YOURISH TRULY: A bloggish milestone - I spent a lovely afternoon and early evening with Meryl Yourish in marginally-suburban New Jersey, the first time I've met a fellow blogger. If it weren't for the fact that she beat me to the only copy of Shirley Jackson's Raising Demons in the used book store, I would call it an unmitigated pleasure. She's as articulate and straightforward in person as she is in her blog, and in between the shop crawl and the chocolate sundaes, we did our very best to solve the world's problems.

Meryl's knowledge of Israel and the history of the Jewish people helped me understand more about the situation in the Middle East. It reinforced my sense that there is just no negotiating with the Palestinians - as a group - anymore. I think Arafat and the Palestinians are collectively operating under a delusion about their own actions, and no logical or normal way of handling the situation is truly an option. To negotiate is to give them the impression that their opponents are weak, and the suicide bombings are working; to retaliate in piecemeal, "we're warning you!" kinds of ways only feeds their sense of ill-use, stoking the coals of their hateful obsession rather than putting out the fire for good.

Today four more Israelis died, while the West coddles a killer. When does it stop?