[ouroboros]

Charley Reese makes his case in clear, concise prose. "It's not important to me if people agree or disagree with my point of view," he says. "What I hope my column does is provoke people into thinking about issues, about the world, and their place in it."

Reese, a conservative columnist, does not mince words. In his column, which King Features Syndicate distributes three times a week to more than 150 newspapers, he does not hesitate to take a stand and back it up to the end. In 1985, after being horrified by acts of terrorism around the world, Reese said succinctly: "The wise thing to do with a terrorist is shoot him."

Charley Reese was born Jan. 19, 1937, in Washington, Ga. He was raised there, in eastern Texas and northwest Florida. By the time he was 19, he had worked as a janitor, printer, cub reporter, civil servant and caption writer for Plant News Pictures, Ltd. in London. In 1955, he began his career at the Pensacola News in Florida as a cub reporter. For the next 10 years, he worked at various newspapers, honing his craft by reporting everything from sports to politics. Between 1969 and 1971, he worked as a campaign staffer for gubernatorial, senatorial and congressional races in several states.

He joined The Orlando Sentinel in 1971 as assistant metro editor. He later became assistant to the publisher, then columnist and editorial board member. He retired from the paper in July 2001. He has traveled to Europe and the Middle East on assignments, all the while maintaining his distinctly American style of journalism.

Reese served two years of active duty in the Army and received an honorary doctorate from Webber College in Florida. He has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and voted the best columnist in Florida by both the Florida Press Association and the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors.

He is the author of four books, including "Great Gods of the Potomac," and was the ghost writer of "The Eleventh Hour" by Gen. Lewis Walt. An American foundation commissioned Reese to write a study of the Swiss national defense system. Reese has won numerous journalism and civic awards. His column is read by decision makers around the globe. A column he wrote on the House of Hope, a home for abused teens, prompted President Reagan to write a personal check for $1,000 to the organization.

Reese makes his home in Florida. Now divorced, he is the father of three grown children.

[Celtjew Libertarian]

Now I suggest we all hunker down. Because of Sharon’s shrewdness and ruthlessness and our stupidity and naivete, the dogs of war have been let loose. Our newborn grandchildren will probably grow beards before the blood stops flowing.

Heck, the blood has been flowing since before I was born; now I'm grown up, have a beard and it's still flowing. It didn't take Sharon to that. It took Israel being surrounded by nations that did not want it to exist.

[dfrussell]

Charlie seems to have jumped into the deep-end of the stupid pool on this one.

[steenkeenbadges]

", Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian Authority president, was winning sympathy in Europe for the Palestinian cause, which is simply an end to Israeli occupation."

Occupation? The "palestians" were just a loose association of Bedouin tribes who crossed into Israel after 1948 in order to take advantage of the material opportunities. Can Reese define the boundaries of this supposed "territory" in 1948? Can he name the capital of "palestine" in 1948? Neither existed, and this crap is a bunch of Arafat lies that most of the world has swallowed whole.

[Dallas]

He himself started the intifada by invading Islam’s third-holiest site and arrogantly calling it Jewish property.

Bull$hit.

He walked up the stairs to a Israeli guard station, and shook hands with his troops.

That hardly qualifies as an invasion.

[MACD]

Charlie gets it exactly right!! I've not seen a better summary anywhere!

[crystalk]

This disgusting writing makes it look like somehow the so-called West Bank, or even Gaza, is "someone else's land," and Sharon (that monster) is stealing it.

The title of Israel to every inch of this space is precisely the same as its title to downtown Tel Aviv. The weakness of so-called "Palestinian" title is that only 23% of them even had their male direct ancestor living in Israel/Territories as of Dec. 8, 1917. They are only interloping Egyptians, Syrians, and other rabble who have no title to the land.

[Lion_King]

This past Friday or Saturday morning, a scrolling headline on the Fox News Channel said that US has learned that Israel acquired intelligence that the Sept. 11 attacks were to occur and yet did not share that info with us. But I haven't heard any elaboration on that on the news shows or print reporting. Do you guys have more info on this?

[an amused spectator]

He himself started the intifada by invading Islam’s third-holiest site and arrogantly calling it Jewish property.

To Charlie Reese, apparent Jew-hater:

Q. How can you spot an Islamic holy site?
A. It's built on the remains of someone else's holy site, usually after the previous occupants have been raped, murdered and/or enslaved.

[MissAmericanPie]

Charley Reese is an idiot.

