The political situation reminds me of the old book "The Giving Tree" by Shel Silverstein. In The Giving Tree, the boy befriends a tree and the tree provides the boy with all his needs. Fruit, shade, vines to swing on, branches, etc. The tree gives the boy everything he asks for. The tree even allows the boy to cut it down so he can have wood to build a boat.

Here we have a government giving the Palestinians everything they want and ask for and Israel asks for nothing in return. And anything the Palestinians promised to give Israel has been ignored and forgotten.

I have no problem with the government negotiating and giving away land and releasing prisoners and receiving security and other things in return. I should preface that and say that theoretically I have no problem with it. I think this specific government has no legitimacy due to its corruption and its failures, so this government has no right to do so.

I might not want it, as I believe all the Land belongs to us, but I understand it and accept the fact that to resolve the conflict we will need to negotiate and give away land in order to receive security. I also do not believe we have a reliable and trustworthy partner, so I believe that the only way such negotiations are acceptable and I would be resolved to them is if we did have a reliable partner. As long as our "partner" is using the negotiations as a tool to destroy us and not to live peacefully with us side by side, then I will still not be resolved to the situation.

Back to the situation, we have already given the Palestinians plenty of land. Some of it unilaterally while destroying Jewish families and homes in the process, and some of it under agreement. We have released many prisoners, some as part of negotiations and some as goodwill.

We keep doing things for the Palestinians and getting nothing in return.

Qassam rockets still rain down daily on Israeli cities. A soldier has been kidnapped and no contact with him has been allowed, even for humanitarian purposes (yes a tape was released of him but there was never any confirmation as to the timeframe of the tape). Terror reigns (we have not had suicide attacks because the Israeli security stops them, not because the PA security stops them). We hardly ever are allowed to go to holy sites in Arab areas. The PA textbooks in their schools still ignore the existence of Israel and the desire for the destruction of Israel is still taught. Palestinian militias have never been disarmed.

Basically we are the giving tree for the Palestinans.

Now we are going to Annapolis which will be opening up a new page in our negotiations with the Palestinians. And instead of making the PA keep and fulfill all the promises they have made until now but never fulfilled, and instead of saying you want x, y or z, let's negotiate and let your demands be part of the negotiations, we offer all that in advance.

Olmert has now announced a freeze in settlement building, even on natural growth expansion. Israel announced it is going to free 500 more prisoners as a gesture before Annapolis.

I see no reason why these should not be deferred to negotiations. Israel should say, you want settlement freeze? let's negotiate. Why do we accept that as a precondition?

Israel is The Giving Tree. The question is are we going to keep giving even until we allow the Palestinians to cut us down to a stump?