***DENNIS ROSS*** ! PLEASE, you are kidding aren't you? He's as hard edged Israeli agent as exists. That he was a
"broker" of mid east peace under Clinton is
a joke. A particularly bad joke. Can anyone bear to listen to his propoganda. Does he think he's real?

I've been listening to Dennis Ross and reading his articles for years. I question his knowledge about the M.E. He blames the Arabs and the palestinians all the time, never once he criticized Israel, as they say" You are what you are." George Washington was considered a terrorist by England, then he became the first US president and a hero. Joseph Stalin was uncle Joe until Hitler got defeated, immdediately after that he was the bad guy of USSR. Bin Laden during the Afghan-Russian war was a hero, now he is a terrorist. Saddam was a hero fighting the Iranians, now he is a terrorist and a criminal(During his brief bid for the 1988 Republican nomination, Rumsfeld stated that restoring full relations with Iraq was one of his best achievements).Menachem Begin and Shamir were on the Terrorist list but now they are the liberators and freedom fighters. Mr Ross now back to you, with the facts that I have provided, I think you should stop blaming the Arabs and finger pointing, once they prevail you never know the Palestinians might be considered freedom fighters. The US adminstration has had a very mixed, confusing track record, the legitimacy is not there anymore. You have never provided undisputed argument, it's very weak, it's one sided. Mr Ross do you hold Dual citizenship!!!!!!!!!!

I have friends that are Kurdish, Iranian, Tiwanese, Turkish, Indian, Pakistani, Chinese, Tibetan, from the United States, Native American, buddhist, blah blah blah...

and went to a school that was 70% Jewish...

I play no favorites, and I know more about religions and mystic practice than anyone I've ever met...

religion is a joke, belief is a crutch for the stupid

a spiritual practice doesn't need rules to follow as the presence of divinity is existent within all things, not within a _single_ branch of dogmatic religions.

.

you want to resolve the crisis, then seperation of church and state needs to occur

.

this to say about Israel and the United States.

I do not respect someone who does not tell me the truth.

I do not take the side of one person in my family against another who is not speaking the truth, even if they are my wife

I do not support liars, I expect at least that level of honesty from the president and leaders of countries...

anything less is a failure, the United States is and has been in failure mode for six (6) years _severely_

and in regards to the Palestinian Israel issue

they have remained silent too long, the current tacit support of Israel is abysmal and to a certain extent because _this_ president wants to be backed for whatever he does and is a

wretched example of a human being and a fine example of a person of blue blood that has no other recommendation for having gotten the job except that he was born into a family that could arrange for him to get it...

he is something less than human.

.

there is a fundamental problem...

that only education and dialogue can solve...

you've got fundamentalists taking everyone else for a ride.

there is very little difference between fundamental christians/jews or muslims...

_religion_ is based upon dogma.

belief systems.

there is no dialogue when you are dealing with participants that have belief systems in place...

we are the chosen,

there is no compromise possible,

war is a victory and a blessing,

gawd favors us above all others...

you have three groups that say this, and cause the world enumberable harms...

perhaps their gawd is a trickster and a liar...perhaps they are serving something lesser

no gawd, would ask to be worshiped only something lesser...

wanna talk about it? I'll take you into the fire of truth.

.

judeaic/muslim/christianity fundamentalists are _all_ dangerous because they have beliefs and do not examine the facts...

emotional people have only one response to people not agreeing with them, they hurt other people...

genocide is a very common response to tribal struggles in _all_ of Africa, it is a sign of primitive beliefs and should be addressed as that.

having jet planes, rockets and high powered bombs doesn't make a monkey not a monkey.
.

Palestine and Israel are at war. In war, the diplomatic chessboard is a sham. Blame him, blame them, she did it, they did it. If my neighbour were handing out leaflets that I was his enemy, and that I had no right to live next to him because of 659 PHD dissertations confirming his position, or because I couldn't unravel the globe size yarn ball of convoluted events, and historical events, I might just say to myself, "You know what? I am not moving. You won't accept fate. You are my enemy. Watch out."

Israel has a right to defend itself.
Palestinians have a right to defend themselves.

That is war.

A charismatic spiritual leader who understands both sides might --just might-- be able to bring about a basis for understanding the importance of meeting the basic needs of each side: shelter, food, the whole gamut of primary needs. I do not mean a religious leader.

