Grinding its teeth, the IDF is slowly getting used to the cease-fire and is adjusting itself to its own limitations. The hudna (temporary cease-fire), for the time being at least, is the only game in town. All parties - the U.S., Israel, the Palestinian Authority and, to a certain extent Hamas too - have an interest in preserving it.
In the IDF intelligence and planning division, they are even willing to stick their necks out and say the hudna will probably last beyond its original expiry date - September 29 - which, coincidentally, marks the third anniversary of the intifada.
...
the truth, as sources in the General Staff admit, is that "the quiet is intoxicating and misleading." As long as there is quiet, therefore, and no local incidents get out of control, it is in no one's interest for the hudna to be broken.
If the hudna goes on, Israel will continue to provide a steady dribble of "good will measures" and both sides will wait - at least until after the American presidential elections of 2004.
A non-violent, counter-dominant, left-liberal, possibly charismatic, quasi anarcho-libertarian Quaker's take on politics, volleyball, and other esoterica.
Lo alecha ha-m'lacha ligmor, v'lo atah ben chorin l'hibateyl mimenah.
