Bitter pills for both sides

Although the truce was achieved through Egypt, it is nevertheless in essence an agreement between Israel and Hamas, the main reason for Israel's acceptance being its need for quiet on its southern areas, which bore the brunt of rocket fire and which has become both a serious security and political problem with residents strongly criticizing and protesting the government.

So the Israeli government has had to reluctantly agree to the truce to limit the political damage and try to buy time to make up its mind for a final solution to Qassam fire, which continued until the last minutes before the truce came into effect .

In fact, the Israeli defense establishment has been working hard to find a way of ending the rocket fire, but with no effective results so far -- as admitted reluctantly by Defense Minister Ehud Barak earlier this year, a fact I wrote about several times in this column.

''The task of ending Qassam fire still has not been reached, and the road is still long,'' Barak told delegates at a National Security Institute conference in Tel Aviv. He further elaborated on the threat, saying that the situation in Gaza Strip was difficult and complicated, but “as we have found solutions in the past, here too we will find the solution.''

The solution Barak mentioned has two components. One is a technological solution in which incoming Qassams are detected while in flight and destroyed by special interceptor rockets, and the other is a very risky comprehensive ground operation into the strip, in which all the rockets, their crews and the infrastructure to manufacture them must be destroyed for good to ensure they never become a threat again -- which in essence means total and permanent occupation of the strip again by Israel.

The first solution is a three-layer protection system and is well under way. The first layer is called the “Iron Dome,'' developed solely by the Israeli defense company Rafael. It is considered the most effective answer to the Qassams. The second layer of the anti-missile system is called “David's Sling,'' and would tackle medium-range rockets like those fired by Hezbullah fighters at Israel during the Second Lebanon War. The third layer is possible deployment of an already functional system, Skyshield 35.

Barak, speaking about the Iron Dome, says if all goes well, Israel could carry out its first trials in two-and-half years, while David's Sling, a joint Israeli-US project, would “take a little more time'' to reach first trials. Therefore, in view of Barak's remarks it is safe to assume Israeli anti-rocket systems could be ready by as soon as 2010, and of course this can be achieved only if everything goes well -- as Barak himself admits.

With no technological solution in the immediate future and probable disastrous results of any ground operation, home-made, unsophisticated Qassams seem to have forced Israel to a truce with Hamas, which also has had to swallow a bitter pill by agreeing to stop Qassam fire because of Israel's punishing blockade of Gaza, which made life almost unbearable for the population, undermining the authority and standing of Hamas.