I don't think I quite understand your point, Fred. Maybe you don't understand what I was saying. I was asked how I would feel if I had to give back the land on which I'm living to native peoples. Since I don't have any land, the question is not terribly relevent to me. I've only been living on this particular piece of land for a few months. I've never lived in any one place for more than about ten years, with the average being a little under five years. And my family has only been here in the US for a couple of generations, so I don't have much family history here. I don't know how else to answer a question about how I would feel about something other than to say that this is how I think I would feel.

Certainly, the wrongs that have been done to the Indians cannot be undone. But what if, for instance, as a remedy for this injustice, the land that is now the US were to be given back to native nations to govern, but that the people who are now here could remain. I don't think I would have a problem with this. In fact, I might even prefer it.

If you're asking how would I feel if things could be put back the way they were before the Europeans came, how can I say? How can anyone say? I probably wouldn't be here.

Anyway, the question means more to me, and I have to try to figure how to properly understand in myself the evils that were and are part of the deal, if I hope for anything better. I guess you're above history, somewhere, looking down at Israel.

I'm not looking down on anybody. The way I properly understand in myself the evils that were and are a part of the deal from the past, is to try to prevent, or at least speak up about, the evils that are being done to people now. In the present. I can't change the past, but I can work to correct the injustices of today. And so can you. The situation in Israel is ongoing. My tax dollars are being used to make it possible. That makes me complicit. It's my responsibility to speak up about it, and not be a "good German".

brucie, I don't have time to worry about Arafat's 300 million. I'm too busy worrying about the several billions of taxpayer dollars that the US Pentagon has misplaced and can't account for.

If the Palestinians aren't supposed to live on the land they currently occupy, why are they there?