Originally Posted by SteveZ

Expecting "peace" in the MidEast brokered by the United States is like hoping there's oil on the moon and it will come to us via the Star Trek Pipeline.

The MidEasters have been fighting, killing, slaving, exploiting and every other "ing" since Cain and Abel. The issues are never going to be resolved by outside mediation, as neither side wants to give an inch - ever - out of fear that one inch will be exploited to 100 miles.

US politicians strolling through the MidEast with "plans" for peace are laughable. The only thing the US provides is a unifying effect whereby both the wrring factions skin the outsider. The Camp David Accords were a great example, as all that happened is that Israel and Egypt were able both to milk more foreign aid from the US on the pretext of "more foregin aid will make things better." It was a great photo op event, but nothing of substgance resulted other than more money going from us to them both.

"The settlements in the West Bank" - who cares? If both sides what to push each other to the wall, why are we sticking our political noses into the middle of it? The last time I looked at a map, Europe has more at stake than anyone in the Americas. Everytime they play brinksmanship, we send more money to both to "tone things down." When will we learn than we cannot solve the world's problems? The world loves to take our money when we in or arrogance try to play Papa to everyone.

We don't need to "lean on Israel" or anyone else. All we have to do is shut off the money stream - period! Or is the money - excuse me, foreign aid" supposed to continue forever? For all MidEast factions, isn't 50 years of foreign aid enough? And what good has it really done in the last 20 years?

Time to let the MidEast neighbors learn to live with each other without US money. We can't keep borrowing from the Chinese and others so that we can give it away to ingrates. We don't "owe" anything here, as we have paid for 5 decades. Or are we expected to pay for 5 more decades?

Forgive me if I don't seem like a big fan of Israel or its Arab neighbors. The fallout since the Kuwait War (Gulf I) is less than stellar. The Israeli action against the USS Liberty (www.usslliberty.com) in 1967 and the subsequent coverup is shameful, yet it still continues.

So, I don't put any of the MidEasters on a pedestal. They don't give a hoot about us, so why should we really care about them more than what he have?