The points that Professor Harari makes in his speech are accurate. He does not have the anti-Moslem bigotry of which Jack the Sailor accuses him.

Israel does not claim to be sin-free. Howver, when one looks at the region broadly, as Professor Harari does, it becomes obvious that Israel plays a very minor role. It is also obvious that the attention paid to Israel is much greater than to any of the other countries in the region and that the one Jewish country is being held to a much higher standard than any other in the world. When the one Jewish country is singled out in that manner, the line into anti-Semitism is crossed. Jack the Sailor crosses the line.

Israel has now started the process of extricating itself from Gaza. And what is happening there? A Palestinian civil war seems to be developing. Carol C has demanded that Israel get out of all the occupied terrtitories. Given the events of the past several days in Gaza, if Israel did as CarolC demands, it would appear that a full scale civil war would erupt among the Palestinians.

I know the day will come when Israel and the Palestinians will finally come to peace and the Palestinians will have their state. A decade ago, it looked like that day was at hand. Unfortunately, Arafat was not the Moses or Sadat or Ghandi or Mandela figure that was prepared to lead his people to that conclusion. Despite what CarolC says, rather than continue to work toward peace, Arafat unleashed the Intifada that has brought us to the current situation.

The peace will come after Arafat and Sharon are gone. It will take visionary leaders on both sides. I know that those leaders are waiting in the wings in Israel. I hope they are also there on the Palestinian side.

I have been to Israel many times. Before the Intifada, I spent much time on the West Bank and had many interactions with Palestinians there. The so-called leadership that Arafat has provided to his people is tragic.

On Wednesday, I leave for Israel and will be teaching there for the next year. I doubt that I will have the time to check into this forum very often. These discussions, then, will carry on without me.

To CarolC and Jack the Sailor: I hope that you never have to worry that the person in line behind you at fast food restaurant, or beside you on a bus, is waering a belt of explosives packed tight with thousands of nails. I hope that you never have to go to a funeral of a nine year old daughter of one of your colleagues who was blown up as she ate a piece of pizza. I hope you have a nice life. Shalom and goodbye.