[Agamemnon]

Buring Arafat on the Temple Mount - This, in my mind, is like burying Charles Manson in Arlington cemetary. There are Muslims buried there, Faisel Husseini was a prominent Palestinian leader in Jerusalem and is buried there. Arafat's grave will become a shrine and a pilgramage point and Israel cannot have it at the foot of their holiest site.

So, Israel wants peace, but burying Arafat in Jerusalem would be too much for them to bear. They're religion would not allow this act of decency? If it won't, then there's a problem. I'm pretty sure flexibility on religious lines would go a long way to beginning peace. If you believe in peace.

Israel as a racist state - Far from the truth. Israeli Muslims, Bahai-ists (sp?), Christians, Bhuddists all enjoy the same freedoms as Jews. They can all vote, be elected to office, are free to move unencumbered with in the state and to other countries, have the same rights under the law, can sit on the same beaches, ride the same buses (any seat), have freedom of religion, freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

I'm pretty sure in the 1940's, 50's, 60's blacks had the same types of rights as whites did in the United States. By your definition, that makes the US in those decades, like Israel, a perfectly liberal-democratic state. Of course, that would ignore the still existing and institutionalized racism that was still being carried out in many states and municipalities.

I'd wager that having rules on the books is one thing, acting upon them is entirely another.

Israel does not want peace - again a falsehood. Israel is willing to go to the edge of the cliff for peace, just not over it. Also note, there is no Palestinian equivilant to Peace Now and Jews are not lynched in the streets for suggesting peace.

There are a lot of Israeli settlers who would probably love to lynch Sharon for daring to make them leave the land that they claim God gave them. If you don't think there are Israelis who are dead-set against peace (like 100,000's of them) then you're misinformed. I'm surprised we put so much legitimacy in their belief that God gave them Israel.

Do any of you believe that Jews have an ancient, divine right to this territory? Do you truly believe that this is what God wants, for his chosen people to violently reclaim what they believe is their 2000 (5000?) year old birth right?

I think believing that stuff is the same as believing the crap the religious-right churns out in America. Basing vital political decisions/settlements on the word of God (paraphrased by someone else, millenia ago) is foolish and dangerous.