Israel, with its vastly more powerful military, is finding itself effectively hemmed in by the Pals clever strategies.
When Israel stopped negotiation in good faith, they practically guaranteed this impasse.
By not fully and forthrightly implementing Oslo after Rabin was murdered, the Israelis allowed the worst elements in the Pal leadership to come to the top.
The strange policy of Israel in assasinating Pal leaders by blowing them up with booby trapped phones, car bombs, snipers, etc. should not be over looked either.
While done with very little collateral injuries, Ithink that, plus the destruction of the Pal infrastructure...for instance blowing up the Pal jail while it held the most wanted bad guy, freeing him to kill more Israelis, I think it reduced the entire atmosphere to where the unthinkable is seen as heroic.
And then you have the settlements, relentlessly carving up Palestine, making a viable state impossible.
When you add to that Arafat's proven corruption, his history as a terrorist, and the political navete of the Pals, I think we have today a fairly intractable situation.
If the Israelis do unilateral seperation, the state of Israel will be doomed in 50 years or so, when the surrounding Arabs have over whelming superiority in numbers.
Maintaining the military occupation is not viable for a democracy.
This tragedy is playing out befoure our eyes, and I don't think anyone has any real solution.
Ed