[Edition 63] SYDNEY, Thursday: The latest attempt to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict, a Year 10 debate between St George Girls’ High School and Hurlstone Agricultural High School, has ended in failure. The debate, on the topic ‘That America should intervene in Palestine’, was held in the St George school hall after recess today.

[Edition 63] SYDNEY, Thursday: The latest attempt to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict, a Year 10 debate between St George Girls’ High School and Hurlstone Agricultural High School, has ended in failure. The debate, on the topic ‘That America should intervene in Palestine’, was held in the St George school hall after recess today.
Following the pattern of most debates on the issue, such as the Camp David negotiations in 2000 and the more recent mission by US envoy General Anthony Zinni, the two teams were unable to reach agreement on most of the key issues. In particular, the two teams came unstuck on the pressing issue of whether Ariel Sharon or Yasser Arafat was more like Adolf Hitler.
“This debate only served to illustrate the complexity of this interminable conflict,” the adjudicator said in a lengthy and verbose adjudication which drew heavily on her honours thesis, but failed to explain why the debate was won by the negative from Hurlstone.
The incident means the Arab-Israeli conflict joins issues such as whether human cloning should be legalised, whether money is the root of all evil and whether the pen is mightier than the sword as the latest difficult question not to be resolved in a high-school debate.