Oliver Stoned

I have not seen the last Oliver Stone movie, I simply refuse to donate any of my pesos to perpetuating the September 11 lie.

Plus, the last Oliver Stone flick was a complete disappointment, and it has nothing to do with Alexander the Great being portrayed in all his homosexuality, no, the movie is bad, period.

But then today thanks to a right-wing blog I learned that Oliver Stone went to a Basque city to take part in a film festival and he took his turn at the microphone as an opportunity to... insult the Basques.

Here you have the note about how in a rather clumsy way he mixes some Bush bashing with the disrespectful generalization that the Basques are terrorists, all the Basques. Check it out:

Oliver Stone takes a blast at Bush

By CIARAN GILES, Associated Press WriterThu Sep 28, 8:33 PM ET

Filmmaker Oliver Stone blasted President Bush Thursday, saying he has "set America back 10 years." Stone added that he is "ashamed for my country" over the war in Iraq and the U.S. policies in response to the attacks of Sept. 11.

"We have destroyed the world in the name of security," Stone told journalists at the San Sebastian International Film Festival prior to a screening of his latest movie, "World Trade Center." The film tells the true story of the survival and rescue of two policemen who were trapped in the rubble of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, after they went to help people escape.

"From Sept. 12 on, the incident (the attacks) was politicized and it has polarized the entire world," said Stone. "It is a shame because it is a waste of energy to see that the entire world five years later is still convulsed in the grip of 9/11.

"It's a waste of energy away from things that do matter which is poverty, death, disease, the planet itself and fixing things in our own homes rather than fighting wars with others. Mr. Bush has set America back 10 years, maybe more."

The director of blockbusters such as "Platoon," and "JFK" said the U.S. reaction to the attacks was out of proportion.

"If there had been a better sense of preparation, if we had a leadership that was more mature," he said. "We did not fight back in the same way that the British fought the IRA or the Spanish government fought the Basques here. Terrorism is a manageable action. It can be lived with," said Stone.

So now Oliver congratulates the Spanish government for hanging on to its colonial past. Oliver tells the world that unlike the US, Madrid's approach to the issue of the Basque drive for self determination is more mature, I guess he refers to how well placed the repressive machinery is in Euskal Herria.

The arbitrary detentions, the torture, the preventive prison, the dispersion, the life term sentences, the fascist laws that make political parties illegal, the closing down of newspapers and elementary schools, the makeshift extraditions, it all has to do with a better sense of preparation.

And he said it in the home town of Iñaki de Juana, the home town of two of Mexico's six.

Well Mr. Stone, thanks for reminding us that the Basques are between the rock and the hard place. On one side the right-wingers hate us because we opposed Franco and Aznar, and on the other side, the left hates us because damn it, the main stram media says so.

Oh, by the way, congratulations to the organizers of the event for inviting this moron.

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The Basque Gentle Boxer

This story comes to you from England (from all places) thanks to Preston Today.

Enjoy it:

Liz knocked out by her father's past

A Lancashire woman has uncovered some astonishing secrets about her late father.

When champion boxer Fernando Tena Vildarraz met his wife Kath in a ballroom in the 1960s, he told her he was an Italian trapeze artist in a visiting circus.

His wife-to-be would later find out the truth about Fernando, who had just arrived from the Basque region of Spain to start a new life.

But over the four decades he lived in Preston, he told no-one just how much he achieved as an amateur boxer in his home country.

His only daughter Liz, of Allerton Road, Walton-le-Dale, knew of her dad's fighting past, but he always just told her "it was a long time ago".

It was only after Fernando's death at the age of 69 in October 2004 that Liz began researching her family history and uncovered a knockout secret.

Fernando, a 6ft-plus bear of a man but a 'gentle giant' to family and friends, was a boxer in the 1950s – an unbeaten amateur fighter who beat one of Spain's greatest pugilists.

After he died, Liz and her mother began clearing out his wardrobe and found piles of photos, cuttings and promotional posters for his fights.

Fernando's illustrious amateur career saw him fight across the five Basque regions of France and Spain and included a victory in 1955 over "unbeatable" Luis Folledo, who went on to hold the Spanish welterweight and middleweight belts for a decade.

Fernando also turned professional for one fight.

Liz said: "He was always a very shy, private man and he never bragged about anything.

"When I found out I was so proud of him. He was massive, but he was the most gentle man you would ever meet."

The discovery of her father's secret opened up a whole new chapter in Liz's life.

