Hamas announced that they would not abide by any 'referendum' of the Palestinian people.

By all means give them a state. The Kabuki theater has to end. Just don't expect Mashaal (or Abbas, for that matter) to be any different than Mugabe. The most difficult step will be breaking the State Department, which blindly follows Hosni Mubarak, the Saudis, and Assad - all of whom will be strongly opposed.

They've said they want a referendum but won't be bound to consider Israel a legitimate state, which it won't be by our standards in a few years.

They want a referendum on what? I missed that.

And how is Israel to suddenly become 'illegitimate'? If you mean restricting the vote, virtually every country in the Middle East is illegitimate right now. Same for much of Africa and Asia.

Bingo! Israel will have been Founded like a Western country but be sustained like a tribal dictatorship.

Good for Jimmy. Good for a ticket to another Nobel peace prize.

Now he should arbitrate the Democrat primary, declare himself the winner and run against McCain. The man is magical.

I was hoping you would tee off on that one.

Israel will have to come to terms with itself (regarding demographics). A smaller territory can remain 'viable' for longer, but may be politically impossible. And I am sure their fear is that someday soon the US will elect someone like Jimmy Carter, who would gladly shed crocodile tears if Israel just disappeared.

But Hamas is a non-entity with respect to governance. The entire Palestinian raison d'etre (since 1948) is to whine, murder, and then whine some more. Of course, they have been treated much worse by their Arab brethren than by the Israelis. But Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the rest don't whine. They just snarl. And shoot. And then slink off to their holes. Not a good model for reformation.

Did you see that Carter asked Mashaal for a one month truce, and was rebuffed? Hamas launched 7 rockets into Israel while Carter was in Damascus. Perhaps they consider that a mild hudna.

Everybody knows what peace will look like. The Palis don't want it, and the Israelis are probably beyond hoping for it (after all the bitterness from Oslo). Not a good mix. But I suspect the Palis (and the Hezbos) have used up their sympathy quotient. Absent an Obama in the White House, the Israelis might not be as half-hearted in the next big fight. They just might decide that killing 20,000 or so terrorists is a good thing. And everyone else should stay out of the way, after Hillary's obliteration declaration of yesterday.

The Israeli populace, according to polls, wants to engage in mass deportation of Arabs in order to preserve the nation. Thus would they become the evil out of which their state was born.

The Palestinians want their land back. With patience they'll get it.

Hamas should fire rockets until Israel opens the borders, recognizes the government and lifts sanctions. One act of war deserves another.

The "decent" Israeli Left was ground into submission a long time ago. The indecent Left is what it is. The Right is splintered, self-absorbed, and extremely near-sighted. The Center probably does not exist, except in journalistic fantasies (as in England).

Despite all that, they are a nation of laws, however dispirited. The Palestinians are a loose connection of gangs, terrorizing the mass of their people via indoctrination, lies, and violence (whatever works best). Their leaders (Mashaal, Haniyeh, Arafat, Abbas, Erekat, etc.) are thugs who have found the good life shaking down their people and living off the blood money they get from Europe and the Saudis. Plus, they get to kill now and again (some more than others).

There is no government in Palestine. Israel could simply declare one, I suppose, but then we would see the farce of Haniyeh telling the world "No, it's not me! I am not the President!" Mashaal would say the same. And so on. The best thing for the Palis would be to attack the United States - in 3 or 4 years, they might become the 51st state.

By the way, closing a border is not an act of war. Not when you send electricity, water, food, and medicine across it every day. If Israel simply fired a rocket in return, one for one, it would be better than what they have now.

Germany, South Africa and the South had laws--they were just racial laws.