The following article is coming from the Washington Post:

Feb.22,2002: AS THE latest escalation of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed unfolds in a grisly succession of ambushes, bombings, raids and airstrikes, with some 50 killed between Monday and last night, one conclusion, at least, is pretty clear: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's strategy for ending the violence has failed. The hawkish prime minister promised when he took office a year ago that his aggressive military action in the West Bank and Gaza and his offer of an interim political settlement to the Palestinians would curtail the threat to Israeli lives. Instead, it has grown far worse.

With increasing support from the Bush administration, Mr. Sharon blames the deterioration entirely on Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian Authority; and Mr. Arafat indeed bears much of the responsibility. But Mr. Sharon's tactics have contributed to the downward spiral. At every instance of Palestinian violence, Mr. Sharon has escalated Israel's reprisals, inviting a still bloodier response; just in the last two days, his forces killed at least 15 Palestinians. During lulls in the conflict, Mr. Sharon frequently has been first to renew the fight; during three weeks in December and early January when the Palestinians responded to a call from Mr. Arafat and stopped almost all attacks, Israeli forces killed a dozen Palestinians.

Most counterproductive, Mr. Sharon has focused Israeli attacks not on the terrorists who have been carrying out suicide bombings but on the infrastructure and security forces of the Palestinian Authority, the very government that Israel and the Bush administration are counting on to rein in the militants. Of the Palestinians killed in recent days, two reportedly were would-be suicide bombers, but at least a dozen were rank-and-file Palestinian policemen -- the men who, when they are not being bombed and strafed by Israel's American-supplied F16s, are expected to stop militants from answering Israel's attacks. In the name of fighting terrorism, Israel has blown up the Palestinians' radio stations, bulldozed the runways of their airport and destroyed most of their police headquarters. Yesterday Mr. Sharon's army fired a missile into the Ramallah building where it has been holding Mr. Arafat hostage, destroying the room where he normally meets foreign leaders.

No one should underestimate the security challenge facing Israel. Stopping two suicide bombers may have saved dozens of civilian lives. But the effect of many of Mr. Sharon's measures has been to systematically weaken Palestinian self-government and make it impossible for moderates who oppose the violence to press their agenda on Mr. Arafat and his security chiefs. Meanwhile the Bush administration seems trapped; having committed itself to the proposition that Mr. Arafat must stop the violence before any peace process can go forward, the administration now looks on passively as Israeli tanks and planes pound Palestinian positions and Palestinian militias respond with ambushes of Israeli troops. Mr. Arafat yesterday reiterated his call for a cease-fire and met a key Israeli demand by arresting three suspects in the assassination of an Israeli cabinet minister; Mr. Sharon responded by demanding Palestinian disarmament and "quiet" before any peace process. Yet his tactics will not bring quiet or peace -- only a steadily worsening war.

The above article does not indicate desert voice opinion in the Middle east conflict