Reply #113: It Is My Leading Source Of Rest, Ma'am

[The Magistrate]

Where you managed to find any imputation in my brief comment above that the erection of the Al Aqsa was intended to antagonize Jews is beyond me. That it was erected on a site sacred to Jews for more than a millenia at the time it was built is beyond dispute, and such an act necessarily lays down a hostage to fortune and changing times, the future being, as the sage Mr. Berra observed, hard to predict, since it has not happened yet. Nor will you ever find me denying Sharon's act was deliberate provocation, only suggesting it would have been wiser for the Aab Palestinians and their leadership not to have responded violently to that provocation. To respond to provocation is to do what your enemy desires, and this is an offense against any concept of sound strategy, for the essence of that art is to impose your will on the enemy, and not be subject to your enemy's will yourself, and to respond as your enemy hopes to provocation is to accept the imposition of his will upon your actions.

As to the your final trifle, Ma'am: in the absence of any clear indication either way, the wiser the comments, the more likely my conclusion will be that they are those of a woman. My experience of life has been that women have more sense....