DUCKPOND

As the torment continues, for those discriminating Israelis with consciences and indiscriminately for the dispossessed Palestinians, there is sadly little to celebrate as Israel marks the 60th Anniversary. The die of this project was cast before the First World War, the rise of Hitler and the Holocaust.

As long as Israel exists in its present form, cruel and inhuman in its actions, a shadow of injustice and discord will be cast over the Middle East and the World. This dream has turned into a nightmare. It is a case study that invites us all to consider how things might have been different. Israel is the worst of all follies - it is a human folly.

Doesn’t the Bible say somewhere: If you live by the sword; you die by the sword?

ELSEWHERE:

Many people in Israel are apparently pessimistic about the ceasefire holding, as they are concerned with the possibility of becoming a minority, despite the border walls. Peter Hirschberg reports at IPS:

But if Israelis are deeply skeptical about the prospects of ending the conflict with the Palestinians, the War and Peace Index nevertheless found that a clear majority of Jews in Israel — some 70 percent — support the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. This strong support can be explained, in part, by demographic fears harboured by Israel’s Jewish population, who worry that if they don’t relinquish the West Bank, then higher Arab birth rates will ultimately mean that they will be a minority — and the Arabs a majority — in the geographic area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea (including Israel and the occupied territory). At that point, with a Jewish minority ruling over an Arab majority, Israel would cease to be a democratic state.

Olmert has long been one of the most vigorous exponents of the “demographic” argument, telling his countrymen last year that if they don’t leave Palestinian areas, Israel would find itself in an untenable apartheid-like situation. “The day will come when the two-state solution collapses and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights,” he said. “As soon as that happens, the state of Israel is finished.”

Israel has the most powerful and sophisticated army in the Middle East, but 60 years after the state came into existence Israelis still have profound existential concerns. The War and Peace Index found that Iran’s nuclear ambitions were considered by most Israelis to be “the gravest security danger” facing their country.

While Iran insists its nuclear programme is civilian in nature, Israel, the U.S. and much of Europe is convinced Tehran is bent on acquiring nuclear weapons. Just over 60 years after Adolf Hitler tried to wipe out the Jews of Europe, many Israelis believe that if Iran is able to build the bomb then they will again face the threat of annihilation.

No mention of Israels nuclear weapons, just a fear of annihilation.