Is there a full moon in Palestine tonight?

It's a beautiful full-moon evening in Oklahoma. The sky is clear, the temperature perfect, it's quiet. I can see the "man in the moon" from my window as I type out my thoughts. A fat spider crosses the moon man's face as it weaves a web across my window. What a perfect place to be.

It's not so perfect in many places around the world tonight. One of those places is at Palestinian leader Arafat's compound, or what's left of it. Israeli forces have been methodically blasting the compound into rubble this weekend. The Israeli press releases say they are looking for 20 wanted men that are supposedly in the compound but Israeli military leaders admit openly that the real objective is to force Arafat into exile. This is Ariel Sharon's stated wish as well. The Israelis cut off water to the compound and were even taking the air conditioners off of the one remaining building today. It's hard to feel too sorry for Arafat however. When he turned down Barak's offer to give the Palestinians 90% of what they wanted he assured Sharon's election a couple of years ago. Arafat's stupidity aside, what the Israelis are doing is nothing less than outrageous. As a democratic people they should be ashamed, not only of their leader's dishonesty, but what they have done to the Palestinian people in making them second-class citizens in their own homeland. Are they surprised that the Palestinians hate them so much? Here's one American that is pretty fed up with the cruelty and stupidity of both sides.

Ariel Sharon has been waiting for a call from President Bush, Colin Powell or Condi Rice - telling him to stop the transparent attempt to force Arafat into exile by making him homeless. No call has come. Sharon proceeds with the understanding that the Bush Administration condones his actions. President Bush may condone it but many, many people in America do not.