even the Hungarians and Italians are asking what the hell are we doing in Russia?

The Lithuanians and the Estonian SS Divs are just plain evil and in it for progroms against Jews and other minoritys. Even today they have SS Div reunions just to piss off the Russians. Nice

Your're comment about Ancient and Modern Greece aren't worth commenting on - typical Nazi Propaganda of the 1940s. You ignore my comment about Greeks overthrowing the Ottoman Yoke why? Because you are an Islamist and it is well known that Islamists made an alliance with world Nazis inWW2. You're comment that Greeks and their supporters are a 'minority' which is complete rubbish, but even if were true u let slip yr Totalitarian mindset ; Civilisation dictates 'minoritys' be respected and not bullied like Merkyl is doing to day.

You have not demonstrated any particularly accurate or new historical perspectives. I suspect that you spent your youth reading war comics and playing Talonsofts Eastern Front(nothing wrong in that if it teaches you history) but like David Irving you decided to support the Nazis because they're 'Bad Boys' and supporting them makes you feel a bit of a rebel. But then calling people racists little Englanders and spouting anti semetism at the sametime makes you look like a bit of an asshole. Grow Up.

Coleridge's picture

Hey Arminius you Islamist scum - do you still regret that the Holocaust 'incomplete' and that Jews are 'zhids'? How unsurprising to find a racist anti-Semitic Islamist bigot standing up for Tonge.

Julia Harris's picture

Janet, Israel had homes, factories and infrastructure in Gaza, they left the whole area giving the pally everything...so whats your point?

If the Pally's want peace genuinely then I have no doubt there can be an negotiated agreement.

The settlements as you call them is the subsequent excuse used. Come to the table, say we want a lasting peace, anything is possible...it hasn't happened from the Pally side.

Arminius's picture

Maximillian - Maybe you are related to Avraham Stern, the founder of the Lehi terrorist group who so despised the British that he was prepared to collaborate with Nazi Germany against the British and who saw no difference between Hitler and Chamberlain. I suspect the best part of you ran down your mother's leg.

Agoodword's picture

Yahoo, yes the Islamic boogeyman will come for you first and demand total submission then Julia Harris but in her case it won't give her any choice hahaha.

Come back to this forum when you stop believing children's scare stories face the real world.

Arminius's picture

It comes as no surprise that the dreykop drek kosher fascist Maximillian can understand German since it is similar to Jiddish. He associates German with Naziism since, in common with most Jewish extremists, he has an extreme racial prejudice against Germans. This is far more pronounced than the general contempt they hold for all Goyim, more even than the hatred they have for the Arabs.

Julia Harris's picture

@ Hiphopcrisy, that's insightful, I'm curious how you know its her, but you don't have reveal how you know.

I hadn't heard of her, but it would make sense, doing a quick Google I can see she is well integrated into the UK life.

"we have in reality a community leadership in Finchley who fear everything - from offending the local pro Zionist "Friends of Israel" M.P. Mike Freer, to standing up and speaking out against the many injustices against Muslims,

http://www.mpacuk.org/story/050112/new-years-event-finchley-masjid-pacif...

Not like a Muslim/Lefty to be playing the victim card is it? That's the same Mosque where that same UK MP who she mentions was threatened and had to lock himself in when visiting.

Funny isn't it how Muslims in the UK seem to exhibit the same violent and hateful tendencies as Muslims in the Middle east? This is happening in the UK, i refer you to my post 1 in the debate...about Free speech and intimidation if you go against Muslim policy...Jew's use there brains and intellect to discuss, Muslims and lefties seem to threaten and use violence...

Guess we are all too blame for there words and actions? Will they ever be happy living amongst the Kufffar?

I would like to cut and paste some of the things that were said, sorry Marion.

"Mr Freer said about 12 people forced their way inside, with one of them calling him a "Jewish homosexual pig".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-15508697

Soup One's picture

Agoodword,

Do you agree with Ken O'Keefe's views? Or not?

Parkour Pete's picture

@Marion " You are an avowed supporter of Israel and will not tolerate along with your diear friend Julia any criticism of Israel"

Firstly, I don't know Julia other than as someone who posts on this site, and secondly, I'm quite happy to listen to criticism of Israel when it's based on informed understanding - not hatred and bigotry and, least of all, the kind of odious hypocrisy that's common to many on the left-wing who assume that being so makes them immune from the brush that rightly tars the far-right

Anthony Aloy's picture

Dear All

It is agreed that the two-state solution is the only practical way of resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict.

There should not be anyone who rejects the rights of Israelis or of Palestinians. However, UN Resolutions (of which there are over 150) and the ruling of the International Court of Justice in the Hague pertaining to the illegal 'separation barrier' (3 times the length of the Berlin Wall) should be fully recognised by the current Government of Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu also rejects the requirement of the Road Map (2003) to end illegal settlement expansion which is threatening the viability of a two-state solution and Palestine's existence. He has also ignored the US requests for peace to be based on the 1967 lines.

Mr Netanyahu opposed UNESCO's recognition of Palestine last year (supported by France, Spain, Ireland and Norway). Also Israel disagreed with 6 UN Resolutions passed late last year including one pertaining to Jerusalem (supported by 166 nations plus the UK).

Incidentally, there are 130 nations in the world that currently recognise the State of Palestine (that include India, China, Brazil, Russia, Malaysia, South Africa, Indonesia, and more recently Iceland and Thailand).

Israel and Palestine are hear to stay and Palestine's viability and contiguity must not be questioned. Similarly Israel's right to exist should not be questioned either. International law must be implemented and a comprehensive peace brought about.

