I usually find James Bennet’s analysis of Israel/Palestine issues a bit simplistic, but this time I think he’s really got it:
“Mr. Sharon is a master tactician, not a master strategist, and that he is trying to survive in office and retain the backing of the United States while advancing in a general direction, rather than toward a specific goal…”
“According to that theory, Mr. Sharon actually means what he says as, it might be noted, he himself claims. ‘What I say, I mean, and what I mean, I say.’”
As the article describes, Sharon has repeated many times his master plan for a “solution” to the conflict: several isolated Palestinian enclaves under total Israel control forming a bantu-state which gives the illusion that Israel is a democracy and removes any legal responsibility for the care and feeding of the Palestinians.
This “solution” is just the occupation under another name. It solves nothing and guarantees more war, bloodshed and devestation.