I'm totally against political assassinations, but Rabin himself said it about a week ago when a leader of Hamas was assassinated (according to Professor Gary Sick, likely due to Israeli efforts): those who live by violent means tend to die by violent means. (Ironically, due to publication schedules, an article about that assasination, and Rabin's attitude toward it, showed up in the L.A. TIMES on Sunday, _after_ Rabin's own death.) As the recent article in the NATION by Edward Said suggests, the "Peace Process" that Rabin presided over should be renamed the "Israeli Victory Process" (or perhaps the "PLO Surrender Process") -- the violent creation of a new Versailles-type treaty that doesn't solve the real problems in Israeli/Palestine and threatens to create new war and new terrorism in the future. Instead, a new system of bantustans is being created on the West Bank (ironically at the same time that bantustans are seemingly being dismantled in South Africa). If anyone deserves "credit" for this process, it should be Gorbachev, who cut off Soviet support for the PLO and/or Arafat himself, who sided with Saddam Hussein in the "Gulf War," cutting off his own lifeline from the Saudis and other oil-rich states. Arafat also deserves "credit" because he cares more about his own power than that of the people he purports to represent. in pen-l solidarity, Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] Econ. Dept., Loyola Marymount Univ. 7900 Loyola Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045-8410 USA 310/338-2948 (daytime, during workweek); FAX: 310/338-1950 "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- K. Marx, paraphrasing Dante A.
