Word: hezbollah
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...governed territory. Hamas has expressed strong support for Osama bin Laden, and Palestinian officials have said it was behind the Oct. 9 riot in Gaza. Its sympathies are, and have always been, clear. Arafat must realize that there is no substantive difference between groups like Hamas or Hezbollah and Osama bin Laden—all are willing to slaughter innocents for their own misguided political objectives, and none will stop unless they are brought to justice...
...emerged, terrorist organizations in the Mideast depended on states to sponsor their activities. The notorious PLO dissident Abu Nidal, for example, might carry out attacks on behalf of Syria, Libya or other sponsors, as would the notorious Venezuelan "Carlos the Jackal," currently in prison in France. Similarly, the Lebanese Hezbollah militia has depended on backing from Iran and a nod and a wink from Syria. Hezbollah, of course, has primarily waged a guerrilla war against Israel in southern Lebanon, but it has also been a suspect in terrorist attacks both inside Lebanon and abroad. But unlike Bin Laden's group...
...Palestinian side, Arafat looks panicky, scurrying from Berlin to Beijing in search of diplomatic progress, but politically paralyzed to take the actions against the Islamists and other militants that such progress would require. Unlike Arafat, many of those militants appear to have a clear strategy - the one perfected by Hezbollah in Lebanon, of inflicting a slow but steady stream of casualties on the Israelis through guerrilla warfare and terror strikes in the hope of turning Israeli public opinion against the occupation. And today that strategy, rather than Arafat's diplomacy, tends to hold sway on the Palestinian street...
...course, the West Bank and Gaza are not Lebanon. The Palestinian territories are entirely surrounded by Israeli forces, meaning that unlike Hezbollah, the Palestinians have no easy access to heavy weaponry. And the Israelis had no emotional attachments to Lebanon, whereas the West Bank is home to a politically powerful settler constituency and includes East Jerusalem - it's harder to imagine Israel leaving (although perhaps marginally easier in Gaza, which is nobody's idea of a promised land). On the other hand, there have already been signs that Syria is attempting to send rockets and other heavy weapons...
...West Bank and Gaza are objectively similar or dissimilar from Lebanon is less important than the extent to which Palestinian militants believe they are. Because it's the belief that time and the laws of attrition are on their side that prompts them to try to replicate the Hezbollah strategy. And the danger for Israel is that in the absence of a political solution, the Hezbollah option becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy...