Bloodbath in Gaza.

With 40 Israelis killed by a combination of gunmen attacking in Israeli towns and rocket fire, and 198 Palestinians killed by Israeli retaliatory rocket fire on the Gaza Strip, it seems that war has once again reignited. It cannot escape notice that this sudden heating up in the conflict occurs at a time when several Muslim countries, headed by Saudi Arabia, are poised to recognize Israel. The pattern is familiar, but the scale is perhaps unprecedented. Previous episodes have been similar, in that Palestinian rocket attacks have been followed by Israeli retaliation, including by air strikes, but they all led first to a ceasefire, followed by a dialgue ending the conflict, at estileast temporarily.

A permanent solution will not come without a resolution of the Palestinian-Israel issue. The 1993 Oslo Accords between Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat envisaged a two-state solution. That seems to be now overtaken by events, mostly the Israeli takeover of Palestinian territory for settlements or connecting roads. At the root is the Israeli occupation, after the 1967 Six-Day War, of Egyptian and Jordanian territory, which had been part of the British...