The Palestinians want their own state within the pre 1967 borders. They want the part of east Jerusalem that they occupied pre 1967 to be their capital. And they want the settlements to be removed from the West Bank and Gaza. They also want to have the use of the water in the aquafer under the West Bank which is currently being used mostly by Israel.

That's what they want. They've said it over and over and over and over, and some people still don't want to hear them when they say that. They have given up on any ideas of having all of their previous homeland, and they are willing to settle for what they had after 1948 and pre 1967.

Some people just can't take yes for an answer.

The suicide bombers do what they do because they believe that this practice will help them get what they want, a Palestinian state within the pre '67 borders, etc. I do not support any practices that result in the deaths of innocents. Period. I just don't support the killing of innocents on either side.

However this leaves the Palestinians with a bit of a problem. How are they going to persuade the Israelis that occupation and aparthied comes at a cost? The Israelis usually don't feel the cost because they are almost completely separated from the Palestinians who live in the occupied territories, and the US government and US taxpayers provided the money that makes the system in Israel possible. So the Palestinians and the US taxpayers are the only ones who would feel the cost in the absence of things like suicide bombers.

Last night, I came up with an alternative to suicide bombing. Like the Buddist monks who used to immolate themselves as a form of protest, I think the Palestinians should adopt a practice similar to that one to the extent that they want to sacrifice their lives for their cause. They can't do it like the Buddist monks did, because the IDF would have them removed before they completed their protest and it would result in no effect at all.

So what I think they should do is to blow themselves up in places where their act will be visible to a lot of people, but where it will not cause any physical harm to anyone except themselves, and will cause a minimum amount of property damage. I don't know what sort of places would work for this. It might be difficult to find such places. But I think if they are going to blow themselves up, that's the way they should do it.

I think that would provide a very shocking and graphic representation of the cost that the Palestinians bear as a result of the occupation and apartheid in Israel/Palestine.