That's a beautiful dream, Grassroots. I pray it can be realized soon.

Talking of dreaming Loch,A while ago I had a lovely dream of The Iron Wall!
What? You say,"Are you cray" LOL!
No honestly.If you remember the Berlin Wall coming down and how wonderful a moment that was ALL OVER THE WORLD,then you will remember that it takes a tenth of the time to demolish bricks,concrete and mortar etc,than it does to build it in the first place.No Iron/Concrete wall is an immovable mountain.
Anyway,the dream I had was,that all the Palestinian families(and probably some Israelis who wanted equal peace)had decided that when the day came for the wall to be dismantled,every Palestinian family would be able to take ONE PIECE/BLOCK of the wall home with them as the support for the garden gate to their new home!
Many people,in this dream,were meeting at different parts of the wall,with picnic baskets,paint boxes and children having fun,to claim their piece of the wall by DECORATING it,in full colour,on the Palestinian facing side,with beautiful scenes of mountains,grass,sheep,goats,orchards and flowers and roses,LOCH! Lots of climbing roses! Each family signed each decorated block with their family name,as a claim to it,ready for when each piece would become covered in REAL climbing ROSES,in their NEW GARDENS in a free PALESTRAEL.LOL!
In the dream I was painting a waterfall on somebodies piece,it was such fun,BECAUSE I love art and beauty anyway! And there was just green everywhere!
When I woke up,I thought what a lovely ACHIEVABLE and FEASIBLE dream! One day each piece of that ugly apartheid wall should be the DECORATED supporting ballustrade to each NEW rose-covered proud Palestinian Garden gate!
Peace,Salaam,Shalom.

Indeed, jbello, I can see Fatah, who have basically given up the struggle, thinking it will be better to have a crumb than nothing at all. And I am sure that if Fatah abandons the West Bank to absorption into Israel, the Arab inhabitants will be immediately pushed into Jordan, and elsewhere across the globe. The ethnic cleansing of "Samaria and Judea"(God help us!) will be such as to make the events of Kosovo look like a church picnic. Gaza will not last if absorption were to happen. There is gas off the Gazan coastline. At that point, Israel would just invade and push the Gazans into the Sinai, posthaste. A declaration of independence is perhaps not the best idea. After all, Arafat declared the independence of Palestine 20 years ago.. whoop-dee-doo... as if THAT did any good!

Yes, yes, yes, Grassroots, the Palestinians' real hope is satyagraha. Could you imagine an army of women and children calmly and peacefully marching out of Gaza, through the Erez checkpoint and then through Israel, all the way to Jerusalem? It would galvanize the world. Everyone would watch and cheer, billions of us, all over the planet. The Israelis would massacre hundreds, maybe thousands of women and children, beat many thousands more with sticks and gun-butts, and spit and scream racial slurs upon the rest, but if the people remain steadfast, I think that such a march would effectively end Israel's domination of the situation. I really mean this. Think of the consequences.

1. Thousands of IDF troops, who are already demoralized and doubtful about their mission, would quit as they found themselves massacring hundreds of women and children. Right now the only thing that keeps these drug-addicted and otherwise listless soldiers motivated to attack Palestinians is the somewhat credible notion of self-defense- they are being shot at... sort of. But if no-one is shooting.. well, the entire Israeli military would face a paralyzing morale crisis of staggering proportions.

2. A satyagraha action would mobilize and inspire the Palestinians like nothing else. Given a ray of hope that they could actually secure their homeland and return to their villages by direct action, they would be able to put aside political differences and move ahead with the primary objective- regaining their shattered lives.

3. The Palestinians would capture the moral high ground and the moral spirit of world opinion so decisively that never again would anyone listen to Zionist "poor little holocaust survivors" propaganda ever again. The contrast between dirt-poor and starving Palestinian women and children, grandmas and grandpas, marching with noble and peaceful dignity, all the while opposed by obscenely rich and hateful racist mobs of entitled and arrogant Jews, armed to the teeth and using the most hateful forms of violent brutality would turn the entire world against the Zionist Entity forever.

4. Such a demonstration of moral courage would utterly transform American public opinion against Israel so decisively and permanently that never again would AIPAC and like Zionist organizations be able to rule America like some nightmare form of the Belgian Congo. In fact, the Palestinians, if they could pull this off, may be able to save the world. Ron Paul would be able to gain the White House (and I am dead serious here!) if the Palestinians could find it in themselves to mount a peaceful march on Jerusalem. America could return to being an inspiration and source of hope for the world, instead of a monster, controlled by insane Zionists intent on total world domination.

The only thing stopping the Palestinians from doing this is the hope (still unrealized after 60 years of fighting) that violence will help them, and strangely enough, the fear that they will be killed by the Israelis if they march peacefully. Of course many of them will be killed. But Israel plans to kill them all anyway! Why not go ahead and march? Those who are courageous enough to choose the front of the march will doubtless be killed, but I am sure the IDF soldiers will lose their stomach for killing innocents in a very short time. I pray there is a Palestinian leader somewhere who can see this and who has the ability to inspire his (or her) people to undertake a satyagraha.

Oh, it is good to dream... of a better world, one with peace and justice, where the specter of endless Zionist-directed-and-inspired (conspired!) war and chaos spreading across the entire planet is not the depressing reality!

