I was about to start my list of cool and uncool for this month, when I heard a scuffle on the TV in the other room. It was a rolling news channel, and on it was this fellow called Mordechai Vanunu.

Although my dad knows all about him, I didn't, so I stopped to listen, and it was really interesting. What with all this talk about weapons of mass destruction in the middle East, ones thoughts do turn to the idea that no one should have any. Should they? So I did a little web research, and sure enough, an American President did in fact suggest the same idea.

Actually he sent inspectors to determine if Weapons of Mass Destruction were being developed in this Middle eastern place. The Inspectors came back saying they believed that this Middle Eastern place was developing WMD. And so the President wrote a strong letter saying - 'You'd better stop now or else.' Unfortunately someone shot that President three Months later. And no US President since then has ever written about it again. From 1963 onward that is. So I do wonder why we make a big deal about some middle Eastern places having them, when we do nothing about others.

And the more I researched, the more strange this all became. This little Middle Eastern place doesn't make much sense to me. (And I don't need to remind you that as a dog who has been self aware for just under a year, my logic is a tad boolean.) Here's what I read. Since the 'English' dropped of a boat load of colonists in Palestine in 1948 not one day has passed without the Palestinians trying to get rid of them.

Being a dog of limited ability, I cant debate the relative merits of the Palestinians rights to claim their own land, or anyone else's rights to give it away to someone else. (Actually I can, but to do so would be to enter into the murky waters of pointlessness, so I'll just get straight to my point.) Not a day has passed where these chaps have been welcome on this land. Attempts to get them to leave have escalated in proportion to their resistance. A tit for tat situation has developed that is quite ridiculous. A State using high technology weapons to assassinate its opponents without fear of censure. Don't these people know what even a young dog realises. Every action has an opposite reaction. If you kill, you will be killed, and if you assassinate people, you will, at the very least, attract some bad karma. Very bad karma in fact. And obviously this applies equally to the people who provide the weapons to enable this carnage.

My logic suggests that as things have escalated constantly since the arrival of these people in Palestine, eventually this escalation from  - name calling - through gunshot firing -  through intifada - though suicide bombing, can only - inevitably - lead to nuclear explosion. And knowing this, what to do? Here's my idea then. We cant go on pretending that the laws we make mean anything if Israel can freely and without censure or rebuke from the US disregard them at will.

The likelihood of Israel becoming a good neighbor is just not there. Whether it happens in this month, this year, this decade or this millennium, a critical mass will arrive - as it always does in the politics of tit for tat. So for the people living there, life is just a count down based on how much misery and death can be inflicted along the way. My solution, or the 'Towpath to piss' plan as we dogs think of nirvana, is as follows. On a certain date, (Say 1st of September 2004) the USP is formed. (The United States of Palestine.)

This can - by consensus - be sectioned into a number of states - one of which can be the new Israel. (New in that they would have to stop bombing and killing and so on..) All these states have a proportional vote in a central government. And every individual has a human rights charter they can rely on. They could even ask Mr Mandela to come and open their parliament, and possibly even have Desmond Tutu chair a Truth and reconciliation committee in the USP to help them understand an end to tit for tat. And an end to this senseless, hopeless cycle of mutilation and killing that is the first association I (and all the dogs I know for that matter) make to the word Israel.

There you have it. A choice. Perhaps all the region needs now is their own version of Mr Mandela to show how easy it really is to choose life over death. Imagine - Four years from now. The USP and its thriving economy winning multiple golds at the 2008 Olympics. Or?

Woof woof....Wallace.

Not many dogs get to make a record - but I have been on two. Here's my fabulous new one. available here

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Its back to work for me now. Patrolling the tow path. Sniffing out the cracks from where dark forces might seek to enter this world.And then closing them with a well placed stream of widdle.