I don't know if it is safe to bring up this subject or not but I'm going to try anyway...
In the news, the various Arab states are pushing the United States to push Israel to set a deadline for the creation of a Palestinian state. Israel is a bit reluctant to do that, to say the least. At least, until the Palestinian authority can show they can stop the suicide bombing and other attacks on Israeli civilians. To me this is fairly reasonable. But here's my suggestion, the rest of you can tell me where I'm wrong and/or crazy: Set a date for the creation of a Palestinian state: say, 2 years from tomorrow. For every suicide bombing or attack upon Israeli civilians, the date is pushed back by 6 months. For every civilian killed, the date is pushed back 1 year. Obviously, this gives organizations like Hamas an incentive to step up their attacks. But they have plenty of incentive anyway. But if there are people within the Palestinian leadership who *really* want peace with Israel and *really* want a Palestinian state that doesn't include all of Israel, it would give them great incentive to put an immediate stop to the attacks. So, what do you think? - jmh