Thank you.

JJ's picture

@Arminius: With one breath you say have been spoon fed BS history and with the other you say I should go back to the...very schools that you claim fed me BS.

You really need to get the hang of this thing called logic, Arminius.

Read Timothy Snyder for some perspective on 'bleeding'.You have no moral perspective, just nihilism.

Sweep both systems away? As Tommy Cooper would say 'just like that!' your knowledge of the facts on the ground is as fantasy laden as Hitler was in his 'Steiner' rant.

Simon's picture

What's wrong with a multi-ethnic, secular democratic state?
The sharing of drinking-fountains? equality? justice?

Hobson's picture

It's hard to know exactly what Tonge meant but Mehdi, she didn't actually say the things you ascribe to her - you've guessed what she meant and been as generous as possible in making that guess.

Almost any decent person hopes Israel won't continue as it does now in the sense that it won't continue to occupy the West Bank and Gaza as it does now, and won't continue to prevent the formation of a genuinely viable and independent Palestinian state as it does now.

But if that's the type of thing Jenny Tonge actually meant, you'd think she'd be able to say so clearly. She's not a student handed a microphone and expected to become an accomplished public speaker on the spot, she's an experienced politician.

Agoodword's picture

The better question is why you suppose anyone who condemns Israeli expansionism has anything to do with kens view on 911. That's not far off from making a link between my views on cars with my views on lakes. What is your point.

Let me attempt to remedy your intellectual ailment. It is possible, as it's been done by many many times by distinguished people to make the case for Israeli expansionism, ethnic cleansing israeli apartheid and more without believing 911 was carried out by Mossad.

If you need another dose or want me to prescribe more mental pills get back to me. We could even meet and I'll heal your ailment.

Agoodword's picture

Coleridge, Islam will not last forever,Nor will Christianity, Judaism, nor will Pakistan, nor will Saudi, The US, UK or Israel. I don't see how conceding to that is controversial. I'm sure Mehdi is more than happy to concede that.

Can you accept Israel will not last in its current form for another 50 years. Time is also not on the side of Pakistan and Somali. Of course It will take longer for the UK and US and much much longer for Islam and Chritinanity. But Israel, i'm sure will not exist in its current form even in my life time.

I guess, for you, Israel is sacred, untouchable and has a god given right to exist perpetually.

No sensible person can believe Israel will last in its current form. If you want an end to the conflict you should want Israel to shift its maximalist position and end its belligerent occupation, continuous demolition of Palestinian homes, theft of more Palestinian land, ongoing expulsion of Palestinians from East Jerusalem.

Whatever you and others say about Muslim fundamentalism when ever Israel is mentioned, its really a distraction.

The greater danger in the Israli Palestine question is Jewish fundamentalism supported by Evangelical Christians, who believe they are paving the way for the coming of the messiah.

you have to be wearing blinkers not to see that. The Israeli government sees that and knows that, thats why it will make no concessions on settlements and Jerusalem. Because to do so will be political suicide and to continually insist is a death sentence, ask Rabin. The religious block are now far stronger than Rabins time.

I've met a lot of old ex Zionists from around the world and one thing they all agree on is that the Israel project has been hijacked by racists and religious extremists from all sides.

You may not be able to join the dots yet but I dread the how all this madness will end.

Shayan Shayen's picture

People like Nick Clegg can be "bought" and "sold" if one has the right amount of Pound Sterling!

jamesbrownjb@yahoo.co.uk's picture

Julia Harris is a racist who hates all Arabs, especially Muslims. SHh should be prosecuted for incitement of racial hatred

Tim Avenell's picture

You ask me what the solution is?

Peace and a commitment to it from Hamas,Hezbollah,Iran et al as well as Israel is the solution.

And another thing why are so many of you anti-Semites so hateful of white middle aged men?

Marion's picture

I can see that the ZIonist lobby are out in force. No amount of copying and pasting from Julia Harris can get away from the indisuptable fact that Israel in pursuing its current policies cannot last the test of time. As for Jenny Tonge, I believe she has shown remarkable courage and bravery in defending the Palestinians. We need more political figures like her!!!!!

jankaas's picture

^

anyone can be bought, everyone has a price, it's just that for someone in real position of power that price should be unaffordable.

Marion's picture

Israel and its supporters and bigots on this comment page show themselves to be crpyto racists. Surely it is Europe and the Germans in particular who should pay the price for inflicitng the holocust on German Jews. That Israelis as victims are now inflicting their own genocide on the Palestinians in terms of ethnic cleansing , beginning in 1948, is deeply ironic!!!!

Marion's picture

Yet again Ed Miliband has shown himself to be completely behind the curve. The truth is that if Israel is allowed to continue its expansionist policies on the West Bank, the remaining Arab land will not longer constitute a viable state. The one state solution then becomes the only real possibility.

jankaas's picture

@Julia

i see you are posting on other similar threads, so perhaps this just got lost in the fog of posts? this is where we were;

jankaas
05 March 2012 at 20:06

Chris's picture

Oh come on...the quote (which I believe was actually "Israel is not going to be there for ever in its present performance") was prefaced by "Beware Israel!" and followed by her saying that the US would withdraw support and finished by "they will not go on forever, they will not go on forever and then they will reap what they have sown"
Of course it was going to stir up controversy - it doesn't sound any different from the sort of stuff that comes out of Tehran!

Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine's picture

We've published a statement on this issue: http://libdem.me/1ks

Marion's picture

Why is the UK poltical establishment running scared of the Israeli lobby. Even the BBC which is paid for by taxpayers is not allowed to mention the word Palestine.

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