Careful what you wish for.

[Skyryder]

Check out the photo, gives me the shivers - Irelands economic up turn didn't happen until this bastard was truly out of the picture, he makes muldoon look like a angel.

Sad and sorry days

Who is he? The only one I know is Adams and Paisly..........surely not. He'd aged if that is him.

Skyryder

[Karma]

I'm not a fan of sine fine

Charles J Haughey (sp) Prime minister of republic of Ireland for Fine Fail

Having some problems with the spell checker there are we?

[Winston001]

I guess positive thinking is to be encouraged, but these dudes have been at each other's throats for thousands of years. That makes "peace" a bit of a radical concept for them.

While this is incorrect, unfortunately it is a belief held by most people outside the Middle East.

In fact before 1948 the Jews and the Arabs in Palestine coexisted peacefully. It goes back to the Diaspora in AD 135 when the Romans exiled the Jews from Israel. This is the original reason for the large Jewish populations which came into being in Europe - before the Nazis got to work.

Jewish people drifted back over the centuries but Arabs were the majority. Then in the late 19th century Zionism arose with the belief that Jews should return. They raised money, purchased land and settled on it. This turned to a flood after 1945.

Upon the creation of Israel in May 1948 the massed armies of the surrounding arab nations attacked. The local arabs (Palestinians), being promised lots of land etc as the spoils of war, gleefully joined in. Unfortunately they lost.

Suddenly (or so it seemed to them) Palestinian Arabs were strangers and without power in a land they had lived in for centuries. The Arab states were embarrased and didn't want them either.

Thus we have an unhappy group of mostly poor people with nowhere to go and a grudge. This has been encouraged and fed by Islamic radicals and terrorists/guerillas. Indeed today hated of Israel is taught in Gaza schools - what chance do these poor kids have?

What the media don't bother to say is that 19.5% of the population of Israel is Arab and that these Arabs live peacefully with their neighbours. Not all Arabs are Palestinians - far from it.

The USA gives $500 million of aid to the Palestinians annually - but not if Hamas is waiting at the tap. Interesting times.