The Walls of Jericho

Palestinian obstinacy and indecision also contributed, but the decisions of the more powerful society were much more critical. Hamas, which has only just brought itself to tentatively consider the two state solution which Ariel Sharon effectively junked, then took power from its discredited predecessor. The result is that Israel is now demanding of a Hamas government that it discharge the same role of preventing all physical threats to Israel that it earlier demanded of the much less intransigent Yasser Arafat and the PLO, but with absolutely no incentive for them to do so, except the possibility that the leavings of a unilateral partition of the West Bank will at some future point be labelled a "state" and handed over to them. This is a recipe for disaster that is obvious to most outsiders but seems invisible to those likely to form Israel's next government.