I have never visited the Middle East, except for CNN, yet a couple of things keep gnawing at me.

The Palestinians hate the Jews and would like to eradicate them from the face of the earth almost as much as the fanatical muslims hate the West, in particular the US.

The Palestinians are right next door to Israel, and according to my limited knowledge on the subject, have never been able to pull off a mass attack that killed 3000 people like 911, which brings me to my point(s), sort of.

We are constantly told that AL-Qaeda is trying to fashion "dirty bombs" to use against as to inflict sizable damage and cripple our economy.

My questions is, why have/haven't the Palestinians tried to attack Israel in that fashion?

You would figure that they could mingle about fairly easy due to their physical similarities, making smuggling easier.

Or is it that a "dirty bomb" is so hard to come by?

They "might" target cargo planes. They might blow up bridges, apartment buildings, contaminate water suppplies, etc.....

Why haven't these things happened to Israel?

Perhaps the Palestinians are not as well funded/organized as Al-Queda?

Thanks for listening to my long winded quuestions.....

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Enough about me, how are you doing?

1 reason may be because Israel would come down on them like a ton of bricks (with the United States' approval & backing) and they'd lose any sympathy they have already in the Western world.

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"music and women I cannot but give way to, whatever my business" -Pepys

The security in Israel is "a tad" tighter then in the US or pretty much anywhere else.

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RedMeat cartoon

Because the Palastinians want the place. Kinda hard to go back to Jereseleum when it glows in the dark and gives you cancer.

If there ever was a more thick headed people, it has got to be them. They deserve what they get. If they had chosen a Martin Luther King instead of a Yasser Arafat to lead them, they would have won long ago. They are their own worst enemy. They really have been terribly wronged as a people in many ways, but when you blow up a bus full of school kids, your f***g scum no matter what the situation is.

I would welcome comments on Israel airport security from anyone who has been there.

I heard they grill you for 4 hours or something like that before you board a plane.

I had forgotten that they wish the area was theirs, so Nukes are out.

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Enough about me, how are you doing?

Only been in and out once, they questioned me for all of 30 seconds on the way in and not at all on the way out. The fact that I was flying in from Prague with an American passport probably influenced that.

I can't believe you guys believe the "because they want the whole damned place" excuse. Thats what the TERRORISTS believe in.. the PEOPLE want to live in a DECENT STRESS FREE environment... but they get bombarded by tank shells, raided at night and in the middle of all this chaos... have children killed in the process. The Israeli army doesn't even appologize when such an incident occurs... they simply say it was "unfortunate".

how about this.. give them rights, give them a place to live.. treat them like human beings instead of wild caged animals. Its sad to see old Palestinian women that have documents stating ownershop of their land and homes get their houses destroyed and taken over by newly immigrated jews. A couple weeks ago I read that something like 10,000 palestinians became homeless after their homes were torn down by bulldozers. These are 10000 people that now have nothing and now full of even more hate... and these incidents brew up more trouble.


If you only get your info from the US media, then I would understand why people have that sort of viewpoints. Take a look at how they live from a neutral news source, even European sources and you will see what they're going through. Recently an elderly jewish man spoke at a conference somewhere in Jerusalem where he compared the treatment of an elderly palestinian woman to that of how the Nazi's did to his mother. When he said that, it caused all sorts of uproar and was told to step down from the podium.

Even Israeli citizens in Israel itself get their asses kicked, shot and beaten for protesting against treatments of palestinian people. This sort of coverage never airs in the US media.

My point is that people need to seriously open up their eyes and know whats really going on. Nothing is written in black and white... and nothing is really all that simple, especially when it comes to foreign policy. To persecute a whole group of people because of a terrorist group is just an excuse used by the Israeli right wing gov't to tear down even more palestinian homes and take their land to make homes for new jewish immigrants. If the Israeli gov't is really interested in making peace... it would first treat the palestinians as neighbor and human beings, give them rights, let kids walk to school without being shot at. When those people are treated with dignity, then that would destroy the foundation of the terrorist groups where they feed off the anger and sufferings the people are going through. In my book.. this whole conflict is essentially a war fought between two terrorist groups, the Israeli govt' and the Palestinian authorities, with innocent palestinians and israeli citizens finding themselves in between the chaos.

That Yasser Arafat is one S.O.B He's simply a corrupt mofo'... and doesn't mind withdrawing roughly $2,000,000 and sending it to his wife in Paris. Yea, good leader...

If he had any dignity in him... he would have resigned and let the Palestinians choose someone who can attempt to settle this whole mess. However, the Israeli gov't will also need to do the same.

On that at least, we agree. Its a start.

Yup, they tend to profile, big time.

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72 W114/M130

RedMeat cartoon

I agree with you to a point. On the other hand, if the Palestiniean people that want peace were to turn in, or inform on the terrorists that live among them, the Israeli army would do targeted arrests or executuions and leave the good, law abiding Palestinian citizens alone. It really comes down to people CHOOSING to live with known terrorists and paying the concequences of their actions, or to stand up against them and allow members of both countries to live in peace.

Please remember that in the Middle East, it is tiny Israel against the rest of the region who have hated them for centuries. It is not because the Israelis are bad people, but because they are a different religion. Another comparison of religious terrorism is Ireland, where they were able to make peace and live together. Maybe something can be learned from them.

Palestinians are also hated by other Arab countries because they say that Palestinians "can't be trusted". However, they do have a common enemy.. Israel.

Now.. Israel has one of the best spies and snipers in the world. Instead of coming in with tanks.. Apache helicopters .. missles, etc.... and kill 20 people when they were targeting 1 person.... why don't they send one sniper in and take out the person they're after? I guess Israel's plan is to control the Palestininan population because you can't keep so many people in a small strip of land. Israel is getting away with a lot more ***** than people realize. If you point that out.. you get called anti-semetic, and they use the whole holacaust thing as an excuse

Not really "peace".. do a search in the news archives. 3 weeks ago a leader of one of these groups was murdered. Then shortly soon after 3, I believe Catholic, members of the opposing group were killed.

That may be the case that they still have targeted killings, which is no different than street gangs and turf wars. I haven't heard about the IRA blowing up innocent people in pubs recently, have you?

The Holocaust happened over 50 years ago. It was real, not an excuse for Israel today. Six million Jews and more than five million others were persecuted and killed because they were not Aryans.

All Israel is trying to do is protect itself and its people. They had offered land to the Palestinian government within the last year however Arafat was stubborn and foolish and chose conflict over peace for 'his' people. Do you think that the Israeli government and the people of Israel like war? Do you think they like to bury innocent people? Do you think they like to live in fear EVERY day that they get on a bus or walk down the street?

America went after Afghanistan because it was ruled by people that protected terrorists who had invaded our innocent people on OUR land...sounds a lot like what the Israeli army is doing, don't you think?

I truly wish that the Palestinian people and the Israelis will live in peace.