The hourglass was set on the present "Operation Defensive Wall," which may now have only several days to run before the Secretary of State, Colin Powell, arrives in theatre. But this operation has already achieved most of its objectives, in a surprisingly short time, thanks largely to the preparatory work of "Operation Root Treatment" before it. There have been huge intelligence hauls in Ramallah and elsewhere, weapons collecting on an unprecedented scale, and a breakthrough round-up of wanted terrorists. The feverish Palestinian executions of "collaborators" are among several indications that they, too, give the Israelis high marks.

At the time of writing, the operation still had not extended into the Gaza strip. I believe the reason is that the whole thing was aimed at Mr. Arafat's own terrorist infrastructure. With the isolation of Arafat in Ramallah, Gaza has increasingly become Hamas territory, to be dealt with separately, and less urgently, since Hamas is clearly on the U.S. State Department's list of international terror organizations, and will raise fewer objections in future.

The vexing question, "What to do with Arafat?" will, thanks to Mr. Bush's present posture, become more and more a public one. Earlier this week, according to my information, both the Israelis and the Americans were negotiating with Morocco's King Mohammed about his future digs.

I don't see Gaza as being all that important, for the reason that Friedman, in his rare lucid moments, keeps harping on: borders. Gaza has straight, defensible, and well-defined borders, and sealing it off is an order of magnitude easier than sealing off the rest of the PA human bomb factory.
Posted by Joel Rosenberg [www.slovotskys-laws.com] 4/8/2002 1:28:00 PM