ARABIA WILL MAKE PEACE WITH ISRAEL AT IT'S PLEASURE.

MANY WILL SAY THAT THIS IS A ROMANTIC NOTION...

... but, the many should consider that the Arabs are human beings, stereotyped in the West as "towel heads", "camel jockeys", and even more vulgar terms of reference; and this type of attitude towards Arabia serves to foment violence and hatred amongst the Arabs, playing into the hands of the worst elements in Arab society. It is one thing to be intensely critical and quite another to be arrogant, derisive, and disparaging. At bottom humanity can do well to take a step back from the "earthquakes, tsunamis, and nuclear meltdowns" (if I may make a metaphor based on the horrible triple catastrophe current in Japan) of decades of violence, propaganda, posturing, etc. and reconsider the realities.

There have been times in history that Jews have thrived in Muslim realms. This has not been true in recent history. Yet, recent history need not be the only barometer nor predictor of Jewish-Arab relations. As Arabs in Judea-Samaria and Gaza protest and call for unity between Hamas and Fatah in order to fight Israel -- a microcosm perhaps at the heart of much of the protests current throughout the Arab world -- it should be kept in mind that the Arabs and all Muslims need to be reminded of their own best teachings about the Peoples of the Book (Jews and Christians) and the Muslim obligation to be protective.

While it is true that in classic form this has meant second class status and special taxes for Jews and Christians, and that in history this obligation has been practiced both benignly and malevolently, it should be possible in todays world for an application of this practice to be developed by Muslims such that overt subjugation and denial of equality may be set aside. Even the ceding of land to enable Israel to live in peace inclusive of Judea-Samaria ought to be practicable and desirable -- as long as it is granted that this be done at the pleasure and free will of Arabia. Such generosity would necessarily include the paid resettlement and future security of up to two-thirds of the Muslim population currently under Israeli jurisdiction, as for reasons of language, culture, economics, and the upheaval of relocation, it would yet be preferable to this population to live under Arab jurisdiction, and may well be acceptable, if again such generous surrender of claim in Israel were voluntary in the name of Peace.

ANOTHER ASSASSINATION IN PAKISTAN IN THE NAME OF JIHAD, AND UNREST AND REVOLUTION THROUGHOUT THE WORLD OF ISLAM.

TUNISIA, EGYPT, LIBYA, ALGERIA, JORDAN, BAHRAIN, OMAN, YEMEN -- NAME A MUSLIM NATION AND THERE IS PROFOUND UNREST AND INTOLERANCE, AS SYMBOLIZED ONCE AGAIN IN PAKISTAN, WHERE A SECOND MINISTER WAS ASSASSINATED FOR THE SAKE OF HIS COURAGEOUS STANCE AGAINST RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE.

At a most basic level the ubiquitous unrest has demographic. economic, religious, and political roots. all of which factor into uncertain outcomes. In the majority the ordinary people seek human dignity, meaningful lives, political, religious and economic freedoms -- ergo, they seek a future for themselves and for their families; they do this against a backdrop of religious intolerance, political dictatorship, and economic conditions that are as bleak as the endless desert sand dunes surrounding the limited arable land and fresh water that make possible any life at all.

Thousands of lives have already been lost in these upheavals, and more will continue to be lost. At question is: how many, for how long, and with what short term and long term consequences. As Winter commences to end and as Spring commences to break ground, will unrest in this vast desert of nations surrounding Israel lead to stable solutions soon enough and happily enough to avoid major wars and major warfare -- including another war against Israel in the heat of Summer? Conditions are ripe for unified scapegoat warfare against Israel as a means for these nations of unrest to seek blame and vent anger on Israel in order to divert attention from the domestic issues that severely challenge these nations.

May Peace break out in the world speedily and in our time!

THE BLOOD SPILLED IS ALL TOO REAL; THE WORLD CONVERSATION IS A MISFORTUNATE MYTHOLOGY.

