Looks like Sharon's initial offer is half of the West Bank - Peres came through with this as Foreign Minister, and it's the same thing that Sharon threatened when Arafat announced his intention to declare statehood earlier -

it's being persented now as an "interim" offer, but my guess is that Arafat will have to reject it outright - either that, or be killed by his own people, which would be okay with Sharon

hoo boy, Bush Jr and Powell have their work cut out for them - if Israel does not come up with something reasonable for a final settlement, there will be an economic embargo - the same kind South Africa faced.

Remembering back, the US didn't go along with this either at first, but that didn't matter. Of course, this one will involve oil, and it's effects will be dramatic, but still it's a good alternative to armed conflict in terms of total deaths - make no mistake about it, economic chaos kills people too, but just fewer of them -

ep