Well, Uri Avnery was one of those old boys - yet he managed to change. As for some other old boys, you continue to misread me: I indeed don't expect anything good from Sharon (and not much good anymore from ousted Labour leader Perez), the change of strategy I posit is not a quality improvement (see also my reply to Marek). Meanwhile, a number of others who push the agenda in Israel are not old boys, at least not old enough to have been pre-Israel terrorists - Netanyahu, Barak, a lot of others.

As for the refuseniks and Gush Shalom, I did not say they 'represent public opinion' - I know they are a minority (and hope some day they will be majority), but the thing you fail to contemplate is my rejection of blanket statements. If you say "Israelis this Israelis that", you denounce the Gush Shalom people too. This is like if I said that "Austrians are Nazi apologists", based on very broadly held (extending well into the SPÖ) false views about the nature of and Austrians' role in the Third Reich.

Your point about widely held hypocrisy and guilt in connection to the draft would again be a very good argument, had you not overstated it. For, not everyone goes to the military (older immigrants - the impact of the Russian immigration on the level of the Israeli public's ignorance is rarely discussed - and religious people don't), and (by far) not everyone in the IDF goes on active duty in the occupied territories, and not everyone who does will have a full oversight over what's going on - in fact, youngsters ignorant of even recent history and not personally witnessing the clear war crimes (or having insight into decisionmaking behind the parading-as-security-measures ones) can soldier through their time in full conviction of righteousness - i.e, be part of the self-deluded masses. (Of course, one might say such lack of critical thinking has implicit racism behind it.)

On your next two paragraphs, I am in almost perfect agreement, tough I add that such an ideal solution has mass opposition and to be suppressed political movements on the Palestinian side, too. (I suspect you do see this just weren't explicit.)

Your last was unnecessary tough: on one hand, Bernhard has no admin rights here - his is Moon of Alabama, on the other, I suspect it is much harder to pis of Jérôme than for example me - as yet no one was banned on this site.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}