  We reconsider the percolation approach of Russo, Aizenman and Higuchi for
showing that there exist only two phases in the Ising model on the square
lattice. We give a fairly short alternative proof which is only based on FKG
monotonicity and avoids the use of GKS-type inequalities originally needed for
some background results. Our proof extends to the Ising model on other planar
lattices such as the triangular and honeycomb lattice. We can also treat the
Ising antiferromagnet in an external field and the hard-core lattice gas model
on $Z^2$.
