Tom Brosz made the comment:

>One advantage to this plan would be
>that it would strip the pretense from
>the Palestinians that their only
>interest is in a land of their own,
>instead of the extinction of Israel and
>the Jews.

That pretense was stripped away long ago. The earlier talks between Arafat and Barak failed because Arafat would only agree to conditions that would insure Israel's eventual destruction. Even offering to compromise on the issue of Jerusalem could not make Arafat change his basic bargaining tactic. Supposably Arafat could offer nothing better because that was all the Palestinian political reality would allow him. It was shear folly for the Israelis to have even negotiated with the Palestinians. I attribute this error of their's to political pressure from Clinton and previous U.S. Presidents.

The Israel's are in a classic lose-lose situation. The status-quo is unacceptable because it means remaining in a never ending civil war with an implacable enemy that is rapidly out breeding them. A negotiated solution is impossible because the Palestinians will only accept terms that lead to Israel's suicide. A military solution offers a short term solution but would require Nazi style methods towards the Palestinians, i.e. slaughtering most of the population or marching them to Lebanon or Jordan at the tip of a bayonet. Such an approach would almost certainly trigger a regional war and probably force the U.S. and Europe to distance themselves from Israel. Ultimately the Arabs would annihilate the Israelis in some future war where the Arabs had a technological advanatage, i.e. weapons of mass destruction.

If I was living in Israel right now, I'd be moving to a new country, ASAP. It's pretty clear they're approaching checkmate.

Gary