The Fence, The Fence, the Fence is on fire
The great wall of china was built to keep on the mongol hordes...similarly, the great wall of israel will be to keep out the homicide/suicide killers in the west bank.

The economist piece is probably the worst thing i've read in the economist for about a year or so. every once in a while the anti-semite of the bunch lets loose....just like he has at the financial times, the guardian, the independent and the observer....

the economist of course, is the exceptional case though because of the calibur of reader and the potential impact of their views. the average subscriber makes US$140,000/yr. these are the powerful watching this little mag. i couldn't care less about what cherie blair reads, or the civil servants in the anglosphere read/listen to...i care that the economist, which is one of the world's premier magazines, makes statements like this:

Mr Bush seems firmly in the Israeli corner: Palestinian “terrorist organisations” must be “dismantled”, Mr Bush told reporters, with a satisfied-looking Mr Sharon at his side

why don't you perpetuate the myth of the clever jew, manipulating the powerful. serious sneer factor in this one..okay, there's more:

Palestinians see the fence as a mortal threat to the viability of the independent Palestine that the road map says will be created by 2005

no mention of the fact they couldn't care less..maybe abbas does, but....Fatah and friends are trying to perpetuate attacks right now against israel....no mention of this however...the press attributes recent attacks to "rogue elements". seeing how these groups operate, you can garauntee there isn't a lot of dissent in hamas, fatah, or islamic jihad.

Mr Bush gave his warm approval to some modest concessions that Mr Sharon had made ahead of his visit to Washington. Israel will release 500-odd Palestinian prisoners and has removed three important West Bank roadblocks that had added to the isolation and penury of Palestinians living nearby. Thousands of prisoners are still in jail, dozens of roadblocks remain and building work continues in dozens of Jewish settlements, with no sign of the freeze that the road map calls for.

this is good. sharon releases all the terrorists who never actually took part in a physical attack (arguably the most dangerous: the planners) but he gets flack for it. yeah, there's about 5000 palestinians in jail, but the all perpetrated attacks against israel directly....oh well! set em' free! hey what about all those jews captured by the arabs? wonder what happened to them? oh yeah, they were killed by mobs. nevermind.

Mr Abbas and his officials argued in Washington that their quiet diplomacy with the militant leaders had produced a month of relative calm, which was more than Israeli repression had ever achieved

to call the defence of your home against maniacal killers "repression" is garbage. also, the "repression" has worked..a month of relative calm is not bad...but its not for lack of trying, or necessarily because of abbas. israel has been thwarting attacks the whole time. its a farce, but no one will call it such.

basically, this sentence was a lie.

......nevermind, though. usually, the economist is what people used to think of the New York times: absolutely sober, centrist, principled and fair. this article does nothing for this reputation.