Palestine. One state or two.

Those who care about Palestine ask in bewilderment why, if Muslims are good people, why are they being killed in Gaza? Why are they being starved to death? What crime have they done to deserve this?' Such questions come from an ill-informed, unreal world, of fantasy, of science-fiction. It is very sad. These people do not ask what have the people of Iraq done, or what have the people of Uganda, Angola, Sudan, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal, Tibet, Indonesia, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Bosnia Herzegovina, etc, etc, etc, etc, done. Are the people of those countries also not good people? Why do they have to suffer, to be displaced, homeless and starving?

It sometimes seems to me as if the media and peace commentators like to see the Palestinian people being attacked, wounded and killed by the Israeli, and Palestinian homes and other buildings been destroyed by bulldozers or bombs! The warfare stimulates protest and gives journalists and peace groups something to be furious about, something to write about, shout about.

However, the fact that out if this human and material tragedy some Palestinian and Israeli politicians are making lots of money for themselves, just the way Arafat and Sharon did earlier in the history of the region, does not seem to create the least concern.