However, it is foolish for the Palestinian leadership to think that a verbal war, with sponsored terrorism on its cheque book, will achieve the safeguarding and exaltation of her people, and bring about prosperity at the same time.

Until the Palestinians accept the fact of Israel, there can be no dialogue for bringing prosperity to the region.

Israel, on the other hand, with access to superior technology, fire power, and financial and moral backing from strong nations in the international community, might consider the sage words of one of its strongest backers, namely Winston Churchill, "In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnanimity."

Everytime Israel demonstrates magnanimity the Palestinians must compete to reach above and beyond whatever magnanity is proferred. By trying to out-do each other there will an effort to spread good, not evil.

"Hitler was elected."

Hitler was never elected to any post!

That post's got a lot of imaginations!

I HAVE GONE THROUGH THE COMMENTS of ABOUT 15 PARTICIPANTS 2/3 OF THEM HAPPEN TO BE AMERICANS OUT of THEM MAJORITY FEELS UNFAIR GAME IS BEING PLAYED by USA,the only Super Power of today and posing to play refree 's role, rather inadequalety. To me it appears all this is triggered by the perspective of individuals and nations, developed through objective or subjective thinking. The subjectivity restricts your perspective by predetermined,borders and angles self carved by obsessions and fantasies or ingrained through fanatical social orientation. This in turn makes one see what one wants to see notwithstanding the actual objective realities,consquently the solutions worked out and line of action decided is also biased and blurred.So to start with objective thinking should be the trigger of perspective to have full as full as possible vision of ground realties through correct and widest possible perspective for working out fair and just solution for lasting peace.

Palestine should declare itself a state with pre-1946 borders. Other Arab nations and the far-flung Muslim countries should immediately recognize the Palestinian State. Any Arab state that refuses should answer to its people. Aid, both financial and military should be sent to Palestine. The General Assemboly of the United Nations whould seek means to enforce the past UN resollutions against Israel, since the US holds veto power in the Security Council.

The fact is the no peace is absolutely possible till the powers that be are fair. The United States and EU are biased towards the Israelis and there is no doubt about it. This is the main cause of what is called "Terror" by the West. The world forget conveniently the terror tactics used by the Haganah and David Ben Gurion which are consistently labelled freedom fight by Israelis and most Westerners, including Americans. Till the day impartiality will not rule, Israelis deserves to leave in constant fear of their lives. Palestinians are paying for the anti-Semitism of the Europeans. Why? Because they were weak and already conquered after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.

Why does anybody give Dennis Ross airtime is beyond my imagination. He speaks Israel's viewpoint under the guise of an American diplomat, that one wonders where his loyaties lay, with the US or with Israel??

i would tell them to take the higher moral ground and stop any activity that injures or kills children, or keeps food and medicine from children, or prevents a child's education. the lack of a moral outlook is the missing part to peace.

The solution is incredibly easy.
1. Remove all invading troops from occupied territory.
2. Make a statement like: "Ok, we are not occupying your land anymore, so stop the attacks. If you don't, we will legally attack back.
Amazing that people that suffered so much during the nazi invation now have concentration camps of their own like their oppressors did. Gaza and West Bank.
The only thing that really worries me is that in their core book it states: "you don't need to speak the truth to non-jews"...????????????????????????

Many Americans invest a great deal of emotional energy in Other People's Problems. Perhaps this is because Americans are accustomed to being able to view most international controversies knowing their direct impact on us will be negligible. Perhaps it is because our country has long been either too isolated or too powerful to have developed a tradition of understanding our own national interests.

I don't agree with everything Dennis Ross writes here, but at least he starts from the correct premise that a settlement, or even the beginnings of a settlement, of the interminable quarrel between the Israelis and Palestinians must depend on the contending parties. If they can work it out, great. If not, it is a problem, but it is much more important for them than it is for anyone else.

There is nothing of cosmic importance or vital bearing on the human condition going on in Gaza or the West Bank right now. No American interest has ever been served by Israeli settlements there, nor does it really matter to us very much whether Palestinians are able to organize a functioning state or not. As far as human rights are concerned, the fact that the Arab voices most outraged about the plight of the Palestinians are almost without exception silent about an actual genocide now being imposed by the Arab government of Sudan, with the unstinting support of all the others, ought to tell us something.