[Marianne]

BTTT

[Mighty Pen]

Charley Reese ROCKS!!! He's one of the very few widely-read columnists who actually dare to say what they think about Israel. After all, anyone who dares to question anything Israel does or even hints at the fact that Israel might do wrong sometimes MUST be an anti-Semite, right? Or so our mainstream spinmeisters tell us. I think Charley's dead right on this and many other subjects. I hope he keeps up the good work.

[Dubhghall]

I'm depressed about this board after reading the responses to Charlie Reese's article. I can only hope that the stupid Israel-right-or-wrong crap isn't indicative of my country!

[hope]

Ehud Barak offered Arafat the farm with the exception of of a small part of the Temple Mount at Camp David summer of 2000 while Bill Clinton was salivating over the chance to be the American president who would help arrange peace in the Middle East. Arafat turned it down flat when the question of Jerusalem came up...Barak had offered the Palestinians control over the Temple Mount and the Israelis would build a synagogue on the northeast corner of the holy site.

In Arafat's own words he told Clinton "These arguments are explosive and will set off massive fires in the region."..."Do you want me to throw the region into a new age of religious conflict?" Indeed they did and indeed Arafat did!

In 1948 when Britain removed themselves from the Middle East, the Arabs invaded Israel and by the grace of God Israel won...It was not Israel who created the Palestinian refugee problem it was the Arabs and they have continued to use the Palestinians with a willing Arafat to lead the Palestinian people to the condition they are in today. Arafat is nothing more than a terrorist who thrives off the blood of innocent children...He is as evil as UBL. Reese has shown now and in previous articles that he has no idea about the heart of the Palestinian conflict.

This conflict will never be resolved by any man.

[steve-b]

I’d like to be wrong once in a while about the Middle East

Yes, that would be a great improvement over being wrong all the time, as you are now.

[boris]

"No country in the world could systematically assassinate more than 27 political opponents without being branded a terrorist state."

Well, guess what, Charley: the U.S. is about to 'systematically' (I hope) assassinate many more than 27 "political opponents"...at least if we know what we are doing, what the stakes are, and where the terrorists are.

We are in for 5-15 years of a shadow war, fought by assassins and spies.

If the Federal Government fails to do this, they will have failed--yet again--to perform their sworn duty to protect American citizens.

Got a problem with that? Tough.

--Boris

[medved]

bookmark

[exmarine]

What a piece of propaganda and misinformation! I invite the writer to read the Balfour Declaration and see whose land it is! The Arabs didn't want the land (it was an arrid desert!) until a Jewish State was established in 1948. In the late 19th Century, the arabs SOLD THEIR LAND to immigrating jews! Now, suddenly they want it back.

As far as Sharon goes, Israel has a right to self-defense. Any idiot who cares to read all of the statements by Arafat and Assad and other arab leaders will see that these blackguards want nothing less than the total destruction of Israel. That is certain. Palestinians train their children to hate the Jews, that Jews are subhuman (does that ring a Nazi bell?); then they send their children out to die! What kind of people sacrifice their children like this? Answer: A corrupted evil people.

Pattern: Arab terrorists target women and children and are hailed as heroes; Israel then responds by targeting police stations and the terrorists themselves. Does anyone see a moral difference here? There is no "cycle of violence" - that is a lie by the liberal lying media. It is a cycle of terrorism and response.

[rdb3]

Your continuous posting of Reese's anti-Israel scribes must make you a flaming anti-Semite as well.

Since when did nations that lose wars get their land back? Was Palestine ever a nation?

There are no mulligans in wars.

Israel making so-called "peace" with surrounding nations that wish it would cease to exist is plum-dumb. Reese's insisting on a peace with Palestinians demonstrates without a doubt that he is against Israel.

And that is sad.

[junta]

I must disagree with the Bush bashers on this one. Bush is stupid as a fox when it comes to handling the Israeli mega lobby. Fact is we must go after Islamic terrorists and wipe them out like Martel the "Hammer" did once. GWB and his team are allowing Israel and its supporters to lead the way in the "Bomb the Third World" campaign of terror elimination. Example GWB and Colin Powell hem and haw about some bombing operation and then the Israeli lobby goes into hysterical kanuption fits over their "indecisiveness" therefore exposing themselves as the instigator to the rest of the world outside of the reach of our media. Let the lobby lead the war on terror at least publicly.

[xm177e2]

He himself started the intifada by invading Islam’s third-holiest site and arrogantly calling it Jewish property.

The Temple Mount is single most holy site in the world to the Jews. It was the site of the two Temples. There is only one explanation for an "error" this egregious: Reese is an anti-Semite. He wants to eliminate the Jewish presence from Israel, not just now, but historically as well.