[Max Combined]

"I am simply telling you what has been told to me by friends of mine."

Well, at least you are honest enough to admit that you have no idea of what is meant by coming down hard on the Palestinians. Your Muslim friends are full of crap. The solution to the Middle East is already in process. Israel will finish their fence and pull their settlements out of Gaza and let the Palestinians stew in their own juices. The only leverage the Palestinians have on the Israelis is terrorism and the fence will put an end to that. Eventually, ten or twenty years down the line, the Palestinians will get tired of being shut out of Israel and will make peace.

If your Muslim friends are unhappy with the United States because we support the Israelis right to defend themselves from the terrorism that the Palestinians inflict on Israel, then they can just be unhappy, as far as I am concerned. The idea is to do the right thing, not the popular thing.

[killjoy]

Israel will [...] pull their settlements out of Gaza

Yes, this is exactly what needs to be done as well as the settlements in the west bank.

If your Muslim friends are unhappy with the United States because we support the Israelis right to defend themselves from the terrorism that the Palestinians inflict on Israel

That is not what I said. You are quite good at taking things completely out of context.