[Mb-civic] Settling In for a Long Wait - Charles Krauthammer - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

Settling In for a Long Wait

By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, August 19, 2005; Page A21

The Israeli abandonment of Gaza is a withdrawal of despair. Unlike the 
Oslo concessions of 1993, there is not even the pretense of getting 
anything in return from the Palestinians. Nonetheless, unilateralism is 
both correct and necessary. Israel has no peace partner -- Mahmoud Abbas 
has nothing to offer and has offered nothing -- and in the absence of a 
partner, there is only one logical policy: Rationalize your defensive 
lines and prepare for a long wait.

Gaza was simply a bridge too far: settlements too far-flung and small to 
justify the huge psychological and material cost of defending them. 
Pulling out of Gaza leaves behind the first truly independent 
Palestinian state -- uncontrolled and highly militant, but one from 
which Israel is fenced off.

If Israel can complete its West Bank fence, it will have established a 
stable equilibrium and essentially abolished terrorism as a regular and 
reliable means of attack -- i.e., as a usable strategic weapon. That 
will leave the Palestinians a stark choice: Remain in their state of 
miserable militancy with no prospects of victory or finally accept the 
Jewish state and make a deal.

That is Israel's strategy. There are two problems with it: What about 
the rockets? What about the world?

The first problem is that while the fences do prevent terrorist 
infiltration, they do nothing about rockets. For months Palestinians 
have been firing rockets from Gaza into towns within Israel proper. The 
attacks are momentarily in suspension, but with the enhanced ability to 
smuggle in weapons from Egypt, and with no Israeli patrols looking for 
them, the attacks will resume and get far worse.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/18/AR2005081801646.html?nav=hcmodule

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