Friday, June 20, 2003  RECENTLY, a number of senators who are
usually clean and sober suggested that American troops should be
inserted to separate the Israelis and Palestinians.  That just
may be the worst idea raised by any Americans since our public-
housing authorities proposed building high-rise ghettoes for the
poor. All men and women of common sense and conscience should
resist sending our over-stretched forces on a hopeless mission
that would butcher our soldiers for nothing...  Let's be
straight: There is no peace between the Israelis and the
Palestinians, and there will be nothing beyond brief truces
until the Arab terrorist organizations are destroyed - and until
Israel dismantles its most offensive settlements in the West
Bank and Gaza...  But American troops, if dispatched to the West
Bank and Gaza, would only separate those who already want peace,
while providing the hardliners among the Arabs with a fresh and
galvanizing provocation. Our soldiers would be a magnet for
every terrorist between Mar