Two recent events lend some perspective to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

i. The burning of the remaining Synagogues in Gaza by Palestinian throngs:

Flames shot skyward from four abandoned synagogues in the Gaza Strip on Monday, as thousands of celebrating Palestinians thronged through former Jewish settlements and headed straight for the only buildings left standing....Helpless Palestinian police stood by and watched, admitting they were outnumbered by the crowds and had little motivation to stop them.

ii. The public asassination of Moussa Arafat, former head of security in Gaza.

In my view, these events undermine the case for continuing the peace process (and the case was extraordinarily weak to begin with). If the Palestinian government cannot control its people, it has effectively nothing to offer, its ability to stop terrorism being nonexistent.

Further, given the stated aim of Palestinian terrorists to destroy Israel, and their stated intention to continue with this regardless of the peace process, there is no reason anything would change following an agreement with the Palestinian government.

The only solution - given the lack of an effective negotiating partner - is for Israel to unilaterally impose a practical solution on the ground. Further, given the inability and unwilligness of the Palestinians in the past and present to engage in negotiations, the solution should maximize Israeli security, subject to, of course, to reasonable consideration for the well-being of Palestinians.

The security fence being constructed is precisely such a solution. It will encompass roughly 80% of the Jewish population of the West Bank (with almost all the rest presumably t o be relocated), and less than 0.4% of the Palestinian population (also presumably to be compensated and relocated). Though Palestinians complain - the new Palestinian state will ecompass 93% of the West Bank, which is less than the 100% most Palestinians want - it is a reasonable solution given the circumstances.

The security fence will drastically reduce the capability of Palestinians to engage in terrorism. Unfortunately, it will not stop them from launching rockets into Israeli border cities, as they have done repeatedly in the past. However, I'd argue this is much less of a problem: the casualties from these attacks are more or less manageable, and Israel can respond for them in a tit-for-tat manner, making incursions to arrest suspected terrorists after each attack.