To: michael97123 who wrote (51948 ) 9/12/2001 6:15:10 PM From: Zeev Hed Respond to Michael, he does not want to, and not for misanthropy, but for politics. Someone built a thousand dwelling units in the Palestinian "territories" for people to move from their shacks and start a better life, people that moved in were executed and Arafat himself ordered a ban on occupying these buildings. The Palestinians need new leaders, their current leadership failed them miserably and will cause this conflict to persist for anther 50 years. In the old days, the US/Soviet tension kept the area in flames, now that these interests are no longer antagonistic, people in power are trying to maintain their power the old fashioned way, by finding an "external enemy" and by keeping their own people in misery(well fed people do not easily go on barricades). Sooner or later, the Palestinian people will wise up and seek better leadership that will be willing to make peace, that, even on a smaller foot print on land. The "Land" per se is not the object. I am just back from there, and a small town (Kalkilia) in the PA that was barely a single street with may be less than 300/500 families in 1967 is now a bustling town with some 30,000 people or so (and from about a mile, the construction and living arrangements looked quite nice, I was warned to venture there without military escort, which, I did not deem "necessary <g>). When asking my friends what caused that metamorphosis, they explained, a lot of people moved in (from wherever they were) due to availability of work in Israel (Kalkilia is just on the border and less than 10/15 miles from major centers in Israel, and only 20 miles from Tel Aviv). Of course, it is now rapidly turning into a ghost town. The point is, that all those people that moved there, did not mind that their ancestors came from the Saudi desert, or who knows where, they wanted work and a chance to a better life, wherever that could be made available.