It won't tell anything to Americans who pick up the debating points of one or the other parties in the Mideast and go about repeating and elaborating on them as if they represented either existential truth or something touching on vital American interests. If Internet comment threads on this subject are any indication -- to be perfectly fair, they may not be -- quite a few people in the United States have yielded to the temptation to fill the vacuum in their own sense of what is important to us with other people's passionate sense of what is important to them. This is regrettable, a manifestation of immaturity and a lack of proportion that we ought to have outgrown so deep into the third century of our national life.

Mr. Ross,
Shame, shame -- you should return all the mony you "earned" representing the US. How do you sleep at night knowing that you have accomplished nothing. You are a type of "war profiteer".

The Palestinians have lost about seven wars with Israel depending on how you want to count them. They then turn around and try to negotiate from a position of imagined strength based on I am not quite sure what. The cut off of Western money and the complete failure of their Arab "allies and friends" to send more than token amount in replacement might finally get the point across that they should be very happy with half a loaf, or they can see if losing war number eight helps.

The only chance they have is to negotiate from a purely moral position. But blowing up cafes full high school kids makes that kind of hard. Impossible actually, but maybe they like having their kids charge main battle tanks with rifles. I haven't noticed it working very well though.

To obsess over Israel's "occupation" of lands taken in the Six Day War is to be a believer in "no-fault war." Acts of war on the part of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria precipitated the occupation. There is no historical precedent for a victor in a defensive war withdrawing from captured territory prior to receiving full recognition from its adversaries and absent border adjustments.

There are many other points to be made in response to earlier comments, but I'll leave it at that.

There must be a recognition that both the Israelis and Palestinians are legtitimate entities with legitimate grievances. This conflict has served the interest of the Islamic dictatorships in the region diverting attention from the failures of their own dysfunctional systems. I see little hope for an end to this situation until the Arab world decides it must end. America and Europe should demand that Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait invest their money and power in bringing about the conditions for two legitimate states at peace in the region. It is outrageous that they allow this condition to foment when they can do so much to stop it. It is also outrageous that we allow them to get away with stoking the flames. Israel and Palestine should be free, functionally secular, economic powerhouses on the Mediterranean much as Singpaore is in Asia, but this cannot happen when the conflict serves the needs of its neighbors and possibly our own. The constant friction about who did what, who is evil and who is saintly will never solve this problem. We need some true diplomats and statesmen in the world again who will rise above all of this. I will not hold my breath.

Today's headline...where are the denounciations?
"Mother and two children killed in IAF strike in Gaza"

For more than 10 yrs during the Oslo process there was relative peace in the middle east and it was largly a political not religious conflict. But when the palestinians woke from their peacful slumber they found the number of settlers had gone from 100,000 to over 200,000 and the land confiscated for Geroges "facts on the ground" also doubled. Is it any wonder that they continue to "gamble"?

John Win is 100% correct.

The most ridiculous aspect of the so-called American mediation of this conflict has been having Zionists do the negotiation on behalf of US government.

Would we appoint Azeri-Americans or Armenian-Americans to negotiate the Nagarno-Karabagh conflict on behalf of US? No. So why do we have Jews representing US in this conflict?

We've all missed the point completely. There will never be a solution to this problem until we first recognize what the problem is: Ignorance and religious fanatacism. Lies and historical revisionism. Let's first face the facts. The elected Hamas' position is stated clearly for all to read. The land occupied by the zionist entity was once Islamic and must, as a matter of mortal religious conviction, remain so for eternity. NO ROOM FOR COMPROMISE. Any cease fire, or hunda, is merely tactical. Regroup, refinance, rearm, and live to defeat the Jews, another day.
The only way out of this was is total defeat, unconditional surrender. "You win we lose, please don't kill us. We want now to live in peace". The end. A Marshall plan will follow. As will schools, jobs, life. The strongest, bravest, and wisest, greatest leaders of a people are required to admit defeat, face reality, wave the white flag and choose life. Look at Japan, Germany, Italy. They were defeated utterly and now thrive.
But can Islamic fundamentalism, Arabic machismo, ever admit defeat? surrender what was once Islamic soil? Wave the white flag?
It's doubtful. But let's at least recognize this as the underlying problem. Israel exists. They are strong. Palestinians are displaced. War is hell. Sh_t happens. What else is new?
get over it. Be brave and lay down your weapons. Let's get on with life.

What the self-rightous Ross bashers fail to see is that the "Palastinians" gambled and lost time and time again, clinging to the mantle of victim until such a time that they might prevail, after which they show no signs of being anything other than killers of the most brutal stripe. Just look at how they rule each other; assasinations, corruption, factional gang wars and criminal gangs robbing their own people under the guise of government. Imagine what they would do to their enemies if given the chance. Israel should be applauded for their restraint.

