Hi john,

This more than a theory. I think we all realise this is the way it works, has been working for thousands of years and will be working in the future.

In effect this is no different from what we have been doing for thousand of years. For example the nightmare in afriva between the hutsies and tutsies (Not sure if spelled right) has its roots in the past (the colonial age) where western countries practised the "Divide and conquer" strategy. It is an effective tactic to personal gains.

These tactics are played all over the globe, not exclusively in the middle east, but also in other regions like the pakistani/Indian conflict, some african countries and to some extent some middle/south american countries.

The only key to get out of these tactics is education and a better economy. People will get to learn to think of their own and not blindly follow some religous nutcase hungry for power. But of course the people now in charge in those countries, just want to keep their citizens dumb so that they will blindly follow the leaders. The occasional one that disagrees will be eliminated in 'accidents' or will be suppressed otherwise.

But things will change in the future as developping countries cannot work that way. You'll see this happening in china and india where the economies are growing and need educated forces badly. It still will takes many decades to reach the point of western countries, but eventually it will happen.

My point to a way out is the following:

- First stop the military action.
- Occupy GAZA again.
- Negotiate with the palestinians that they will get GAZA back again when the terroristic actions have stopped for a certain amount of time. Once it begins again, Occupy GAZA again and double the time, etc.

- Meanwhile, offer the palestinians a way to earn a living. Give them free education (that now is been given by hezhbollah (spell?), funded by UN, US, Isreal or whatsoever with the guarantee that it is not used for terroristic fundings.
- Stimulate economy in libanon, by setting up projects. Let them earn money by working ISO of attacking israel.

Walter,



>I have a theory.
>
>Years ago, I had the (mis)fortune of spending some time in Cuba. I noticed that every economic and financial woe was presented as the fault of the US embargo of the island - which, by the way, is a joke. You can by American goods there cheaper than you can here. They get it all from elsewhere.
>
>The parallel is that the entire Middle East seems to be focused on the "evil" of Israel. Everything, somehow, is the fault of Israel and Zionism.
>
>Millions, possibly billions, of dollars flow freely into the coffers of Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the like to combat Israel.
>
>My theory is that Israel actually works as a steam valve for Arabic countries to refocus the jihadists away from their governments; in fact, I bet it would be the Saudi's and Jordanians worst nightmare if Israel actually went down.
>
>If that happened, the nutcases would then target regional secular governments.
>
>Make sense?