Nice crack there about Shatner there, Doug! LOL! I am always relieved when humour raises its head in these serious discussions, because it brings us to a common level of humanity, and I appreciate your general attitude even though we may not always agree on the political stuff.

Like Carol, my views have changed a lot over the years. I remember the 6-Day War (in 1967, was it?)...I was a teenager, curious about the whole situation, with no particular axe to grind. I had to admire "plucky little Israel" for winning so decisively then against so many opponents. Over the years, however, I have grown more and more cynical about the well-oiled machine of high-tech weaponry backed by American dollars that is the mailed fist of Zionism. Their intervention in Lebanon in the 80's was really the last straw, as far as I was concerned, and I think they are suffering from massive hubris, combined with a stunningly arrogant sense of their own presumed innate superiority...racial, cultural, religious, moral, you name it...over the Arabs and Palestinians...over almost anybody, in fact.

I have no problem whatsoever with Jews...my problem is with the nation state of Israel, its politicians and generals, and its expansionist blitzkrieg policy of regional domination.

I also realize that Israel's opponents are equally unscrupulous and dangerous...but they are far weaker, without the backing of a superpower...and the North American press has not been mollycoddling them for the last 40 years and handling them with kid gloves, in order to expiate its unearned guilt for events that happened 57 years or more ago in Nazi Germany.

As for the Arabs, they have been betrayed and sold out by the West ever since the crusades. Remember how hard T.E. Lawrence fought for their nationhood after WWI? Remember how little they got from the victorious Allies? And it's all been for the oil. Britain and America are there strictly for the oil, and the Arabs will cooperate with them...or damned well pay the price.

The present price is endemic poverty, foreign-backed dictatorships, partial occupation by foreign troops, delayed modernization, and daily humiliation on a huge scale. Ask them, and they will tell you all about it, but who in America even bothers to ask? Or to listen? That is the crucible in which Osama Bin Laden was forged, and there are many more like him waiting in the wings.

- LH