Dennis Ross is a big part of why we are where we are today. His disingenious "mediating" during the Clinton years led to this farce today. His bias is well documented and readily admitted by him. As the posts above reveal not every one in the US has blinders on. Its heartening to see that this blame the victims first is finally transparent.

Mr. Ross is outlining a plan that, once again, allows Israel to be excepted from all norms of law and government.

He actually posits here that Abbas should name a government that is complaisant to the demands of Israel but contains no members of one that was democratically elected?

We've seen this happen so many times before. As long as the US is not an honest broker, and as long as Israel and the US are unwilling to acknowledge the essential legitimacy of the Palestinian people's right to self-determination and BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS AND DIGNITY, there will be no progress.

A word to the majority Hamasites who "elected" the current leadership: Welcome to Democracy AND the attached responsibilities!
And, lest we tire from facing reality, Hamas -- including its political and military wings -- is dedicated to the extermination of Israel.
Mr. Ross' first suggestion to form an "emergency government" without Hamas/Fatah/Damascus is absurd. Whither "majority" rules?
Second, the international donors should be the adjacent Arab states who have maintained the Palestinian incendiary since before 1948.
Third, a "credible security force"? This is not an issue of internal self-security in Gaza since the Qassams will continue as will the headline-grabbing self-kills, i.e. the June 9 beach picnic murders.
Fourth, prisoner exchanges. The release of the incarcerated "women" and "children" is a ploy for Western sympathies. They are obviously in custody for reasons that correspondents like the Post's Scott Wilson merely wink at while lamenting it's just too darn hard to find out why they are behind bars. The difference between them and the IDF corporal is that the latter was kidnaped by terrorists who were invading a sovereign nation.
Fifth, "the UN Security Council would adopt a resolution as Israel withdrew from Gaza declaring that Israel was now out of Gaza and that any rocket fire from Gaza into Israel must cease once and for all." Or, what? The U.N. Security Council will hold its breath and stamp its feet? The U.N. is on record as anti-Israeli. That they will view future Qassams as "illegitimate" isn't likely to shake anyone in their boots.
Sixth, formally invite Bashar Assad to police the terrorists he harbors?
Mr. Ross needs a long vacation -- with appropriate medication!

response to Sidney:

It really is amusing to read comments such as from you about the legitimacy of an elected goverment. Who are we, the outsiders, to tell the populace of a country what is good for them and what is not. Is the yard-stick for a legitimate goverment is the acceptance by the US and Israel?

The unfortunate thing is that the US supports Israel blindly in the UN. If that was not the case, I am sure there would have been a resolution to this conflict long time ago. I blame US more than Israel for the current mess in the Middle-East. In the UN will of the majority means absolutely nothing since a single veto wielding memeber can scuttle any UNSC resolution. Paying lip-service to 2 nation theory is not going to be enough to secure peace in the Middle-East. The irony is that US spends billions of dollars to help the needy and poor countries all over the world, even in the muslim countries, but due to their relentless support for state-sponsored terrorism perpetrated by Israel, they are percieved to be the greatest enemey of the Muslim world. Israel must be checked or else the whole region will be engulfed in an inferno that will be much too difficult to douse.

The only solution to this dispute is:

for Hamas to stop firing rockets
for Hamas to release the abducted soldier
for Israel to pull out of Palestinian cities
for Israel to stop targeted killing
UN to send peace-keeping forces to prevent future territorial violations
International community to recognize Hamas goverment and start the flow of financial assistance and for Israel to start releasing the taxes collected on behalf of PLA.
for Israel to stop building new settlements and the security wall.
for Hamas to recognize Israel's existence and to renounce militancy
for US to engage seriously and objectively in the peace negotiations.

all the above will have to take place to give peace a chance in the region. The actions above will have to be taken within a relatively short span of time. You can't afford to have months between the two steps. Both Israel and Hamas have to show to each other that they are serious and they trust each other.

For Thirteen years, Israeli American negotiators have been trying to impose an unjust peace on the Palestinians. Thank God they've had enough fight to resist. The Bush-Cheney cabal is the number impediment to peace in the Middle East. And they wonder why the rest of the world hates us.

As usual, Mr. Ross makes demands... demands...and more demands from Palestinians.

