CAN'TCHA FEEL THE PUNCH-DRUNK-LOVE?:

Pausing for breath: A partial Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire is underway (Economist.com, Nov 28th 2006)

There is little doubt that both Israel and the Palestinian leaders are under pressure to make some sort of change. Since its luckless escapade against Hizbullah in Lebanon this summer, Israel has seemed to be floundering. The war in Lebanon damaged Mr Olmert’s credibility and undermined his long-term plan, a unilateral withdrawal of settlements from the West Bank. Since then, shelling Gaza has failed to halt the Qassams and has not procured the release of a kidnapped Israeli soldier. Worse, it has provoked international condemnation for the slaughter of Palestinians.

On the other hand, the Israeli shelling has battered Hamas, killing some of its members and piling pressure on the movement to find its own new strategy. The various branches of the Palestinian leadership are in much the same bind as Israel. Gazans are starting to notice that the carnage they are suffering has something to do with the radicals in their midst, who insist on popping home-made tubes of explosives at Israel. Although few of these do any damage (many don’t even fly far enough to avoid falling on Gaza) they have caused outrage and despair in southern towns in Israel. Hamas, which runs the PA and whose refusal to recognise Israel has earned the PA an eight-month-long international boycott, is under growing pressure to do something, anything, to relieve the misery. Mr Abbas, the president, who is from Fatah, brokered the ceasefire with the other factions and called the Israelis to get them to agree too. He, like Mr Olmert, is eager to attract Mr Bush’s attention.

Their desperation may be enough to keep the ceasefire going.