Ariel Sharon speaks with business leaders. (Reuters Archive)

	Five ways to leave your partner Barry Rubin, Jerusalem Post
	Sharon faces terror challenge with nothing up his sleeve but his own fearsome reputation Bradley Burston, Ha'aretz
	Palestinians fear IDF invasion
	IDF opposed to evacuating settlements
	More Palestinian towns to be entrenched JPost Radio
	Israel Defense Forces

Ariel Sharon, who will take office this week as Israel's new Prime Minister, will be under pressure to take immediate steps to deal decisively with Israel's security crisis.

Israeli security forces remain on high alert after Sunday's suicide bombing in Netanya. Even so, IDF sources admitted that their activities along the Green Line are little more than cosmetic attempts to stop Palestinian terrorism. "It is impossible for the security forces to totally prevent the infiltration of enemy elements intent on carrying out a terrorist attack," Police Chief Shlomo Aharonishky admitted yesterday.

Sources close to the Prime Minister-elect have suggested tough measures to deal with the ongoing violence. MK Rechavam Ze'evi has raised the possibility of reoccupying some Palestinian controlled areas. MK Benyamin Ben-Eliezer, who will serve as the next Defense Minister, suggests tightening the closure on the Palestinians, and keeping it "hermetically closed… even for months."

A BBC analysis sees "a clue [as to what is to come] in the new trench dug around the Palestinian West Bank town of Jericho. The Israeli army dug the 18 kilometer trench in an effort to prevent Palestinian motorists from evading its checkpoints." The IDF said the trench was dug to prevent shooting attacks on vehicles using a bypass road around Jericho.

Alternative directions
An analysis written by Barry Rubin and published in the Jerusalem Post this week considers five alternative directions for Sharon's security policy.

1. Military offensive. This would result in many casualties and international condemnation with no strategic gain.

2. More defensive measures. There is much improvement needed, including the highly expensive security fences along the Green Line.

3. Economic pressure. This would continue to weaken the Palestinian Authority as an incentive to stop the violence.

4. Declaring the PA an enemy. This would make it easier to enact military and economic steps, but would foreclose the possibility of negotiations.

5. Separation. This would require political and military decisions and steps to determine where the border lies between Israel and the Palestinians.

Barry Rubin concludes his analysis by stating that "None of these points will provide a magic solution, but all of them could lower Israeli casualties, raise the pressure against the PA, and encourage Palestinian public opinion to tire more quickly of an endless struggle that brings heavy losses and no material gains."

Ha'aretz military affairs editor Ze'ev Schiff said yesterday it was unlikely that Ariel Sharon would undertake security steps untried by Ehud Barak. "There is no magic formula," Schiff said. Schiff believes that the violence is a test for the new Prime Minister, who will have to prove his abilities to restrain terrorism and guarantee safety to Israelis.

In an editorial that appeared in today's Ha'aretz, Yoel Marcus writes "Sharon will not get even one day of grace before he is asked to deliver the personal security he has promised." Marcus believes that Sharon is "restrained and aware of the limitations of force and of the need to avoid escalation of the violence." But, according to Marcus, Sharon will have a serious test to show both Israelis and Palestinians that force does not work.

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