But even so, its time for the academics and the jurists to go at their computers (the new paradigm for "sharpen their pencils"), collect the evidence, make the case, and prepare the way for what might be possible in the future that is not possible today -- even if only in the yet to be written history books.

[Time, Jerusalem, 2 April 2001]: The Israeli intelligence officers looked up from their maps when they heard the reverberations from the choppers last Wednesday night. From their base on a hill at the southern edge of Ramallah, they saw the lights in the city go out. The choppers were close now, flying without lights. The officers were excited, anticipating what was coming. Then one of them noticed a point of light. It was the tail of an air-to-ground missile launched.

This was neither a beginning nor an end. The rockets that glared over Ramallah and Gaza Wednesday night were simply punctuation points on the canvas of death being painted by Palestinians and Israelis. The two Palestinians who blew themselves up last week as suicide bombers believed they were inscribing their souls into a future of national freedom by taking the lives of two Israelis and wounding about 40 others. The Israeli pilots didn't turn the night into an inferno in the belief that it would be the last time they would fly. The pilots' mission was the first move in a multistage plan by Israel's new Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, to teach Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat a lesson. But worrying questions began creeping into Israeli discussions again last week: Is Arafat really in control? And if he is, will Israeli strikes onlyserve to toughen his stance?

It was a suicide bomb at a gas station just inside Israel that set in motion Phase 1 of Sharon's plan. A group of young Israelis gathered there each morning to wait for the bus. A young Palestinian, a student at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah, approached the kids with his leather jacket zipped up, despite the heat of the morning. Beneath the jacket was a girdle of explosives. When he detonated, he took two Israeli youngsters with him. It was the third explosion--and two other bombs were defused--within Israel's borders in 24 hours. There had been so many car bombs in the three weeks since Sharon took office that parking inspectors began programming the registration numbers of all stolen cars into their handheld ticket-writing machines so they can quickly identify suspect vehicles.

Sharon convened his cabinet at 6:30 Wednesday evening with a joke that has serious implications for peace. The Prime Minister had just held a meeting with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who shared a Nobel Peace Prize with Arafat for the Oslo peace accords. Sharon, whose reputation is as hawkish as Peres' is dovish, told his cabinet that Peres had advocated a stronger response: "Peres is more aggressive than I am." Peres responded, "Yes, he had to restrain me this time." It was another sign that there is a deep anger among supporters of the peace process who feel Arafat betrayed them.

At the Cabinet meeting, Israel's army chief, Lieut. General Shaul Mofaz, outlined a plan for a bombing attack against Force 17. The 3,500-man force provides Arafat with his bodyguard and also mans checkpoints at the edges of Palestinian towns. Israel believes Force 17 has killed 10 Israelis during the Aqsa intifadeh. This is just Phase 1 in the plan formulated by Israel's generals. First comes shelling by tanks or helicopter missiles of Palestinian Authority security bases. Unless Arafat accedes to Sharon's demand for an end to violence, the bombing will continue. At any time, Sharon can ratchet to a "stage" in which the army will begin assassinating Palestinian leaders. The hits would be against senior but not prominent Palestinians.

If Sharon does move another phase forward in his plan, the Israeli army will seal off villages and conduct house-to-house searches for weapons. It will also clamp down on the movement of all goods except food, fuel and medicines, which will crush a Palestinian economy that has already lost $1.5 billion because of the intifadeh, according to the U.N. And military sources say they are not far from presenting Phase 3--declaring the Palestinian Authority an "enemy." That's a worst-case scenario in which Israel would view any building or official linked to the P.A. as a target. It would not mean all-out war against the Palestinian people, and Israel would not send its tanks to retake towns like Ramallah and Gaza. Still, it would be ugly.

Arafat is at best in only partial control of the onslaught aimed at Israelis. Hamas and Islamic Jihad sent five bombers into Israel last week. Arafat now walks a fine line between using these bombers to pressure Israel and allowing them to drag him into a bigger confrontation. But when Sharon struck last week, Arafat vowed to fight on.

Does that mean Phase 3? It would be a harder political sell for the Prime Minister. Says Ephraim Sneh, a Labor Party minister in Sharon's cabinet: "The Palestinian Authority is a rival, not an enemy. With a rival you aspire at the end of the day to negotiate." If that day's end comes, it will be far different from the day that ended in darkness and the thunder of helicopters in Ramallah.