Fernando had married and had another family in Spain before coming to England and following his death, Liz's research led to the discovery she had two long-lost half-brothers.

More than a year after their father's death, the three had an emotional meeting in Barrow.

And just weeks ago, after months of exchanging letters and e-mails, she visited her father's family in Spain for the first time.

She said: "The last 18 months have just been amazing."

28 September 2006

Correction to the last paragraph, she visited the Basque Country, I mean, after all the mentions to his Basque background it is just logical to leave that other country out of the picture.

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End To Violence, Period

This is funny, the Spanish repressive machinery has been grinding down on the Basque society for the last six months.

Suddenly, three men appear from the woods and the entire world goes ga-ga over it.

Then, Rodríguez Zapatero says that something he calls the peace process will continue no matter what. How can you talk about peace process when you have unleashed a new dark period of state sponsored violence?

Here you have the note that comes to you courtesy of Yahoo News:

Spanish PM still expects an end to ETA violence

Wed Sep 27, 3:16 PM ET

Spain's prime minister said that he still expected armed Basque separatist movement ETA to renounce violence, despite the group's recent declaration that it had no plans to give up its weapons.

"The government maintains its principles and its convictions concerning the peace process," Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zaptero told the Spanish Parliament.

Zapatero was replying to a question on ETAs recent declaration that it would keep its arms "until the independence" of the Basque country.

"The government still expects to see an end to the violence, an expectation based on objective reasons: over three years without ETA being responsible for a death and a permanent ETA ceasefire ordered six months ago," the Prime Minister continued.

The government would base its action on "firmness, principles, convictions and on an engagement taken to achieve peace and an end to the violence", he continued.

"The government will stick to its plans," he added.

Asked about a recent rise in "kale borrokka," or street violence," in several Basque towns, which many analysts have said bear the hallmarks of ETA supporters, Zapatero remained upbeat.

"The perspectives for an end to the violence remain the same, with the same parameters as when ETA declared its permanent ceasefire," the prime minister said.

The leader of Spain's main conservative opposition Popular Party (PP) used Wednesday's parliamentary session to launch a new broadside at Zapatero's efforts to settle the Basque question.

"It's good to speak about being firm," PP leader Mariano Rajoy said, but "we must now take action (and) do everything necessary to stop the kale borroka."

In a statement read out on Saturday by three hooded men filmed in a forest in the Basque province of Guipuzoca, ETA said it "confirms its commitment to continue to fight, weapons in hand, until independence and socialism for the Basque country is won".

Oh, and by the way, since 1600 Basques were murdered by the Spanish government in less than four hours, I went ahead and removed one paragraph at the end of the article I'm linking to.

And really, there is no need to comment of Mariano Rajoy the Francoist Fool's statement.

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The Basque Brits

Infamous Basque-phobe Colin Davis is simply going to love this one.

I found out about it thanks to a blog called The Duck of Minerva on a post titled "Who Are the British?" which directed me to the original source, what I believe is a magazine published in England called Prospect and its special report "Myths of British Ancestry" by Stephen Oppenheimer.

Here you have the parts that are pertinent to this blog:

The genetic evidence shows that three quarters of our ancestors came to this corner of Europe as hunter-gatherers, between 15,000 and 7,500 years ago, after the melting of the ice caps but before the land broke away from the mainland and divided into islands. Our subsequent separation from Europe has preserved a genetic time capsule of southwestern Europe during the ice age, which we share most closely with the former ice-age refuge in the Basque country. The first settlers were unlikely to have spoken a Celtic language but possibly a tongue related to the unique Basque language.

Another wave of immigration arrived during the Neolithic period, when farming developed about 6,500 years ago. But the English still derive most of their current gene pool from the same early Basque source as the Irish, Welsh and Scots. These figures are at odds with the modern perceptions of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon ethnicity based on more recent invasions. There were many later invasions, as well as less violent immigrations, and each left a genetic signal, but no individual event contributed much more than 5 per cent to our modern genetic mix.

And:

De Jubainville's Celtic myth has been deconstructed in two recent sceptical publications: The Atlantic Celts: Ancient People or Modern Invention by Simon James (1999), and The Celts: Origins, Myths and Inventions by John Collis (2003). Nevertheless, the story lingers on in standard texts and notably in The Celts, a Channel 4 documentary broadcast in February. "Celt" is now a term that sceptics consider so corrupted in the archaeological and popular literature that it is worthless.

