aswanargent

Just time today for a couple of notes.  First, if you never saw the film The Holy Land, I recommend that you rent it.  It's a well-acted drama with an ending that I didn't expect, and it's very appropriate given the events of the last week.  Second, I have to confess to being a cynic where the Israel/Palestine situation is concerned.  I'd like to think that Arafat's passing opens the way for real dialogue and eventually real peace in the region, but deep down I don't think it's going to happen.  Even if the leadership on both sides truly wanted the violence to end, I don't believe they have enough control over their citizens to make it happen.  Someone remembered a reference which basically said that the Palestinians needed a Gandhi, but instead they got Arafat.  Frankly, I don't think even Gandhi would have succeeded here.  And, while I don't condone everything Arafat did, and while I believe there were opportunities in the past that he should not have let slip by, in the end I have to second what alinewrites  had to say about him.  The minority opinion, I suppose.

Finally, for morgared :  For "meltdown", think of Chernobyl and what happened at the nuclear facility there.  (Or think of the film The China Syndrome.)