Thanks, Pope. Big help.

Okay, well, it is interesting that the old man (or whoever is speaking for that decrepit fuck) came out against Israel. Just not something I'm used to seeing from Westerners.

I'm sure that all my bitching about Israel has some people thinking I'm anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian all the way. Well, I'm not. The reason I bitch about Israel is because it seems that virtually no one else does. At least, not from the standpoint of the general mindset that we have in this country. Ariel Sharon could sodomize Palestinian babies in front of their mothers and we'd still be voting down the U.N. resolution condemning his actions.

Look, I'm not letting the Palestinians in general, or Arafat in particular, off the hook. Nothing serious is being done from that side to stop any of the violence.

At the same time, Israel doesn't do shit to help matters either. Just like the Palestinian side, I think they're much happier to let all of the killings continue. It's sad to lose some of your own, but revenge is sweet. As such, they're not doing anything serious, either.

I realized at one point that if they really want peace over there, which I'm not convinced they do, it doesn't matter who is wrong and who is right. Worrying about that is just going to lead to a continuation of the bloodshed. If peace is ever going to be even a remote possibility, one side is going to have to man up and be the better person. That, however, is not going to happen.