Prometheus 6   

It is time for Israel to use its overwhelming strength to take some initiative. The only people who can stop the suicide bombers are the Palestinians. They won't do it overnight and can't do it with a decimated Palestinian Authority. It can happen, though, if Israel works with a new Palestinian prime minister, makes tough demands but doesn't expect perfection overnight, doesn't let itself be goaded by Hamas into freezing everything, takes its own initiative to dismantle settlements and taps what is still there: Palestinian interest in going to Memphis, not just to heaven.

"Israel can't force the Palestinians to be reasonable, to pursue their interests and not their passions, but it can create a context where they are more likely to do so than not," said the Middle East expert Stephen P. Cohen. "But with its relentless settlement activity, and responding to every Hamas provocation by smashing the Palestinian Authority, Israel has not done that."

If the Palestinians are going to miss another opportunity to miss an opportunity, let it be a real opportunity -- one that any fair-minded person would deem fair. At best, Israel would enable the real interests of the Palestinians to emerge, and at worst it would create a moral clarity where Israel can fight a permanent war with the Palestinians, without 27 Israeli Air Force pilots going on strike, saying justice isn't on their side.