And a couple of comments. (By the way, one part of the peace settlement would be the back-channel informing of Arafat that if he couldn't make it happen he'd be gone. And not into exile. Not dead, but out of power. Peacefully. The offer would be such that the majority of Palestinians would want it to work. Right now, any replacement of Arafat would be a Sharon equivalent, not a peace-nik.)

I think the terrorism was supposed to stop, and the settlements, too. The hate is such I can see the Israelis regarding the Palestinians the way early settlers regarded Native Americans. Not highly enough to stop moving in on 'em.

"Unfortunately, I have seen zero evidence that the current Palestinian leadership, despite lip service, has any real interest in improving the lot of the average Palestinian. They, and a lot of other totalitarian leaders in the Arab world--and elsewhere--could care less about whether their people are eating their own shoes, as long as the leaders get what they need."

Actually, away from the heat of battle, hate and dissention, the thoughtful Palestinian spokespeople (they have some who are thoughtful, articulate, and don't wear funny clothes) I have seen and read have all emphasized the economic situation in which the Palestinians find themselves. It's grim, been getting worse, and the Israelis have at least an indirect interest in keeping it that way.

One of the problems with the "wall" solution is that the Israelis are addicted to cheap labor provided by Palestinians. The Israelis want Palestinians to come into Israel to work.

One of the Palestinian, possibly paranoid, ideas is that the Israelis see to it the Palestinians don't develop economically is to keep that supply of cheap labor available.

After all, if Volkswagen built a plant in Palestine, the base wage for the entire area would be fairly close to what Volkswagen paid. Sort of like Detroit was. The base wage was close to what Ford paid.

That would raise the price of the lower class workers in Israel, too.

It would be nice to give the Palestinians an interest in stability and peace through jobs, a higher standard of living and hope their children could continue the improvements.

You're right. Everyone wants about the same thing. There are sicko's, though, and when no one has hope the sicko's start running the works. Gotta stop. Everyone should have some hope.

Arf