Ha'aretz: Kofi Annan calls for international 'buffer' force
The last thing the United States needs is soldiers in the middle of Hamas and Israel trying to act as peacekeepers. The UN can use European troops for that mission. Besides, the last thing we need to do is legitimize a tactic we would never use ourselves: hold off a terrorist group. If we get involved militarily it should be to destroy the military wing of Hamas.

According to what I'm hearing on the news, Hamas is now more popular among Palestinians than Arafat. It's not hard to understand why since they provide social services to Palestinians with one hand and kill Jews with the other.

Think I'm being too harsh in my assessment of Palestinian attitudes towards Jews? A recent Pew Global poll showed the following:

80% of Palestinians agreed with the statement: "The rights and needs of the Palestinian people cannot be taken care of as long as the State of Israel exists."

That's why the U.S. military should stay out of it. They excel at meeting clear objectives and destroying Hamas would be one such objective. Without that mandate, leave it to others.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan does not have much faith in the ability of Israelis and Palestinians to resolve their bloody conflict on their own.

He nods vigorously when asked if he supports the posting of an armed peacekeeping force to separate the adversaries. He expects that the 51 American monitors led by John Wolf will not be enough and believes the conflict probably cannot be ended without the intervention of a foreign buffer force, as has been done in other regions of the world.

"The monitoring mechanism that will be put in place next week is a beginning and it may be enough if the parties are able to break the cycle of violence. In the interim period, I would like to see an armed peacekeeping force act as a buffer between the Israelis and Palestinians," Annan said in an interview with Haaretz.

Until then, he urges Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) to muster the necessary strength to break the cycle of violence. "The international community has an obligation to support Abbas and to work with him," says Annan, immediately adding that the Israeli government could make it easier for him by easing some of the restrictions in the territories, so Abbas "would be able to indicate that there is hope, that there is progress and that we are moving forward."