[thoughtomator]

A great summation of my muddled thoughts on the subject, thanks for posting it.

What I believe the Arab regimes fear most is that the Palestinians are the most likely of all Arab cultures to become a democracy/representative republic. This accords with their support of Arafat, who is the single biggest obstacle to that development. Palestinians are the most westernized culturally of all Arabs - look at the images in the press, there are more of them who dress in the western style than in Arab style.

[RamsNo1]

Huh? Palestinians are living in the stone age. It is more likely that Iraqi and Iranian citizens are living in this century than the muslim hoards in the palestinian areas. For all the abdominable things that Saddam is, he is more westernized and secular than alot of other Muslim countries.