"Your suggestion that Jews are behaving like their persecutors is insulting and insensitive."

I'm sorry if this bothers you, Mike, but it is not a suggestion that originated with me, nor does it grow out of ignorance or flippancy on my part. I first heard this observation from the son of an old friend of mine who happens to be Jewish and who has spent several years in Israel. That was his observation. He despairs of peace ever occurring for Israel, and he puts a lot of the blame on the intransigence of people like Sharon. It appears to me from what you say that his experience is just as valid as yours.

Nor did I suggest that Israelis are rounding Palestinians up and enslaving them or sending them to death camps. But they are trying to cram them into isolated enclaves. True, I applied the term "ghetto" to this, but again, I'm not the only person that this particular parallel has occurred to.

Retaliation breeds further retaliation. Always has, always will. Somebody has to have the guts, intelligence, and humanity to break this cycle. But obviously it isn't going to be Sharon. And dwelling on the intransigence of the opposition and saying that there is no use even trying to deal with them will certainly not solve anything.

Don Firth