Below is an excerpt from Mike Mickey's update entitled "We've come a long way, haven't we?".  It is excellent!!!  It deals with Israel's right to exist as a nation and his refusal to allow the formation of a Palestinian state, pushing Israel back to its pre-1967 borders!  President Bush needs to take a lesson from former President Reagan!!!  Thanks for the excerpt, brother!!!

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According to a Yahoo News article, the Arab world views the years of the Reagan presidency "a dark period." Why? President Reagan didn't support the creation of a Palestinian state in the Middle East, as documented in a speech he delivered September 1, 1982. This, of course, was upsetting to the Arab world. In an excerpt from the speech, President Reagan stated the following:

The time has come for a new realism on the part of all the peoples of the Middle East. The State of Israel is an accomplished fact; it deserves unchallenged legitimacy within the community of nations. But Israel's legitimacy has thus far been recognized by too few countries and has been denied by every Arab State except Egypt. Israel exists; it has a right to exist in peace behind secure and defensible borders; and it has a right to demand of its neighbors that they recognize those facts.

I have personally followed and supported Israel's heroic struggle for survival, ever since the founding of the State of Israel 34 years ago. In the pre-1967 borders Israel was barely 10 miles wide at its narrowest point. The bulk of Israel's population lived within artillery range of hostile Arab armies. I am not about to ask Israel to live that way again.

Beyond the transition period, as we look to the future of the West Bank and Gaza, it is clear to me that peace cannot be achieved by the formation of an independent Palestinian state in those territories, nor is it achievable on the basis of Israeli sovereignty or permanent control over the West Bank and Gaza. So, the United States will not support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, and we will not
support annexation or permanent control by Israel.

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