"Welcome to the Hotel Palestornia"

Gaza Strip Blast Kills 3 Americans

US Diplomats were in the PA-controlled territories to interview Palestinian Rhodes Scholar candidates

Diplomats Killed in Gaza

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
'Relax, ' said the night man,
We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave!

I know this is a big leap from the normal tenor of this blog, but one must step outside of their own petty obsessions once in a while and pay attention to what counts, and it ain't the Chicago Cubs, believe me.

I'm beginning to think that the PA-controlled territories (I refuse to consider the idea of "Palestine" any more), are the nation-state equivalent of The Eagles' "Hotel California".

Let me sound out some of the similarities ...

If you happen to hint that you support a peace agreement with Israel, you will meet with an 'accident'. If you happen to survive said attack, your Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades countrymen will burst into your hospital room and assisinate you in your bed.

If you refuse to participate in terror attacks or their resulting celebrations, as on September 11th, you will be labelled a traitor to your homeland and you and your family will live (if one can call it that) under constant threat.

If you aspire to matriculate (legitimately or otherwise) as a Fulbright Scholar, you will find it impossible to do so as those who award these scholarships will be blown to bits whilst trying to facilitate your interview.

As much as I disagree with the tenor of how and to whom international Scholarships are awarded (the Rhodes committee did, after all, choose Chesa Boudin -- son of until-recently imprisoned Weather Underground terrorist and cop-killer Kathy Boudin -- as a 2003 recipient - Emily Yoffee's "Radical Chic"), I am certain that these three diplomats were one of the few chances these young Palestinians had to get out of that self-begotten hellhole, and what their potential saviors received for their efforts was a pre-emptive liaison with eternity.

I understand that there may be fear on the part of some Palestinians to work towards an overthrow of the Arafat Regime (and yes, Howard Dean, you read that correctly); however, there is no excuse for tacit participation in the negation of any proposal for peace. This is what you engender when you keep silent and allow the intifada, a sure component of global jihad, to continue. This is what Arafat and the Palestinian Authority has saddled you with, and this time your complicit silence may have spurned any chance your children and grandchildren have to escape the fate you have created for them.