As it says at the bottom of each of my articles, I teach English in China. Most of my students are Business or International Trade Students majoring in English. My lessons are therefore business oriented, and this semester they are doing a 'real business assignment', that requires them to research.

Research is a novelty for these students. So is thinking! (Don't take my racist word for it, just ask the Chinese Teachers!)

When they present their results orally in class, I then ask them questions about the assignment questions, and their answers.  One of the things I teach them, is the principle of 'Primary Text Reading'. For those who don't know what this is, it means reading 'what is actually written', as opposed to reading into it, what you feel inclined to believe.

Once you know the meaning of the sentence, you then need to consider several things:

• Why did the writer use these particular words and not different words?
• What did the writer not say?
• What was the purpose of the writer?
• Does the sentence have an unstated meaning?

For instance, one question asked for the price of a business class return air ticket from China to New York. Few students provided the business class price, and some even provided only a 'one way' ticket price. While several students quoted prices for tickets from Wuhan to New York, some only quoted prices from Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.

I spent some time explaining to them that the wording of the question was specific, and that they therefore ought to have paid attention to the actual wording. When I then asked why it was that I did not stipulate a point of departure, no one knew the answer. The answer was that I wanted to see if any of them would actually think about their current physical location, which would require a domestic journey to the international airports.

Needless to say, I teach more than mere words.  I teach them to think about what they read. Unfortunately, it is all too common that people do not really think about what they read. They either do not pay attention to the language used, or emotionally jump to conclusions derived from sectarian ideologies, or personal perspectives.

Take the Israeli-Palestinian situation. While much has been written about it, few people are interested in the facts in any given report, preferring instead to interpret what is written in the light of certain ideological positions. Today I read an article that really summed up for me the reality on the ground in Palestine, but which I'm sure will not have been read carefully by the general readership.

It was so alive with meaning that I copied it, then removed the excess language so that I was left only with the salient points. I would like to present those points to you here.

Abbas's growing predicament By Khaled Abu Toameh

• Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's efforts to replace the Hamas-led government suffered a major setback this week
• Abbas arrived in Amman to seek the backing of the Fatah central committee
• many committee members were opposed to his plan and decided to return to Ramallah immediately.
• Abbas summoned a group of Palestinian journalists and declared: "Bread is more important than democracy."

Despite this set back, Mr. Abbas continued to indicate his intention to get rid of the Hamas government. The statement that Bread is more important than democracy in any other situation would surely cause an outcry, but within this scenario, will undoubtedly go uncensured.

It is an interesting statement, for as President Bush and his advisers apparently like to say, Democracy is the only way to go. Yet here we read that Abbas is trying to overthrow a democratically elected government. Did anyone ever try overthrowing the undemocratically elected government of Yasser Arafat?

Can America stand by and watch a democratically elected government overthrown? Well apparently so - and more! We are further advised of reports about US intervention in the internal affairs of the Palestinians to the tune of $42 million to back opponents of the Hamas government.

• it is reported that the Americans are training and funding members of Abbas's Force 17 "presidential guard"

If the report is true, what does that say about the American attitude to Democracy. Further, it plays into the hands of those fanatics who blame the USA for all the troubles in the World, and especially in the Middle East.

Now while some might find some redeeming quality in this alleged American activity, and while others may see the hope of peace in the Middle East resting firmly in the hands of Mr. Abbas, according to this article:

• "Abbas's problem is that no one takes him seriously, not even his closest aides," said a Palestinian academic from Ramallah. "Some of his aides describe him as a weak figure who doesn't know exactly what he wants."

Mr. Abbas failure in Amman, to get backing for his overthrow of the Hamas government, is not only indicative of his personal weakness, but in the process, revealed where the real power lay. Farouk Kaddoumi, a hard-line leader of Fatah who is based in Tunis was the man who convinced everyone to turn tail and run.

• On Wednesday Kaddoumi called for dismantling the Palestinian Authority and announced his opposition to the formation of a "technocratic" government.
• On the wall behind him was a picture of Yasser Arafat and not Abbas.

Now not only is it noteworthy that someone with more power in Fatah is running the show, but of special interest, is that the man does not live in Palestine.  I don't know if he is or is not a Palestinian, but it is significant that he himself, unlike his constituents, is not in harms way. Yasser Arafat, who was not a Palestinian, at least stayed with the people.

So what we see in this article, is that the Fatah leader Abbas is weak, and that the stronger Fatah power broker is supporting Hamas. Hamas in the meantime, says it is wrong for the world to force him or the Palestinian people to honour agreements, and unfair, that the world does not give him the dollars to continue his killing of Palestinians and Israelis.

He wants western money, but hates the west. He wants the Israelis to give into all his demands, but gives nothing in return. While he accuses Israelis and Americans of killing Muslims worldwide, his own men seem little perturbed at killing their own people. Common sense tells us what we should think, but then common sense is not common today.

Recently a group of Irish Academics called for a boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions because of Israel's treatment of Palestinians. What effect this is supposed to have I don't know. I imagine it to be something like calling on all protestants to stop drinking milk that comes from Catholic owned cows. It would doubtless have little effect in causing the Pope to set free from Limbo, thousands of years worth of infants held there.

Some people reading this article of course will hark back to the old line that says Israel should not be there, but then again, neither should the whites be in the USA. We have to be realistic and use commonsense. Israel Exists, and peace with Palestine can only be achieved either by Israel's demise, or by agreement. Anything less is a justification for more Palestinian deaths.

But first things first. Support for Hamas is support for the death of every Jew in Israel. Support for overthrowing a democratically elected government, is support for anarchy!

It seems that once again, (if the report be true) that the USA is backing itself into another corner. (And to think that some people didn't like my recent comments about Condoleezza Rice!)

R.P.BenDedek (pseudonym) is the author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran at www.kingscalendar.com Coming from Brisbane Australia, he is from a multi-ethnic and multi-faith family which includes Muslims.

'The Secret of Qumran' Academic Articles at'KingsCalendar Com' Publishing Co.
http://www.kingscalendar.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi?action=viewnews&id=333

"The King's Calendar" is a chronological study of the historical books of the Bible (Kings and Chronicles), Josephus, Seder Olam Rabbah, and the (Essene) Damascus Document of The Dead Sea Scrolls.