This is too drastic a view. It is only the central European homeland theory that is false. The connection between modern Celtic languages and those spoken in southwest Europe during Roman times is clear and valid. Caesar wrote that the Gauls living south of the Seine called themselves Celts. That region, in particular Normandy, has the highest density of ancient Celtic place-names and Celtic inscriptions in Europe. They are common in the rest of southern France (excluding the formerly Basque region of Gascony), Spain, Portugal and the British Isles. Conversely, Celtic place-names are hard to find east of the Rhine in central Europe.

Also:

A picture thus emerges of the dark-ages invasions of England and northeastern Britain as less like replacements than minority elite additions, akin to earlier and larger Neolithic intrusions from the same places. There were battles for dominance between chieftains, all of Germanic origin, each invader sharing much culturally with their newly conquered indigenous subjects.

So, based on the overall genetic perspective of the British, it seems that Celts, Belgians, Angles, Jutes, Saxons, Vikings and Normans were all immigrant minorities compared with the Basque pioneers, who first ventured into the empty, chilly lands so recently vacated by the great ice sheets.

There you have it, the English are direct descendants of Euskal Herria, maybe now they understand how deep their betrayal of the Basques at the end of WWII runs.

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Useless Blaming Game

First, I would like for you to read this note by EITb:

Justice minister holds Basque Govt responsible for ETA appearance

Saturday Events

09/27/2006

The Justice minister, Juan Fernando López Aguilar, wondered why "it's possible" that a "grotesque, anachronistic and unacceptable act" was held last Saturday as three armed, hooded men spoke on the "Basque Fighter Day," and noted the Basque Government should give the explanations on that event.

"This show is within the field of the Interior Department, so Basque Government's competence. That is why it should give explanations on the events," López Aguilar said in statements for the Spanish radio station Onda Cero.

Asked about street violence events within the last few weeks, the minister admitted that those responsible for the incidents are hindering the path to peace, but he highlighted that the Government is working "hard" to reach the coveted aim.

Balza asks Aguilar to rectify

The Interior councillor of the Basque Government, Javier Balza, answered firmly to Juan Fernando López Aguilar's statements in an interview in Radio Euskadi.

According to Balza, it's "ridiculous" that the Interior Ministry requests explanations from the Basque Government when in his opinion, controlling such acts as ETA's last appearance "is everyone's responsibility."

"It was an act of pure terrorism and it's everyone's responsibility. The central Government must not slip away," he said. That is why he asked Aguilar to correct his statements and assume responsibilities.

According to the councillor, the Basque Government has been working with "absolute loyalty" to the Spanish Government in the fight against terrorism for months.

When you read notes like this one you realize why it is that it has taken so long for peace to arrive to the Basque Country.

First you have the ludicrous statement by López Aguilar regarding how hard the Madrid stablishment has worked to "reach the coveted aim".

Yes but...what exactly is the coveted aim.

What we saw from the Spanish government so far is an escalation of the repressive measures against the Basque society. More arbitrary detentions, more outlandish accusations from the likes of Garzón and Grande-Marlaska, no end to the dispersion policy and now, life terms to Basque political prisoners.

So, one could say that the "coveted aim" is to torpedo the peace process, in the end, Spain seems more at ease when destroying or suffocating a different culture.

But no, what López Aguilar means is that allegedly, the PSOE has been working towards a peaceful resolution of the Basque Country. Oh well.

But if that was not bad enough, then you have the declarations by Balza, the Basque governement official in charge of torturing Basque citizens. First he uses the "T" word as if he was taking his cues from Aznar himself. Then he claims that the Basque government has been working with "absolute loyalty" to the Spanish government.

Whoa, an official from the government that some identify as the only internationally recognized Basque political institution says that it works with "absolute loyalty" towards the occupying government. This is just sad.

One would think that the Basque government would only work with "absolute loyalty" towards the Basque people.

No wonder why torture is rampant at the Ertzaintza quarters, or why is it that the men in red-and-black are always looking for ways to use excesive force against those who participate in the different self-determination demos around the Basque Autonomous Community.

Balza, you are a shame.

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Taking Their Time

They can care less about a peace process, they feel more comfortable when violence rules the front pages of the news papers.

They have done nothing to improve the situation in order to create a better atmosphere to surround the alleged peace negotiations. In fact, if anything, the situation is worst now than before ETA's call for a ceasefire. The dispersion continues, the arbitrary detentions continue, the allegations of torture are still being dismissed, but a new element of repression has been added, the Basque political prisoners are now in clear and present danger of facing virtual life sentences.

