[Toronto Star] Oakland Ross - "There are no good options," says Gerald Steinberg, director of the Program on Conflict and Diplomacy at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, regarding a coherent strategy for dealing with an adjoining territory that seems to be devouring itself in fratricidal conflict, and whose ruling authority is divided, corrupt, and largely ineffectual. In addition, its more belligerent residents are bent on pelting nearby Israeli civilians with daily barrages of lethal rockets. "The only option that's really out there is containment," says Steinberg. This is the course Israel seems to be following, using quick military strikes to drive Hamas fighters farther south into Gaza, in the hopes of pushing their rocket launchers out of the range of Israeli population centers. "The Palestinians have never been as divided as they are today," says Khaled Abu Toameh, West Bank and Gaza correspondent for the Jerusalem Post. "The clans are running the show in Gaza. Abbas can't even control the people in his own office."
2007-05-29 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive