Bill's Comment Page

I've just listened to the the 1am (BST) news bulletin on the BBC World Service - they say that a Palestinian spokesman has just announced that they accept Mr Bush's recommendations "without any conditions". It seems that the Israeli authorities have yet to make any official comment on the remarks of Mr Bush.

The 'moral high ground' is generally reckoned to be a piece of real estate that most would wish to occupy, and throughout its existence Israel has mostly been able to lay claim to this territory without enormous difficulty - the two major deviations were during the period 1982-1983 and the past few weeks? The common factor? Unfortunately it is the current Prime Minister of Israel - Ariel Sharon.

Israel is a noble state, a genuine bastion of democracy in a region sadly lacking in this type of government. It is time for the forces of sanity in Israel to regain their voice, and to ensure that the Palestinian officials who have expressed unreserved agreement with what Mr Bush has said are required to live up to their rhetoric.

This was written after rather too many glasses of excellent port - forgive me if my syntax is awry . (PS/ delay in publishing is because of network overload - I have now upgraded to PRO service, which will I hope eliminate most delays in future.)