This period will tell whether the Bush/Sharon approach will work. If OJ is right and Palestine focuses on itself rather than blowing up Israel they will be correct. If the violence continues against Israel the experiment will have failed.

Quite right, AWW. Our naive assumption that all people given liberty and self-government will respond as we would is the Achilles Heel. We seem to be becoming better at distinguishing between those who are violent and those who aren't. We're still not very good at telling sympathetic moderates from ideologues. In fact, we often overlook the former in order to engage the latter.

AWW:

Of course it will continue for some time, an alienated generation won't change overnight, just as the IRA hung on for several years. But the violence has already dropped precipitously since we imposed elections and de facto statehood.

I think the drop in violence is far more because of the security wall and more aggressive Israeli actions, particularly terminating all those terrorist leaders. Plus the brewing civil war. The elections were completely irrelevant in Gaza, which is ruled by which ever group has the most guns it is willing to use.

There's nothing those in Gaza will be able to do after the Israeli withdrawal that they couldn't do before, so I don't see why anyone expects a change.

Yes, the wall imposes a state border.

But not a state, perhaps, so long as they believe that it's not their fault if they fail:

tempered by the false dawns of the past decade and the belief that Israel will continue to wield control over Gaza from the outside...

AOG:

Except make it into a safe haven for Al-Quaeda.

"to busy" (suggests preparing oneself), or "too busy" (suggest overly busy)? I see that you've given _The Elements of Style_ and _A Dictionary of Modern English Usage_ both A+: is it possible that you haven't read or understood those books either, but still reviewed them?

gs:

That's obviously possible. More likely is that its a simple error.

joe:

Voters are intolerant of excuse making.

I'd like to think your use of "its" here is tongue in cheek, but you've shown no signs you're (or perhaps you'd prefer "your") capable of such wit.

gs;

Its so easy to ensnare a pedant.

I predict it won't take long for the Islamic peaceniks to completely reverse the Israeli progress made over the last decades. From desert to the Garden of Eden and back again.

"The key for Palestine will be to divert so much national attention, time, and effort to the rebuilding that there's little left over for hate."

Much more likely that they will spend their time and energy in fighting with each other.

Excellent; you've corrected your mistake. Now on to your muddled thinking...

There should be a comma after "now."

There doesn't need to be a comma after now, if you're going to mount "your muddled thinking", as if it were a horse.

Boys, boys. Comma rules are far more pliable than word usage rules. "Its" and "too" were objectively wrong. My comma, on the other hand, was a stylistic choice. Read your master's favorite-but-unopened grammar guides and learn.

Oh, and brilliant cover, OJ. The old I meant to do that, eh? My son does that. He's eight.

gs:

I've no doubt that your eight year old can dupe you too.

There ought to be quotes around "I meant to do that."

Meanwhile, you've got the old "stylistic choice" nonsense, which is silly. AllenS points out the reason why.