If by "the parties" you mean the Jews and the Palestinians, they could have worked out their differences in 1948. It has never been a question of Palestinian rights. Israel was not opposed to a neighboring state. It was the Arab League who started a war to prevent the Jewish state. And, while we're at it, let's understand the Pan-Arab position on Palestinian rights. Nobody ever gave a damn about the Palestinians when they were virtual serfs to the wealthy Egyptians, Syrians and Jordanians who owned the land. (The Palestinians have been the lowest class of workers in the Arab world for centuries. They provided cheap labor fron North Africa to the oilfields of Kuwait) The religious fanatics who plague our planet care no more about Palestinian Rights than George W. Bush does about health care. Their objection is that there are infidels on their holy ground. Now, we Jews have our zealots, too, but we keep them under control.

Why are we having this discussion? Are any of the Israel bashers really interested in another point of view? Are any of them prepared to hand over their own homes or cities? How, pray tell, do they think those homes and cities were gotten? I'll bet they weren't gotten by purchase and international fiat, as Israel got gotten. I've read enough history to know that Israel's behavior has been no worse, and, in many ways, a damn sight better than other countries. Israel is not a terrorist nation, no matter what these knee-jerk nazis claim. Israel has never attacked a country that didn't attack her first. To blame Israel for retaliation is to blame the victim for the result of the victimization. (Segregationists used to use this trick. They claimed that African-Americans were unqualified for better jobs, ignoring that segregated schools had kept them unqualified. Still, this argument made sense to those who were looking for a rational for the evils of racial discrimination)