Hi Tom,

Whew!!! Thank goodness....I was afraid this was another 'Arab Culture' type of post! ;-)

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In my more cynical moments, I figure the best bet is to back off entirely, let the Palestinians and Israelis kill each other off down to the last man, then we can go in, grab the real estate, build some nice casinos and a few McDonalds, and make souvenir chia planters out of all the smoking skulls laying around. Ah, well. Back to reality.

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Tom, Tom, Tom....

You're seeing it too two-dimensionally. These same folks would reincarnate elsewhere - with the same hatred intact and persih forbid maybe silicon valley and the local Starbucks would become the new holy land to defend or acquire.

So after the McDonald's are built and you are ordering your Spicy Chicken Sandwich in Tel Aviv (renamed New Los Angeles) and reason and sanity finally returns to the region, - somewhere else the cycle will begin again.

Sometimes it's better to keep these places - as it is wiser to keep 'the devil' in plain sight - and where you can see him - than have him spring up somewhere you least expect him.

All these same folks have been returning to this region - bouncing back and forth between sides in some endless tragedy - which makes a bloody kindergarten out of the middle east.

If you take away there learning grounds - they must seek out or create suitable learning grounds - and that will mean a 'new middle east hellhole' somewhere else.

Best wishes,

SDAI-Tech1

PS
What do you have against Mongolia? ;-)