>Yasser Arafat is a terrorist who
>isn't even a Palestinian, I
>doubt you want to start
>comparing leaders.

I admitted that I have personal problems with Arafat and I'm not a big fan of his. Sure he was responsible for what some would call terrorist actions, but so has Ariel Sharon (examples: Sabra and Shatilla Massacres in Lebanon, and the 1956 massacre of Palestinian civilians whom he left for dead under the rubble of destroyed houses, the name of the massacre escapes me right now). He is even despised by many, many Israeli and American Jews. He was not elected because people liked him or agree with his policies, he was elected because people were so disappointed with Barak.
>
>As far as Palestinians respecting Jewish
>holy sites, you must've missed
>the quote by the Mufti,
>who would be in charge
>of holy sites in a
>PA state. He said that
>none exist, that there is
>no Jewish connection to Jerusalem
>at any point in history.
>On the contrary, there has
>never been an Arab state
>that had its capital in
>Jerusalem.
>
Jews have said the same thing as well. They said that Arabs have no connection to the city of Jerusalem. A false statement, so we'll call it even. But let me point out two things: 1)an American rabbi even suggested that Jewish law does not explicity call for Jewish control of Jerusalem. 2)The reason why "Arabs don't have a connection to Jerusalem" is a false statement. First off, the Dome of the Rock is where Muhammad ascended to heaven from. This fact alone makes Jerusalme holy to Muslims. There are also tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arab Christians who revere the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem as a holy site because it is the site where Christ was buried and resurrected. Also, historically, the Arab-Muslim warrior Saladin, who considered the city holy to Muslims, liberated Jerusalem from the European Christians. During Muslim rule of Jerusalem before the Arab-Isreli conflict (which only started in the 1900s), Jews (and Christians) did have free access to Jerusalem. If peace is achieved and old wounds are healed and mutual respect is show between the 2 people, I'm sure equal access to Jerusalem will once again be possible.