My wife was invited on an all expense paid trip to Israel for a teaching conference. Actually a thinkly disguised propaganda trip.
It made me think about 'over there', and I think the Holy Land is not at all holy, and that both sides may in fact deserve each other.
Both sides disgust me, but I would say we have to back Israel in the final analysis becuase they incrementally closer to a society that could live in peace and at peace than the alternatives, and the Pals do have the disgusting rationalization that their deliberate targeting of children and other civilians is justified.
That Arafat is in fact a world class embezzler is no surprise at all.
It is amazing that the Pals would perceive him as a credible leader when his thieving is the least of his faults.
Israel, with its Jewish population growing at post-industrial western levels, will be a minorith population in the area, and both sides know it.
This is very very unlikely to have a resolution that does not involve either massive war or populations being shoved off into the sea.
Ed