Anonymous writes:

"A terrorist is one who fights to destroy an external state and its citizens, directing its point of attack at targeting innocents with tactics that can only be best described as guerrila warfare."

So if a Palestinian bombs Israelis on Palestinian land it's OK, but if he's on Israeli land it's not OK? Your argument is bizarre. What if the bomber is attacking people occupying his own territory, rather than theirs? What if the bomber attacks soldiers or police rather than civilians? This all seems rather arbitrary. Were the anti-French bombers in Algeria terrorists or freedom-fighters?

"The terrorists of Hamas and Hizbollah seek to gain back "their" land, and now are the ones with a fatwa set out to clear the Jews from their land (very similar to the final solution). So the terrorists fight not to save their lives, but to take back their land which was given to the Jews in '49 by the rest of the world."

What, which land was given to the Jews in 1949? The occupied territory like West Bank? But that wasn't given to the Jews, in fact it still is supposed to belong to Palestinians according to all international agreements. In spite of that, Israel keeps encroaching on that land and taking more of it for its own building projects. So what are you talking about?

"Neither side is clean."

On this we agree. Both sides have fought dirty whether via their methods of violence or via their warping of facts. I am not trying to paint Israel as a demon and Palestinian as haloe-d angels. Far from it. But Israel is the much more advance, industrialized country with the most money, best connections, and best-educated populace. I would expect them to take the higher road and push through a solution that is peaceful and fair. Instead, politicians in high Isareli government have carefully plotted to exploit existing conflicts in such a way that allows them to continue taking and expanding. These people do not want peace because peace is not profitable. Conflict is. Small-time conflicts make excellent excuses for overpowering responses and massive retaliation that, surprise surprise, ends with the Israeli side suddenly having more territory. Shots fired from a neighborhood? Bulldoze the neighborhood! Voila, you've got several more blocks to build fancy Israeli condos. If you think I'm making this up or being glib about something more complicated, think again. What I describe is precisely how things play out. Multiply one such scenario by hundreds of times and you've got the present-day West Bank, which is in the process of being completely taken over by Isarel. Meanwhile the entire international community has its hands tied to do or say anything about it. Why do you think we install people like Neocon Bolton in the United Nations? Because he can remove all discussion of Israel off the table. A week prior to 9/11/2001 the U.S. boycotted a UN meeting because Arab states made the Israel/Palestine situation part of the agenda. The bizarre and pathetic fact is that a situation has been created where nobody is de-facto allowed to state the obvious without being labeled an anti-Semite. It happened to me right here -- I predicted it. If you question the policies of Israel, you are branded a racist. What other country causes such an over-sensitive and irrational reaction? How many people who question the policies of Venezuela are knee-jerk labeled anti-Latin, for example?

"You can't just look at Israels short history of human rights violations and then overlook the years of war mongering by the other side."

Short history? So you're downplaying it? And why are you claiming I'm overlooking the actions of the other side? Israel does have security concerns. Unfortunately they make their security concerns worse by such actions as bombing the Lebanese airport, bombing UN posts, bulldozing whole neighborhoods, shooting rockets into marketplaces, allowing IDF soldiers to snipe non-combatants with only hand-slapping consequences, and creating systematized double-standards for land use and property rights. You can't tell me any of the above are untrue, because they aren't. I am not exaggerating and in many cases things are even worse than I describe.

"...because the Israeli gvt wants to steal their land? Please see the 6 day war..."

And what about all the land taken since the Six Day War?

"Then look at how, for the past few moths, the gvt is expelling many VERY RIGHT WING settlers established in the West Bank."

Israel frequently takes two steps forward, one step back in West Bank and elsewhere. While expelling settlers from Gaza it was quietly but aggressively expanding its territory in West Bank. Then it took back much of what it gave away in Gaza. The long-term efffect is a massive expansion of de-facto territory. Look at the maps. Animate them in your mind, from 1967 till the present. The expansion has been steady and deliberate. There is no getting around this unless you deny the facts.

I do hope this story is not buried and ignored by the mainstream media pundits.

Of course, it confirms what most of us already suspect -- that the situation in Iraq is going nowhere. Many on the right touted July as the least-violent month of the year so far, never mentioning that July is usually the least violent month because so many people stay indoors due to extreme heat. I wonder how they'll try to white-wash the month of August...

First "Anonymous," then "Hitlery."

Anonymous made up a fake story full of self-aggrandizing lies, racism, ignorance and misspelling. Then Hitlery comes along with a complete non-sequitur that wouldn't even pass muster as a bumper sticker.

Got ilk?

Anyway, Ari Fleischer is a fool. He was a terrible press secretary, and I'm actually surprised he's still hanging around spreading his failed policy.

Using a double-amputee as propaganda without having the human decency to even learn the guy's hame pretty much sums up everything that's horrible about the Bush Administration's contribution to the world.