Word: intifadas
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Lessons of the last intifada...
...Sneineh highlights one of the problems faced by the Israeli army in contemplating military solutions to the current uprising: The Israeli army learned, during the last intifada, that its troops are constantly vulnerable when deployed inside Palestinian urban areas. It was no coincidence that although Israel withdrew its troops from less than 40 percent of the West Bank and Gaza during the Oslo years, it was happy to include most Palestinian urban areas in the territory it handed over - better to have your troops and tanks surround the town than to be facing a potential ambush around every corner...
...Reining in the militants" in Hebron is something of a tall order for Arafat. The leading force in the intifada on the ground today, in Hebron and everywhere else, is not Islamic Jihad or Hamas, but his own Fatah organization. That may make it sound simple enough: Just order the boys to stop firing at Israelis, and go out and arrest a few Islamists, and we'll have a cease-fire. But it's no longer that simple. The Palestinian street shows little enthusiasm for a cease-fire; opinion polls find that two out of three Palestinians support suicide bombings...
...Sharon, too, has to contend with quiet but insistent diplomatic pressure. More importantly, he needs to deliver on his promise to restore Israel's security. And though Israeli public opinion has been solidly behind his ever-stronger military measures, those steps have yet to prove capable of ending the intifada. Instead, almost a year into the uprising, the Israeli military is warning that the intifada is likely to continue for at least the next five years. And as much as Israeli voters are behind the Sharon right now, they're unlikely to accept being locked into the current violent stalemate...
...that their continued conflict threatened to unleash extremist forces that posed an imminent threat to U.S. allies and interests throughout the region. El Baz's warning found ironic echo in an internal strategic assessment by Israel's army, which was reported last week to have concluded that the current intifada would last for at least the next five years, and that it carries plenty of potential for plunging Israel into a wider regional...