As part of my never-ending war theme

As part of my never-ending war theme I will also occasionally discuss the never-ending conflict between the highly armed Israeli "Defense" Force and the Palestinians of the Occupied Territories. While I deplore the killing of any person in this conflict be it by Palestinian suicide bomber or by Israeli bullets, it is pertinant to note that Israel receives billions of dollars in military aid from the US every year while the Palestinians receive.........well they are on the receiving end of American-made bullets, bulldozers and bombs.

Before I get loads of nasty emails, I am not anti-semitic. I would be happy to see a peaceful coexistance between Israel and the Palestinians living in a Palestinian state comprised of the West Bank, Gaza Strip (etc., the 22% they have left of the original state of Palestine). A Palestinian state with defined borders that are patrolled by an independant peace-keeping force (not the US or Israel). A Palestinian state that is entirely independant of Israel - that is, not reliant upon Israel for water and other essential items. A Palestinian state where thousands of its citizens are not reliant upon Israel for low paying jobs. A Palestinian state that does not have hundreds of illegal Israeli settlements dotting the country-side.

I just read an interesting article on the subject from the Seattle Post Intelligencer (2/7/03) by Linda Beviss titled Israelis Play Sickening Game of 'Bingo'. I am also reading Noam Chomsky's "Fateful Triangle: America, Israel and the Palestinians." Although written in 1983 in Chomsky's infuriatingly academic style it is still a highly relevant book to todays problems and I will probably write more about this subject and I struggle further into the book.