The Romans destroyed the Second Jewish Temple in 70 AD. Long before that, the Bablyonians destroyed the First Jewish Temple (aka the temple of King Solomon, built in the 10th century, BC) in 586 BC. Read your history, fellas:
http://judaism.about.com/od/daysofmourning/f/temple2.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_in_Jerusalem If you take the long view of history, you have to see that the Jewish people have been living and praying in that very spot (the Temple Mount) for 3000 years. So what you have at the moment is only the most current incarnation of a set of political and religious wars that has lasted for 3000 years. So when the Palestinians cry about being booted off of "their land", they are conveniently forgetting that it was the land of the Jews for millenia, even when it was ruled by other nations. Having said all of that, the Palestinians are not going away, and none of the Arab states are going to help them, so it is up to the Israelis to help make a home for the Palestinians, but the Palestinians have to be willing to accept a compromise, and until now, they haven't been. We'll see if they can now. Remember that Hamas still officially supports the destruction of Israel. That's an unwinnable position. Israel has nukes, everyone knows it, and if push comes to shove and their nation is threatened, they can wipe out everyone in the neighboorhood. Just like the US and Russia could have back in the Cold War (and still could today). On the subject of Bush and Social Security, no one raided any trust fund, including Bush. There is no trust fund, and the lie that there ever was a trust fund is the biggest sham perpetrated by the Federal Government in our lifetimes. If there were an actual trust fund, there would be trillions of dollars in it. What's really in the trust fund? A bunch of "IOU" notes from the Federal Government to the Federal Government. Try this. Write yourself IOU notes for all the money you mean to invest in your retirement, savings, college funds for kids, etc. Do that for 30 years, then figure out how you pay for all the things that you need to pay for with those IOU notes. It's ridiculous. Did Bush increase spending? Yes. Defense has been big. Tax cuts (my favorite) have been big. The prescription drug benefit will be big, but Democrats carped on Bush for not providing an even more generous benefit. What was Kerry's solution? Import drugs from Canada. That's not a solution, that's a campaign slogan. Iraq was not the lynchpin of the Middle East, but it was a trouble spot, and more importantly a soft spot that we could exploit to apply pressure to the rest of the region. Despite the whinging of the New York Times, that is exactly what the Administration has done. Syria has withdrawn from Lebanon, certainly in part because of the huge American army sitting on their eastern doorstep. Some of our generals a(and a few of our politicians) are just itching for an excuse to drop a few bombs on Damascus, I'm sure. The regime in Iran is under huge internal pressure from its population. Jordan is working on elections. Egypt looks like it may actually have something other than a sham election for President. The Saudi government is suddenly realizing that the extremist nuts they have been breeding for years hate them as much as they hate the U.S. With respect to the Israelis, you know the U.S. Administration has to be saying to Sharon, we're here, we're not going anywhere, we have your backs, now just get on with the peace plan and see if the Palestinians are going to play ball. In other words, I think the U.S. presence in Iraq has a direct, positive impact on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But like I said, we'll see what happens. >> Sam wrote: >> 3000 years? >> >> > >Yeah, I'd put it at more like 50. And everyone wants to live in peace >but they can't if they feel like they're being screwed and murdered. >So it's quite simple: find a way to make everyone feel like they're >getting as good of a deal as the next guy and you'll find peace. > >The other way is to obliterate the other side. > >Now that Arafat is dead there'll be peace within 25 years, maybe even >10. Israel is pulling out of Gaza and really seems to want peace. >It's almost a mirror of Northern Ireland except there's no large >American help. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Find out how CFTicket can increase your company's customer support efficiency by 100% http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=49 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:160705 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
