The Palestinian problem

There seems to be fairly widespread agreement that the single most important impediment to peace in the Middle East is the Israeli/Palestinian situation. To dream of peace as long as this situation prevails is nothing but a pipe dream. Yet do you see any real effort on the part of anyone to do anything about it? The Bush administration’s all out support for Israel has made it clear to the rest of the world that the Palestinians will just have to continue to suffer the illegal Israeli occupation. Kerry has said nothing other than of course we will support Israel. Since Clinton’s serious attempt at a settlement the situation has continually deteriorated. Israel thumbs its nose at the U.N. and the rest of the world safe in the knowledge that the U.S. will continue to support their near-genocide apparently no matter what. And Israel has ignored the U.N. since the very creation of the so-called Jewish homeland, far more egregiously than Iraq ever did. Yet nothing happens except that things get worse. Sharon knows that especially during an election year he has nothing to fear and will proceed with his attempt to steal Palestinian land and water. Between the Israeli lobby and the Christian fundamentalists yearning for the “Rapture” you can be sure the Bush administration will do nothing except aid and abet. So forget any idea of peace in the area and hope that Kerry will support Palestinian interests as well as Israeli interests, unlikely I guess, but for a while one can still have pipe dreams. It is not hard to see what hopelessness has done to the Palestinians.

War Criminals belong in jail, not the White House.