And this is all what Rodriguez Zapatero's socialists have to say:

Socialists Will Propose Debate on Basque Peace Process in October

At the European Parliament

09/26/2006

Socialist party in the European parliament will propose a debate on the Basque peace process in the October 23rd parliamentary session, spokesman for the socialist party Enrique Barón crespo reported.

The debate aims to get an announcement of the European Parliament similar to the one by the Spanish Parliament May 2005, according to Barón.

European Socialists leader Martin Schulz will propose the debate in this Thursday's meeting of the leaders of the political parties to decide the schedule of the parliamentary session.

In a parallel initiative, the Spanish socialists members of the European Parliament will send a letter to the rest of parliament members enclosing the Spanish Parliament's offer of talks to ETA May 2005 in order to "avoid confusion," socialist Euro MP Elena Valenciano explained.

Spanish Parliament endorsed 17th May 2005 a plan for talks with the armed Basque group ETA if ETA gave up violence. The plan was approved by all the parties but opposition conservative PP.

This initiative has the support of all the Spanish members of the European Parliament but for the members of the PP.

And then, one has to wonder why is the PP so adamant about their rejection when the PSOE is taking the repression against the Basque society to a whole new level.

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What Concerns?

Ok, before we go into it, read the note that appeared at Yahoo News:

ETA refuses to surrender arms before Basque independence

Sun Sep 24, 11:32 AM ET

Spain's Basque separatist group ETA has said it will not give up its weapons until independence for the Basque region is won, fuelling concerns over the future of a six-month-old ceasefire.

Three masked ETA members read out a statement on Saturday night that said the group "confirms its commitment to continue to fight, weapons in hand, until independence and socialism for the Basque country is won," witnesses told AFP.

"Our blood is ready for that. We shall succeed," the three told a crowd of around 1,000 people gathered in a forest in the Basque region in northern Spain to pay homage to slain members of the group.

They interrupted the celebrations to fire seven shots into the air.

Without referring to the statement directly, Spain's left-wing Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on Sunday that his government would "continue to work solidly towards an end to violence" in the Basque region.

But an organisation representing the victims of ETA attacks, the Association of Victims of Terrorism (AVT), said the Basque separatists' statement showed the group could not be trusted.

ETA intended to continue "submitting Spaniards to a process of blackmail, because it has not given up its arms or its objectives," AVT President Francisco Jose Alvarez told the Europa Press news agency.

He added that the current peace process would soon "break down as others have done and will not be as speedy and imminent" as Zapatero promises.

The AVT, which is politically close to Spain's right-wing opposition Popular Party, is organising a major demonstration on October 1 in the southern city of Seville to protest against the idea of direct talks between the government and ETA.

ETA declared a permanent ceasefire in March -- exactly six months ago -- after an armed separatist campaign that lasted 38 years and left almost 850 people dead.

But the Spanish government is only cautiously moving towards all-party talks on the future of the northern region straddling the Pyrenees, amid fierce opposition from the conservative Popular Party.

The lack of progress has sparked frustration among Basques, prompting demonstrations and violence and raising fears that the ceasefire could be abandoned.

Since late August there has been a renewal of urban violence in the Spanish Basque country, with young, radical ETA sympathisers blamed for burning buses and throwing Molotov cocktails.

The head of the Basque regional government, Juan Jose Ibarretxe, said on Friday that he was "worried" about the "evident obstacles to progress and consolidation of the (peace) process."

ETA's political wing Batasuna believes that the peace process is currently in a "particularly serious situation".

The conservative daily ABC, meanwhile, cited "absolutely reliable sources" as saying on Friday that ETA's ceasefire could be jeopardised if there was no significant progress by mid-October.

Anyone who gets a reading that ceasefire is running out of time when learning about the statment sorely needs to increase his or her IQ.

ETA is not saying that they will fall for the traps and obstacles that Madrid is placing on the road to a solution for the Basque conflict. What ETA is saying is simple, once independence is achieved there will be no need for them to keep their weapons, because in a free and sovereign Basque nation no one will have to defend himself of herself from the attacks by the Spanish or French armed forces, that simple.

And to those who see this action by ETA as a return to their alleged violent ways I would like to remind you that Madrid never renounced to their state sponsored terrorism during the last six months, evidence of this situation are the rash of arbitrary detentions, the virtual life sentences handed down to at least ten Basques political prisoners and the refusal by Madrid to end the dispersion.

