Pa Samba Jow wrote: "The American double standard only fuels the crisis. It is very sad that many Americans are led to believe that Israel is fighting against terorism by the pundits on the major networks. But hey what do you expect from an admistration whose vice president is Dick Chenney, a man who supported Apartheid South Africa. Mr arafat should not be worried at being labelled terorist. Nelson mandela was once called a terorist." Thank you Pa Samba for highlighting the double standards of the US. I am of the firm conviction that anytime the US truly wants to justly end the Israeli-Arab conflict, a just peace would be attained in that region. We are all aware that the US has its limitations just like any other influential sovereign State in this world but the influence of the US over the existence of Israel's is absolute. Israel owes its existence to the US in reciprocation of Albert Einstein's (who was Jewish) development of the Atomic bomb through which the US was able to defeat Japan in the Second World War. When Iraq fails to comply with any UN security council resolution, the result will be a US-led attack on Iraq. But when Israel fails to comply with any security council resolution nothing comes of it. Why? because Uncle Sam is supposedly in charge. Just last week, the UN passed a resolution that called for total Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian Authority territories which the US even voted for. After the resolution was adopted, in the words of a senior Israeli diplomats quoted over the BBC, the US administration assured the Israeli government that it could still carry on its anti-terrorist war in the Palestinian territories. Diplomacy as it is practiced by the permanent UN security council member States cannot solve the conflict in the Mid-East in a thousand years because it is based on sheer hypocrisy. Only straight public talking will be bring about a just peace. Sharon is convinced that his military might will be able to defeat the Palestinians but the sight of Palestinians as young as the age of 7 confronting Israeli tanks with nothing but stones yesterday in Bethlehem should make him understand that the spirit of a people determined to die in the struggle for their freedom cannot be broken. As Hitler was unable to exterminate the Jews from the earth so would he fail to crush the Palestinians in their quest for liberation. The yoke of oppression must be shattered! BMK _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~