If this conflict continues under my administration, the first thing I'll do to both nations is cut ties to them and stop giving aid to both countries. Until they reach a peace agreement, I'll ignore both nations.

The first thing I would arrange is the dismissal of both leaders,Arafat is an empty waste and Sharon is a war monger lunatic.I have no hatred for either nation,I feel sorry for all the citizens.They need their own land,theproblem doesn't lie with the PEOPLE,it lies with the governments.I will tell you one thing,if some idiot was bull dozing my house,I'd be blowing them up too.We side with Israel because we need them as an allie in the mid east,joke-all they do is hold their hands out.And if the middle east is furious over Israelis treatment of Palestine,it wouldn't take much to put a stop to all of it,I mean-isn't there power in numbers?A lot of this fighting could be stopped by getting rid of Sharon.

We've tried everything else, why don't we stop blindly supporting Israel?

Flip a coin?

I would stay out of it. Nothing can stop this war except for the Israelis and Palestinians. I, for one, am sick of hearing about this war. It's been going on way too long.

Let them kill each other. If anyone wants to kill or die in the name of their religion then go for it. America's blind allegiance to Israel in all foreign policy matters is killing us.

The United States should be a fair negotiator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Howard Dean hinted that he would take this strategy but he came under fire for saying it. That's the problem with the political establishment today; no one is willing to tell the truth. We will gain an enormous amount of goodwill in the region if we just try to be fair. Since Bill Clinton, we have given the Israelis a blank check. Yes, the Palestinians have limited sovereignty over their territory, but Jewish settlements continue being built as if there is no tomorrow. Some would say that being fair would be giving in to terrorism, but you have to understand the Palestinian side of the story as well. It's their land as well and it isn't fair when the Israelis tear down whole villages, disrupt patterns of commerce and deny the Palestinians a central government that can represent them effectively. You wonder why they're angry? The Israelis have legitimate security concerns as well and they can't be neglected. Israel is a bulwark for democracy in the Middle East and we have a commitment to assure the survival of that state. To abandon Israel will mean war in the Middle East. We pay billions to supply Israel's army with the best military equipment possible. It doesn't look too good in the Arab world when Israel arbitrarily attacks entire villages using American helicopters and guns. The big problem is that neither side trusts the other. It's easy to be pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian, but both of these guys have been at it for a long time. We don't have a direct stake in none of this, so the best thing would be to take a fair position. A temporary solution is the establishment of a Palestinian state, but this doesn't have long term viability because you have Jews and Arabs living in both the Palestinian and Jewish areas. Additionally, you have a booming Arab population versus a Jewish population which isn't growing that much anymore. Israel could very well become an apartheid like state in a few years with a majority of Palestinians living in squalid conditions. It has to be acknowledged that the Arabs aren't going to go away, the best long term strategy that I would recommend is to look towards establishing a federal union of both the Palestinian and Jewish states. It would look a lot like the United States with power devolved to the state and local levels. You can't separate this state by way of a wall; what the Jews are trying to do is prevent terrorism, but the conditions that cause it are only getting worse because of the wall. The unemployment rate in Palestinian areas is 70%! Unemployed and hungry young people are bound to lash out, the strategy of lash out and strike back isn't going to solve any problems. Improve the Palestinians living conditions and they won't be so angry, bitter and resentful; create jobs and infrastructure. Again the ball is on Israel's side here and since we give them so much aid, we're in a position to make a difference in the outcome. I would tell Sharon that he has to deal with the Palestinians or else face a cut in defense aid. Their terrorists are different than ours--since when has the PLO or Hezbollah attacked directly the United States? Frankly, we need to look out for our own interests with the Arabs as well. The root causes of terrorism need to be addressed here and military power is not the end all solution in this case. There are no easy solutions with this one and those who tell you otherwise aren't in the know.

I'll agree with Poison Tongue on this one. I think we've been too involved in the past. I'd probably just back off and let them resolve their own conflict. I'm sure they know damn well what they are doing and if it means that one side anihilates the other then.....

This is going to sound harsh, but I think that too much has already been done buy outside nations on this situation. Nothing more can be done until these people agree to stop the violence towards eachother. The only greater thing that we can do is to sanction them until they agree to get along. I know that it would take a long time but there is no immediate answer to this. It is apparent that both sides don't realize that they are both wrong for the way that they treat each other and are not going to get everything that they want in the end. Niether side truly wants to comprimise because they both want everything for themselves. Both governments would have to make a sincere effort to get their people to stop the violence before I would put in anymore effort for this cause.