StrategyPage reports that Sharon's "intolerable" incursions into Palestinian areas are having the quite tolerable result of, well, preventing terror attacks:
Raids into Palestinian territory and constant improvements in screening traffic between Palestinian and Israeli areas has continued to prevent terrorist attacks. Attempts are still being made and intercepted.
There's more, all of it interesting.
What I find most interesting is that the IDF is having such success without crippling the Israeli economy. Yes, it's expensive, and yes, a real peace would make them (Jews and Arabs) much richer -- but, at least they're functioning.
Also interesting is Palestinian near-capitulation. Fewer suicide bombers are getting through, but there are also far fewer bombers trying. The overall level of violence has ebbed considerably -- thanks entirely due to Sharon's intransigent stance.
Whatever happened to those Idiotarians who were screaming that electing Sharon would lead to total war?
Stephen -
Those folks are too busy arguing that invading Iraq would destabilize the MidEast and generally make the sky fall. It's the same folks who are only consistent in one area - being completely wrong. Wrong about the Gulf War, wrong about the Afghan 'quagmire', wrong about welfare reform, tax cuts, etc. You'd think these folks might start losing credibility...
Last I saw they were arguing amongst themselves trying to figure out why their campaign of throwing red paint on Isreali tanks failed to sway public opinion since it worked so well on women who wear fur. Problem was they kept getting interrupted by the Free Red Paint protest and the No-Free Red Paint anti-protest. Then there was that whole Shade-Grown Organic Coffee March on Seattle which distracted their leaders. Oh the horror. And, don't forget, they also had to organize the 'Teach Democrats How To Vote' rallies in southern Florida. Oh, wait, never mind, they skipped those the last two elections.
It hasn't resulted in full captiulation, though. Instead, the focus has changed in munitions delivery. Instead of using the increasily-unreliable human patsy, they're now focusing on refining the Qassam 3 design to lob explosives further.
Besides the continued destruction of factories in Gaza and the West Bank, what will be the response to that? The next technological development will be in portability of the manufacturing equipment and the ability to conceal the Q-parts as something else.
I think that if the Qassam rocket is perfected to the point where the Palestinians can just lob them into Israel, we would see an escalation in the strength of the Israeli response. Right now, suicide bombings appear to be the last resort of a desperate people. Rockets don't quite send the same message. I would expect an incredibly forceful military response, as well as re-instituting full Israeli rule in the West Bank and Gaza. And the march backwards continues...
DL gets it right - Whatever 'sympathy' the Palestinians get ('See, they are so oppressed and poor they have no choice but to blow themselves up!') would, er should, dry-up if they do start lobbing rockets into Israel. Another favorite anti-Israel argument would also fall apart - 'See, Israel has tanks and helicopters, the Palestinians have nothing but rocks and suicide bombers!'
