No state here

A headline in today's Sydney Morning Herald reads: "Sharon may be ready to accept an independent Palestinian state":

"The Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, would turn over more territory to the Palestinians and accept an independent Palestinian state if elected to a third term, according to a draft platform of Mr Sharon's Kadima party released yesterday."

Sharon has not become a peace-maker, however. His definition of a Palestinian state is both inadequate and contradictory:

"But it still falls short of Palestinian demands, as Mr Sharon wants to keep control over all of Jerusalem, and has said he wants to retain large blocs of West Bank settlements. Yesterday Israel announced plans to expand two settlements there despite a ban on such construction in the US-led plan for peace with the Palestinians."

While West Bank settlements continue to expand and checkpoints make life next to impossible for many occupied Palestinians, the SMH headline-writer clearly needs to read more widely than the syndicated news feeds.