Today's Ultimate Palestine Solution: Build a Tunnel

Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak, campaigning for Prime Minister, has offered a novel solution for Palestinian unity: build a 48-kilometre (30-mile) tunnel connecting Beit Hanoun in Gaza to Dura in the West Bank: "The preferred way to do it would be to dig a tunnel that would be under Israeli sovereignty, but under totally free and unobstructed use by Palestinians."

There may a couple of hitches with the proposal. Barak estimated the tunnel "would cost $2 to $3 billion, but did not say who would foot the bill, nor did he say under what conditions it would be built".

It is not reported whether Barak noted the irony of proposing the region's longest tunnel at the same time that his military forces were demolishing much smaller models in southern Gaza.