So, there you have it, it is Madrid the one that feels at ease with violence, wether the one that occupies the post of Prime Minister comes from the PP or the PSOE.

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The Basque World Congress

This is something I just learned about.

It comes to us via EITb:

50 Years Since World Basque Congress I

1956 Paris

09/23/2006

Today, it is 50 years since president Agirre´s dream, first World Basque Congress, became truth.

UPV's Contemporary History professor Ludger Mees, interviewed in radio programme "Mas que palabras" in Radio Euskadi, has declared that the event was extremely important in its times as 20th constitution anniversary of first Basque Government was also reminded. Such anniversary had a relevant importance in the field of contemporary Basque history and in the history of anti-Franco period movement in the Spanish State.

In the fifties, "Spanish and Basque republican anti-Franco years led by Agirre went into crisis after dictator Franco succeeded in coming out of the international isolation" when he signed agreements whose basis were set in U.S.. Such agreements triggered the anti-Franco period movement to be offside.

Nevertheless, few years before the summit Agirre decided "to recover the strength the movement previously had and to unify different Basque anti-Franco years factions in a large event where they could go beyond their differences" to show the unity of the movement, Mees explained.

According to Mees, every Anti-Franco period sector and entire Basque Government took part in the congress. Many of the attendants came from Latin America where they were in exile and about 60 succeeded to come from the State. Some attendants became important people in Basque politics posterior to Agirre's death.

"Though there were big frictions among anti-Franco period sectors, we have to underline that Agirre joined all of them in one single event that set up a highly important symbol". The historian emphasized.

By that time, Agirre had already seen that the allies' intervention against Franco had failed. Nonetheless, instead of becoming immersed in crisis he tried to find "another way: the European way. Approaching Europe that was being built, joining the continent as democrats, and isolating from Franco. He thought that the dictator would have to abdicate and ease the incorporation of not only the Basque Country but Spanish State too, to the emerging Europe".

However, what Agirre had planned did not come true. This is why Mees thinks that Agirre's main achievement was organizing first World Basque Congress. Finally, though he continued keeping in touch with Europe, first Basque president died in 1960 without being able to see his dreamt free and democratic Euskadi (Basque Country).

We should keep in mind that today, a pseudo-socialist government calls the shots in Spain, and Franco's followers still run amok. The violence against the Basques set in place by the Franco regime and its heirs, the members of the Partido Popular, has been strenghtened by the members of the PSOE, years ago with the creation of the GAL, and today, refusing to seat down and negotiate an end to the Spanish occupation of Euskal Herria even after six months of ETA's announcement of a cease fire.

All of this repression would not be possible if it was not for the quiet support by the other European nations, simply because many of them are also occupying other nations. Examples?

England occupies Scotland and Wales, also keeps an outpost in Ireland.

France occupies parts of the Basque Country, parts of Catalunya, Brittany and Corsica.

And so on and so forth.

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A Basque Ad Shepherd

Here you have the unlikely story of a Basque immigrant who somehow landed in an ad campaign. Our best wishes go to his beloved ones.

Comes to you thanks to the Marin Independent Journal:

West Marin shepherd was humble star of TV ads

Rick Polito

A West Marin shepherd, whose humble demeanor won him the attention of millions, is dead at 51.

Dio Choperena, who was featured in a multimillion-dollar ad campaign for AT&T Wireless five years ago, died of cancer Sept. 12 at home in Petaluma.

Mr. Choperena was anticipating the birth of twin sons next month. "He wanted to hold them and see them so bad," his widow, Kathy, said Wednesday. "He's not going to be there. It makes it so hard."

A celebration of his life was held Tuesday in Petaluma.

Mr. Choperena grew up in Spain's Basque country and moved to the United States at age 17 to be a shepherd, drawn to the American West by "all the cowboy movies." He worked first in Wyoming but moved to West Marin when his brother needed help on a Tomales ranch.

His unlikely turn at stardom began Easter Sunday in 2000 as he sat in the William Tell Inn in Tomales. Mr. Choperena lived in Dillon Beach and the bar was a regular stop.

Casting director Toni Cervantes was on the hunt for an authentic shepherd for the AT&T campaign and was down the street at Diekmann's General Store scanning the phone book for dairy ranches, when a friend of Mr. Choperena's friend told her about the shepherd and pointed here to the William Tell.

