Reply #4: If barriers and checkpoints are all you need...

[shaayecanaan]

then the solution to your security concerns is straightforward. Simply invade Gaza, set up a few checkpoints and you could have peace by lunchtime tomorrow.

The fact is Israel did not leave Gaza out of magnanimity. It left Gaza because it was unable to stem the smuggling of arms from Egypt and the one or two people killed by Qassams each year is less than the two or three each month that would be killed by small-arms fire if Israeli soldiers were still in Gaza.

Of course, the reason for the scarcity of both rifles and home-made rockets in the West Bank is due largely to the fact that Jordan goes to much greater lengths to curb smuggling than the Egyptians, and for that you can bow your head and thank Abdullah. Things would be a lot more interesting if the West Bankers shared a border with Assad rather than him.

Accordingly, whether or not you keep occupying the West Bank is therefore of little consequence except inasfar as the settlers are concerned. My suggestion to you would be that you leave. By all means, build a wall between you so high that not even Christ himself could piss over it. If anyone shoots missiles at you, bomb the shit out of them.