Alonzo, you presented me with the Hamas charter. Perhaps I misread your intentions in posting that, but when people do that, I tend to think they want me to think that the Hamas charter is proof that the Palestinians shouldn't be granted their independent state.

I agree that there is a good chance of some continued terrorism after the Palestinians get their state, but at least Israel will have the majority of Palestinians helping them to fight against Hamas, since doing so would also be in defense of the Palestinians' own country.

Little Brother, the extremists on both sides are prolonging the conflict. Hamas did on at least one or two occasions, declare unilateral ceasefires, during which the only violence that was committed was by Israel in targeted assasinations of Palestinians (the last of which resulted in the death of the young child of the target of the assasination, but the target survived). This has happened at least once during the last year. Of course, after two or three targeted assasination attempts, Hamas ended its unilateral ceasefire. If the government of Israel had really wanted Hamas to continue its ceasefire, it would have held off on the targeted assasinations for as long as the unilateral ceasefire held.