Mr. Choperena appeared in a series of TV spots and print ads, making cell phone calls amid his flock. The commercials featured him leading his sheep along busy downtown streets and through the colorful Venice Beach.

The shepherd maintained his humble habits despite the fame.

Three years ago, he became a landscape contractor, starting a new business and moving to Petaluma. But he kept his sheep. He owned 400 at the time of his death.

Kathy Choperena says her husband remained vigorous until the end. "He worked up until two days before he died," she says.

His widow suggests donations in his memory to the American Cancer Society.

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Haaretz's Take on Terrorism

It is a bit weird to read about terrorism at a newspaper from a country that is considered to be involved in what is widely seen as state sponsored terrorism.

I could have dismissed the whole thing but right off the bat the author places ETA among his list of terrorist organizations, a list that does not include the Irgun nor the Israeli Defence Forces. And well, this is simply unacceptable.

Now, despite his obvious bias which blinds him from seeing all the carnage that the Zionists have visited upon the region due to their nightmarish obsession with an expantionist Jewish state, the article does contain a few good things.

Example:

2. 'One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.'

More of a half-truth than an out and out lie, given the propensity of supporters of one side to explain and forgive atrocities committed by that side, while condemning and often exaggerating atrocities committed by the other.

It is worth noting that definitions of terrorism are legion and agreement is rare.

For the purposes of this piece, however, we will use a formula contained within a UN report issued last year, which defined terrorism as any action: "intended to cause death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a population or compelling a government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing any act."

For the purpose of this piece, therefore, we will declare that any side which intentionally attacks non-combatants is practicing terrorism.

With Melitón Manzanas, Admiral Carrero Blanco and all the Guadia Civil elements targeted by ETA this definition makes ETA commandos into freedom fighters.

3. All resistance to illegal occupation is legitimate.

Intentional attacks on innocents are inherently illegitimate

How about Durango and Gernika? And the GAL?

8. 'The objective of the [(check one) war / incursion bombing campaign / liquidation raid] in [Lebanon / Gaza / northern Samaria] is the swift release of the kidnapped soldier/s.'

There is little persuasive evidence that the kidnappers of IDF soldiers can be bombed, assassinated, or otherwise militarily pressured into agreeing to release the captives they hold.

There is more than circumstantial evidence to suggest that the kidnapping may become a pretext for military action aimed at attacking an organization which engages both in guerrilla activity and in terrorism, with Hamas and Hezbollah the primary illustrations.

Whoa!

Finally, hidden in the entire article a pearl of truth. This paragraph tells us that yes, what Israel did in Lebanon can be considered terrorism.

9. 'If there were no occupation, there would be no terrorism.'

It is debatable whether this statement fits better into the status of a lie or a contention. It is, in any event, an argument which has lost much of its power in the wake of the pull-out from the Gaza Strip. Within days, evacuated settlements were used as launching pads for rocket attacks that markedly increased terrorist attacks against southern Israel.

Uh oh, back to the bias. Israel left the Gaza Strip but there is plenty of kibbutzim in the West Bank, ergo, the occupation continues.

10. 'Terrorism is the only defense of oppressed peoples against the vastly better equipped oppressor.'

On the surface, terrorism seems to work, despite its moral failings. But in the case of the Gaza withdrawal, hailed by Hamas as the Great Victory of Resistance, it may be persuasively argued that Israel would have withdrawn from the Strip years, perhaps even decades before, had terror groups not worked to foil every attempt at a peace agreement.

The fact is that Israelis were trying to find a formula to leave Gaza for years. There were even many in the settlement movement who viewed Gaza as a distinct liability to the wider cause.

One thing is certain - terrorism is self-destructive on the broadest levels. It has cost the Palestinians their once-broad support in Israel and around the world for the swift creation and recognition of an independent Palestine.

Terror attacks following the disengagement have persuaded most Israelis that further withdrawals would be mistaken.

Terrorism, particularly the concept of suicide bombing, has tarnished the Palestinians' good name in the world, and their image of David in the contemporary Goliath myth.

There are many diplomatic, political and public relations alternatives to terror. Had the Palestinians focused on them and not on the armed struggle, they would have had statehood long ago.

What a lie, the whole world supports the Palestinian right to statehood, if it was not for the USA there would be a Palestinian state as we speak.

Oh yes, this is supposed to be an experiment, so if you want to be part of it go check out the article "The 10 most useful lies about terrorism".

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