If the Palestinian militants put their arms down today, they'd have their state tomorrow.

You forgot the punchline:

...and if Israel put their arms down today, they'd be wiped off the map by nightfall.

I'm just saying.

You must understand that the Palestinian "cause"
begins and ends with the destruction of Israel.
There is no room for compromise with Palestinians; they will not be content until all
Jews leave Israel, something that is not going to happen.

That's crap, Joshua. Virtually every poll I've seen has shown that most Palestinian people, not to mention the few that I know personally, are content with the existance of Isreal. Do you have some proof of your statement, or are you just here to spout off?

Give me the name of one Arab who supports Israel's right to exist.

I know one personally.

The Saudis came out recently and said Israel had a right to exist, due to American pressure.

Just two weeks ago on NPR I was listening to an interview with a Palestinian Arab who runs a regular TV show broadcast in Palestine. He's learned Hebrew, he tells people that Jews have suffered in history too, and that fighting all the time isn't the answer. I don't know if he's brave enough just yet to say "Israel has a right to exist" for fear of getting shot, but it's remarkable enough that he exists.

I continue to believe that the average Arab only gives a damn about Israel because the corrupt governments of the Arab region use Israel as an excuse to distract from their own miserably incompetent and corrupt governmental systems. So yes, hating Israel is fed to many Arabs like Mother's Milk. And yet, and yet, Israel persists, and terror continues to decline, and the Arab Leaugue now says Israel has a right to exist. It's progress.

I continue to believe, by the way, that the average Palestinian would rather have a job and a stable life than to kill a Jew. Especially since so many of them travel into Israel every day for work, and don't kill anyone.

Come to think of it, Joshua: there are Arabs who are citizens of Israel, own businesses and houses in Israel, vote in Israeli elections. There are members of the Israeli parliament who are Arab, and even Arab pop stars in Israel. So what, you figure they all want Israel to implode too?

Dean, Please ask your Arab friend the following question: Is he bothered by the fact that Israel does not appear on any map in any Arab country? Is he bothered by the fact that the Palestinian media continue to incite the local population against their Jewish neighbors?
The Arabs in Israel who owns businesses and vote
are just biding their time until the opportunity to join in a general war against the Jews presents itself. Note the cooperation of so-called Israeli Arabs in fomenting terror.

Dean,

It's true, Israel does allow Arabs to function in society as normal human beings, even at the level of government. However, can the same be said of a Jew living in any of the surround Arab nations? Presuming there are any Jews living n these nations to begin with of course. With such blatant racism, I wonder why the Arabs get a pass while Israel is the one that gets slammed for being a racist apartheid state.

For Patrick, regarding these so called polls you mentioned, are they the same polls that show the vast majority (something between 60 to 80 percent if I recall correctly) of Palestinians support suicide bombings?

Here's one poll I found by the Pew Global Attitudes Project: 80% of Palestinians DON'T believe "that a way can be found for the state of Israel to exist so that the rights and needs of the Palestinian people are met."

80 percent supporting suicide bombings. 80 percent not believing Israel can exist in order for peace to prevail.

So Patrick, please do tell me where you've found these polls that indicate the Palestinians just want to hold hands with Israelis and sing kumbayah? Enlighten us all please.

First, to your numbers (I believe this is what your referring to)...the number of Palestinians supporting terrorist bombing fluctuates greatly depending on the current state of animosity. A low of 20% was measured just prior to the current breakdown, to highs of nearly 70%.
Also, here is another that shows less than 50% supporting attacks against civilians. Even if you believe that verbally supporting terrorist attacks is equivalent to wanting the complete destruction of Isreal alltogether (which is false, many only support them as a means to achieve statehood), these numbers still only average to about 50%.

And here is one poll that shows that the number who want Israel destroyed is in the minority. A second poll is described here, and though I can't find a link to the actual results anymore, it showed only 13% actively hoped for an end to Israel. (Just in case you don't trust me, here is a link to a discussion of the results.) And this is only among the Palestinians who are currently 'at war'. It doesn't include many within Isreal and here in the US who are in a better position to make rational decisions.

I agree that the number of Palestinians who support terrorist acts is disturbingly high, but Joshua's assertion:
"You must understand that the Palestinian "cause"
begins and ends with the destruction of Israel.
There is no room for compromise with Palestinians; they will not be content until all
Jews leave Israel, something that is not going to happen." is a blatantly false statement, with no other purpose that I can see but to encourage animosity between the two sides.

The Palestinians, like the Iraqis before America invaded, are at war and need to be pacified. This can only be done by elimination of the
tyrannical Palestinian leadership. We need to
make a deck of cards of all the terrorist Palestinian leaders, kill or chase them out, and
start all over again, just like in Iraq. How can
Abbas, a life long cronie of Arafat, be accepted as a serious leader of Palestinians? That would be like giving Saddam Hussein's life long friend
the presidency of Iraq.