Violence is taking hold of our lives and our state leaders are continuing to point their fingers to terrorism as the culprit. What is interesting is that there is no shared understanding that terrorism can be triggered either by the state or by fringe organizations.

In North America we make a difference between killing people by lunching missiles and by killing people by suicidal bombings, and this concocted differential truth can be found in the result of opinion polls conducted and advertised by our corporate media.

So President George Bush and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon receive high marks for their ability to direct state sanctioned killings while Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat receives lower marks for his inability to constraint Palestinian teenagers blowing themselves up in Israel.

While Yasser Arafat is a virtual prisoner and under siege by the Israeli army, we have President Bush coming out of his retreat at his Prairie Chapel Ranch in Crawford and telling Arafat to "stand up and condemn, in Arabic, these [suicidal bombing] attacks." And I am wondering how we can have peace as Ariel Sharon says "Arafat, who established a coalition of terror against Israel, is an enemy and at this stage will be isolated."

What we are witnessing today at Easter in the Middle East, and around the world, is another version of the Pax Romana: Divide and Conquer.

Israel's State Terrorism, by Lev Grinberg http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0401-04.htm