Good one, Brucie.

By the way, CarolC, you may say that it sounds to YOU as if I want the Palestinians removed into Jordan. But you're not reading too closely then. I have repeatedly stated my position: I think Israel should give up the west bank and that the Palestinians should have a state there. It makes the most sense demographically. BUT, the problem is that the Jordan river is a defensible border, and the border between the west bank and Israel is not. That's the whole reason that Israel has held on to the West Bank in the first place; even you would have to admit that otherwise it's been more trouble to them than it's worth. Therefore, I think that Israel is reasonable to wait until they have a workable treaty with strong safeguards in place before they do this. Once they create this state, I think that Palestinian refugees wherever they may be should move to the new Palestinian state and cease to make claims on other parts of Israel. Enough is enough.

In the meantime, I think it is misleading for Palestinian Arabs to claim that they have been deprived of a state by Israel, and that's where Jordan comes in. Jordan WAS the state set aside for Palestinian Arabs by the British, and Jordan then ANNEXED the state set aside for Palestinian Arabs by the UN. Israel now has the land because Jordan attacked Israel and then lost the war.

As regards the earlier discussion about traditional foods being Middle Eastern and not Arabic: the problem here is one of those murky cultural/racial questions. Racially, there was almost certainly no difference originally between Arabs and Hebrews. Both languages are South Semitic languages, and both groups must have descended from a pretty recent common source. (It is no accident that Arafat looks exactly like the caricatures of Jews that were so popular in Nazi Germany.) The two groups differentiated largely on religious grounds, and even the religions themselves have common roots. So there are bound to be similarities along all areas of culture. Too bad it doesn't help them get along!

Incidentally, given that Hebrew and Arabic are both Semitic tongues, "Anti-Semitism" SHOULD mean anti-Arab sentiment, too. I have a good friend who was married to an Arab (he has since died), and she has been subject to a lot of harrassment since 9/11 when she travels; she got put on one of those lists that the government used to deny existed, because she had traveled a lot to Yemen and London and is the widow of an Arabic guy. She likes to accuse the security guys of Anti-Semitism, which puzzles them because she herself is Native American!