Chinese Dragon_defunct

Grats on becoming a senior.

Congrats! Senior member.

Keep em coming.

"In my opinion, it is in Israel's interests, to improve the situation of the Palestinian people."

There is a long history of the Jews doing just that, both before and after Israel was a state. It's mostly ignored by Israel's critics, however.

"And it would make the Palestinian people less likely to harbour feelings of hatred against Israel. "

I am not an Israeli, but as near as I can make out the hatred isn't necessarily personal, but both tribal and religious. Tribal: An Israeli Jew can be friends with a Palestinian Arab, but when the Arab's chief tells him to slay his Jewish friend he will do so. (They treat other Arabs in much the same way.) Arabs will kill the Israeli doctors who save their children's lives for the same reason. On the other hand, if an Arab doctor messes up treating an Arab's wife, the aggrieved husband may seek to kill the doctor, purely on his own initiative. Religious: Since Muslims once ruled it, some Muslims claim all of Palestine as land to be subject to their rule where non-Muslims should be merely tolerated. (These Muslims seek to re-conquer Spain for the same reason.)

Happy too see a good fellow from across the border who talks nice and with sense.. good to have you here.

"Your job here is to be the "ambassador of Israel", am I right? "

I'm an American and a Zionist. I'm no more an "ambassador of Israel" than the French-loving Chou En-lai was an ambassador of France.

I didn't mean I wasn't interested in your opinion, just that I wasn't interested in telling you mine! The Pakistanis were asked to speak up, and I want to give them every opportunity to do so.