Reply #3: Interesting, but I'm not buying it either.

[bemildred]

A couple comments seem in order.
If one does buy this, then:

1.) One sees Israel in a defensive position, no longer looking
for more, but rather, trying to hang on to as much as possible.

2.) Any demographic solution by in-migration has been abandoned.
(No, encouragment of in-migration will continue, as will having
children, but this is an admission that the "demographic problem"
cannot be solved that way, Israel will lose a reproductive war
with the Arabs.)

3.) This is also an admission that the military road goes nowhere,
it has purely tactical utility. This was obvious to the knowledgeable
long ago, but the acolytes of the shrine of violence do not abandon
their faith easily, witness the debacle in Iraq.

---

I still do not see why Egypt should be interested in getting
sucked into this. They already live next to "Hamasland", and it's
Israel's problem. Under this "plan" it will become Egypt's problem.
Hosni has shown no signs in the past of being anything but a hard-
nose, I expect some sort of payment will be required, if this plan
is accepted at all.

Sharon is still an idiot. Now he's a desperate idiot. That is not
a good thing for anybody when an idiot like Sharon is desperate.