| The Palestinian people are the "odd man out" in the struggle between Israel and the militant Palestinians. Hamas is willing to tolerate the hardship placed upon the Palestinian people and Israel is quite happy to place the hardship upon them. This is certainly a difficult situation, all the more since both Israel and the militants are not motivated to change the status quo. Israel has the most to gain from the status quo. The ongoing expansion can continue and Israel can effectively ignore calls for peace while this is going on. It is not so clear what the militants have to gain from continuing the escalation. They have shown that they can stockpile and fire large numbers of Qassams, but they still cannot hit the broad side of a barn. At this point, continued militant rocket attacks seem to serve no purpose. |
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