Talk about naked propaganda!
It must have escaped you there are nearly five-hundred (500) *more* Palestinians murdered in the past year than the terrorists have taken in Israeli lives. Rationalize that one away--it might be fun to see you try.
Israel's Sharon is evidently a hot head with a very big mouth; he's out of his depth. He *is* undermining our foreign policy. If he assassinates Arafat he's as insane as any warmongering thug has ever been. With its actions and rhetoric, Israel is being no friend to the United States these days.
Did you nod gleefully at the "Bush=Chamberlain" rebuke by your dear Mr. Sharon? Or how about his claim that Israel has always 'stood alone', eh?
What gives any Palestinian reason to trust Israel would be a good and just and peaceful neighbor, rather than an invader and bully in the name of "self-defense" while hiding behind the United States' skirt?
Instead of long ago adopting a strategy which would accept a Palestinian homeland, it arrogantly rejected the very notion and set about a policy of occupation and out-dated imperialistic expansion. And we let it.
It has followed a foolish policy--prolonging conflict, always upping the ante, effectively breeding more terrorists. And now, when we need their cooperation most, Sharon spits in our eye and threatens to foil our good faith efforts to be careful, cooperative, targeted and certainty in dealing with organized terrorism starting with Al Queda. Bush is trying to avoid Israeli-style policy errors and avoid developing an even larger regional or global problem.
The wisdom of Sharon's actions are *critical* to keeping this from spreading into a 3rd World War in terms of open conflict or economic disaster. I'm glad Bush's team can see this.
By your logic the fact the US will kill a lot more in Afghanistan then the 5,000 who perished in the WTC/Pentagon attacks make those deaths acceptable.