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be built on Temple Mount. This is currently occupied by the famous dome of the rock and claimed by Muslims as their third most holy site (dubiously equating it with the "farthest mosque" from which, according the Koran, Mohammad flew up to heaven on a winged horse). Many Jews prey at the western (wailing) wall, thought to be the nearest part of the mount's retaining wall to the site of their temple (demolished in 70AD). This is a huge bone of contention between Jews and Muslims and will almost certainly scuttle any plan that involves giving Temple Mount (including the Western Wall) to the Palestinians.

The history of the peace process is decidedly repetitive. Some Israeli leader makes an agreement with an Arab leader to give up some land. Somebody involved gets killed (usually by assassination). There is no peace! Last time around, Israel gave up the Gaza Strip, Arafat died of AIDS, Sharon ended up in a coma and now the Gaza strip is ruled by a terrorist organisation and keeps firing rockets into Israel. Therefore I really think that the present peace effort will not end well, last time instead of one leader being assassinated, God took out of both of them himself! What do you think will happen this time around? The two state solution has been tried repeatedly and failed repeatedly. It should be blatantly obvious that there can not be peace as long Muslims can fire missiles at Jews or otherwise attack them!

In the wider picture, the US invaded Afghanistan is retaliation for 9/11 and then Iraq on questionable grounds (although Sadam was a dreadful leader who's support for Palestinian terrorists probably justified what became of him). They're now bogged down in both countries. If they give up in either of both places, it will send a message to the Islamic world that the West can be beaten if they persist and it will be very difficult for western countries to stand up to Islamic countries until one of the former thornily trashes one of the latter. They probably can't win in Afghanistan without taking out the Al-qaida and Taliban bases in Pakistan and that will probably only be possible if they go to war with Pakistan. Today Afghanistan produced 93% of the world's supply of opium. Is this really a situation that the world should tolerate? The main problem in Iraq seems to be that its three main Muslim groups hate each other. To complicate matters, Turkey, which is a Muslim country friendly toward the US, is increasingly fighting the Kurds who are also friendly towards

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