He volunteered as a civilian to assist the IDF during the first Gulf War. Frankly, I don’t think it’s a big deal, considering the Gulf War was entirely justified… though I wonder why he didn’t work as a civilian for the American military.

Moreover, it would be irresponsible for Obama to make any significant policy statements on this issue before January 20th. One president at a time, even if the outgoing one is a useless, powerless imbecile.

It’s good to see people are finally getting this.

I suspect that the Israelis wanted more than Mubarak’s submissiveness though. While they didn’t need his blessing, they wanted his cooperation. Sadly, the events around Rafah in the past 24 hours suggest he was overly accommodating…

It is gut-wrenching to think that Egypt and the PA could have colluded with the Israelis on this one, but all signs point to that reality.

Just in case we start to pretend that Hamas is the side of the angels.

Frankly, if what you describe is the overall 'game plan', I'm less unhappy with that than I was until I read your article.

The best transitions to independent statehood after occupation usually come with one-party rule, not with two separate power bases who (and this is the big deal) can't even agree on the most fundamental principles of how their society is going to be organized — religious or secular.

The Palestinians need a one-party government right now to transition to statehood, even if it IS corrupt and inefficient.

Afterwards, the messy business of getting a second, challenger party in order — a party that hopefully is secular, just like Fatah and unlike Hamas, and agrees in principle that Israel should continue to exist in some form, like Fatah and unlike Hamas, so its challenge does not undermine the basis of Palestinian society.

Look, for example, at Taiwan — the KMT took Taiwan to independence, but they were also corrupt and sclerotic, and it took a while for an opposition party to really rise up. But when they did, it was the DPP, who share much the same concept of 'Taiwanese-ness' as the KMT, they're not religious fundamentalists and their position on China is *slightly* different, but in practice about the same. Taiwan's in a much better place now than if they'd had a religious fundamentalist party dueling with the KMT at the outset as they were achieving (roughly speaking) independence.