WHAT THE SECOND INTIFADA ACHIEVED:

Old soldiers who don't fade away (Uzi Benziman, 12/01/02, Ha'aretz)

In a transparent effort to situate himself at the center of the political map, and not at its extreme left, [the chairman of the Labor Party, Haifa Mayor Amram] Mitzna said this week that he was not Yossi Beilin. For this reason, apparently, he did not reject the possibility of the establishment of a national unity government after the elections (on condition that it adopt the principle of a swift separation from the Palestinians). Mitzna also aspired to depict himself as a tough fighter against terrorism and stressed his conclusion that the Palestinians, and not anyone in Israel, is to blame for the hostilities that have been going on since September, 2000.

He drew a distinction between separation by agreement and unilateral separation: His generous offers to the Palestinians, which adopt the Clinton plan from Camp David, depend on reaching an agreement that will put an end to the conflict. Only on this condition will he agree to an almost total withdrawal from all the territories, the division of Jerusalem, the dismantling of all the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and the Jewish settlements in the West Bank. If it is impossible to reach an agreement, he is thinking in terms of a tough unilateral separation in which Israel will be the one to decide the line of withdrawal, in accordance with demographic and topographic considerations, and will see itself as free to send the IDF into the territories of the Palestinian Authority (or state) at any time to fight terror.

Even Labor's best offer is no better than it was when Barak was in office, and they're willing to impose boundaries if the Palestinians don't accept it. What precisely was the point of all these suicide bombings? Posted by Orrin Judd at December 1, 2002 8:40 AM