Stan Shannon wrote: If that is all the Palestinians desired they could have had it easily decades ago by simply following the clear examples of peaceful non-cooperation set by Ghandhi, King and others What a dumb argument! How can a generation of people follow a nonviolent movement, when their each and every rights are taken away. Do you want them to sit back and die silently while watching their houses are demolished, their access to move around within their own cities are denied, their family members are constatntly being killed by F16 and apache helicopter?

Stan Shannon wrote: but to blame the Israel's in any way for what is going on over there is ludicrous. It's the occupation, stupid M. Bishara [The writer is a researcher at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and a professor at the American University of Paris. He is also the author of Palestine Israel: Peace or Apartheid.] The situation continues to deteriorate in Israel/Palestine. What to do? Blame the Palestinians? Implore the parties to stop the violence -- at least for a week, as Ariel Sharon demands, or perhaps region by region, as Shimon Peres proposes? Build a wall between the two peoples? Or how about getting rid of Arafat, as the Israelis army insists? Better get rid of Sharon... Or, while you're at it, why not get rid of both? Alas, the list goes on, ignoring the factor that has prolonged the conflict and blocked the peace: the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. If the subject of occupation and illegal settlement in the occupied territories is not dealt with directly and quickly, it will continue to fester and move the region toward conflict. The Lebanese and Bosnian scenarios are being discussed seriously in the region. The Intifada is already turning into a classical colonial war. The latest debacle surrounding the Karine A only goes to confirm this. As long as the Israeli army continues to bombard Palestinian cities with its F-16s and Apache helicopters, Israel can expect no less than resistance from a people under occupation. Many initiatives are on the table, but most look for ways to calm the "security situation" under occupation -- surely a contradiction in terms. US special envoy Anthony Zinni is pointing to the so-called Dahania understanding between Shimon Peres and Yasser Arafat as the basis for breaking the security impasse. And then there are the Tenet points, referring to the CIA director's plan to implement the Mitchell Report, commissioned internationally and made in America, which highlighted the need for a freeze on Israeli settlements -- all settlements. But to arrive at durable peace rather than a useless cease- fire under occupation will require going beyond a "freeze" to the outright dismantling of most if not all the settlements that constitute extra-territorial entities on Palestinian land. Today all the flashpoints involve scarcely inhabited settlements in the heart of Palestinian communities. Taking them out is long overdue. The Israeli government has done exactly the opposite,