But for 9-11, somebody's ass had to be kicked. And it sucks that such a poor country was to be held responsible. The ultimate cause of all the problems in the middle east is the historical 6-day war, and the inability of muslims, particularly palestinians, to accept the new political boundaries around Israel.

Israel's neighbors are attempting to be as militant as palestinians because they see palestinians fighting and throwing stones on television every day. To them, bravery is honorable. To us, bravery is good by itself but is often followed by stupidity -- the lucky dolt casting a shadow on his accomplishment by screwing up royally and behaving like a jackass immediately afterward, or simply being clumsy. Iraq was paying life insurance (or something to that effect) to the families of palestinian suicide bombers. That alone was cause for action against Iraq (but perhaps not war). The fact is, palestinians have no excuse to be fighting for 30 years. They have proven beyond all doubt that they are screw-ups. They use "truces" and "ceasefires" as part of their strategy, regrouping, amassing explosives and using them in much larger bombings that take place after a ceasefire. And the problem with perceived bravery is that the world is full of followers, seeing a minutes-worth of success as a good idea. Muslims, like any group, seem to be followers rather than independent thinkers.

The best strategy in Israel would be to eliminate the source of explosives, the raw material, and to simply close the border with the palestinian areas. It would create a buffer between two warring groups that obviously won't get along for at least the next generation or two. And the buffer should be large enough that home-made weapons cannot penetrate it. A fraction of the money needed to fight off stupid people in large numbers could be used to build a double-walled security fence -- two fences with a gap of several hundred meters running between them.

And no traffic between them. None whatsoever, so neither side thinks that they can ever set foot on the land on the other side.