ABSTRACT
Israel's strategic environment improved after the end of the Cold War 1 as its international status was enhanced considerably, and the historic process of reluctant acceptance of Israel as a fait accompli within the Arab world continued. 2 While the chances for a large scale conventional confrontation dissipated, two clear security challenges remained at the beginning of the twenty-first century: the nuclear threat from Iran and the low intensity conflict (LIC) with the Palestinians. The repercussions of Iran becoming a nuclear power and the ways to address this existential threat are beyond the scope of this article and are addressed elsewhere. 3 This article, instead, focuses on the Palestinian challenge, which is much closer to home. The article first discusses the dim future of the Palestinian Authority (PA), subsequently the nature of the threat it poses, particularly after the electoral victory of Islamic Hamas in January 2006, and ends by examining Israel's options in dealing with challenges emanating from a Hamas-ruled PA. The article is sceptical of the dominant two-state paradigm and advocates the adoption of an open-ended conflict management strategy.
