To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (19985 ) 2/25/2002 6:37:15 PM From: Bilow Read Replies (1) | Respond to Hi Nadine Carroll; As far as the current situtation, I agree with his last few paragraphs:But I don't believe that the resultant status quo will survive for long. The Palestinians - either the PA itself or various armed factions, with the PA looking on - will continue to harry Israel, with Katyusha rockets and suicide bombers, across the new lines, be they agreed or self-imposed. Ultimately, they will force Israel to reconquer the West Bank and Gaza Strip, probably plunging the Middle East into a new, wide conflagration. [Bilow: I'm not so sure that this would result in a wider conflagration. But then again, my home isn't riding on the question.] He is incapable of looking his refugee constituencies in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Gaza in the eye and telling them: "I have signed away your birthright, your hope, your dream." [Bilow: This is in keeping with the way I understand human nature. The native Indians in the US didn't give up on the loss of the vast majority of their homelands until faced with complete defeat by a foe far militarily superior (Custer, typically, attacked a force 20x as large as his own), who didn't mind killing their women and children in large numbers (or forcing them to die of exposure), that was far larger in population, and with a much higher population growth rate. This is the kind of stuff that it takes to make a people give up their land. The Palestinians (along with their Arab brothers) have faced none of this. The Israelis have hardly slaughtered any of them, and doesn't outnumber them at all, though they do have a stronger military.]