You know Loch,You are right when you say Europeans refuse to indulge the Jewish people in their NEVERENDING abuse and enlongation of the WW2 Holocaust.
Europe have,long ago,stood up and said,'Enough already,what's done is done.That was then,and will hopefully NEVER happen again here. BUT THIS IS NOW!Get on with life!And stop using death as a sympathy crutch internationally. It doesn't wash with the Europeans any more.
Because also, many Europeans see the hypocrisy of the Jewish people having suffered already,INFLICTING the very same terror and suffering post WW2 on others!And are sickened by it.How can one pity a people eternally for being the 'victim' when they act now as equal perpetrators of terror? Europeans are not so easily sold on that ticket.The whole tragedy of the teatment of the Jews and any others,is treated like TABOO here in the States.In Europe it's a constant subject of open common debate!
Americans are still very loathed,scared and guilt-ridden(irrationally) to address this hypocrisy.America STILL treats Israel and the Jewish people with kid gloves as if they ARE STILL SICK! And Israel milks it for all its worth,as a present get-out-of jail-free'card!
It's as if because America has pledged to be allied to Israel that THEY IGNORE all of Israels sin of human rights abuse and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians!
You scratch my back,I'll scratch yours(Politically)! So to speak!
Loch,can you REALLY see Israel recognising Palestinian concentration camp detainees as "POW's"? I can't!
Heckthey would have to treat the prisoners according to the Geneva Conventions,treat them with humane respect and honour EVEN RELEASE THEM FOR UNFAIR DETENTION!
And they would,and could,THEN be held accountable for their war-crimes against humanity! No! they're not going to be caught out like that.Treat the Palestinians like EQUALS? Not in their lifetime! They are being allowed to get away with murder right now.WHY SPOIL THAT?
I agree with jbello though,I can imagine that in the near future Israel will ATTEMPT to push the West bankers into Jordan and Gazans into Egypt,in an attempt to create the myth of Eretz Israel.This of course would be a very foolish move.
I was pleased to see the PEACEFUL human-chain demonstration along parts of the apartheid iron wall.
If the Palestinians can maintain peaceful public protests the Israelis will NEVER BE PUBLICALLY JUSTIFIED IN USING MORE AGGRESSION.

Peace,Salaam,Shalom!

I agree, Loch. I am concerned, however about the issues raised in a recent Mosaic where Fatah members are seen talking about declaring independence, while Al Aqsa TV first shows the literal undermining of the Al Aqsa Mosque, and then talks about Fayad supporting a law that would allow 'international investors' to buy Palestinian land and resources.
I have this vision, which I don't claim to be either favorable or unfavorable, merely the inevitable conclusion of the current path if nothing changes. It is a vision where Gaza stands alone and independent, while the West Bank is absorbed into the greater Israel. I don't like to use the term One State 'Solution' but rather the One State 'Devolution' of current circumstances. At the rate things are moving. This scenario could emerge very quickly. It may be the only exit that remains from the current impasse.

Yes. "Corrupt Arab leaders" = Fatah. The Israelis are eager for Palestine to declare a unilateral independence. This would give them an excuse to declare war and invade the Palestinian territories, to declare all Palestinian militants to be prisoners of war, and to have a legal basis for the total conquest and occupation of Palestine.

See the story on Mossad-linked website:

http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1338
As for AIPAC, again correct. The US/Israeli relationship is not one of Israel as the client of the US. A more accurate description would be that the US is Israel's Belgian Congo.

Now, due to the economic collapse that the US is suffering, (and I am not exaggerating by the term "economic collapse". If anything, the term "economic collapse" is an understatement. Israel is scrambling to gain stronger ties with the EU as it watches its meal ticket in the US evaporate like subprime derivatives on a hot stove. See Jerusalem Post article, "Israel Begins Overhaul of EU Relations".

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1203605158097
&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

The trouble is, Europeans have had centuries of experience in dealing with the Jews. They won't be the pushovers Americans have been. If they help Israel at all, Israel will pay a high price indeed for that help.

Lastly, in unrelated developments- the Israeli-sponsored assassination of Hezbollah operative Ihmad Mughniyeh in Damascus has enraged Iran, Syria and Hezbollah like nothing has in recent months, perhaps even years. (http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5gSuDvlD4Vuuw3zj-OqLtJLk5Vjlw)

It appears that some form of vengeance is to be exacted, and the Israeli security forces are on an even higher state of alert, if that were possible...which causes me to wonder:

At what point does a perpetual, eternal, unceasing, state of stressful, tension-causing alertness begin to degenerate into some form of collective mental illness for a society that has to function under such constant and unrelenting mental and emotional strain?

The Gazans have also been under a similar strain, but as a result, they appear to be developing an understanding of how to use satyagraha- the proposed protest march along the Apartheid Wall that may take place today could very well be the beginning of a long-hoped-for non-violent struggle against the Zionist occupation. If the Palestinians ever develop the ability to protest non-violently, given the current global economic and political shifts, they will destroy the Zionist regime within a year, and all without ever firing a shot, or declaring independence.

Palestine should have been free a long time ago if it was not for corrupt Arab leaders and the chokehold by AIPAC on congress and every US Administration.

Kosovo declares independence from Serbia. Many Palestinians are talking about a similar move. Watching from a distance is the Israeli government which has thus far not recognized Kosovo and issued a statement saying only that it was "monitoring" developments there. Commentators have said it fears the unilateral declaration by Kosovo could set a precedent with potential effects in Israel’s backyard.
If Kosovo why not Palestine?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhT3Ovg5APE