Bobert,

"the US has always had it in their power to *force* a peaceful solution in the Middle East. Until it gets serious and makes it clear to *all* parties that it is, nothing is going to happen! Guarenteed."

There is absolutely no way any lasting peace settlement can be *forced* on any side in any conflict situation. That idea is totally ludicrous. A lasting peace settlement will only ever come about when the people (in this particular case the Israelis and Palestinians) come to the inevitable conclusion that they have to share the same lump of this planet, irrespective of past history, and that it is for the greater benefit of all that they do so in a peaceful manner. It is not entirely in the power of the United States of America to provide a solution, true, they can exert a certain amount of pressure on the Israelis, but that on its own is not enough. Equally true, they could attempt to "buy off" neighbouring Arab Governments, but that would not necessarily have the desired effect. On the other side of the equation, supporting Arab states can do two things, cut off funding for Palestinian terrorist groups and offer citizenship to the Palestinian refugees who have been living within their borders for the last 55 years. If the latter is considered totally unacceptable then right of return can only be negotiated if those Arab states who expelled their Jewish minorities in 1967 grant right of return to the 500,000 people they foricibly deported - personally after all these years I doubt very much if they would have many takers.

"Put in my hands, without any veto powers from the president and I'd have not only a framework, but have the land divied up with a DMZ and an aid package to get Palestine's econmomy jump started. It ain't rocket science."

This, I take it, is your "Emergency Middle East Peace Summit" - where you invite, cajoal and kidnap the leaders/spokesmen of all the various countries and factions involved and imprison them until they all reach an agreement. An agreement reached under such circumstances Bobert would not be worth the paper it was written on and would hold for about as long as a snowball would survive in hell.

No Bobert, "It ain't rocket science" - it's a damn sight more complicated than that. It only appears to be simple to you because you refuse to acknowledge the complexities. Who would enforce and pay for your DMZ Bobert?