Destined to fail...

President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's misaptly-named "peace plan" for the Middle East couldn't have been more poorly designed if its stated goal was to fail miserably.

Just the pre-condition alone that the besieged and beleaguered Palestinian security forces disarm the "militants" before negotiations proceed would be laughable, if it weren't so utterly tragic.

Israel has turned the Palestinian territories into wastelands, where the IDF roams at will, strikes at whim and murders whomever it wishes. The Palestinian security forces are little more than lightly-armed observers in a hugely mismatched confrontation between civilians and Israeli soldiers. Israel's military superiority is so absolute: imagine U.S. soldiers asking besieged Iraqi police to disarm and subdue their anti-American, extremist cousins as a condition to sitting down for peace talks.

Imperfect as it was, the latest "ceasefire" has just been literally shot down by an Israeli airstrike on a civilian automobile, said to be carrying Hamas militants.

...A man and a woman, both bystanders, were killed and 15 were injured, including the intended target, a member of the military wing of Hamas.

In another disturbing, related development, 5 Israeli Arabs have been charged with funneling an estimated $10 million to Hamas.

For Americans, a little sketchy on the relevance of this latter bit of news, the accused Arabs are Israeli citizens, residing in Israel; not Palestinians, condemned to stateless misery with little or no hope of escape. It's a little like "privileged" slaves living on the plantation financing the Union invasion of the South.

Ok, the analogy breaks down in many ways. Still, how far does this largely American-financed debacle have to go before it is finally termed a "civil war?"

More importantly, how far until American taxpayers say, in large enough numbers, "Not in my name!"?

Complete story here.