Carol:

I suggest you are confusing the word 'truth' with 'opinion'. I do not claim to be 100% right nor to have 100% of the truth. But I have made several assertions of opinion based on my understanding (and interpretation) of some basic facts that we can all agree on. Among these are the facts that Israel has negotiated with nation states where it has been found possible to (Egypt and Jordan). I think you have either misunderstood my posts or simply ignored them as logical arguments. This is okay. I don't claim to have a 100% lock on logic either.

That there have been negotiations between Israel and the putative government of the Palestinians.

That for most of the last 2,000 years the land that was called Palestine, now Israel, was under somebody's boot, be it Babylonian, Roman, Ottoman, or British.

I don't think it's right that so many Jews had to leave Arab lands to be resettled in Israel. But they did and they are there.

I don't think it's right that so many Arabs had to leave Israel and have been refused settlement in Arab lands. Israel has in fact a substantial pre-1967 Arab population of Jews, Christians, and Muslims.

There seems to be a one-sided view on the part of the Arab nations and many Europeans as well that everyone has the right to live in Israel, but Jews don't have a right to live anywhere else in the vicinity.

You are not wrong to advocate basic human rights for the Palestinians. And you are correct that to this day there are Jewish Israelis still advocating for them. I suggest that you broaden your advocacy to end the campaign of hate and slander which is waged in the Arab world with a viciousness that is not matched on the Israeli side.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - My fairness parable:

Almost immediately after 9-11, an incredible fiction began to circulate across the Islamic world (including the U.S.) claiming that the tragedy was the work of Israel, and that 4,000 Jews didn't show up for work on that fatal Tuesday.

This is the extreme response: "That was a total fabrication. It is untrue. It didn't happen and those who assert that it did not happen are liars."

Here is the 'fair' response: "Let's agree to call it 2,000."

My point is that there is a sort of fairness which accepts and propagates lies. That is what we are facing in the Arab world (for the most part) and what we are seeing in Europe. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - It is by accepting untruths that we open the door to the real terrorists.