The Palestinians want their own country. There's just one thing about that: There are no Palestinians. It's a made up word. Israel was called Palestine for two thousand years. Like "Wiccan," "Palestinian" sounds ancient but is really a modern invention. Before the Israelis won the land in war, Gaza was owned by Egypt, and there were no "Palestinians" then, and the West Bank was owned by Jordan, and there were no "Palestinians" then. As soon as the Jews took over and started growing oranges as big as basketballs, what do you know, say hello to the "Palestinians," weeping for their deep bond with their lost "land" and "nation." So for the sake of honesty, let's not use the word "Palestinian" any more to describe these delightful folks, who dance for joy at our deaths until someone points out they're being taped. Instead, let's call them what they are: "Other Arabs From The Same General Area Who Are In Deep Denial About Never Being Able To Accomplish Anything In Life And Would Rather Wrap Themselves In The Seductive Melodrama Of Eternal Struggle And Death." I know that's a bit unwieldy to expect to see on CNN. How about this, then: "Adjacent Jew-Haters."

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Israeli Troops Prepare to Strike Gaza in Retaliation for Bombing. Israeli tanks moved toward the Gaza Strip today, reservists were called up and military officials threatened airstrikes. By Alan Cowell. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]

In any war after a truce is broken the situation gets more worse than before the truce. Granted: this is no ordinary war, but I think we are going to see a lot of violance now. When will it end?

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The Modern Use of Ancient Lies. The anti-Semitic imagery sweeping much of the Arab world has an uncomfortably recent history in both Europe and the United States. By David I. Kertzer.

This conspiratorial view of Jews popularly held in Arab countries is, alas, relatively modern. In fact, in the medieval period Islamic societies were more hospitable to Jews and viewed them more positively than did Christian Europe. Now, at a time of great conflict in the Middle East, the dark store of anti-Semitism nurtured and promoted in the West has proved irresistible to extremists in the Arab world.

Given the historical role of Christianity in promulgating such hatred, it is not unreasonable to hope that church leaders will face their own past with clear eyes. They should be among the first to call attention to these lies, and they should be among the loudest in their condemnation of them.

[New York Times: Opinion]

This article is required reading for anyone with anti-Israel sentiments. Arafat is calling his forces to stop terrorism against Israeli civilians. Do you believe him?

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From Symantec, Security Tools For Online Users of Mac OS X. Apple's OS X operating system, with its attractive interface, has gained plenty of fans. But virus protection has lagged. By Joe Hutsko. [New York Times: Technology]

This I do not get. Is there a single Mac OS X virus? And don't include Office macro viri in your answers, those are easy to deal with without additional software, just turn off macro running and don't run macros unless you can talk with the document author. So, why waste your money?

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O'Reilly on OS X, Jobs [MacCentral]

O'Reilly says watch the Alpha Geek to see which technology is interesting. Right now that's Mac OS X.

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