Now what? Is this anyone's idea of how things would turn out in the yet-to-be-born Palestinian state? After three days of a vicious civil war in the Gaza strip, the Islamic militants of Hamas routed their rivals of the more secular Fatah. In the process, they killed scores of Palestinians. They terrorized their own people, and they made a questionable future even more uncertain. When Hamas gunmen took over the Gaza headquarters of Fatah and emptied file cabinets into the street, what came flying out the window were the best laid plans of politicians and pundits for a future Palestinian state.
The much-touted two-state solution -- one Israel and one Palestine, living side by side in peace -- now looks like a relic of simpler times. Now we seem to have a two-state dissolution: two Palestinian entities, Gaza and the West Bank, each ruled by different governments with sharply different ideologies. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he has dissolved the Hamas-led government. Hamas rejects the decision, but the two sides' differences will not easily disappear. So now what? A three-state solution? ...