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Genes and Genealogy
To solve the Israel/Palestine problem, Hank Levin urged "the U.S. Government
to pressure both sides for peaceful solutions. If it could be done in Cyprus,
it can be done in the mid-East". Christopher Jones replies: "Noihing
was "done" in Cyprus. There was no solution to the long standing division
of the island -- the vast majority of the Greek Cypriot population (75%) voted
against the proposed reunification agreement in a referendum, while 65% of Turkish
Cypriots voted for the measure. The agreement was scuttled by the majority Greeks.
At the same time, the Palestinian problem appears to me fairly straightforward:
Israel must evacuate its forces behind the 1967 frontier against a non aggression
pledge from a newly independent Palestinian state. The Israeli colonial settlements
in the occupied territories must be dismantled. (Obviously those Jews who lose
their investment will have to be compensated.) However, that will include Arab
Jerusalem, which the Jewish state refuses to hand over. But that is not all.
The displaced Palestinians must be given full compensation plus interest for
the loss of their properties when they were thrown out of Israel proper (then
Palestine) in 1948. Again Israel has refused. I disagree that the US government
can "lean" on both the parties involved because it backs one in a
so-called "special" relationship: Israel. The US is not impartial.
Another solution which could solve the Jerusalem issue would be unify both countries
and give everyone one vote. This too was rejected by the Israelis because their
policies are clear and focused: the Palestinians must disappear because alone
their numbers in a democratic election are a threat to Eretz Israel. That is
the Zionist final solution that Stephen Sniegoski writes about, and if the United
States continues to condone this crime, the more likely a "firestorm"
will occur.
Like all such discoveries, the exclusively African origin of man remains a hypothesis.
John Wonder comments: "The most recent dissent regarding the African origin
I have come across appears in the latest Discover (Vol. 25, no. 7, July, p.
20), where the author puts back human origins a number of years. He also suggests
that continental drifts may have drastically modified the place of origin of
the species".
Christopher Jones is in need of professional counseling as to what career he
should choose: "My thanks to Martin Lewis for his recommendation of Luigi
Cavalli Sforza's book. But I don't know what to make of this news: on one hand,
if I have buried deep inside me an earthworm gene, should I have chosen to be
miner? On the other, if I am distantly related to a Xhosa tribesman, could I
potentially cultivate that gene to better hunt rhinoceros -- but wouldn't that
constitute cannibalism of a distant relative?"
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