[B-Man]

Andy,

Even though there may be logical leaps and stretched timeframes in the column, it does raise a valid point. There are a large faction of Palestinians that do not want peace, they instead want to destroy Israel and take over the entire region for themselves. According to the poll last spring, 51% insist on a state in all of "historic Palestine," whatever that means. Considering all the fighting that has gone on since then, I doubt the percentage is any lower now. How can any reasonable person expect Israel to make sacrifices for its own security when it suffers from constant attacks, and a majority of the Palestinian population wants to destroy Israel? That would be suicide.

Do you think the U.S. would be making concessions to Mexico if the Mexicans were firing rockets over the border and sending suicide bombers into our markets, discos, etc.? We would do to Mexico what we did to Afghanistan (and what we are going to do to Iraq).

The root of the problem is that the Palestinians (as well as other Arabs) teach their children to hate Israel and hate Jews. If they taught their children to hope for peace with Israel, instead of its destruction, then the situation would probably not be as bleak. To hope for a state in all of "historic Palestine" is not just unrealistic, it is absurd. Israel is not going anywhere. Unfotunately, a majority of Palestinians fail to grap that.

I don't know how to solve the problem. Frankly, I am not sure it can be solved during this generation, there may be too much mistrust on both sides. But I do know that Israel has every right to defend itself from terrorism, and every right to take preventative measures against terrorism. The right to self defense is a basic right.