THE SCRIPT
I've often commented to my brother that the Israelis and Palestinians seem to follow a script whenever something bad happens. Does any of this sound familiar?

Israeli govt spokesman: The Palestinians MUST do more to fight terrorism. Sure, they're a rump authority with control only over parts of the Palestinian territories. Sure, their security services are 1/10 as sophisticated as the Mossad. Sure, they have no money. But we still expect them to crush terrorism in a way that the powerful Israeli authorities have not been able to do in 35 years. We also believe the rain storms that drenched Jerusalem could also have been stopped if terrorist Yassir Arafat had the will to do so.

Palestinian spokesman: We condemn terrorism in all its forms... except when it's justified. But terrorism will continue so long as the Israelis brutalize our citizens and target women and children and the residences of civilians. Sure, those houses are used by suicide bombers. Sure, those children use crayons to draw pictures glorifying the bombers and are more than willing to be the next martyrs. It's all the Israelis' fault. Terrorist Ariel Sharon must change. And as 24 UN resolutions have stated clearly, rain in Jerusalem has always been the fault of the Israeli government.

Of course, if there's some atrocity by the Israeli Defense Forces in the Occupied Territories, then the order of the script is reversed.

There was another suicide bombing in Tel Aviv today and the script was followed to a t. The Israeli government spokesman said that it represented "a complete failure" of the new Palestinian prime minister and government. The government that had been installed literally a few hours prior to the bombing.