Soooooo, what else is new?

IF a miracle happened and Israelis removed all roadblocks, allowed the establishment of a VIABLE Palestinian state by withdrawing to the 1967 borders and offered their cooperation to help rebuild the Palestinian economy, this conflict would be over.

If Israelis were wise, they would declare Jerusalem, where all great religions converge, an OPEN CITY and INVITE Christians, Jews and Muslims to participate in its governance.

The whole world would applaud such a move given its symbolic significance.

Result: It would signify the birth of a flourishing region.

Instead, the never-ending saga continues unabated while the Cheney-Bush-"neoconservative" administration caves to demands from Likudniks who were also instrumental in dragging our nation into an unprovoked war on Iraq that turned into disaster.

Sadly, policies implemented by right wingers, both in Israel and the U.S., have served to PROMOTE terrorism rather than combat it.

With friends like these...who needs enemies?

Eva-Marie

Just two quick notes.
1. The lands that Jordan (then Transjordan) and Egypt grabbed in 1948 are not Arab lands. "Occupied" land is successful propaganda by the Palestinians. One could call all the countries in the Middle East "occupied" Turkish land, for they were Turkish for centuries.
2. Being elected does not make a government acceptable. Hitler was elected. If you believe elections are meaningful, Palestinians voted for Hamas knowing well that they were voting for war on Israel. They are not innocent civilians.

It seems that Mr. Ross believes that the current crisis has been triggred by Hamas. While I am not a great fan of Hamas and I am not in favor of violence or terrorism, I find it very hypcritical of international community of having dumped Hamas as a terrorist organization. After all they were elected by the Palestinians. This crisis in my opnion has been a direct result of Hams being deprived of all financial assistance and continued to be branded as terrorist organizations. In my humble view, situation would have been very different, had the world recognized Hamas led goverment. Hamss would have come around to be political force rather than a militant force. What has happend as a result of Hamas bashing is that the moderate elements in Hamas have been sidelined. An international recognition could have helped the peace-loving elements advance their agenda. But after the recent crisis, most of the Palestinians are feeling disgusted with the international community and are getting more and more radicalized.

Mr. Ross's plan is to ask for concessions after concessions from the Palestinians, but very little if anything from the Israelis as if the conflict is due to Palestinians and israelis have no part to play.

He wants Abbas to assume authority as a dictator. May I ask him, what did Israel or the US do to support Abbas when he was in charge of affairs. Abbas begged, pleaded for some display of support from Israel in the form release of prisoners, in the form halting of settlements in the form of starting the peace talks. But none of that was forthcoming which resulted in Paletinians losing hope and trust in his leadeship.

It seems to me that both US and Israel are not too keen to resolve this issue. They seem to be working on a plan to make life so difficult for the Palestinians that they are forced to give up their land and move to other countries. Just a day or two before the crisis, Hamas and PLA had struck a deal on the governance in which Hamas had for the first time implictly recognized the Israel's right to exist a key deamnd by the international community. However, now all that good work has been forgotten and it is hard to see how Hamas can sell the idea to their constituents after ruthless and criminal acts of agression by Israel.

Mr. Ross personfies the US policy - support Israel at all costs, regardless of how blatant they are in their conduct with Palestinians. This policy will not lead to a resolution. US will ahve to act more objectivelyif they are interested in seeing a pause in the slaughter of innocent Palestinian civilians.

While I condemn the kidnapping of a Israeli soldier, and I strongly support unconditional release, I can't believe that world is silent on the deaths of dozens of Palestinians in retalition by Israel. The Israeli soldier is alive and well, however scores of Palestinians are have lost their lives - do we consider this just and fair response. Mr. Ross failed to mention even once the ordeal and predicament of Palestinians. This one-sided diplomacy is destined to fail and creater greater divide between the east and the west.

America will have to show courage and boldness to rid the world of this ever expanding menace. US is the only country that can change the course of events. Without their help, it is going to be a long a drawn conflict that will continue to produce willing "jihadis".

I profoundly hope that the US and Israel, in the interest of international peace, show a bit of more flexibility, accomodation and tolerance towrds Palestinians.

First, the Israeli government must cease from trageted killings, jailing of women and children, continous shelling of the Gaza and the treatment of the Palestenians and all lands occupied as fiefdoms.
The Palestenian people voted for Hamas because the regime in power did not represent their intrest.
If the government of Israel would leave the Palestenians to their own devices, they would have problems to resolve within their own borders and not have time to fight for their diginity.
If one would answer the question regarding the "ownership" of the land - West Bank and Gaza - this would be the beginning of peace in the region.

