It would be nice if your friend and I could solve problems that the world has been debating unsuccessfully for decades. If you hate Jews they can do no good. Remember Hitler? Regarding the Aswan High Dam, it was indeed after the seizing of the Suez that the other things happened. There was NO ULTIMATUM! Tell me. Did the Baath Party overthrow the monarchy and kill the members of the cabinet and expel the Americans of Baghdad College because of Israel? Did Iran and Iraq go to war for ten years because of Israel? Did Saddam invade Kuwait because of Israel? There is a powerful Islamic group that is anti-monarchical, and is anti-American because the U.S. oil supply's security depends on its dealings with these monarchies--which, to be sure are in constant peril, especially the Saudi Arabian. That is why the U.S. needs Israel to keep the Arabs at bay. But the Arabs themselves have tasted the effects of fundamentalism in Algeria, the Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran and to a lesser extent in most of the rest of the Middle East. This fundamentalism is diametrically opposed to anything Western, including the liberation of women, Chistianity, democracy, freedom and the U.S. Not for an instant do I defend the actions of the fundamentalist Israelis when they treat the Palestinians unjustly. But like the Irish, the Israeli/Arab conflict goes deep, with good and bad on both sides.

Bob

August 22, 1998