So, after six months of blissful denial and preoccupation with more benign and tractable topics, Wonks Anonymous is once more rudely reminded of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Once more he is riveted by the sorry spectacle of a ruthless, modern army pursuing a small number of poorly armed insurgents through densely populated cities, using bombs, rockets and jet fighters. Once more he is made aware that this is all being done on our dime and once more he feels utterly helpless, like the ghosts in Dickens Christmas Carol:

The misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power forever.

Now Wonks Anonymous recognizes clearly that there are two sides to this conflict and that miserable deeds have been done by all concerned. He has no particular desire to rehash the sorry history of the atrocities committed by terrorists on both sides.

He does not want to see your Arafat and raise you Sharon, as it were.

Those who want to read an articulate defense of the Palestinian side of the issue can look up the works of Edward Said. Those who want an even handed history can find it in the works of Tom Segev. Those who want the point of view of the state of Israel can read it in the Op Ed pages of the Times or, for that matter, find it in any media outlet in the country.

Having made these suggestions for further reading and this disclaimer Wonks Anonymous will now proceed to talk about the ineffectual attempt to do good that he now proposes. Rather than rehash the past or obsess about the present Wonks Anonymous would like to take a view of the future. Given the shape that facts on the ground are currently taking, will a real accommodation between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs be possible?

And it seems to Wonks Anonymous that this is the real problem: The political entities that are currently forming on the territory of Palestine are so unlike any entity that modern political thought would call a state that he doubts that they will be able to survive let alone provide the order needed for the development of peaceful and prosperous societies.

Over the next three posts Wonks anonymous will consider the situation in Gaza, on the West Bank and in Israel itself.