Of course, Dennis Ross puts the full responisbility on the Palestinians. Lets get this straight, the people who have been occupied for thirty-nine years and driven from their homes for almost sixty years, must work hard to appease their occupiers and satisfy the friends of their occupiers. According to a recent article in Haaretz, Israel planned the reinvasion of Gaza and the arrest of Palestinian government officials months ago. Isreali ministers have openly talked about destroying the freely elected government of the Palestinian people and replacing it with stooges who agree to peace on Isreali terms. All Isreal needed was a provocation to set the machine in motion. Fortunately, after firing hundreds of shells into Gaza, killing innocents, and kidnapping government officials and civilians, they earned their provocation. I guess the government of Israel is equally callous about the lives of both Isrealis and Palestinians. Just ask those soldiers and the young girl at the beach who all paid the ultimate price.

I had the "pleasure" of meeting Dennis Ross a few years ago and in fact had the opportunity to speak with him about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict over lunch in Virginia. He never fails to miss the larger picture. What he failed to mention is that Israel's illegal military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank never ended. Merely because illegal settlers (i.e. colonists) that were not supposed to be in Gaza in the first place were evacuated, does not mean Israel's Military siege of Gaza let up one bit. Gaza became one big prison, with Israel controling its land borders, air space (e.g. refusing to allow for the re-opening of the Gaza airport) and sea ports! In other words, Gaza was at the mercy of Israel and nothing could go in or out, which was economic strangulation. More so, the assasinations and missile strikes never let up and led to hundreds of deaths, many of them civilians. Since the beginning of this year about 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israel. Israel often proclaims the dead were "militants"- this is somehow supposed to justify extrajudicial killings. Mr. Ross failed to mention that for a year before the latest round of fighting, Hamas largely held a ceasefire with Israel- even as Israel continued to kill Palestinians and expand the West Bank barrier the International Court of Justice declared to be illegal and must be dismantled, not to mention the illegal settlements being built in the West Bank. Mr. Ross failed to mention that after Hamas was democratically elected, Israel withheld custom tax belonging to the Palestinians. This is NOT aid, this is money belonging to Palestinians! Mr. Ross failed to mention the source of all the conflict: Israel's Illegal Military Occupation. He mentioned that Hamas was not ready to stop the "resistance"- but Hamas has continued to call for negotiations with Israel over a long-term truce. More importantly, the need for resistance would naturally end with the end of the occupation! It benefits persons like Ross to speak of Gaza and the West Bank as though they were two separate entities, but they are not. They are both Palestinian territories that are still occupied by Israel. International law allows for an occupied person to resist, even armed resistance is legal under international law! Therefore, it makes no sense to speak of Palestinian attaks against legitimate Israeli military targets as somehow unjusitfied but Israel's disproportionate response and destruction of civilian infrastructure like Gaza's only power station that also provides the running water supply as being "self-defense". The pretense that Israel is in Gaza because the rocket attakcs is ludicrous. It is intersting that so much media coverage surounds one Israeli soldier that was abducted. This soldier was part of Israel's military siege of Gaza, as he was on the Gaza-Israel border. Israel had killed several Palestinian civilians the week leading up to the abduction including a 7-member Palestinian family! But no talk of that is anywhere to be found in the Post. Reading the Post makes one think that the current crisis began with the abduction of this one soldier. The crisis today began with Israel's illegal occupation and the abduction of over 9,000 Palestinians thrown in Israeli jails, many of them have been rotting in jail without even a single charge or trial. But the world does not know their names as it knows the name of an Israeli soldier. Last, Mr. Ross wants Abbas to form an emergency government. He wants to the reader to assume that the stalemate started when Hamas came to power. But even before Hamas when Abbas was elected over a year ago- Israel refused to negotiate with Abbas even when Hamas was out of the picture. This crisis has nothing to do with Abbas or Hamas. The real issue is getting Americans to wake up and realize that our tax paying dollars (over 3 billion dollars a year) are going to Israel, a nuclear state with one of the most advanced militaries in the world to support its occupation of Palestinian territory. Only when there is a real mediator willing to pressure Israel (not Dennis Ross whose bias in favor of Israel has led some commentators to remark that he is on the "payroll" of Israel) will there ever be peace in the Middle East.