ARAB PALESTINIANS ARE NOT MYTHICAL BEINGS, NEITHER ARE JEWISH PALESTINIANS MYTHICAL BEINGS; WHAT IS CRUEL AND USELESS IS THE HATRED AND PROPAGANDA SPEWED FORTH BY BOTH ARABS AND JEWS, WHO AT VARIOUS TIMES IN HISTORY HAVE EXPERIENCED SHARED OCCUPATION BY FOREIGN POWERS, MOST RECENTLY BY EUROPEAN POWERS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.

The world should express sadness and compassion at all loss of life. At the same time, the world should not be blind to the differences of language and culture behind the Arab-Israeli Conflict, nor to the reality that, if perhaps a third of the Arabs currently living within Israeli controlled boundaries prefer the life and protections of a democratic modern Israel, the other two-thirds are indifferent or hateful of Israel and represent a Fifth Column that Israel cannot tolerate and that the world should not require Israel to tolerate.

The world should carry the ball in seeing to an enforced and well-paid resettlement of that Fifth Column. The sooner the world ceases to worship the "false idol" of the idea of a "State of Palestine", then the sooner the killing can stop and peace be realized.

There is no need to bribe or leverage either side or both sides with money or the withholding of money. There is only need to see the realities of past and modern history, which suggest the solution. Proper boundaries and resettlement of the FIfth Column will make for sounder nations able to sustain investments and to engage in mutually beneficial trade and tourism.

Let us stop using degrading language that clouds conversation and incorrectly defines who is who and what is what. The myth of a State of Palestine does not make the millions of Arab Palestinians mythical beings any more than it makes the millions of Jewish Palestinians mythical beings. Every drop of blood that is spilled is real blood, not mythical blood; only the conversation is mythical, for it does not correspond to reality.

Even as I write this, most of the world is programmed to believe that by definition a Palestinian is not Jewish and that Israeli Arabs are oppressed Palestinians; therefore, most of the world may have to read comments such as mine over and over until it sinks in that the term "Palestinian" applies equally to Arabs and Jews -- including exiled Jews living in the Diaspora for two or more thousand years -- and that a "State of Palestine" would deny Jews a secure homeland and at the same time would deny Arabs entry into their natural homelands.

Similarly, the mythical "West Bank" is a European invention of territorial naming; the proper designations for that territory are Judea and Samaria, part and parcel of historical Israel, the singular tiny national homeland of Jews. For every reason the world must support Israel to be whole again as one undivided State; so, too, the world can support the Arab right to return to the many existing States that are their historical homelands.

PURIM, PESACH, PEACE -- AND 1347 CAPTIVE DAYS FOR GILAD SHALIT, STILL COUNTING ....

SO TODAY THE UNITED NATIONS IS ABUZZ, that the United Arab Emirates Summit is encouraging resumed "Peace Talks" between Israel and the Palestinian Authority -- at the behest of George Michel, former American Senator (of Arab-American extraction) and international negotiator, famous for the present relative peace in Ireland [that he worked out during the Clinton presidential administration]. So the Arabs have tossed President Barak Hussein Obama either a fig leaf or a Trojan Horse.

A four-month window has been set for these talks to take place and yield results. Meanwhile Hamas and Fatah have still not come together even on terms for a "reasonable and speedy" release of Gilad Shalit. In four months will we see real movement toward peace or more preparation for another hot summer Intifada?

It is said that Purim, which was celebrated this past weekend, is a Jewish holiday pregnant with hidden miracles. Purim celebrates survival in the face of imminent annihilation dating to the captivity of Israel in Persia. In that sense it is related to Pesach, which is only a few weeks away now, when Israel "re-enacts" it's creation as a nation, remembering the many miracles composing the larger miracle of escape from Egypt more than three-thousand odd years ago.

Gilad Shalit's captivity is symbolic of Israel's history of captivity and struggles for freedom.

As of today Gilad Shalit has been held captive for 1347 days! For one man, such captivity for one day is like a year....

May Gilad Shalit's release be granted unilaterally and unconditionally by his captors before Pesach!