What a mess, 17 dead so far in this latest incident.
Im afraid any amount of US involvement will fix the situation.
Arafat had a great offer on the table last fall, but he rejected it.
I think the chance for relative peace has passed for some time now.

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Man — every man — is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.
Ayn Rand

Chance for relative peace? Israelis and palestinians been fighting since abraham had a bastard child with his hand maid and sent them away. A couple thousand years can't heal old wounds - but the U.S. can? Yeah freeking right. The united states needs to but out and let those fools figure out that killing each others women and children is not the way to solve anything - or they need to declare war on arafat.
Israel is the new vietnam.

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No Joke

So today Arafat called for a cease-fire. Hows that for balls? They just blew up a large piece of tel aviv - and now Arafat wants to call a cease-fire before Israel has a chance to retailiate! Israel further tightened controls on palestinians and palestinian areas, including restricting Arafats private jet from taking off and landing on the gaza strip. Remind me again why they (or perhaps the U.S.) haven't had him assassinated yet?

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No Joke

I agree it's a mess. But it's been a mess for a VERY long time. Like Contraband said, these people have been squabbling for centuries, and it's come back to this combative level since the nation of Israel came into being. Both need a place to live, granted, but they can’t or won’t find and live with any compromise.

I don't believe it will ever be resolved. They are fighting over each culture's survival in the region. Too many zealots on both sides. Israel (along with Egypt) already receives the largest amount of foreign aid from the US than any other country. What has this done or any "peace talks" and agreements accomplished? Zero.

Yeah, it darn well is a mess. And I have always believed we cant solve the problem for them.
Arafat had a good deal last year, he blew it.
He should be taken out of the picture, wheather or not thats knocking him off, I dont care, but that usually is how they do things there.

There is a law that says we cant eliminate foreign leaders.
However, Bob Barr has recently led a charge to overturn that law.

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Man — every man — is an end in himself, not the means to the ends of others. He must exist for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself. The pursuit of his own rational self-interest and of his own happiness is the highest moral purpose of his life.
Ayn Rand

There is a law that says we cant eliminate foreign leaders.


i thought the united states government was above the laws?

Manu yesterday told me a story of a guy who made an illegal u turn, ran a red light, then got pulled over by a cop. The cop let him go within 2 minutes. The cop then procedeeded to go into a starbux. The starbux man asked him 'why didnt you give that guy a ticket?' he replied "oh- he was a cop."

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No Joke