I think I understand the Palestinian side in this protest. They get to directly challenge a border they despise, and any losses on their side they can claim purely due to Israeli over-reaction. Not exactly Sharpville, but they can establish a resonance with it in the minds of many. I don't understand the Israeli side at this time. I believe there are effective means of non-lethal (a term I am inherently suspicious of) or at least near non-lethal deterrence. This is an old game with which all the parties are long familiar. Israel has previously announced the discovery and destruction of a long and deep tunnel. So the protest is not just a protest. It is cover. But I don't recall any armed confrontation. Why kill when there is no need?

So maybe there is other stuff going on that we are not aware of. I was in school with a Palestinian during the Entebbe affair in '76. You may remember that Idi Amin provided a safe haven in Uganda for the Palestinian terrorists to hold their Jewish hostages while they demanded that Israel release convicted terrorists they held. The situation seemed to allow Israel no alternatives. Israel made conciliatory noises for a time and I distinctly remember the Palestinian assuring the rather uninformed Americans we were with that Israel was playing for time. I quietly shared his opinion. We had no idea for what.

Jim Carroll, you blew up the GAZA thread that I started for just these protests. You have started your own thread with a perfectly legitimate link to a well written essay (which you could have contributed to the already established thread); I will not blow this thread up with the kind of froth you flamed in the old one. If you can keep yourself under control, which I doubt, you've got yourself a thread. Don't screw it up with your usual conflationary nonsense.