Puleez Publius,

P - "I know you are well intended, but don't be sucked in to the PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION."

B - Might be the first time Amnesty International has been confused with the "Protocols". Possibly a tactic OK for the board, might be something a Bushie would say on Sunday morning on Fox to the cheers and jeers of Brit Hume, not a reasonable comparison.

Actually it's a long-standing tactic of the Israelis to denounce anything not flattering as being anti-Semitic, or an anti-Jewish prejudice. Sort of like a guy I worked with who was a minority. Any question or correction was greeted by an accusation of not understanding, not tolerating his particular minority.

P - "Israel has every right to existence--including legitimitation from the surviving governments of WWII, the United Nations, the US, and the mandate from the Balfour agreement."

B - Absolutely. Within boundaries. Within a certain area. Straw man. Sort of like the US and Canada. There's a line, one side is Canada, the other side is US.

It's not one side being the US, the other side being Canada except where some American wants to build a house, then it's US. Sort of like where you live. There are adjacent sites WHERE YOU DON'T LIVE.

P - "Palestine has no such mandate as a nation. The only claim is adverse possession as a hang over from the Ottoman Empire."

B - Here we go. Sort of like the Native Americans, right? What boundary, what mandate, do the savages have, they have no "land", or "nation"? They want it all, they want to wander all over the place.

OK. Instead of saying THIS IS YOUR NATION, PALESTINE, which Likud just rejected, how about Israel living within it's agreements, and staying within IT'S OWN boundaries. In other words, what's not Israel isn't open to Israeli settlements. Seems reasonable.

But Israel has crowded the Palestinians into a "reservation", and then takes over the reservation when as it suits Israeli purpose, which is to get rid of all Palestinians.

P - "There will be no peace in this area until the Palestinian people repudiate Hammas and Hezzbolah. Abu Nidal may be dead but the PLO carries on the same only under Arafat."

B - There will be no peace in this area until all that happens AND the Israelis get back within their boundaries, where they have the Right to exist in peace. Or, there WILL be peace in the area if the Palestinians lay down and die a peaceful death, leaving their homeland to the aggressors. Sort of like a WTC happening to them every day, and them giving up. The rotten peoples are responding the way the US did to WTC, becoming united and resisting.

P - "Let the Palestinian people elect a leader and submit to democratic principles instead of mindless intifada and then the world will listen to both sides."

B - Arafat was elected, by the way. Let the Israeli people elect leaders who have the courage to live up to the international agreements to which it is a party.

P - "Until then, stand back and hold back the tears for the innocent that a rudderless state stirs."

B - Not very logical, is it. Reconcile "rudderless state" with Likud's policy. Blame the victim, again?

And it's not becoming to refuse a population any means of defense, then try to eliminate them, and profess piety when they use whatever means available to protest the ethnic cleansing which is proceeding apace.

It's a chicken and egg situation, exacerbated by Israel systematically practicing ethnic cleansing since 1967. If anyone should understand the concerns of a displaced people, it should be the Jews.

While it may be history to end one Diaspora by forcing another, it's not right. Ethnic cleansing isn't acceptable when practiced against the Jews, Gypsys, Native Americans, AND/OR Palestinians.

Arf