[Slate] Shmuel Rosner - The Gaza Strip is burning, drifting into chaos, turning into hell - and nobody seems to have a way out of this mess. These are the days of chaos, leading to violence, leading to cruelty and to new heights of brutality. It is the Iraq-ization, the Afghan-ization, the Somali-ization, of the Palestinian Authority: executions Iraqi-style, clan rule Afghanistan-style, and absence of government Somali-style. And there's no NATO to stabilize the situation, no U.S. military to surge its forces. It needs someone to rule its many inhabitants, but no one seems to want it. If America is counting on the Palestinian Presidential Guard to maintain law and order in Gaza, it must be hallucinating. A guard is only as strong as its leaders. No leader or legislator in his right mind would ask to send an international force to calm things in Gaza, as was done in Lebanon after the summer war. The so-called "benchmarks" for Israel and the Palestinian Authority - laid out by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to promote peace - seem like a joke: No Israeli leader can agree to the opening of a "safe passage" between Gaza and the West Bank, which could spread the infighting.
2007-05-18 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive