It seems as if I can earmark at least one column per year on the Israelis and Palestinians. No matter what others say and do, these two sides continue to kill, maim, have cease fires, negotiate, get made at each other, and go back to killing and maiming. Unlike the situations in the Middle East, my viewpoint has remained stable for the last couple years. I'm disgusted with both sides.

I'm disgusted with the Israelis, who took advantage of fanatics blowing up the World Trade Center to label the Palestinians terrorists as well. I'm disgusted with the Palestinians. Arafat had a chance to establish a definitive homeland for his people in a fair compromise during the Clinton years, but he turned it down because he didn't think they were getting enough. Now they are back to square one. When some Palestinian throws a rock at an Israeli soldier, the tanks roll in.

Although the word terrorist comes up far too frequently, this conflict has nothing to do with terrorism. It's a civil war. If you haven't noticed, Palestinians look very much like Israelis, and Israelis looks very much like Palestinians. The reason is that they have been living next to (but rarely with) each other for over fifty years. At one time, I thought this conflict was about Jews and Muslims not getting along, but religion went out the window a long time ago. The only difference I see between the two sides is that the Israelis have a lot more money and weapons than the Palestinians.

Many Americans are shocked by the Palestinian suicide bombings (or homicide bombings as Bush Jr. now labels them), but I'm not. If a group of people rolled tanks into your towns, blew up your neighborhood, and told you it was all your fault, it might cross your mind to get the hell out of this crazy world and take a few cafes with you. I'm not condoning anyone's actions. I'm saying that as people get more desperate, they will take more desperate measures. In WWII, the Japanese realized they could do far more damage by flying kamikaze missions, and no one called them savages. They knew exactly what they were doing.

Once the fighting heats up, all reasonable thought ceases. The Israelis want their homeland. The Palestinians want the same homeland. What's really ludicrous is that we're talking about an area smaller than New Hampshire. That's like the people of Manchester not getting along with the people of Concord, so they kill each other by the dozens. Sounds pretty stupid to me.

The U.S. has been involved in this stupidity almost from the get go. The Middle Eastern nations have never accepted Israel as a legitimate country (which is pretty stupid), Israel has gone out of its way to piss off these neighbors time and time again (also very stupid), and the U.S. still tries to baby the situation by throwing money at it (completely stupid).

Somehow, this has something to do with the Holy Land. It has to do with Abraham, Jesus and Mohammed. It has to do with owning the land where prophets briefly hung out, so people can pray at the places where they prayed. Personally, I think that any holiness that was ever there left a long time ago. There's nothing but death, power and corruption going on these days. It would be like a Catholic going to a Mob hangout for confession.

I don't know what the main point of either side is any more. I'm not sure I ever did. One thing I do know is that this has been going on since before I was born, and I'm not impressed with anyone who can't settle their differences. So screw them. All of them. There may be a bunch of nice and decent Israelis and Palestinians on the other side of the world, but I don't think any decent person would want to be associated with either side.

This situation sucks. It sucked last year. It will suck again next year, and I will write another column that says it sucks.

Chris Jungle refuses to agree to a cease fire until everyone ceases fire.