i visited israel in 2002 and even at that time, there were almost as many palestinians in the occupied territories as there were jews in israel proper. i think the biggest reason the right in israel can do whatever they want is because they always had the US to back them up on just about anything except the E1 settlements. as long as the US government supports anything and everything the israeli government throws out there, it doesn't matter who the prime minister is.

i find it fascinating the cognitive dissonance that a lot of hard right israelis have on the peace process. on the one hand, they will publicly say how it's not natural for jews and arabs to live side by side peacefully and the arabs should find their own place to live, preferably as far from jews as possible. on the other hand, they don't want to give up any land to resolve the conflict. i'm not hopeful that the new government will take a more centrist approach to the palestinian conflict, but maybe this time will be different (yeah right )