Mick, I got so enmeshed in the multiplicity of issues that I never did state my opinion of Sharon and the Likud Party I have never voted for Likud, they represent the "acceptable" right, and I have never found the right to be acceptable. My belief that Israel has evry right to defend herself should not be confused with support of Sharon or of his view of the Palestinians. If there were no war, Sharon would be an undersupported favorite son of the conservatives, who constitute a small minority in Israel. It is important that you appreciate the dichotome that Israeli liberals and leftists live with. Israelis are frightened and wary. In my lifetime, Jews have been slaughtered, expelled, displaced, segregated and hated. The world turned its back on the death camps. The UN turned its back when the state they had, themselves, mandated, was attacked the moment it was formed. The Soviet Union treated its Jews as second class citizens, then ransomed their freedom (the Soviet Union that had been championed by generations of Jewish radicals and trade unionists). Frankly, Mick, if Jews seem cynical and politically hard-nosed, we have reason for our attitude.

But, I am not fatalistic. I believe that, at some point, the arabs will figure out that the Jews aint going away, and the "might makes right" boys on our team will realize that coexistance is the only way to live. But, it's not going to happen without strict control on the fundimentalists. They are the fuse in this powderkeg. Without the threat of suicide attacks, there could be a settlement in a New York minute. In the absence of real security, Israel turns to its hawk, much as England rallied around Churchill in war, then they voted him out pronto.

Mike