Reply to Bunnahabhain,
To deal with the question of Gaza first. The Israeli simply could not sustain its occupation of Gaza which has a population of over a million Palestinians most of whose families fled there ,or were pushed out,from the towns and cities which are now part of Israel.

Some 8000 right wing armed zionist settlers built fortified enclaves in Gaza protected by the Israeli army. These paramilitaries and the Israeli state controlled the water supplies,the checkpoints and most of the sea front.Gaza was chopped up into zones and to go from one area to another was extremely difficult and time consuming for the Palestinians who were humiliated on a daily basis .An Israeli pullout was inevitable and it duly came last year.

Now Israel seeks to control Gaza at arms length. It still controls the border with Egypt and the air space and coastal waters.Gaza's international airport is now wrecked and closed down.Gaza is shelled on a daily basis and dozens of its people including women and infants have ben killed or wounde since the official withdrawal.Last week the Israeli destroyed its power plant leaving Gaza sweltering without electricity.

The apartheid wall is massive and cuts in to the illegally occupied West Bank.It is another massive land grab by the Zionists.It divides Palestinian farmers from their lands and villages from their hinterland.It again makes life intolerable for the Palestinian peoplewho are effectively penned in like cattle by soldiers with tanks and machine guns.Israel is making facts on the ground and seeks to reduce the Palestinian areas to "bantustan" enclaves with all entry and exit points controlled by the state of Israel.

When the Palestinian West Bank was invaded in 1967 there were no Israeli settlers, now there are hundreds of thousands od Zionists in the occupied territories stealing and occuping land and terrorizing the Palestinians with their armoured bulldozers and tanks and heavily armed paramilitaries.
But the Palestinians are stubborn and have nowhere to go .The occupation of Palestine by Zionists has poisoned relationsships in the region and has poisoned Israeli society itself.It is now the most militarised society in the world .
IFOR