Obama & Israel

Of course Barack Obama feels sympathy for ordinary Palestinians. He should. Most Palestinians want peace. And yes, Barack is speaking to the American Jewish community, trying to reassure us both that he isn't a Muslim, and he loves Israel. Sympathy and policy, however, can be in conflict since ordinary Palestinians don't control their own communities. Militants do.

Were Israel to go away, move en mass to Mojave (my people are a desert people), Sunnis would still fight Shiites and the Palestinians would not get the newly vacated territory.

An Internet posting some years ago was eloquent in its simplicity: "Does anyone doubt that if the Arabs put down their weapons, there'd be no war, and if Israel put down its weapons, there'd be no Israel?"