> To Marvin...not that things would necessarily go as planned, but perhaps
> the idea is to escape the mistakes of Lebanon, and for Israel to limit
> air strikes and instead use enormous numbers of troops to enter into
> Gaza, engage with the Hamas forces where needed, attempt to mass arrest
> the major Hamas political figures. And to do it with tacit agreement
> (and probably more than tacit behind closed doors) of Abbas, Fatah and
> his Emergency government, not to mention Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia
> (who have announced full support for Abbas's Emergency Government). Then
> after the campaign, Israel would 'allow' the Badr Brigades from Jordan
> and similar Fatah tied groups to move in and take power...something like
> that.
>
> The question is how much strength the West Bank PA can garner keeping
> things from blowing up in their cities and villages, while at the same
> time, Israel's occupation controls would attempt to stop any outbreak of
> real resistance in the West Bank.
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Yes, this sounds like a plan - and I expect they're also calculating that
Gaza's flat open terrain rather than South Lebanon's hills and narrow
gullies would make it easier to execute. The Israelis need a swift and
decisive success after last year's humiliation by Hezbollah. Still, it's
hard to imagine that the fighting could be contained in Gaza, and that the
PA could retain the loyalty of its forces and the West Bank population if it
collaborated openly or turned a blind eye to an Israeli assault on Gaza.