Today's Guardian's Op Ed page has a powerful piece by the former speaker of the Israeli Knesset, Avraham Burg.

It was originally published in Yediot Ahronot and has also appeared in the International Herald Tribune.

It's the most lucid analysis of the current situation in the Middle East I've read in a long time and I'd say it's a must read for anyone interested in the issue. Amid the suicide bombings on the one side and the targetted killings on the other Burg is a voice of sanity.

Burg says that "the 2,000-year struggle for Jewish survival comes down to a state of settlements, run by an amoral clique of corrupt lawbreakers who are deaf both to their citizens and to their enemies....

"A structure built on human callousness will inevitably collapse in on itself....

"Israel, having ceased to care about the children of the Palestinians, should not be surprised when they come washed in hatred and blow themselves up in the centres of Israeli escapism. They consign themselves to Allah in our places of recreation, because their own lives are torture."

There are many pertinent quotes in the article, but you really need to read it in its entirety.

Guardian: The end of Zionism