Friends don’t let friends occupy other countries. It is time to break the co-dependency cycle with Israel and seek some professional help.

During the Clinton era, an attempt was made (not a very successful one, if longevity is your criterion) to have the U.S., despite its past in the region, act as an honest broker between the sides. Now that approach has been abandoned altogether. Ask any 10 Arabs or Arab-Americans; nine of them will say their frustration is with the U.S.’s enabling unfair treatment of Palestinians. I suspect the frustration among Arab terrorists is 10 out of 10; that, as surely as any religious or ideological clash, is why they do what they do. If Bush were interested in reducing anti-U.S. terrorism at its root… but I may as well say, if wishes were fishes…

Stella and I, who have known each other a long time, ran into each other about 20-odd years ago at a Democratic state senatorial district convention, long before our current involvement, while she was married to a man rather more, um, uncompromising in his pro-Israel views than I am. We of course chatted about Israel. I said then, and I say again, that I want to see the modern state of Israel last at least a hundred years (a long time indeed, as nations go these days), and that their current approach isn’t supporting that goal at all. Some people need to learn from history, and Osama bin Laden and George W. Bush aren’t the only ones.

Saying you aren’t going to compromise or talk to the other side, is saying you want the status quo to continue.

This situation is at the root of all of the other Middle East conflicts and is used as the excuse for the existence of all of the radicals in the area, on all sides.

I say this as a long-time supporter of Israel, but the Israel I have supported and admired was long ago hijacked by neocon soulmates.