Interesting article--and as well an interesting thought about a possible "hidden agenda".... Personally I give no credence to anyone screaming about the recent Israeli incursion into Gaza who said and did nothing about countless years of relentless mortar and rocket attacks directed against Israeli civilians, the ongoing homicide bombings in the past as people attempted to live their everyday lives, and the fears and emotional trauma suffered by its citizens as a result of this continuous terrorism.

We have chatted with Israeli Arab students at the university in Haifa (where we know a sociology professor), eaten in wonderful Israeli Arab restaurants, and visited and shopped in Druze communities on the Carmel (an Arab sect whose youngsters actually choose to serve in the Israeli army). Many of those Arabs who remained after the U.N. created Israel in 1948 have prospered; virtually all of those who fled after being fed propaganda that the Jews would kill them and drink their blood are living in abject poverty, one of the few groups of refugees since WWII who have been left as refugees, abandoned by their fellow Arabs and Arab nations who instead use them for political purposes and as human shields.

The whole situation is tragic. A fix in our lifetimes? Who knows.... Considering that the U.S. just elected its first black president by a landslide only a few decades after the civil rights movement and only a few more decades after a time when it was actually necessary to enact anti-lynching laws (!) was something countless people never thought we'd see in our lifetimes. Granted it's hard to be optimistic in a situation where Israel's Arab neighbors dedicated itself from Day 1 to the annihilation of this country that is but a tiny sliver in the Middle East (about the size of Vermont), to this day still a primary goal in the charter of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), but maybe, just maybe, good sense will prevail over politics and egos one day....