seems to be to ask Arafat to control the extremists - and then when the Palestinian Authority contacts them, Sharon accuses him of controlling the extremists, and attacks the Authority.

Another fact that is ignored quite conciously by our media is that the Rabin plan had acceptance by every Moslem nation - and this was shown at the Cairo Conference. Had that deal been completed, the extremists would have faced a complete lack of external support, and everyone could have gotten on with their lives, and we could have saved a whole lot of lives, effort, and money. bin Laden would have found it impossible to operate, and most likely he would not have been able to recruit.

Once again, the raw numbers: 6 plus million Israelis; 1,000 plus million Moslems. Sharon could seize West Bank and Gaza; but then one day, sooner or later, one of the Moslem states, or for that matter a non-governmental actor, would get Weapons of Mass Destruction and use them, with Hebrew going the way of Etruscan.

My estimate is that now it's going to take a deployment of UN troops to keep these two parties apart. Rush doesn't think much of that, and neither does Kissinger - that's too fucking bad. My estimate is also that if something like that isn't done, we're going to wake up one morning with a lot of barbequed 4 year old children with 3rd degree burns covering their bodies.

Here's what Bush Jr proposed, and it makes sense to me: Israelis here; Palestinians here.

EP