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Strategies & Market Trends : VOLTAIRE'S PORCH-MODERATED -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RR who wrote (56580)	12/27/2002 10:33:47 AM
From: RR	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 65232

Hello Troops! Quick in/out. On the road. Going long SPX calls. Order in on more VZ. Watching MO, may buy more leap calls. RR

To: RR who wrote (56580)	12/30/2002 11:41:24 PM
From: Dealer	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 65232

Someone close to me just returned from Israel......and sent me his thoughts about the conflict over there..... "Bush Is Cowboy" Our country is given the Israeli side, especially in conservative and evangelical circles. Even though the Bible teaches that through an eternal covenant God promised the Jews “…a land of milk and honey…” in what is today modern Israel, often we allow this truth to desensitize us to the pain and suffering of the other side. Staying in a Palestinian Hotel this week and having a Palestinian tour guide has helped open my eyes to the terrible plight of the “sons and daughters of Ishmael.” The Israelis have the Palestinians hemmed in like a fenced security gate. Not only this, but there are fences within fences. Within the West Bank, cities are fenced. For example, soldiers surround the Church of the nativity in Bethlehem. Tanks guard the city of Bethlehem. This kind of control is daily and very frustrating. The people are like gasoline in a Molotov cocktail. They are being shaken and are presently exploding. President Bush says that Arafat needs to do more. Israel needs to do more as well. What can Arafat do? What can President Bush do? From a human standpoint, there is no solution because neither side will give in for permanent peace. It is a perennial William Hatfield and Randolph McCoy duel, not in the hollows of Kentucky but the buses of Israel and the terrorist bomb factories of Hamas. Following are some things perceived by the Palestinians regarding the intransigence of the Israeli government. This is what the Palestinians will tell you and it is helpful to know their position to understand the issue. 1. The Israelis have built settlements for recent immigrants all over the West Bank. The Palestinians resent Israel encroaching upon and around them. One solution recommended in the Jerusalem Post by one person was to exile all the Palestinians from the West Bank to the surrounding Arab countries. But this would be like asking all the Hispanics in Texas to return to Mexico. 2. The Palestinians believe the land being settled by Jews in the West Bank belongs to them. They feel the same as the early American Indians felt when US soldiers took away their land. 3. The Palestinians see Israel bulldozing down their fruit trees and the settlers firing upon them as they harvest their olives. To do this, the Israelis use high-tech US weapons. The stone throwing Palestinians asked "Where are our weapons?" 4. The Palestinians see Israel bringing in the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) and guarding the settlers as they steal Palestinian fruit. 5. The Jews come and set fire to the crops and trees of the Palestinians. 6. In building a security road, the Israelis are destroying thousands of acres of Palestinians farm land. 7. The Palestinians perceive Israel’s destruction of their social, economic and educational infrastructure as a form of humiliation and not as a need for security. 8. The recent proposal by Ehud Barak (1999/2000) offering the Palestinians 90% of what they wanted sounds good to most Americans but they do not realize this proposal refuses to give the Palestinians a common border with another Arab country, gives them limited sovereignty over the city of Jerusalem which they believe to be their capital and scant control over the limited supply of the water resources in the West Bank. (This insight helped me to understand why Arafat refused to sign the treaty.) 10. Palestinians must live daily with road blocks and cannot enter other Palestinian cities. On our recent visit, a Palestinian shared with my friend Rick that he had to wait five hours to drive through checkpoints from Ramallah to Jerusalem only five miles away. 11. The Palestinians see Israel blocking free press and preventing international medical and social agencies from carrying out their duties to alleviate the suffering of people living in legally occupied lands. 12. In the past two years, 2,499 Palestinians were martyred, including 510 children. More than 39,400 were injured, including 5,500 left permanently disabled, according to Health Ministry estimates. There are also more than 8,000 Palestinians still in prison, not to mention economic and material losses, estimated by experts at more than $11.5 billion. 13. The occupation army has imposed an economic siege and restricted travel on the Palestinians since the beginning of the intifada (uprising) harming all economic sectors. The transportation of goods is hindered and workers were no longer able to reach their work stations. (Following are some statistics quoted from the Jerusalem Times: More than 366,000 Palestinian workers have lost their only source of income, and Israeli measures of mass punishment, a tight siege, and incursions into Palestinian cities harmed all economic sectors. The national income dipped by 70 percent and unemployment rose from 21 percent in 2000 to 65 percent at present, with 366,000 unemployed Palestinians suffering at the end of the second year of the intifada. Poverty increased from 23 percent in 2000 to 75 percent, with 2.24 million out of 3.2 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza now living below the poverty line. Damages inflicted upon buildings and roads, according to statistics compiled by the General Information Authority, total $339 million, while 35,000 homes have been demolished or damaged, in addition to 426 public venues and 188 economic facilities. I hope this helps you see the plight of the Palestinians. I am working through my biases and it has helped to visit the land to see and hear first hand from those who are suffering on both sides. I came away knowing that in the end there will be peace because the Messiah will someday return and as the great Apostle Paul wrote, “…every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord…” This means Yasser Arafat will bow on his knees to Jesus, not Mecca, and say “Jesus is Lord.” It means President Bush will do the same. But in the meantime, this is the cosmic-like confrontation that will continue until the Prince of Peace steps in and says ”Enough is enough!” Until He arrives, man with his carnal nature from both Washington to Jerusalem will be as the writer wrote of the Hatfield's and McCoy’s, “It is the stuff of legend: the story of two noble, strong willed families locked in the throes of mortal combat, bound by personal honor to avenge the smallest grievances, finally forsaking the pursuit of justice for the call of vengeance…” My next to last day in Jerusalem, I was walking out of the Old City. Two old Muslim men seeking to sell some souvenirs, called me to the front door of their little store. "Bush is cowboy! Bush is cowboy! Better not bomb Iraq!" I tried the best I could to explain that our President was more than a cowboy but to no avail. But I did leave further convinced that there are two sides to this issue. I hope this e-mail helps you understand a bit more, the Palestinian viewpoint. Jim