quote:
Originally posted by Dave the Wonder Boy:
Hamas is hell-bent on the destruction of Israel, so of course they'd make a statement like that.

If the U.S. convinces Israel to go ahead with an independent Palestinian state, and the Arab nations do nothing to insure stopping (or even discouragement ) of terrorism against Israel, then what would the U.S. have done but hand over Israel's sovereignty.

From what I've observed from the last fifty years regarding Israel (and largely detailed above) you can't believe any of what the arabs are saying, particularly Arafat.

Arafat, after last week making a half-hearted obligatory statement condemning suicide bombings against Israel (his condition for being released from house arrest in Ramallah), Arafat yesterday said, rallying his Palestinian followers: "A million martyrs are on their way to Jerusalem" (as reported on CBS News).

That doesn't sound like he's condemning suicide bombers. Quite the opposite, he's strongly encouraging it.
Arafat has lots a lot of credibility in the past few weeks amongst Arabs for not being more defiant to Israeli pressure.

Hamas is hell-bent on the destruction of Israel. Their people have been sitting in refugee camps for 50 years.

I was talking to a guy who used to live in Israel the other day - his wife worked for the UK embassy in Tel Aviv. This was some time ago, and he described to me in vivid detail his recollection of the impressively poor treatment of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers at checkpoints and borders.

The difference between the IRA and Hamas is that the IRA have rich friends in Boston and New York.

quote:


Regarding Kioto, I didn't know Australia was complying (already, or planning to ?). I do feel that Bush could have expressed more of a willingness to negotiate the Kioto agreement instead of just dumping it flat-out.
The environmentalist backlash was very visible in the U.S. when he dumped Kioto. On many environmental-related issues, such as the proposed oil drilling expansion in Alaska, that was blocked by the Democrats, it seems clear that Bush sides with corporate business, especially the oil industry.
But in the news reporting I saw of Kioto and Bush's rejection of it (and the press was very much against Bush, the press is very pro-environment), Bush had a valid point that the U.S. should not be obligated to comply when others do not.
Actually, the Europeans are still negotaiting Kyoto. Apparently Germany is the stop-out. Otherwise they're ready to implement.

Incidentally, Dave, Watsonwil, myself, and a bunch of other guys from the DCMBs discuss serious topics here:

http://www.xsorbit1.com/users/moorg/index.cgi?board=smartie

I don't want to poach you from Rob's board, but you'd be welcome to join in there in addition to coming here.