CEASING FIRE

 

"In any event, Israel cannot “destroy” or
“eliminate” Hamas anytime soon. With
international diplomatic support, however,
it might be able to disarm, suppress, and 

further delegitimatize the group. Doing so 

would require the committed help of

those powerful Arab states, such as Egypt
and Saudi Arabia, whose leaders fear and
despise the Islamist ideology that Hamas
espouses. Yet any engagement by those
countries in postwar reconstruction or negotiations
would almost certainly depend
on whether Palestinians have a clear path
to statehood. With good reason, Israelis
and Palestinians alike have lost faith
in the catchphrases of nineteen-nineties
diplomacy: the “two-state solution” and
“land for peace.”"

read analysis by STEVE COLL