Hitting Hamas so accurately has turned out to be a three-for-one deal for Israel: it slows down Hamas suicide bomber operations, it weakens Arafat vis-a-vis Hamas, and it forces Arafat to sanction mass trials of collaborators, thus weakening Arafat's support in Europe, which is touchy about the death penalty. As for its cost in raising levels of anger & revenge, they were so high already that Israel doesn't think it matters that much.
An article in today's Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli intelligence believes that the PA is on the edge of collapse. This leads to the following debate -- rescue them or let them collapse? By now the old arguments -- keep Arafat or you'll get chaos, or Hamas -- have lost force, since most of Israel says, what does it matter? we have chaos and Hamas now, and at least no one ever gave Hamas the Nobel Peace Prize.
Consensus is that Sharon has the last word, and Sharon believes (from long experience) that Arafat never makes decisions until he's faced with imminent destruction, so keep up the pressure. |
