"...it is the international intervention in the region, driven by the ‘war on terrorism', and not the Sudanese government, that is responsible for the unrest in the region, and should therefore be blamed for the expected impending failure of the Dakar peace deal. Leading Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, that could have helped to bring peace to the region but defer to Bush, must also accept a share of the blame."

"...the problematical hyperactive U.S. foreign policy did not arise with President George W. Bush, but has existed through Democratic and Republican administrations since Harry S Truman was president. Although George W. Bush was especially gullible and incompetent in attempting his armed, nation-building fiasco in Iraq, the hyperactivity in U.S. foreign affairs is mainly structural."

"There can be no better demonstration of the futility of the current peace process than the Olmert government's failure to begin seriously rolling back the settlement movement. Given Olmert's clear understanding that the settlers' excesses constitute a genuine danger to Israel's future as a Jewish and democratic state, this is in many ways even more troubling than Palestinian leadership and security failings and the absence of a genuine American commitment to this process."

"Making gestures is not illegitimate. But there is great danger in making gestures that have no impact on peoples' lives. Such gestures simply serve to erode the credibility and the public standing of those involved in negotiations on the Palestinian side. At the same time they make life easy for groups like Hamas who stand ready to exploit empty words that only serve to prove their arguments."

"Contrary to their gown-wearing counterparts, the suit-wearing extremists are more sophisticated and more illusive. They consult with image-makers and PR specialists and speak the language of the dominant with seductive eloquence. As such, the suit-wearing extremists are more prone to fly under the radar of public sensibilities and media scrutiny, and this not only gives them the leverage but the impunity to go for the kill- painting all Muslims and Islam on one broad negative paintbrush."

"In Israel, 25 per cent of the population is non-Jewish, severely discriminated against and denied basic democratic and social rights. The bill prompted Israel's newspaper, Ha'aretz, to publish an editorial titled, "A racist Jewish state".

"Since Kasrils correctly asserts the need for Israel to confront the past, one wonders whether Chief Rabbi Goldstein will have the courage to recognize that “without dealing with the agony it has caused, there can be no healing and no solution”. Equally it would be futile for local Zionist lobbies to rubbish Kasrils as a “self-hating Jew”, as his reading of the “bloody thread that links Israel’s shameful past with that of today” is spot-on."

"Pappe’s scholarly treatise is equally compelling on two profoundly significant levels, which he refers to as manifestations of denial. The first, he says, was the denial exercised by peace brokers as they consistently sidelined, if not altogether eliminated, the Palestinian cause and concerns from any future peace arrangement. The second was the categorical refusal of the Israelis to acknowledge the Nakba and their absolute unwillingness to be held accountable, legally and morally, for the ethnic cleansing they committed in 1948."