I seem to remember an incident at Omagh, after Gerry Adams had declared a ceasefire. How irrelevant is he? Not to thread-shift to NI, but you get the meaning - there's always nutters on the far wings who are just not reasonable.

Arafat doesn't have to represent _all_ the Palestinians, only a majority of them. If he can control the majority, the minority can be stepped on.

I'd be curious to see how enthusiastic the anonymous Guest would be for the Palestinians to enter Israel and assassinate the soldiers responsible for shooting Palestinian civilians. This would have _exactly_ the same mandate as the Israelis have for killing Palestinians.

Trouble is, Sharon and Hamas are too happy with the status quo. Everyone gets someone to blame, nothing gets settled, everyone loses loved ones, and the vendetta continues. Good deal all round.

Graham.