WHY ISRAEL HAS NO GOOD OPTIONS IN GAZA. Earlier I quoted from an article summary that indicated that even turning off electricity to Gaza was not an option--or at least not a safe one.

Noah Pollak writes that cutting off electricity--like the other options discussed--is really no option at all:

In this context, it is not the least bit unrealistic to imagine the fallout from a strong Israeli military campaign or aid cutoff in Gaza: Mahmoud Abbas, who is involved in delicate negotiations with Israeli and American officials, would almost certainly be compelled to denounce Israel; the schizophrenic Palestinian “street” in the West Bank would be galvanized in support of Hamas; and Fatah’s security forces (which have been penetrated thoroughly by Hamas supporters) would have their incompetence exposed, and might become complicit in terrorist attacks against Israel—attacks ordered by the Hamas leadership in Damascus. In other words, the entire project of bolstering Fatah in the West Bank as both a counterexample to Gaza and a competent vehicle for curtailing Islamist influence seriously would be debilitated and possibly even scuttled.

He points out that the peace negotiations that the US has urged on Israel, and which Olmert is determined to pursue, have put Israel in this position where limited strikes, targeted assassinations and threats to turn off electricity is all that is left in Israel's arsenal.

Pollak concludes:

A renewed Fatah kleptocracy in the West Bank is not a sufficient benefit given the cost entailed—namely, that of a Gaza Strip that can terrorize Israel with impunity.

Read the whole thing.

This is the result of the absurd policy of holding negotiations with a partner who is not interested in peace--but rather in having Israel systematically, and unilaterally, make concessions in land and policy until she is negligible if existing at all.

See More Discussion of Gaza Options

Technorati Tag: Israel and Gaza and West Bank and Pollak.